Overview

The region of Ile-de-France will host the World Summit of Regions for Climate on October 10th and 11th in Paris at the Palais d’Iena. The Summit is organized by R20 Regions of Climate Action.

Chaired by Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Governor of California and Founder of non-profit organization, R20, and by Michèle Sabban, President of R20, this summit of global importance will bring together regions and local governments from across five continents, as well as economic leaders, in order to formulate a new international agreement on climate change.

In collaboration with World Climate Ltd, this event will mobilize regions, cities, businesses, investors and universities around a joint declaration calling for commitment to a series of concrete actions within the framework of the Road to Paris 2015, and to push forward the “positive agenda” of COP21 (Paris 2015).

The two-day, invitation-only event will include:

  • Plenary sessions to address major issues.
  • Designated areas to review the commitments of key stakeholders.
  • Presentations on major projects and initiatives.
  • Networking opportunities.
  • A declaration of commitment.

Context

The latest report from the IPCC has once again alerted the international community to the acceleration of global warming and its effects. Despite strong involvement of the European Union and France in post-Kyoto negotiations, as well as agreed-upon concrete commitments, it is evident that government efforts alone are not sufficient to prevent and fight against climate change.

It is now widely recognized that the fight against climate change must involve all sectors: national governments, local elected officials, businesses, financial institutions, scientists, civil society and private citizens.

This is known as the ” bottom-up” approach: an approach from the bottom up, with strong horizontal involvement of all actors operating within regions, no longer working in silos. The Summit therefore seeks to generate a multi-stakeholder “bottom-up” movement through the mobilization of regional and local actors. Both public innovative financial instruments (Pre-Investment Fund) and private ones (investment fund platforms) will be available for large-scale initiatives (e.g. LED lighting project in Brazil for 1.5 million LED street lights, 1 GW of renewable energy in Sub-Saharan Africa). The Summit will gather 500 participants, including regional leaders, government officials, heads of large corporations, investors, associations, and the media.

The objective of the Summit is to bring together and engage a broad community of actors in the “bottom-up” approach: regions, cities, businesses, and financial institutions in different areas of the green economy, as well as civil society. The event will also be an opportunity to announce the creation and funding of innovative projects enabling the sustainable reduction of greenhouse gas emissions at the global level.

The Summit is positioned within the “positive agenda” of COP21 preparations and is an opportunity for R20 to involve as many actors as possible in a Declaration engaging regions, businesses and investors.