With support from the United Nations Office for Partnerships and in partnership with Earth Day Network and Future Coalition, the Foundation for Climate Restoration will host the first Global Climate Restoration Forum in partnership with Member States leading into the 74th Session of the UN General Assembly on September 17, 2019 at UN Headquarters in New York City.
Long-time REVITALIZATION readers, and those who have read my books or attended my talks, know that this news is very satisfying to me. I’ve been pushing for a focus on climate restoration (in addition to mitigation, of course) for well over a decade now, and it’s finally happening. This is why you don’t see articles in REVITALIZATION on low-carbon or even no-carbon initiatives: only carbon-negative.
That message actually goes back to my first book, The Restoration Economy (Berrett-Koehler, 2002), which was the first to point out that it’s way too late for sustainable development. That’s what we should have been doing for the past two centuries. Now, there’s so much damage, depletion and pollution that only restorative development can create a healthier, wealthier future for all. Merely reducing our destruction of the planet (which is what most sustainability / mitigation efforts do) usually doesn’t make things better: they simply get worse at a slower rate.
At this year’s Global Climate Restoration Forum, thought leading practitioners from science, engineering, economics, policy, finance and industry will gather in New York to discuss why Climate Restoration is an essential framework for climate action, and how we can safely restore a healthy climate in a single generation.
Climate Restoration is the global movement to return the Earth’s climate systems to the safe and healthy state in which humanity and our natural world evolved. This requires returning atmospheric CO2 to safe levels of less than 300 parts per million (ppm) and restoring sufficient Arctic ice to prevent permafrost melt and the resulting disastrous methane emissions. Over the course of the last 100 years, CO2 levels have already increased by nearly 50%, exceeding 415 ppm in 2019, and continue to climb.
Commercially viable ventures and nonprofit solutions that sequester carbon are currently being scaled to restore a safe and healthy climate. At the Global Climate Restoration Forum, experts and innovators from all sectors will meet to share information about the many solutions ready to be deployed.
The 1st Annual Climate Restoration Forum will demonstrate that humanity has the commitment and capacity to accelerate carbon removal and restore the climate. The desired outcome of building the Coalition for Climate Restoration and the 1st Annual UN Global Climate Restoration Summit is the following:
- Raise Awareness: Showcase research and exhibit case studies of what is possible and what is needed to get to 300ppm carbon reduction goal. Support the education of the importance of climate restoration complementing and working along with adaptation and mitigation.
- Call to Action: Asking the Forum attendees (international agencies, corporations, NGOs, and individuals across the globe) to join the Coalition for Climate Restoration to put humanity fully on a path toward Climate Restoration by 2030 and completed by 2050.
- Grow the Movement: Through the Forum attendees support, convening, messaging, political action and grassroots activation, continue to grow the Coalition for Climate Restoration.
Photo (via Adobe Stock) is of Dominica, which has pledged to become the world’s first climate-resilient nation.