PRESS RELEASE
Global Solutions Summit: The Future of Globalization
High-ranking representatives of the German G7 and Indonesian G20 presidencies, as well as from politics, science, business and civil society, will discuss joint approaches to the most important global challenges. Contributions will be made, among others, by Chancellor Scholz and Federal Ministers Lindner, Habeck, Schulze and Lemke, as well as by several Indonesian ministers. The Global Solutions Summit will take place in Berlin early next week.
Berlin, March 25, 2022 – Finding solutions to humanity’s major challenges in difficult times: That’s what the Global Solutions Summit at the ESMT Berlin will be about on Monday and Tuesday (March 28th-29th). Among the approximately 200 high-ranking speakers are German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans, Nobel laureate Michael Kremer, government representatives from Germany and Indonesia, and the heads of international organizations, such as OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann and UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed. Around 400 participants, particularly from the G7 and G20 countries, are expected on site at the ESMT Berlin, as well as several thousand who will be tuning in digitally.
“In these times, dialogue between governments and the civil society is more important than ever. The Global Solutions Summit is an important contribution to this end. It also facilitates that global civil society is heard. We should join forces to make progress towards an equitable world,” said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz ahead of the Global Solutions Summit.
The goal of the Global Solutions Summit, which took place for the first time in 2017 on the occasion of Germany’s G20 presidency, is to improve global governance for the common good. The meeting brings together senior government officials with leading academics and leaders from international civil society and business. This year, in light of the war in Ukraine, they will also discuss what the future of globalization looks like and how to further develop the rules-based world order. These important debates will take place in around 40 different sessions.
“The war in Ukraine has shaken a world order that was based on the so-called ‘concept of peaceful progress,'” says Dennis J. Snower, president of the Global Solutions Initiative and host of the summit. “We’re going to have to talk about a new peaceful world order that ensures, on the one hand, that wars don’t become an option to advance national interests and, on the other, that we work together to address the big problems facing humanity, which are, if anything, growing – besides the climate crisis, these are, above all, biodiversity loss, the issues of how big digital corporations handle personal data, and a more equitable distribution of wealth.”
Representatives from think tanks from the G20 and G7 countries will also meet during the summit to focus on these topics. In numerous working groups, they will prepare policy recommendations for this year’s presidencies of the G20 (Indonesia) and the G7 (Germany). These will find their way into the final communiqués to be adopted by G7 leaders at their summit in Elmau in June and by G20 leaders at their summit in Bali in November. Through the visit of a large Indonesian delegation with several ministers, the Global Solutions Summit will serve for the first time as a bridge between the G20 and G7.
High-profile participants include:
- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (3/28., 4.30 p.m.)
- Amina J. Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary-General (3/29., 9.00 a.m – digital)
- Suahasil Nazara, deputy finance minister of Indonesia and G20 representative (3/29., 9.00 a.m.)
- Arifin Tasrif, Minister of Energy and Mining of Indonesia and G20 representative
- German Finance Minister Christian Lindner (3/28, 5:45 p.m.)
- German Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (3/28., 10.25 a.m. – digital)
- German Development Minister Svenja Schulze (3/28, 8.00 p.m.)
- German Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (3/29., 11.15 a.m.)
- Mathias Cormann, Secretary-General, OECD (3/28., 9.00 a.m. – digital)
- Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University (3/28, 7 p.m.)
- Michael Arthur, President, Boeing International, The Boeing Company (3/29, 12:30 p.m.)
- Bob Moritz, Global Chairman, PwC (3/28, 5:45 p.m.)
- Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, Board Member Atlantik-Brücke and Deputy Chairman of the FDP Parliamentary Group (March 28, 7.00 p.m.)
- Bambang Brodjonegoro, Think20 Indonesia Lead Co-Chair (3/28.,9.30 a.m.)
- Dennis J. Snower, President Global Solutions Initiative (3/28., 9.00 a.m.)
Several initiatives will also be presented at the Global Solutions Summit: For example, a group of around 80 experts on digital governance will publish a proposal for a new regulation of personal data on the Internet. They propose data governance reforms to break the dominance of the large platform operators and give Internet users back control over their personal data.
For its part, a group of international experts will issue a call at the Global Solutions Summit for the G20 countries to double the share of the circular economy from the current 10 percent to 20 percent by 2030. According to them, this would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 40 percent. The group was convened by the Global Solutions Initiative and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
The meeting is hosted by the Global Solutions Initiative, a global, non-profit and non-partisan platform for ideas. It advances global economic, environmental, and social prosperity by connecting thought leaders and decision makers, visionaries and pragmatists. Headquartered in Berlin, the Initiative proposes research-based policies to the G20, the G7, and beyond.
The list of speakers and the program can be found here: https://www.global-solutions-initiative.org/summit-2022/
Press Contact
Christoph Podewils, Director of Communications and Spokesperson
+49 (0) 172 449 7959
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