Overview of the Global Sustainability Panel Report

Overview of the Global Sustainability Panel Report: “Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing,”

http://www.un.org/gsp/sites/default/files/attachments/GSPReportOverview_Letter%20size.pdf

The whole report has been pasted in the relevant section of this debategraph, with links to solutions that have been suggested by our LinkedIn UN discussion group. Reporting here is not quite advanced.

The text below is a summary of the vision section. Excuse the shorthand form.

Helene Finidori

The Vision
(summary)

Long term vision in line with 1987 Brundtland report: eradicate poverty, reduce inequality & make growth inclusive, make production & consumption more sustainable, while combating climate change & respecting other boundaries. (6) Multidimensional challenge includes impact of population growth on food, energy, water, as well as health & climate change.

"In 2030, a child born in 2012 — the year our report is published — will turn 18. Will we have done enough in the intervening years to give her the sustainable, fair and resilient future that all of our children deserve? This report is an effort to give her an answer."

  • Inequality > protests
  • Overlapping challenges affected by choices from people, business, government > need to take global action.
  • Need to integrate SEE a question of choice > "we are not passive helpless victims of determinist forces of history"
  • New possibilities & looking at problems with fresh eyes. New technologies, markets, growth opportunities, approaches to public and private finance to alleviate poverty.
  • SD a question of choice of people empowered to influence their future. Government, civil society, private sector must embrace requirements of a sustainable future for all. Encourage local communities to participate in conceptualizing, planning & implementing and youth participation in society, politics, economy.
  • SD currently an agreed concept not an on the ground reality. Requires political will and reconsidering reward of short term. Make SD integrated to mainstream national and international economic policy debates and decisions, make it harder to ignore. Time to unify disciplines and find a common language for SD across economists, social activists, environmental scientists.
  • International community needs a new political economy that recognizes market failures, makes explicit and transparent the SEE coast of action and inaction, recognizes the importance of innovation, new technology, international cooperation in dealing with these problems. Get governments and corporations to report on their SD performance against agreed measures. Requires regulation, and a political process that can embrace the SD paradigm (link to make politicians and policy makers find it hard to ignore). Bring the SD paradigm from the margin to the mainstream of the global economic debate. Address SD in an operational way.
  • "Markets and entrepreneurship will be a prime driver of decision-making and economic change. And the Panel lays down a challenge for our Governments and international institutions: to work better together in solving common problems and advancing shared interests. Quantum change is possible when willing actors join hands in forward-looking coalitions and take the lead in contributing to sustainable development.
  • Concrete recommendations:
  • Integrate Food, energy, water approaches. Embrace an ever green revolution  - doubling yields on sustainability principles.
  • Define with the science community planetary boundaries and tipping points in particular for ocean and blue economy
  • Cost environmental and social externalities. Look beyond short term eliminate incentives for short term.
  • empower women and young people in society, politics, labour market, business development
  • Embrace integrated thinking and policy making (vs silo mentality), use institutions more dynamically, create a global sD council with SD goals.
  • New sets of indicators beyond GDP. Role of cities and local communities to advance SD on the ground.
  • Leverage public and private capital for development, resources for adaptation, disaster risk reduction, resilience planning.
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Overview of the Global Sustainability Panel Report
I. The Vision
II. Progress Toward Sustainable Development - Call for Action
III. Empowering People to make Sustainable Choices
IV Working Toward a Sustainable Economy
V. Strengthening institutional governance
VI. Conclusion: a call for action
Sustainable Development Goals Elements Applied to MVSM
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