Philanthropy and Brazilian foundations fly the flag in Rio de Janeiro with Foundations 20

Klaus Milke, Chairman of the Stiftung Zukunftsfähigkeit

Rio de Janeiro – June, 2024: “I am thrilled by my successor as F20 Chair, Alice Amorim, her foundation iCS (Institute for Climate and Society) in Rio de Janeiro and other Brazilian partners, how powerfully they are taking on the responsibility of their country’s G20 presidency this year,” said Klaus Milke, Chairman of the Stiftung Zukunftsfähigkeit. He was present at the main activities of the international foundation platform in Brazil and was very impressed by how the F20’s solution-oriented course is being continued and at the same time given new accents.

This year’s F20 Climate Solutions Forum was held in Rio de Janeiro on June 4 and 5 as part of a wider philanthropy week with over 300 participants and over 150 from around the world following via livestream. The host city of so many important environmental and development conferences showed itself from its best and already very beautiful side. This year’s G20 summit will also take place in Rio at the end of November.

F20 deliberately timed its own focus and events in Rio a few months before this event so that the recommendations for action presented to the G20 in Rio can also have an impact in the subsequent process (see https://foundations-20.org/publication/f20-recommendations-to-the-g20-under-the-brazilian-presidency/).

Above all, the many participants and speakers from politics, business, think tanks and civil society and important parts of society from Brazil and neighboring South American countries made it clear that the Global South has a very strong and self-confident voice. At the same time, however, it was made clear that stronger bridges need to be built between South and North and that more transformative partnerships and cooperation are needed. It was expressed several times that Brazilian philanthropy must see itself much more as part of the solutions to major challenges such as the increasingly visible climate and biodiversity crisis, in line with the fundamental motto of F20.

The current and severe flooding in southern Brazil underlined for everyone the great importance of the program points relating to adaptation to the climate crisis and the special consideration of the most vulnerable people. On the one hand, Indian and South African stakeholders involved in Rio were able to report on the key experiences of the last G20 presidency in Delhi, but also on the growing expectations regarding the South African presidency for 2025, which begins on December 1, 2024.

Together with our Brazilian partners, the F20 journey now continues. Many debates on the F20 recommendations for action are now being held in the individual G20 countries. And over the course of this year, the Biodiversity COP in Colombia, the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the Climate COP in Baku and, last but not least, the first Hamburg Sustainability Conference will play important roles for F20 and other players from the world of foundations and philanthropy.

“The time for action is becoming ever shorter: everyone really must see themselves as part of the necessary solutions and get involved accordingly!” – says Klaus Milke, looking ahead.

More, including the recording of the Climate Solutions Forum at www.foundations20.org.

Der Beitrag Klaus Milke at the F20 Climate Solutions Forum in Brazil erschien zuerst auf Stiftung Zukunftsfähigkeit.

New Delhi, September 12, 2023:

Contact:

Klaus Milke, Chair of Foundations20
milke@stiftungzukunft.de

Der Beitrag Assessment of the results of the G20 Summit in Delhi, September 9-10, 2023 erschien zuerst auf Stiftung Zukunftsfähigkeit.

The annual G20 flagship event of the international foundation platform F20, the Climate Solutions Forum, gathered more than 170 guests on the ground in India’s capital New Delhi on June 8, 2023, as well as a large number online from around the world. The purpose was to discuss the most pressing global challenges, including scaling up renewable energy worldwide, building resilience to the climate crisis at all levels, and mobilizing financial resources. The international conference was hosted by the F20 Foundation Platform and the Dasra Foundation, together with the co-organizing Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation. The Asian Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN), the Centre for Asian Philanthropy and Society (CAPS) and Climate RISE were recruited as network partners.

With the F20 Recommendations, which were published at the end of the Climate Solutions Forum, the more than 80 foundations call on the heads of state and government of the G20 countries to take stronger action against climate change and to implement the UN Sustainable Development Goals more ambitiously.

The press release on the conference and its outcomes can be found here.

Der Beitrag Climate Solutions Forum in Neu-Delhi: June 8th 2023 erschien zuerst auf Stiftung Zukunftsfähigkeit.

On June 8, 2023, the international foundations platform F20 will co-host this year’s Climate Solutions Forum, “One Earth, One Family, One Future: Resilience for All,” with India’s Dasra and Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundations in New Delhi, India. The hybrid forum aims to stimulate debate in India but also globally in the context of the upcoming G20 summit in New Delhi, and work with partners to identify priorities, challenges and opportunities to build global momentum for greater sustainable development and climate action. Philanthropists advocate with G20 leaders for greater climate ambition and powerful implementation of the SDGs.

The Climate Solutions Forum can be followed on-site at the India International Centre (Klaus Milke as Chair of F20 is also in Delhi), but also via livestream and is open to all interested parties. You can register for free via this link.

The event takes place in the run-up to the G20 Summit in Delhi (September 9/10) and the COP28 (end of November) in the United Arab Emirates. International speakers and experts have been invited to foster an intensive interdisciplinary dialogue and build bridges between policy makers, academia, the private sector and civil society. Interactive, insightful keynotes and panels will be offered to Indian and international audiences in a highly encouraging hybrid format.

Given the current challenges facing the world, it is more important than ever to raise the voices from communities and civil society to call global leaders to take much more ambitious action on the worsening climate crisis.

For more information on F20, click here.

Der Beitrag F20 Climate Solutions Forum: June 8, 2023 (New Delhi/Online) erschien zuerst auf Stiftung Zukunftsfähigkeit.

Der Beitrag Annual Gathering of German Foundations erschien zuerst auf Stiftung Zukunftsfähigkeit.

At this year’s main gathering of the international foundation platform F20, the hybrid Climate Solutions Forum, the most pressing global challenges have been discussed in a solutions-oriented, cross-sector dialogue in Jakarta, especially with a very young, Indonesian audience. Once again, following the G7 meeting in late June, the concrete list of recommendations to the G20 leaders was presented: advocating for joint and ambitious action to deliver on the goals of the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Climate Agreement.

This year’s F20 annual event, with a prominent lineup, was held in the Indonesian capital Jakarta. Back to back with the Indonesian “Good Times Summit” just prior to the G20 Development Ministerial Meeting in Belitung, from 8th-9th of September.

The debates focused on building international partnerships, the importance of innovation and startups, and taking and implementing comprehensive climate action and adaptation to climate change impacts that can no longer be avoided.

The F20 Recommendations call on G20 leaders to ramp up climate action, focus even more on renewables and exhibit leadership. Clear, measurable targets aligned with the Paris Agreement would have to be set and the targets already announced at last year’s G20 summit in Rome would have to be implemented quickly.

The Foundations Platform F20 urges the G20 Heads of State to accelerate a Just Energy Transition by agreeing on concrete interim targets by 2030, phasing out of fossil fuel subsidies, protecting and restoring ecosystems, establishing new energy and climate partnerships across the G20 context and beyond, and upscaling renewables.

This years F20 Climate Solutions Forum was hosted by the Foundation Platform F20, The Good Times Summit, and The Habibie Center together with the Indonesian partner foundations Bina Swadaya, the Wahid Foundation, and the Yayasan Dharma Bhakti Astra (YDBA) Foundation. The event was supported by the Indonesian foundation network Filantropi Indonesia and Impact Hub Jakarta.

The following links will take you to the F20-Recommendations and to the English page of F20: F20-Recommendations / F20

Der Beitrag FOUNDATIONS 20 IN INDONESIA : Urgent call from foundations and philanthropy for much more climate action erschien zuerst auf Stiftung Zukunftsfähigkeit.

Under the headline “Renewable Energy and Shifting the Trillions: Making the transition to a net zero world a reality” the high-level event is intended to raise awareness to the political momentum of the Indonesian G20 Presidency and its pivotal role in stirring a global transition to a net zero world.

With the F20 Climate Solutions Forum 2022, we seek to foster more ambitions, solutions, and dialogue by:

• Initiating a discussion about the importance of the upcoming G20 summit as well as the COP27 on climate and COP15 on biodiversity.
• Sharing expertise on how to accelerate the transition to a net zero world in the spirit of leaving no one behind with representatives from science, politics, business and philanthropy.
• Urging the G20 Heads of States to takeaction and adopt ambitious and transformative targets for a just and green transition in line of the Paris Climate Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals.

The expected outcome of the event includes a list of F20 recommendations towards the G20 Heads of State.

Sessions:

Renewable Energy and Green Hydrogen – Making Net Zero a Race to the Top
Sustainable Finance and Just Transition – Accelerating steep invesments and new financing tools

For more information on the program and registration, click here.

Der Beitrag F20 Climate Solutions Forum 2022 – September 7th to September 8th in Jakarta erschien zuerst auf Stiftung Zukunftsfähigkeit.

Munich, Elmau, June 2022:

The summit was met with high expectations in a very challenging environment with a war in  Europe. The world’s ability to tackle climate change depends more than ever on close collaboration, mutual trust and awareness of common global responsibilities. This has also been reaffirmed by the German G7 and G20 Sherpa Jörg Kukies at our high-level event three days prior to the G7 summit on June 23rd in the Bayerischer Hof in Munich. Jörg Kukies emphasised the need to coordinate more closely than ever before united by the shared values of democracy, freedom, peace and human rights to achieve the claimed goal of the German G7 Presidency “Progress towards an equitable world”.

The event in Munich has been jointly organised with the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt, and was supported by Stiftung Allianz für Entwicklung und Klima, Bürgerstiftung München and Stiftung KlimaWirtschaft (German CEO Alliance for Climate and Economy). A high range of distinguished speakers from politics, academia, business and civil society joined the climate dialogue and elaborated how to push the energy discussion beyond the G7 lines and build bridges between the tracks of the G7 and the G20. Key questions addressed included upscaling renewables and accelerating the Global Just Energy Transition whilst also exploring the promising role of industry and business in ramping up private investments to deliver on the global goals. The event can be looked up here.

F20 further presented their list of annual key recommendations to the G7 and the G20 with a particular focus on urging the governments of the G7 countries to enhance climate partnerships and to agree on a G20 renewable power target of 70% by 2030. The F20 Recommendations can be read here.

Unfortunately, the G7 outcome includes only few concrete and measurable commitments from the G7 countries such as advocated by the F20 recommendations, which are crucial to respond to the urgency of the climate crisis, phase out fossil fuels and accelerate a global just energy transition. However, the attendance and a joint declaration of the G7 together with India, Indonesia, Argentina, Senegal and South Africa was a very encouraging sign for the importance of international cooperation and Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs). Explicatly South Africa, India, Indonesia and Vietnam were mentioned in the final documents of the G7 summit. An assessment of the G7 Summit by F20 can be found here.

Der Beitrag On the G7 Summit and F20 Climate Dialogue: Focus on the need for more international cooperation erschien zuerst auf Stiftung Zukunftsfähigkeit.

A JUST ENERGY TRANSITION

Matching Learning Curves From Germany And Indonesia 

22.03.2022: Under the headline of “A Just Energy Transition – Matching Learning Curves From Germany And Indonesia”, the virtual event provided an overview of learning curves from Indonesia and Germany on the energy transition including questions such as CO2 pricing, phase out of coal and upscaling renewable energy in the context of G7 and G20. In the uptake of this year’s G7 Presidency of Germany and G20 Presidency of Indonesia, the Foundations Platform F20 brought together a number of global thought leaders from Germany and Indonesia to explore and discuss futureproof pathways to embark on a renewables-based trajectory at the rate necessary to prevent catastrophic climate-change scenarios. 

Klaus Milke, F20 Chair, referred to the current geopolitical situation in his opening speech of the Indonesian German Energy Transition Symposium by stating: “The world is no longer the same. The world order based on international law and sovereignty of states is being called into question on a massive scale … In this situation, we feel more than confirmed with the global Just Energy Transition. The growth of renewables must happen even faster than climate science is already telling us.” Ilham Habibie, F20 Co-Chair, reaffirmed the need of increased efforts and fostering trustful international relationships in these challenging times. 

The statements reflected the topic at stake from a range of different perspectives with representatives coming from politics, business, civil society and academia and echoed the importance of comparing and matching different learning curves when it comes to finding the solution-oriented answers to climate change. As there is no panacea to solving the climate crisis, social factors need to be deliberately taken into account in the energy transition to ensure a cross-cultural sensitive approach in the spirit of leaving no one behind.

The Indonesian – German Energy Transition Symposium identified how far foundations in both countries can be part of the solution and pointed out to the opportunities for upscaling renewable energy and the importance of a just coal phase out.  

All speakers agreed that this year Indonesia in collaboration with Germany has a unique strategic chance to lead the global energy transition efforts. Here, Germany plays a key role to promote international cooperation, dialogue and mutual trust. 

With the event drawing to a close, F20 Secretary General, Stefan Schurig, emphasised the crucial outcome: “Remaining under the 1.5 degrees, still, is a decision. It is not a fade that we go beyond that … and it depends on how we decide on how we will change the energy sector. ”It is within this spirit, that the G20 countries need to demonstrate concrete action and revisit their NDCs to be Paris-aligned with interim targets of renewable energy to make this a reality.  

Photo: Screenshot of the speakers at the virtual symposium.

A report of the event can be found here.

The full agenda can be found here.

Watch the recording here.

Der Beitrag Indonesian – German – Energy Transition Symposium in the context of G7 and G20 in the year 2022 erschien zuerst auf Stiftung Zukunftsfähigkeit.

“Acting resolutely instead of merely reacting”[1] is the guiding principle of Germany holding the G7 Presidency in 2022. As a subgroup of the G20, the G7 has a huge potential in translating bold commitments into climate-effective policies and build momentum for a “Just Transition” in close resonance with the Indonesian G20 Presidency.

The Federal Government of Germany has just recently issued its official G7 programme “Progress towards an equitable world” outlining the policy priorities set out for this year’s G7 Presidency. It is very strong on climate and the new German government will not only assert a bold change of course in national politics, but will also have the opportunity to take a stand at the international level with the ensuing G7 Summit. From June 26-28, 2022 Heads of State and Government of the member countries will convene at the G7 Summit taking place in Schloss Elmau in Southern Germany.

In light of the urgency of the climate crisis, a multi-stakeholder approach is needed to accelerate actions on combating the most pressing global challenges. German foundations are in particular responsibility this year to support the “resolute acting” of the Federal Government of Germany by “being part of the solution”. Following the first “Sinsheimer Klima-Dialog” meeting in October 2021 – on February 8, 2022 a second climate gathering of German foundations took place jointly hosted by the Foundations Platform F20, the Robert Bosch Stiftung and the Klimastiftung für Bürger. The dialogue will continue to thrive on a follow up gathering in Munich scheduled for June 23, 2022 three days prior to the G7 summit in Elmau.

The fruitful virtual discussions on the key responsibilities of the G7 and the role of foundations in contributing to this process were highlighted by different voices from

Politics

• Jörg Kukies (German G7 + G20 Sherpa and State Secretary in the Chancellery)
• Jürgen Karl Zattler (Director-General for International development policy and Climate in the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ))

Academia

• Dr. Maja Göpel, Expert on Transformational Sciences

Philanthropy

• Dr. Michael Otto (Umweltstiftung Michael Otto, Stiftung KlimaWirtschaft)
• Bernd Welz (Klimastiftung für Bürger)
• Eduardo Noboa (BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt)
• Caio Koch-Weser (European Climate Foundation)
• Ilham A. Habibie (The Habibie Center Foundation, Jakarta)
• Ulrike Reichart (Network of German Community Foundations)
• Michael Beier (Heinz Sielmann Stiftung)
• Felicitas von Peter (Active Philanthropy)
• Max von Abendroth (Philanthropy Europe Association)
• Fernanda Wolff Metternich (Stiftung Gesunde Erde – Gesunde Menschen)
• Sylke Freudenthal (Veolia Foundation Stiftung)
• Friederike von Bünau (German Association of Foundations)
• Ottilie Bälz (Robert Bosch Stiftung)
• Klaus Milke (Stiftung Zukunftsfähigkeit, Foundations Platform F20)
• Stefan Schurig (Foundations Platform F20)

(Ottilie Bälz and Klaus Milke in conversation with
Dr. Michael Otto from the studio of Robert Bosch Stiftung)

The following conclusions can be highlighted from the insightful discussions:

• Building forward better: courageous, forward-oriented action and multi-solving strategies including a new understanding of assets are needed. All stakeholders, and particularly foundations, are asked to actively participate in this transformation.
• Joint Action for 1,5°C: International climate partnerships and new alliances, likewise to the Just Energy Transition Partnership with South Africa must be fostered.
• All hands on deck: Despite all the existing commitment, there was unanimity: even more foundations need to get involved “as part of the solution” and focus their foundational activities on their own positive climate contributions and transformative, intersectional cooperation.

Please find the German report here: https://stiftungzukunft.org/stiftungen-wollen-teil-der-loesung-sein/

[1] https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/en/aussenpolitik/internationale-organisationen/g8-g20/g7-presidency/2504680

Der Beitrag German G7 presidency: Many foundations from Germany are willing to become part of the solution erschien zuerst auf Stiftung Zukunftsfähigkeit.