Ecosperity 2019 Highlights Global Commons Alliance

Translating Ambition to Action

Speaking at the opening of the Ecosperity 2019 conference in Singapore on Thursday, Naoko Ishii, CEO and Chairperson of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and member of the Future Earth Advisory Committee, acknowledged “the extremely worrying picture” coming from science about the state of the planet, and highlighted a new Global Commons Alliance that is being set-up to help tackle the problem.

“First, start using science to measure our impact on the global commons, and set targets to reduce the impact,” she said. “Second, we must foster collective action. Only by working together to achieve the same goal of sharing our common resource do we have a chance.”

Future Earth is an active member of the Global Commons Alliance, leading the Earth Commission initiative.  Fumiko Kasuga, Future Earth Japan Hub Director, was also in attendance and affirmed the Earth Commission’s roles and structure of scientific contribution in Earth Targets in Japan and in Asia.

The Global Commons Alliance will be comprised of four parts:

1. The Earth Commission– A select team of scientists convened by Future Earth to synthesize the latest research, anticipate tipping points and assess the limits of the entire Earth system.
2. A Science Based Targets Network – A group of international NGOs to turn the science into practical applications for companies and cities to set goals for operating within Earth’s limits.
3. Earth HQ – A media portal for the planet, to connect people across the globe and share the big picture of how all Earth systems are performing and tracking progress towards solutions.
4. Systems Change – Building new coalitions and partnerships to green our cities and transform economic systems to achieve long term sustainability.

More information about the Ecosperity announcement is here.

In the Stewardship Commons session in the afternoon, roughly 100 people including many CEOs attended. Patrick Frick, Co-Founder of The Value Web, moderated the whole programme and started the event by encouraging participants to think about the definition of ‘Stewardship’.

Ong Boon Hwee, CEO Stewardship Asia Centre, gave an overview of the Stewardship, Governance & Sustainability Nexus, and mentioned that Stewardship is responsible wealth creation to hand over to future generation in better shape.

Naoko Ishii, member of the Future Earth Advisory Committee, spoke about the importance of biodiversity and food system and expressed her expectation on growing coalition with broader communities, e.g. those for sustainable value chain.

Peng Gong, member of the Future Earth Advisory Committee, was introduced together with the role and positioning of the Earth Commission. Peng explained that Planetary Boundaries needed collaborative efforts by so many scientists for long years, and also talked about Tipping points, trends in ecosystem disasters, how various systems are integrated in the nature, and some example solutions already put in place. Peng’s presentation was followed by Kevin Moss who described the Science-based Targets Network.

Participants were guided to develop new business ideas in groups, and the artists created fantastic pictures based on the talks and group presentations.