The Global Policy Dialogue (GPD) on Climate Governance: Innovating the Paris Agreement & Beyond was held on October 23, 2019, within the Global Green Growth Week (GGGW) in Seoul, Korea. The event provided fresh perspectives and engaged a diverse network of organizations and individuals to discuss ideas for achieving critical global governance reforms by 2020 (and beyond), the United Nations’ 75th anniversary, and feed ideas into next year’s COP 26 meeting and five-year review of the Paris Climate Agreement in Glasgow.
Mr. Ban Ki-moon, the President of Assembly and Chair of the Council of the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) and Eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations, delivered the Keynote address during the event to underscore the urgency to address climate change and the need to work together to develop a solution.
The participants of the GPD carried out their discussions in three main areas including (1) UNFCCC, global governance in general, and engaging the private sector in the current climate governance, (2) Mainstreaming Climate Action across Global Economic/Development Institutions, and (3) Climate Governance, Global Security, and Global Justice.
Building on the contributions made to the climate governance e-consultation on September 16-October 13, 2019, all three groups discussed new innovative reform ideas for improving effectiveness in different areas.
During the event, the first working group considered ways for advancing the emerging hybrid model of climate governance, combining top-down with bottom-up approaches and actors for climate action, while the second group sought ways for ensuring that climate effects are considered in policy decisions in all fields, including economics. The third group cogitated ways for ensuring both a careful examination of the security and justice dimensions of climate change, as well as how non-traditional transnational actors can improve overall climate governance through a more coherent “whole of-system” approach.
By concluding the group discussions, the Global Policy Dialogue specified the concrete action plans for advancing a global climate governance renewal, innovation, and reform agenda.