The Global Transition 2012 is an international network of organisations and leading thinkers from the Global North and South that is catalysing a ‘Global Transition’ by building a community of civil society organisations across the globe to promote and deliver a rapid transition to the desirable and beneficial economy that we aspire to.
The ultimate vision of the initiative is a global green and fair economy that maximises well-being, operates within environmental limits and is capable of coping and adapting to global environmental change.
Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Future, nef (the new economics foundation) and New Economics Institute are working in partnership to achieve this. Working with other partners such as the Green Economy Coalition and Bioregional, we are aiming to grow the network of organisations from now, in the lead up to Rio+20 and beyond.
Why do we need a Global Transition?
The path we are currently on is unsustainable. But, putting the brakes on consumption will, in the current economic system, trigger further unemployment, injustice, and a major decline in human wellbeing. Hence, the tremendous appeal of business as usual and the unwillingness to address the huge systemic problems we face.
However, we are convinced that there is an alternative. This alternative is not just necessary, but both desirable and possible. It means moving to a new economy that delivers well-being and social justice for all without stretching the Earth’s resources beyond breaking point. This requires a Global Transition.
The Earth Summit in Rio, June 2012, with its focus on the green economy in the context of poverty eradication, offers a unique opportunity to develop a global roadmap or pathway to achieve this transition and with additional ‘toolkits’ that can support the implementation of these pathways civil society and governments alike can work together to achieve the transition.
Challenge Papers and Dialogues
A number of leading economic and ecological thinkers have written ‘challenge papers’ or think pieces for the Global Transition initiative, which tackle many of the key sectors that are being discussed in the Rio +20 preparatory meetings and are referenced in numerous zero draft submissions. They include papers on the Blue Economy, Access to Energy, the role of the Finance and Banking Sector, and Ecosystems Services (these and the others are available to download from the website: http:globaltransition2012.org). The purpose of the papers was to stimulate debate on the key areas that make up the green and fair economy and they address barriers to change as well as proposals for a way forward – in Rio and beyond.
In October, ahead of the zero draft submission deadline, we organised a Dialogue to bring together the authors and peer reviewers of the challenge papers to debate the key themes of the papers as well as synthesise the essential principles and policy outputs that would form the foundations of a Global Transition. These were then fed into the green economy section of the Stakeholder Forum zero draft submission.
Looking ahead
Future activities of the initiative include a high-profile media event in March 2012, as well as additional Dialogues (in advance of and post Rio +20). We are currently working on an interactive map that will join up the dots of all the initiatives that are already underway to building the resilient, green and fair economy , and through ‘joining up these dots’ the coalition and global community of the transition will be able to share stories, connect up and help spread the seeds of the transformation that will deliver the vision of a healthy, positive and above all ecologically resilient future.