Connect4Climate partnered with carbon-neutral Italian private sector company Alcantara to open a 300-square meter pavilion space at the Temporary Museum for New Design during Milan Design Week (April 9-14, 2013). From April 9th to 12th, 2013, Connect4Climate and Alcantara co-hosted the Alcantara Dialogues/Connect4Climate: Re-Think, Re-Design, Re-New – a series of panel discussions on sustainability featuring high-profile innovators from the worlds of design, architecture, fashion, CSR, global advocacy, entertainment, and the arts (full program below).

As World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim has said, “To deliver bold solutions on climate change, we need to listen to and engage broader and more diverse audiences.” These discussions did just that – by stimulating new conversations with influencers from a wide variety of disciplines and creating a greater understanding of how sustainable design and business practices can impact and change behavior to mitigate climate change.

Internationally-renowned architect and art director Giulio Cappellini designed theConnect4Climate/Alcantara pavilion using carbon-neutral Alcantara materials to create a sensory experience that will also feature a C4C exhibition on climate change issues and action for the more than 300,000 visitors during Milan Design Week.

Alcantara’s CEO and Chairman, Andrea Boragno, said, “We view sustainability as an opportunity, not a cost. Given our shared objectives and values, partnering with the World Bank's Connect4Climate is a natural step for Alcantara - not only because of our long-standing commitment to carbon neutrality, but also because of our desire to provide a platform for meaningful dialogues which will spur people to re-think, re-design, and re-new.”

All events will take place at:

Temporary Museum for New Design
Superstudio Più, Via Tortona 27
Milan, Italy

Browse the programme below or download it.

The Young Professionals in Local Development (YPLD) is a network of young professionals that set its mind to change the world. We started from a small idea of aggregating the local population towards building their community to a much bigger objective: that of creating a global network of young, but also experienced professionals that, by fostering communities` growth through innovation, can help solve some of the biggest challenges today: food security, climate change, poverty.

On February 18th 2012 we decided to “Raise the stake” and, with the support of our three strategic partners: YPARD, Connect4Climate and Groupe de Bruges, moved the discussions from the virtual environments directly into the hands of the people that are affected by decisions and decision-makers.

Invited at this conference were people from different environments from local business, local public authorities, NGOs` and iNGOs` and, among the speakers, members of European think tanks and the European Commission represented by Director Mihail Dumitru from Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development.

This diverse crowd stimulated a great debate from the beginning when the future of the agriculture in the local context was discussed. The views of YPLD are that agriculture should be a building block for the future, but with limiting its present impact on the environment. Presently, more than 30% of the food is waste because of its poor quality, frequent disregards of European standards, massive consumption of fast food and frozen products and others and also with 70% of all fresh drinking water being using for industrial agricultural systems.

By changing this, we give our people, our communities a better future. The options are introducing alternative food systems regulated through city or regional level food policies, metropolitan and/or periurban agriculture and others.

Following such a complex debate where the exchange of ideas was very fast pacing, switching from food security to climate change effects locally and from young people to more experienced professionals, it was just normal to talk about … social media and e-learning tools.

Starting with a video presentation of Connect4Climate and moving towards the E-learning course of Groupe de Bruges on the Common Agricultural Policy given by Bart Soldaat, we learned from all partners what is social networking and how can this be used by individuals and organizations alike to promote their initiatives. Marina Cherbonnier from YPARD, while discussing the involvement of young professionals in international agricultural research for development, has presented the new image of its organization, that of a multi-cultural community, where diversity is welcomed and where all and every opinion is taken into consideration and valued.

“Raising the stake” in all its projects, YPLD has grown to becoming a global networking, reaching three continents, over 30 countries and more than 10 fields of expertise among which: international cooperation, community-led local development, local economic development, urbanization, governance, food security, climate change.

Have you been attending this conference? Would you like to emphasize some aspects we have not discussed here, or you simply would like to add on? Please send your comments to office@ypld.org!

If you haven’t been attending the conference but you are interested in knowing more about the Young Professionals in Local Development or you would like to share about your own experience on that matter, your comments or questions are very welcome too!
 

Codrin is the President of YPLD and consults on agriculture and rural development for a number of organizations.

The 2014 World Day to Combat Desertification global observance event focused on the theme of ecosystem-based adaptation, with a rallying call “Land Belongs to the Future – Let’s Climate Proof It.” Approximately 400 representatives from government, intergovernmental and civil society organizations (CSOs) registered for the event, which took place on Tuesday, 17 June 2014, at World Bank headquarters in Washington, DC, US. The event was also webcast, and speakers responded to questions from a global audience. The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) organized the event, which was hosted by the World Bank in partnership with the Global Environment Facility (GEF), TerrAfrica and Connect4Climate.

On the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the UNCCD, speakers at the global observance event considered the requirements for ecosystem-based adaptation to address issues related to desertification, land degradation and drought as well as shared successful cases of combating desertification in drylands. Keynote speakers discussed national efforts, and panelists presented research and lessons learned to address land degradation and foster adaptation and resilience. Two short films were screened, demonstrating additional projects and lessons learned. The Land for Life award winners were also announced. This briefing note summarizes the event’s proceedings.

When Connect 4Climate asked me to speak at the Alcantara Dialogues during Milan Design Week, I jumped at the chance. After all, this was likely to be an audience made up of highly creative people, not the usual crowd of hard-core environmentalists and policy wonks that often participate in such discussions. Several years ago, my dear friend Dragan Klaic – a leading figure in the European theater and culture community who passed away in 2011 – gave me some very good advice. He said that the arguments of environmentalists would not be enough to generate the kind of public mandate needed to address climate change. It’s the culture community, he said – musicians, performers, artists – that will reach people at an emotional level, and help them ’feel’ what climate change is all about.

Today’s youth have been dealt a deadly hand when it comes to the environment and our aging Mother Earth. They must live in a world where the generations before them have polluted the ground they walk on, the oceans that surround them and the air they breath. While some still deny the reality of global warming, climate change is inevitable due to the tremendous increases in carbon dioxide emissions into our atmosphere.

The burning of fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) have grown more rapidly between 2000 and 2010 then they have in previous decades. The time to act is long overdue and many are calling for a global consortium to address this growing, toxic concern.

When Cyclone Pam arrived in the south Pacific Ocean bringing destruction, devastation, and new levels of anxiety to those it affected, I thought it was wrong to sit by and do nothing. I decided to use my business, Five Boys Clothing, as a mechanism for good.

I am half I-Kiribati (the term used to describe a person from the country of Kiribati) and still have relatives living in the far-flung, low-lying beautiful island of Kiribati and across the Pacific.

In the past few weeks, I and others from the I-Kiribati community have found it increasingly difficult to establish good communication channels with our families in Kiribati. What we have heard consistently over the past few months is that the “king tides” that naturally occur at this time of year have been the biggest that anyone who lives in the Oceana region have ever been known.

The author, Sophia Walsh (middle of the second row from the top), at age eight, with her family.
In accordance with I-Kiribati tradition the extended family mostly live as a Kainga – all the siblings live together, with their children and grandchildren, and now great grandchildren. Walsh now lives in England.

Because of Kiribati's geography, any small changes in sea level can have an enormous effect.

Kiribati is composed of three archipelagos in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Together, they span an area greater than the United States. Straddling the equator, Kiribati is the only nation in the world to have land in both the Northern, Southern, Western, and Eastern Hemispheres. With the sole exception of one raised atoll, no where in Kiribati is more than two meters above the sea level.

The Tarawa atoll, capital of the republic of Kiribati. Credit: Mark Tranchant

Freak high tides creep up and across the island, spilling into ground-level wells and contaminating the water.

Due to the low lying position of the atolls of Kiribati, small changes in weather conditions have a big effect. Severe changes in weather conditions have a disastrous effect.  Global warming is causing severe and consistent damage to the islands, particularly with fresh water supplies because the rise in sea levels causes increased salinity in the ground water.

My family has one well that hasn't been contaminated, but there are many families in the Pacific region that are not so fortunate.

This week, Connect4Climates partner Sustainia announced their top-10 sustainability innovations for 2015. The 10 projects and technologies are the finalists for the Sustainia Award, an international honor that identifies and celebrates groundbreaking sustainability solutions from all over the world.

An Award Committee, led by Arnold Schwarzenegger, including Christiana Figueres, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Rajendra K. Pachauri and Connie Hedegaard, will now review the finalists. The solutions come from 9 different countries and cover everything from new ways of financing climate mitigation projects in cities, leasing models for baby clothes, citizen engagement projects for energy consumption and solar rechargeable hearing aids.

The winning solution will be presented on December 6th at an evening filled with inspiration and bold statements, during the UNFCCC COP21 climate conference in Paris. Under the theme of Leaders of a Sustainable World, Unite! Sustainia, the UN Global Compact, Connect4Climate, the World Banks global partnership program, and many partners are collaborating to present climate and sustainability solutions that will power up the evening.

Besides a winning solution chosen by the Sustainia Award Committee, you can also be a part of the selection process. Starting this week, everyone can vote his or her favorite innovation among the 10 nominees. The finalist with the most public votes will bring home the Sustainia Community Award. Read about the 10 finalists at: sustainia.me/cop21.

The public choice winner will also be announced in Paris on December 6th. With the newly ratified Sustainable Development Goals and the negotiations for a new binding climate agreement at COP21, its enough with the talk and all about action. Lets support the solutions already available to us vote your favorite.

These solutions, initiatives and technologies already making a direct impact on the ground, are already now working in the market and will be needed in a world defined by climate change no matter the outcome of COP21. The Award Ceremony in Paris will gather innovators and performers from around the world to celebrate solutions for a clean resilient tomorrow.

The opportunities presented by the climate challenge will be highlighted. Innovations in the fashion, film and food industries will be announced, as will progress for sustainable cities. It will be an evening to celebrate a climate-friendly sustainable future. Join in the transition to a new economy, driven by sustainability solutions.

During an intensive sociology course over winter break, thirty students from U.S. colleges and universities took part in a workshop organized by the Connect4Climate group at the World Bank headquarters. The students came from many disciplines, and from all over the world. Few had any kind of a background in climate change issues. Here are some of their impressions of Connect4Climates mission and, in particular, the Sport4Climate initiative. The workshop occured on January 15 2015 to celebrate the launch of Action/2015, a global movement of thousands of organizations, coalitions and partnerships that reflect the diversity of injustice, inequalities, poverty and climate change all over the world.