Future Earth involvement at the 2018 Global Climate Action Summit

Amy Luers, Executive Director of Future Earth, will open and frame the 2018 Global Climate Action Summit themed session on technology disruption, “Disrupting Climate Disruption: Tech, Innovation and a Climate Safe Future,” on September 13th in San Francisco. She will discuss the changing role of technology in society and how innovation and science can work together to scale solutions to societal challenges.

Photo: Amy Luers

In this session, CEOs, entrepreneurs, and coders will discuss their own commitments to climate action and highlight a few nascent products straight out of the lab that can accelerate emissions reductions. Participants in the session will include Lisa Jackson, Vice President of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives at Apple, Suzanne DiBianca, Executive Vice President of Corporate Relations and Chief Philanthropy Officer at Salesforce, and Miguel McKelvey, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer at WeWork.

Tech innovation is poised to disrupt the global economy in the next decade. And a challenge is being issued to the tech community to connect this disruption to meet societal goals relating to climate, by a new report being launched this week in San Francisco.

On Thursday, September 13, 2018, Johan Rockstrom, co-chair of the Future Earth Advisory Committee, and Christiana Figueres will headline the opening plenary of the 2018 Global Climate Action Summit with the Exponential Climate Action Roadmap, which identifies the speed, scale and solutions needed to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

Photo: Johan Rockström

This report builds on a recent study, authored by Rockstrom, suggesting that human-induced global warming of 2°C may trigger other Earth system processes that can drive further warming–even if we stop emitting greenhouse gases. This new report will focus on the immediate pace and scale of action needed to reduce risk of dangerous climate change, as well as on three accelerators to drive the action required: stronger policies, greater climate leadership and ambition from cities, businesses and nations, and the wildcard, the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The roadmap has been produced by Future Earth and the Finnish innovation fund, Sitra with partners including Stockholm Resilience Centre, WWF, Ericsson, Project Drawdown, Salesforce and others. The roadmap was produced in a three-month sprint as an experiment with science, industry and societal partners. It was designed with the intention that it can be updated and revised rapidly as new information becomes available. The roadmap is the foundation for two declarations that will be announced at the summit: the Step Up declaration from leading companies to increase ambition, and the Entrepreneurs declaration, now signed by over 270 CEOs of some of the most innovative companies on Earth.

The press release for the Exponential Climate Action Roadmap will be available on Thursday, September 13, 2018 here.