"The Global Institutional Architecture and the Financial Crisis - An Opportunity for Sustainable Development?"
Programme
| Monday, 14th September 2009 | ||
|---|---|---|
| 12.00 - 13.00 | Registration | |
| 13.00 - 15.00 | Plenary I: Setting the Stage |
Keynotes and Panel Discussion |
| 15.00 - 15.30 | Coffee Break | |
| 15.30 - 17.30 | Working Group Session (Part I) |
Three working groups meeting in parallel, keynote presentations. |
| 19.00 | Boat Trip with Dinner | |
| Tuesday, 15th September 2009 | ||
| 09.30 - 11.00 | Working Group Session (Part II) |
Working groups resume discussion and develop recommendations / conclusions. |
| 11.00 - 11.30 | Coffee Break | |
| 11.30 - 13.00 | Plenary II: The Way Forward |
Working groups' chairs report back to plenary Panel Discussion |
| 13.00 - 13.30 | Closing Remarks | |
| 13.30 | End of conference | |
Plenary 1: Setting the Stage: Reforming the Global Institutional Architecture - Opportunities Arising from the Crisis
The economic crisis has reinforced the urgency of reforming international governance.
Lead Questions:
- To what extent does the global financial crisis present an opportunity for more effectively mainstreaming environmental considerations into economic decisions and other non-environmental spheres -- perhaps the most critical issue facing international environmental governance?
- The fact that broader IEG reform "tends to be longer-term, politically challenging and is often dependent on structural changes in the larger international system" has made achieving such broader change a formidable challenge.1 What opportunities now arise for structural changes in the larger international system that could in turn facilitate broader IEG reform?
Chair: R. Andreas Kraemer, Ecologic Institute, Berlin
- Barbara Schäfer, German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Berlin: Moving Forward on IEG - The Case for a Global Coherent Voice on Environment
- Moustapha Kamal Gueye, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Geneva: The global economic crisis: Opportunities for reform and transition to a green economy
- Sol Iglesias, Asia-Europe Foundation, Singapore: Build with Bricks: How Asia and Europe must turn this crisis into progress
- Mark Halle, International Institute for Sustainable Development, Geneva: Honesty in international environmental governance: why we are not winning the battle
Three working groups meeting in parallel Monday afternoon and resuming Tuesday morning:
Working Group 1: Turning the G 8 into the G 20: Good or Bad for Environmental Policy and Sustainable Development?
Many observers believe that the G 20 meeting in November 2008 heralded the de facto end of the G 8 and the commencement of a new era under the roof of the G 20. While foreign policy makers have discussed the expansion of the G 8 intensively, environmental policy makers have only begun to reflect on the potential environmental implications of these changes.
Lead Questions:
- What opportunities and threats to the development and implementation of (international) environmental policy does the expansion of the G8 present? What opportunities and threats does it bring with regard to sustainable development?
- How can these opportunities best be used for improving environmental governance and policy?
- How does the expansion of the G8 impact negotiations and decision-making on environmental policy at the UN-level?
- What conclusions have foreign policy makers come to, with regard to the prospect of expanding the G8? How do these relate to and/or coincide with implications for environmental policy?
Chair: Miranda Schreurs, Freie Universität Berlin & Environmental Policy Research Centre (FFU)
- Everton Vieira Vargas, Ambassador of Brazil, Berlin: Crisis and Challenges: Formal Institutions and Informal Decision-Making
- Adil Najam, Boston University, Boston: Sustainable Development Needs a G-All
- Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf, Ecologic Institute, Berlin: Transforming the G 8: Good or Bad for the Environment?
Working Group 2: Funding International Environmental Policies and Sustainable Development: Opportunities Arising from Reforming the Bretton Woods Institutions and the UNFCCC Negotiations
Partly in response to the financial crisis, the G 20 concluded at its November 2008 meeting that “the Bretton Woods institutions must be comprehensively reformed so that they can more adequately reflect changing economic weights in the world economy and be more responsive to future challenges”. In order to make the Bretton Woods institutions more responsive to the challenges of environmental degradation, environmental policy makers must actively engage in this reform process and present their views. At the same time, it is widely expected that a successful outcome of the current climate change negotiations will largely depend on adequate funding for mitigation and adaptation measures.
Lead Questions:
- Who should be leading efforts to ensure that reform of the Bretton Woods institutions is designed in such a way that their responsiveness to the challenges of environmental degradation is maximized – indeed, that they contribute to sustainable development?
- What (concrete) reform measures would make the Bretton Woods institutions more responsive to the challenges of environmental degradation and how can environmental aspects be most successfully fed into the reform debate?
- How could new sources of funding, such as revenues from emission trading, contribute to adequately funding climate change policies?
- How should existing funds, such as the adaptation fund or a potential new finance structure under the future climate regime, be designed or restructured to efficiently manage funds?
Chair: Mark Halle, International Institute for Sustainable Development, Geneva
- Pablo Heidrich, North-South Institute, Ottawa: Comparing the G8, G20 and G192 (conflicting and conflicted) visions for the International Financial Institutions. A background to discuss the funding of international environmental policies and sustainable development
- Jürgen Maier, Forum on Environment and Development, Berlin: Phasing out fossil fuels, phasing in a sustainable energy future - can the UN and the Bretton Woods Institutions live up to the challenge?
- Fiona Marshall, International Institute for Sustainable Development, Geneva: International investment, ICSID and climate change: can obstacles be turned into opportunities?
Working Group 3: Re-regulating International Financial Markets: New Rules for Environmental Policies and Sustainable Development?
Financial markets provide liquidity -- the backbone of any economic activity. Well designed, they have the potential to serve as a reliable basis for the global economy, while promoting environmental protection and sustainable development. In response to the financial crisis, the G 20 have engaged in a process of reforming financial markets, but must focus more on the contribution of financial markets to sustainable development. Any reform must concentrate on how reformed financial markets could provide incentives for long term and sustainable business strategies.
Lead Questions:
- What concrete reform measures will make international financial markets more supportive of -- and actively advance -- environmental policies and sustainable development?
- How can a process of reforming international financial markets be injected with a focus on supporting and advancing sustainable development?
Chair: Günther Bachmann, German Council for Sustainable Development, Berlin
- Candice Stevens, Former OECD Sustainable Development Advisor, Paris: The Sustainable Response to the Financial Crisis
- Nick Mabey, E3G - Change Agents for Sustainable Development, London: Financing the low carbon transition; reforming and supplementing financial markets to deliver low carbon investment
- Christian Hornberg, KfW Banking Group, Frankfurt a.M./Berlin: Re-regulating financial markets – promotional bank perspectives
Plenary 2: The Way Forward
The last session will sum up the issues discussed within the working group sessions and present possible ways forward.
Chair: R. Andreas Kraemer, Ecologic Institute, Berlin
