Thank you for registering

This session invites participants to focus on how countries can advance an agenda that promotes both economic growth and environmental sustainability.

The first session addresses how critical natural resources – water, food and energy – can be used more efficiently. Water and food are vital resources that are increasingly threatened by climate change, pollution, demographic pressures and unsustainable agricultural practices, while energy efficiency is widely regarded as a powerful driver of sustainable production and consumption. For each of these resources, through diverse formats, participants will engage with the scale of the problem and discuss solutions.

The second session seeks to identify practical steps to promote a green economy agenda. While the potential of green growth is well established, it requires advances on several fronts. These include the need to expand renewable energy in line with Paris Protocol Commitments, to develop a ‘circular economy’ through the recycling, reuse and recovery of waste materials, and to advance natural capital accounting methods which take into account the costs of ‘business as usual’ practices on the environment and reorient the economy towards sustainable development.

This track addresses two key ‘crunch points’ or trade-offs countries need to confront to further an equity-based agenda: political opposition and the circumstances of groups who have been ‘left behind’ by globalisation.

Our first session, ‘Getting the Turkey to Vote for Christmas’, is focused on how countries have been able to advance inequality reducing policies in the face of elite and other vested interests which have an incentive to forestall change. An interactive panel discussion will seek to draw out experiences ranging from the removal of fossil fuel subsidies in Indonesia to land reform in Sub-Saharan Africa, and what made them successful.

Through a policy-simulation game, participants will grapple with the key trade-offs efforts at reducing inequalities face, while a ‘knowledge café’ will invite participants from diverse backgrounds to share their thoughts and experiences on how inequalities can be reduced when a source of opposition is government itself.

Our second session, ‘Rethinking globalisation that works for all’, seeks to address the disillusionment associated with globalisation which has had profound consequences over the last year. The aim is to foster a better understanding of who is being ‘left behind’ and why, and what governments can do to address their concerns.

A dialogue between a polling company representative and civil society activist will focus on why some people report being disillusioned with globalisation, how these perceptions are aligned with realities and how they can be addressed. An interactive game will confront participants with the trade-offs involved in seeking to compensate various groups for the effects of globalisation. And in a ‘speed geeking’ session, selected participants will deliver two-minute interventions focused on possible solutions.