31 October 2022 – The most recent IPCC report highlighted the gravity of the climate crisis and the need for immediate and sustained political will, impactful action and effective cooperation. The window for action is closing and failure to act risks crossing irreversible Earth tipping points. The 27th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP27) is seen as a critical summit to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Club of Rome takes part in a number of events during the two-week conference, taking place in Sharm El-Sheikh on 6–16 November 2022.
Representatives from the Club of Rome will be at COP 27 from 6-16 November. For queries please send an email to: lhvdzande@clubofrome.org or link up with us in the Nature Zone (within the UNFCCC Blue Zone) – where we will be supporting our partners Global Commons Alliance and Nature4Climate on this year’s edition of the Nature Newsroom. More information about the venue, Sharm El-Sheikh International Convention Centre (SHICC) or the Blue Zone is available here.
Below are selected highlights of the Club of Rome participation and co-organised events.
SHE Changes Climate: Women Declare Emergency and Raise Climate Ambition
Friday 4 November, 08:30-20:00 UTC
Livestream
On the eve of COP27, this online summit brings together political, business and civil society leaders around a 50:50 vision for a sustainable future and highlight the important role of women as part of the solution to the crises we face. Sandrine Dixson-Declève will participate in a press briefing between 13.00-13.30h UTC to paint a picture of the planetary emergency we face and scale of action required to emerge from emergency.
Future Economy Forum Solutions Summit
Saturday and Sunday 5 and 6 November
Location: SEKEM’s Heliopolis University, register here
Sandrine Dixson-Declève will be featured as one of the recipients of the Future Economy Leadership Award at the Opening Plenary session of the Solutions Summit. Members of the Club of Rome Peter Blom and Hunter Lovins will be covenors during this 2-day summit, which focuses on solutions along the entire value chain that integrate business success and economic development with the regeneration of people, societies and nature.
Systems change and climate and sustainability innovations
Monday 7 November, 12:00-13:00 EET
Location: The Blue Zone area C at the UNFCCC Global Innovation Hub Pavilion
Watch the video:
In line with the objectives of the UN Climate Change Global Innovation Hub, this high-level session will lead discussions on how moonshot mindset and systems thinking can serve an expanded climate and sustainability innovation space. Sandrine Dixson-Declève will join a panel including Ibrahim Thiaw, Executive Secretary, UNCCD. Jeffrey Sachs, President and Co-Chair, Sustainable Solutions Development Networks; Janez Potočnik, Co-Chair of the International Resource Panel; Andrew Steer, CEO, Jeff Bezos Foundation and Fanglu Wang, Managing Director, CITIC Capital. The session will be moderated by Kirsten Dunlop, CEO of Climate KIC.
World Leaders Summit: Forest and Climate Leaders’ Partnership Ambition Event
Monday 7 November, 17:00-19:00 EET
Location: The Blue Zone VVIP area D, Room 20
Sandrine Dixson-Declève will facilitate this Forest and Climate Leaders’ Partnership ambition event during the World Leaders Summit, which is hosted by the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The summit will highlight delivery and accountability of the commitments made in the forest and land use sector at COP26. Session themes include restoration in Africa, shifting the financial system and accelerating finance for forests.
L-R: Macky Sall, Ursula von der Leyen, Emmanuel Macron, Sandrine Dixson-Declève, Dr Akinwumi A. Adesina and Samia Suluhu Hassan at Session Two of the Forests and Climate Leaders’ Partnership (FCLP) event at COP27. Photograph: Lydia Handford/ UK Government
The Forest and Climate Leaders’ Partnership: Unpacking the FACT Dialogue, Traders Roadmap and Forest Tenure Pledge to build more sustainable supply chains and support Indigenous Peoples and local communities
Tuesday 8 November, 09:30 – 11:30 EET
Location: The Blue Zone area B at the UK Pavilion
Livestream
Sandrine Dixson-Declève will open and moderate the first panel during this session which will reflect on the launch of the Forest and Climate Leaders’ Partnership during the World Leaders Summit. It will bring together some of the largest global traders and brands, civil society and indigenous communities, to explore the challenges and opportunities for driving supply chain collaboration to halt and reverse deforestation & land degradation.
Towards people positive climate action: The role of philanthropy and impact investors
Wednesday 9 November, 10:00-11:00 EET
Location: The Blue Zone area B at the Climate Mobility Pavilion
Sandrine Dixson-Declève will moderate at this high-level event that will bring together donors and financiers from the philanthropic and impact investment sectors, who can often take a longer-term view than political office holders. Discussion will focus on what strategies and levers they are pursuing – and how efforts could be aligned – to support the necessary political, societal, cultural, technological and financial shifts to enable people and nature positive climate adaptation in the most vulnerable countries and communities and to strengthen global solidarity in the face of the climate crisis.
L-R: Sophia Nabukenya and Sandrine Dixson-Declève at the Climate Mobility Pavilion at COP27. Photograph: David Lönnberg/Global Centre for Climate Mobility
Speakers include: Kamal Amakrane, Managing Director, GCCM; Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO, Salesforce; Bernhard Straub, CEO and Robert Bosch Stiftung; Laurence Tubiana, CEO European Climate Foundation.
Addressing loss and damage, the example of mangroves restoration
Wednesday 9 November, 13:30-16:00 EET
Location: The Blue Zone area C at the EIB-Benelux Pavilion
Watch the video:
For the first time loss and damage funding is on COP 27’s official agenda. Sandrine Dixson-Declève will join Princess Esmeralda of Belgium and Runa Khan of Friendship in an open discussion around the question of loss & damage.
Scaling Regenerative Economies & Businesses
Wednesday 9 November, 17:00-21:00 EET
Location: 10 minute drive from the official COP zones (address details to be sent once you confirm your attendance).
To register for the event
The Club of Rome will co-host this session as part of the Future Economy Forum’s Solution Dialogue series. It is inspired by the Club of Rome’s Limits to Growth’s 50th Anniversary and its ongoing work. In this interactive session, business leaders, investors, activists and policy leaders will discuss how to develop a new economic mainstream that meets decarbonisation targets and regenerative needs to achieve large scale transformation that serves people and the planet while enhancing prosperity for all. Sandrine Dixson-Declève will moderate this session along with Walter Link, founding CEO of Future Economy Forum and NOW Partners.
Growing pains in Europe: Green transition trade-offs
Location: The Park Regency Sharm el Sheikh Resort, tickets are available hereRegister for the livestream
Against the backdrop of the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine pushing energy insecurity in Europe to a crisis point and so accelerating the rush for clean energy alternatives – Sandrine Dixson-Declève will join this New York Times Climate Forward panel discussion with Luisa Neubauer (Fridays for Future) and David Gelles (NYT) focusing on how we can ensure that green transitions give more than they cost and make sure that the negative impacts don’t further entrench our dependence on Russian oil and gas and hinder the implementation of clean energy initiatives more broadly.
L-R: David Gelles, Luisa Neubauer, Sandrine-Dixson-Declève at NYT Climate Forward Conversations panel at COP27.
Regenerative innovation to help address the climate crisis
Saturday 12 November, 11:00-12:30 EET
Location: The Blue Zone area C at the UNFCCC Global Innovation Hub Pavilion
Watch the video:
This session marks a key milestone of an ongoing project by the BMW Foundation to inspire responsible leadership for a regenerative economy by identifying the potential that regenerative practices and innovation offer to achieve the UN development goals. Sandrine Dixson-Declève will join research and business leaders to speak on “Setting the scene: on planetary boundaries, the climate crisis, and potentials of regenerative thinking”.
Navigating the current food crisis on the nexus between climate, conflict and food security: Exploring the multiple solutions space
Saturday 12 November, 15:00-17:00 EET
Location: The Blue Zone area C at the UNFCCC Resilience Hub
Watch the video:
Sandrine Dixson-Declève will speak at this event focusing on the need for food system stability board type mechanisms to cope with ever increasing climate shocks and the increasing complexity of our food system.
Roof over our heads
Monday 14 November, 8:45-10:15 EET
Location: The Blue Zone area C at the UNFCCC Resilience Hub
Watch the video:
By 2050 two billion people are forecast to be living in settlement homes vulnerable to the disastrous effects of climate. Sandrine Dixson-Declève will speak during the launch of the Roof Over Our Heads campaign which envisions delivering resilient, low carbon and affordable homes that households undertake themselves and improving public infrastructure.
Bending the curve on environmental degradation and biodiversity loss: From science to finance
Monday 14 November, 09:30-11:00 EET
Location: The Blue Zone area C at the EIB-Benelux Pavilion
Livestream
This session will bring together representatives from public and private financial institutions, data providers and scientists to discuss the importance of mainstreaming environmental considerations into financing decisions. It will consider how we can better account for risk of environmental degradation of finance activities in portfolios; assess impacts and dependencies of activities on the environment; and agree on how to define investments that make a positive contribution to the environment. Sandrine Dixson-Declève will join a high-level panel discussion alongside Johan Rockström, Director, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Ambroise Fayolle, Vice-president of the EIB and Saskia de Vries, Head of the International Financial Architecture Department at the Financial Stability division of De Nederlandsche Bank. More information can be found here.
Accelerating gender-smart and socially inclusive climate finance through public and private investments
Monday 14 November, 11:30-13:00pm EET
Location: The Blue Zone in the Memphis Room
Watch the video:
Sandrine Dixson-Declève will moderate at this UNFCCC side-event organized by the European Investment Bank, in collaboration with Hivos and the Council of Europe Development Bank, which will focus on the need to accelerate gender-smart and socially inclusive climate finance if we are to address two of today’s most pressing challenges, increasing global average temperatures and rising inequalities.
Transformational economics meets transformational leadership: Pathways to emergence from emergency
Monday 14 November, 15:30-18:00 EET
Location: Climate Action Innovation Zone, register here for access to the Climate Action Stage
Watch the video:
50 years after the publication of The Limits to Growth, The Club of Rome and partners took stock of the state of our economies and societies and put forward transition pathways that will allow us to emerge from emergency. During two 45-minutes discussion sessions, our invited guests looked at how we can spur action on the 2050 agenda, put Planetary Emergency commitments into overdrive during this Decade of Action, and demonstrate what transformational economics and leadership look like in practice. Bringing in recommendations from our Planetary Emergency Plan, the Earth4All transition pathways and International System Change Compass framework, this event highlighted opportunities for collective action and innovative, inter-dependent (policy) solutions for long-term systemic shifts.
Speakers included Johan Rockström, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Yamide Dagnet, Open Society Foundations, Minister Zakia Khattabi, Minister for Climate, Environment, Sustainable Development and Green Deal, Kingdom of Belgium, Sheela Patel, The Club of Rome, SPARC, Naoko Ishii, The Club of Rome, Centre for Global Commons Alliance, Vanessa Terschluse, The Fifty Percent, Raysa França, Youth4Nature, the UNFCCC High-Level Champions for Climate Action and session host Sandrine Dixson-Declève, The Club of Rome.
Implications of 1.5°C pathways for gas demand and supply in Europe
Tuesday 15 November, 17:30-18:30 EET
Virtual session at the online EU Pavilion
Livestream
Sandrine Dixson-Declève will be a keynote speaker at this event hosted by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) exploring Europe’s current gas supply crunch, short-term policy interventions to address the crisis and Paris-aligned pathways for resolving it.
Resource justice and the wellbeing economy: Youth calling for systemic solutions to tackle the climate crisis
Wednesday 16 November, 11:30-13:00 EET
Location: The Blue Zone at the Thebes room
Livestream
Sandrine Dixon-Declève will speak at this UNFCCC side-event jointly organized by the European Economic and Social Committee and the European Youth Forum, which will look at proposals put forward by youth organizations to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns. It will also reflect on the structural policies needed to reverse overconsumption and the specific role of climate change policies. The event aims to encourage debate with policymakers on how we can collectively create a new economic model that puts the wellbeing of our planet and people above profit and growth.
Anja Fortuna, Sandrine Dixson-Declève, Petros Kokkalis, with European Youth Forum representatives.
We can do it
Thursday 17 November, 15:30 EET
Location: The Blue Zone area B at the EU Pavilion
Livestream
The Club of Rome has joined 500 business leaders and scientists in this international call to action to channel the spirit of inspiration, determination and optimism of the now famous Second World War campaign. Sandrine Dixon-Declève will speak at this official launch event, alongside Nigel Topping, UN Climate Change High-Level Champion, and Rasmus Vlanko, We Mean Business Coalition amongst others.
