News Release September 18, 2014
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has invited world leaders from government, finance, business and civil society to Climate Summit 2014 on 23 September to galvanize and catalyze climate action. He has asked these leaders to bring bold announcements and actions to the Summit – actions that will reduce emissions, strengthen climate resilience and mobilize political will for a meaningful legal agreement in 2015. Learn more about the UN Climate Summit.
A new report by two of the world’s leading thinkers about Global Solution Networks and climate change discusses the background, logic and implications of a global Climate Governance Network to bring greater coherence, shared purpose and dynamism to the world’s effort to mobilize action.
TORONTO – September 18. Coinciding with Climate Week New York and the UN Climate Summit on September 23, Global Solution Networks announces the publication of a new project proposing critical new ways to strengthen the efforts of those on the front lines of the climate change battle—a governance network that brings dispersed efforts together and builds on the potential of greater collaboration. “Addressing the Climate Crisis” is authored by Dr. Edward M. Marshall, President of the Marshall Group, with an overview by Don Tapscott, Executive Director of the Global Solution Networks program.
The climate science debate is over. Climate change will fundamentally alter life as we now know it and the window for slowing it down is closing. The issue must be the top priority for every sector of society.
In spite of 25 years of international efforts to make climate change a top priority, nations have failed to find solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, the rate of emissions has increased. In the face of the growing crisis, citizens and organizations have used the internet to create hundreds of global solution networks focused on climate change to mobilize scientists, watchdogs, advocates, policy experts and delivery experts to address the problem.
These climate change networks are doing the best they can, but GSN recommends a “second generation” approach, a governance network that enables collaboration among hundreds of networks for the purpose of mobilizing public action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This requires a new governance model, leadership, a robust technical platform and the will to act now.
“We need to mobilize the world, every institution and the human population,” say Tapscott and Marshall. “The world has been mobilized before, most recently in World War II – but we were on different sides. We can now create a global network to tackle climate change – a network where we’re all on the same side.”
“It’s time for an approach to climate change in which interdependence and collaboration are the new paradigm,” they say.
Marshall and Tapscott’s substantial report is a product of the $multi-million research program Global Solution Networks which is investigating multi-stakeholder approaches to global problem solving, co-operation and governance. Timely for companies, governments and organizations, this new report is available on the Global Solution Networks website.
About the Global Solution Networks Program
The GSN program, led by Don Tapscott and the Martin Prosperity Institute, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, is creating a definitive resource of expert insights, cases and field tools. GSN sponsors from government, business and civil society include The Rockefeller Foundation, Accenture, Google, MasterCard, HP, Ontario, LGI, Qualcomm, RBC, Seagate and others.