Opinion: How climate change jeopardizes sustainable development

The COVID-19 pandemic has set human development back. The pandemic has shaken the global economy, disrupted the education of an entire generation, and destroyed the livelihoods of many.

At the same time, extreme weather events have massively increased and are affecting societies, economies, and environments as never before in human history. International cooperation groups, among others, are facing unprecedented difficulties to alleviate the suffering of the people affected by natural disasters, droughts, or rising sea levels. Global warming is causing long-lasting changes, which threaten to reverse development progress and exacerbate extreme poverty, inequality, and famine.

Despite all the efforts undertaken at the international level on this issue, the objectives set in the Paris Agreement and 2030 Sustainable Development Goals are far from being achieved. Working for the people on the ground and applying solutions-oriented approaches, international cooperation experts and representatives of various fields have much to contribute.

Uniting to cooperate

For this reason, Switzerland decided to organize the first edition of the International Cooperation Forum on climate change, which will take place in Geneva on March 31 and April 1.

The IC forum will take a deep dive into questions around how to tackle the challenges of climate change for sustainable development together. How does climate change impact people and ecosystems? And how can we achieve sustainable development, given the challenges imposed by climate change?

Over two days, the IC forum will mobilize government representatives, business leaders, scientists and academics, international organizations and civil society, people working on the ground with affected populations, and young activists to share their outlook, insights, and plans to respond to the consequences of global warming.

Experts working on food systems, energy, health, natural resources management, and finance will come together with the objective of developing new approaches, forging new forms of collaboration, and arriving at concrete solutions, using collective intelligence. Only innovative and global responses can make a difference in reducing the greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to the severe impacts of climate change on people and ecosystems.

Four plenary blocks and eight working sessions will focus on how the SDGs and climate protection commitments can be reached in an effective, integrated manner.

The key question facing participants will be: How can international cooperation make its activities more climate-friendly and climate-resilient?

To find answers to the challenges of the climate crisis the IC forum represents a unique chance to harness our collective intelligence and elaborate a concrete and multidisciplinary approach to guide our future work.