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Global Tables on Climate Change and Environment

At the core of the Digital Global Solutions Summit are Global Tables, each tackling the T20 and G20 agenda as well as generating policies in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Global Tables are filled with keynotes, discussions, interviews and impulse statements by high-ranking representatives from research, politics, business and civil society. 

If anything, the COVID-19 crisis adds another layer to the complexity and urgency of finding effective solutions in the fight against climate change. Although COP 26 has been postponed to 2021, the challenge for the presidents and heads of states set to meet in Scotland remains: They must agree on sufficiently strong plans to keep global greenhouse gas emissions within limits that prevent dangerous climate change – a challenge that was left unresolved in the hallmark 2015 Paris climate agreement and in climate talks since. Emissions cuts in all sectors of the economy will be required as will smart policies and incentives to enables these cuts. Although the massive financial emergency and stimulus packages that are currently put together in response to the COVID-19 pandemic can be a huge opportunity for driving investment into the zero-carbon transformation, they are also a huge liability if the bulk of the funding goes to high-carbon activities and prolongs their lifetime.

How should economic stimulus measures aimed at stabilising the world economy in the COVID-19 crisis be designed and implemented to support the transformation to zero carbon economies? What can the G20 to do inject dynamic and ambition into international climate talks? How can international coordination of carbon pricing systems, together with policies that enable a just zero carbon transition, increase the support for climate action and enable higher level of emission cuts?

Svenja Schulze
German Minister for the Environment

 

Ottmar Edenhofer
PIK, Germany

Amar Bhattacharya
Brookings, USA

 

Ottmar Edenhofer
PIK, Germany

Panel

Svenja Schulze
German Minister for the Environment

Panel

Laurence Tubiana
European Climate Foundation

Panel

Moderator:
Conny Czymoch
Journalist 

Josef Aschbacher
European Space Agency

Panel

Digital technologies are indispensable to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Yet IT technology has an immense energy requirement for its countless computers and devices, its massive amounts of data and global networks. As a result, more CO2 is released today through digital technologies than all air traffic worldwide, and the energy consumption is increasing due to the rapid spread of digital solutions throughout the world. Every single data transfer consumes energy. Every new data center with its high-performance computers has to be supplied with tons of electricity, and large amounts of energy have to be cooled. Training a single AI model can emit as much carbon as five cars do throughout their lifespans. Deep learning, which trains AI applications, is not only computationally expensive, it is also highly energy intensive and has an immense carbon footprint. Research efforts must be drastically increased in order to find ways to make digital technologies more energy efficient and climate friendly. HPI launched the Clean-IT initiative to present new algorithmic approaches of how digital technologies can be part of the solution of climate crisis – not its accelerator.

Christoph Meinel
Hasso Plattner Institute, Germany

Keynote

Jochen Flasbarth
German Ministry for the Environment

Keynote

Salem Avan 
UN Office of Information & Communication Technology

Mei Lin Fung
People Centered Internet, Singapore

Ann Rosenberg
SAP Next-Gen

Panel

Christoph Meinel
Hasso Plattner Institute, Germany

Moderator: Astrid Frohloff
Journalist

Panel

Richard Perez
The School of Design Thinking, South Africa

The International Energy Agency predicts that global energy consumption will rise more than 25% by 2040, with the sharpest increase in emerging and developing economies. In fact, demand will double in some of these countries within this period. To comply with the goals set out in the Paris climate agreement, investment in renewable energies must increase substantially in order to meet the additional demand with energy from clean sources. This objective can only be achieved by mobilising much larger amounts of private capital. However, and despite the continuing phase of zero interest and even negative interest rates, major obstacles to investing in such projects persist, in particular in developing and emerging economies, where potential hurdles include political risk, complex contracts and a lack of compatibility with funding structures in industrialised countries. The panel “Green finance in emerging and developing markets” at the Global Solutions Summit will discuss possible solutions and ways of systematic cooperation to overcome these challenges, taking the recommendations of the G20 Eminent Persons Group on Global Financial Governance as a starting point for the discussion.

Michael Dittrich
DBU, Germany

Keynote

Mafalda Duarte
Climate Investment Funds

Panel

Manuel Pulgar-Vidal
WWF International

Panel

Moderator:
Conny Czymoch
Journalist 

It is increasingly clear that to stay within the limits agreed with the Paris Agreement, all possible climate mitigation options and pathways must be seriously considered. The need to substantially reduce CO2 emissions, including in “hard to abate” sectors, raises the interest in mitigation options such as storing or (re-using) CO2 emissions, or using biomass and renewables based-fuels. However, the growing awareness for the need, potential and applicability of these technologies raises the question of potential trade-offs and use conflicts, e.g. regarding the total availability of biomass and renewable electricity or the capacity and feasibility of CO2 transport and storage infrastructure. This panel will start from the concept of a circular carbon economy to discuss the full picture and potential of main climate mitigation levers (reduction, re-use and storage of CO2) for different sectors; together with potential tradeoffs and solutions.

Khalid Abuleif
Chief Negotiator on Climate Change Issues, Saudi Arabia

Khalid Abuleif
Chief Negotiator on Climate Change Issues, Saudi Arabia

Panel

Gunnar Luderer
PIK, Germany

Panel

Miranda Schreurs
Technical University of Munich

Panel

Adair Turner
Chairman, Energy Transitions Commission

Moderator: Conny Czymoch
Journalist

Engaging citizens in shaping policies fit for the future: from COVID-19 to climate emergency
Partner Global Table: Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA)

If, as many have argued, the COVID-19 crisis represents a critical juncture, state and non-state actors must work together to ensure a recovery that considers broader objectives than growth alone. 

The discussion will especially focus on the broad public engagement and structured deliberation that can underpin sustained collective change across government, business and civil society. Learning from the growing number of citizens’ assemblies and conventions on climate action around the world, the aim of this global table is to highlight ways that governments at different levels can build a social and political mandate for climate policies through deliberative democratic processes and other participatory methods.

Matthew Taylor
RSA

Nicole Curato
University of Canberra 

Panel

Claire Mellier
Convention Citoyenne pour le Climat

Panel

Sumana Nandi
XR Affinity Network of Asia

Panel

Rebecca Willis
Climate Assembly UK 

Moderator:
Anthony Painter

RSA

Policy Recommendations, Policy Briefs and Articles

Policy Briefs on Climate Change and Environment on G20 Insights

Policy Briefs contain recommendations and visions and cover policy ares that are of interest to G20 policymakers. The majority of the Policy Briefs has been developed by a corresponding T20 Task Force.

T20 Recommendations Report: Climate Change and Environment

Compiled by Juliane Stein-Zalai (IfW Kiel) and Simon Wolf (Global Solutions Initiative)

Energy, Climate and the Covid-19 Shocks: Double or Quits

By Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega (IFRI -Institute Francais des Relations Internationales)

With or without you – Global Solutions Journal

Putting climate and environmental protection at the heart of European policy- Global Solutions Journal

Contributions by the Young Global Changers

Ninety young people from around the world were selected to participate in the Global Solutions Summit as Young Global Changers. These young changemakers from academica, business and civil society will contribute and debate in their various working groups on the Summit topics.

Statement Video on Climate Change by the 2020 YGCs

Take a look at the video with statements and questions by the YGC Working Group on Climate Change and Environment.

Putting a Price on Carbon

Blog Article by Karin Baba, Heena Gambhir, Eimear Duff, Stephanie E. Trpkov, David A. Trejo Pizzo, YGCs 2019

Related Projects by the 2020 YGCs

The Young Global Changers work on projects and initiatives that are pushing for change.

Explore the Digital Global Solutions Summit 2020

You can navigate to content related to the Global Solutions Summit here. Discover the T20 agenda, an overview of all Global Tables, meet the speakers and read the latest issue of the Global Solutions Journal. Also navigate to the G20 Insights Platform offers policy proposals to the G20: The Policy Briefs, produced by Task Forces from the Think20 (T20) Group and other sources, are clustered in policy areas and describe either recommendations or visions.

Themes

Sessions focus on the G20 and T20 agenda and also address the political response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Underlying all topics is the narrative on Recoupling.

Overview »

Program

Global Tables shape the program of this Summit. With a specific focus within a topic area they consist of keynotes and panel discussions, supplemented by vision statements. Participants are invited to contribute to the contents. 

All Global Tables »

Speakers

The Global Solutions Summit is a meeting of global problem solvers, including thought leaders and decision-makers from research, politics, business and civil society.

All Speakers »

Journal

The Journal for this Summit provides a bridge between visions, recommend­ations and action. Find articles from academics as well as from implementers.

Previous issues »

Policy Briefs

The G20 Insights Platform offers policy proposals to the G20. It is  an initiative of the T20 Engagement Group. 

G20 Insights »

Any Questions?

If you have any questions about the Digital Global Solutions Summit 2020 and its program, please contact us at contact@global-solutions-initiative.org.

As a media representative please contact press@global-solutions-initiative.org for more information. Please also note our press kitpress releases and comments published on the Digital Global Solutions Summit 2020.

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