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International Conference on Managing the Interconnected Challenges of Climate Change, Energy Security, Ecosystems and Water
City Hall, Winterthur, Switzerland, 6th-7th November 2008
Brief Summary
Although the threats of climate change have become a priority issue in recent years both for the public and for decision makers, it is increasingly understood that other related issues which threaten the future must also be addressed in parallel. Climate change is intimately interconnected for example with the ecosystems crisis, with the availability of fresh water across the world and with emerging issues of the security of energy supplies related to "peak" oil. None of these critical issues can be understood and resolved in isolation: the linkages between them must be properly recognised in the search for solutions.
Over the past forty years, the Club of Rome has been concerned to understand and to evaluate longer term challenges and opportunities and to take account of their inter-relationships, within a systemic view of the realities of today and of the prospects for future generations. In a new phase of its activities, the Club has launched, at its 40th Anniversary assembly in Rome in June 2008, a three year, international programme of collaborative research and consultation to define the content of "A New Path for World Development."
As the first step in this programme, the Club has convened a small, high-level international conference on "Managing the Interconnected Challenges of Climate Change, Energy Security, Ecosystems and Water" in Winterthur on 6th and 7th November 2008.
The Agenda has been framed in an integrated, systems perspective so as to focus attention on the vital linkages between the issue of climate change and the three related issues of energy security, ecosystems and water. The Conference was restricted in size so as to focus on the substance of the issues. Among the participants were leading experts in the field including representatives from Australia, Canada, China, EAE, India, Japan, USA and Western Europe who together:
- made brief updated assessments of the emerging risks, implications and opportunities of the four interconnected challenges;
- identified the critical linkages between these four challenges;
- outlined strategies, policies and lines of action to contain and manage these challenges in a coherent way so as to avert the risks of dangerous breakdowns;
- suggested priorities and methodologies for further analysis and for the development of action proposals through a web-based network for international research and collaboration.
The conference has initiated a collaborative programme of research, consultation and debate which should, within six months, define proposals for cooperation and action to manage the interlinked challenges confronting humanity in this critical nexus: climate, ecosystems, peak oil and fresh water. The programme will also seek to identify some of the many innovations and opportunities which will emerge during the major transition which lies ahead as new economic activities are created to meet the environmental, economic and social challenges of the 21st Century.
The conference has initiated a collaborative programme of research, consultation and debate which should, within six months, define proposals for cooperation and action to manage the interlinked challenges confronting humanity in this critical nexus: climate, ecosystems, peak oil and fresh water. The programme will also seek to identify some of the many innovations and opportunities which will emerge during the major transition which lies ahead as new economic activities are created to meet the environmental, economic and social challenges of the 21st Century.
The participants agreed on the following:
- There is much less time left to avert the risk of a "runaway climate change" than earlier thought.
- The negotiating frameworks for post-Kyoto do not properly recognize the linkages between climate change, energy, ecosystems and water and are inadequate to solve the escalating interlinked problems.
- Climate change raises issues far beyond environmental negotiations and should engage the authority of Heads of Governments.
- "Some conference participants underlined the risk of a "planetary emergency" which is not yet recognized. The scientific community has to do more to explain the severity of the situation.
- The emergence of positive self-reinforcing feed backs driven by climate change makes the situation grave as we might approach a "tipping point" with irreversible consequences.
- Immediate problems are the Arctic and melting glaciers - a disaster waiting to happen.
- Interlinked drivers of the climate change, such as increasing biodiversity loss, rising energy demands of the middle class in China and India, deforestation, diminishing availability of fresh water and population growth create a huge problem for humankind, the costlier to solve the longer we wait. Any sectoral approach (like tackling emission targets only) does not solve the whole equation.
- As a planetary catastrophe is a possibility, the paradigm should change from linear thinking of the projections of the past to "catastrophic risk management".
In the course of discussion the participants underlined that the Club of Rome should become the catalyst to make global policy makers, business and society:
- Recent evidence from across the world implies that radical measures must be taken urgently to avert the risks of runaway climate change.
- The world is headed into a perfect storm of interconnected environmental and other crises. A forward assessment of emerging threats demonstrates that business as usual and incremental improvement will not be sufficient.
- Besides negotiating longer term targets, mechanisms and capacities must be established to implement early action.
- A new path of economic and social progress must be adopted which is compatible with the environmental imperatives and limits of the planet.
- The financial crisis and the consequent economic slowdown provide an exceptional opportunity to move towards new patterns of more sustainable and equitable growth.
- The scale and depth of the challenges ahead will demand new ideas, new
partnerships, new mechanisms and radical institutional change.
- There is a deep need across the world for a positive vision to provide hope for the future.
The Club of Rome has limited resources, but a recognised credibility, brand and top-level contacts. In undertaking its mission, the Club will seek out the best expertise in each area and facilitate its application, in an inter-disciplinary context, to the integrated problems we now face. The analysis and proposals of the Conference and the subsequent process of discussion and consultations will be used as input into a high-level meeting in the UK House of Commons to be jointly organized by GLOBE International, G8+5 Secretariat and the Club of Rome in late January 2009, as well as G8+5 Meeting in Rome in June 2009.
The conference participants agreed that the Club of Rome is a good platform to initiate global dialogue and communication on the vital issues discussed during the conference and to underline their urgent importance. It was strongly articulated that the Club of Rome is in a unique position to communicate the global situation to Governments, legislators, business, media and the public at large. Participants confirmed their support of the Club of Rome programme and its strategic course of action.
On the evening of 6th November, a Public Lecture was held at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zürich) by Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, the Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and a participant of the Club of Rome conference. It was followed by a Panel Discussion with representatives of ETH and the Club of Rome with participants from India, Australia, China and UAE. This public event was opened by the Rector of ETH Heidi Wunderli-Allenspach.
In the first half of this year, the Club has relocated its secretariat to Winterthur, completed a process of reorganization, launched a new phase in its activities on critical global issues and also celebrated its 40th Anniversary, in Rome in June.
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