TRANSITION FORUM 2020 - Summary
The third annual TRANSITION FORUM concluded with a resoundingly clear message: we need to scale up actions urgently and deploy innovative solutions extensively to tackle the climate emergency.
This year’s Forum convened over 400 international innovators, business leaders, investors, policymakers and climate influencers from diverse sectors online between 28 May and 25 June 2020. During a series of five livestreamed sessions, 40 speakers debated the challenges and opportunities for scaling up climate action and presented cutting-edge, sustainable innovations in four key areas under transition: food, housing, mobility and production and consumption.
“In the fight against global warming, the important thing is to win. Our future is at stake. It’s time to scale up,” said Lionel Le Maux, President of Aqua Asset Management and Founding President of TRANSITION FORUM (France).
“Scaling up will be complicated and will require significant human, political, financial and technological resources, but we can’t afford to wait for benchmarks to fight climate change. Scalable solutions exist, and I’m counting on the ecosystem we’ve formed around Transition Forum to support and accelerate the large-scale deployment of these solutions,” continued Le Maux in his closing remarks on 25 June.
Originally scheduled to take place on 28 and 29 May in Nice, France, this year’s Forum moved online due to the current public health crisis. Many speakers thanked TRANSITION FORUM for keeping climate action on the agenda at an opportune time and drew parallels between the pandemic and the climate crisis.
“Today, we are dealing with four crises: health, economic, social and environmental, which are all interrelated. The health crisis is a strong signal to us that it’s time to scale up and accelerate the ecological transition in all sectors,” said Christian Estrosi, Mayor of Nice and President of the Metropole of Nice Côte d’Azur (France), during his opening session keynote on 28 May.
Riaz Siddiqi, Chairman of Clovis Point Capital (US), said that the health menace has given humanity a second chance at long-term survival and that “this is a historic opportunity to make climate healing an integral part of the COVID response.” Siddiqi also underscored the important role of TRANSITION FORUM as a platform for implementing solutions to scale up climate action and echoed other speaker’s calls for collective action to transition to a low carbon economy: “We can’t do it alone. It requires collaboration, consensus building and a common commitment.”
KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM TRANSITION FORUM 2020:
Through keynote speeches, roundtable discussions and presentations, 40 speakers, who joined the Forum live from France, Europe, the US, UK, Middle East and Africa, shared insights and solutions for scaling up action to accelerate the transition to a low carbon future. Some of the recurring themes echoed by speakers over the five live sessions included:
IT’S TIME TO SEIZE THE MOMENT TO DECARBONIZE.
The current health crisis has given the world a unique opportunity to transition towards a low carbon economy. We need to seize the moment.
“Let us use this crisis to innovate and fund new solutions that will enable a seamless transition to a low carbon economy,” said Kanini Mutooni, Managing Director, Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation and Special Advisor, Toniic Network (UK). She cited a report from the McKinsey consulting firm which drew parallels between the pandemic and climate change: both are systemic in nature with global effects; both are non-linear and could have devastating effects beyond normal thresholds. But, a key difference between the crises is that while the risks from climate change are more gradual and cumulative, its impact will be lengthier and even more devastating.
FINANCING, TECHNOLOGY AND REGULATION ARE KEY TO SCALING UP.
Green recovery packages, environmental taxes and private sector resources were proposed as potential sources of financing. If a significant portion of the trillions of dollars earmarked by governments for post pandemic economic stimulus packages can be deployed for climate action, it could bring about transformative change.
Europe has already taken what Mark Brzezinksi, former US Ambassador to Sweden, and President, Brezinski Strategies, called a “catalytic and groundbreaking” step in this direction.
“We are at a key stage in terms of financial budgeting, and we can turn this crisis into an opportunity to transition towards carbon neutrality in Europe,” said Emmanuelle Maire, Head of Unit, Sustainable Production, Products and Consumption for the Directorate General for Environment at the European Commission (Belgium). She spoke at TRANSITION FORUM one day after Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a 750€ billion European Green Recovery Plan. Maire emphasized that 25% of the recovery funds will be set aside to finance climate-friendly initiatives such as the construction of more energy-efficient buildings and infrastructure, developing clean and renewable energies (i.e. wind, hydrogen, and solar), and adding more electric vehicle charging stations to accelerate the transition towards cleaner modes of transportation.
Matthieu Toret, Founder of Enerlex Avocats (France) and energy taxation expert, said that a widely debated carbon tax on polluting goods imported into Europe is part of the European Green Deal introduced in 2019 and could be key to financing the ecological transition. Toret explained that proposals for this border tax, as well as a tax on plastics and higher taxes on fossil fuels — have gained traction over recent months as European member states seek resources to repay the 750€ billion in debt — but they need to overcome a number of legal hurdles before being approved.
Emphasizing the critical role of the private sector in financing, Emmanuel Nazarenko, Director and Partner of the Boston Consulting Group France, said: "The world's largest companies represent 32 trillion dollars in turnover and are a very powerful lever for action. Scaling up will not happen without the full participation of the private sector."
