6-7 June 2023
Pátio das Nações – Palácio da Bolsa
Porto – Portugal
Everything in our society was built from a Stable Climate.
Although intuitively people may think of climate as already being formally recognized as a common good that spans across borders (because that is what it is in the real world), from a legal perspective it still not recognized as such. This issue continues to condition climate negotiations and their results (or the lack of them). This common good is vital and structural for humanity, thus its depreciation (Climate Change) should not be merely considered a Common Concern, as it is in the current Paris Agreement’s framework.
The Mitigation Trap - A concern does not clean the atmosphere.
Because the option was to address the problem (climate change is a Common Concern of Humankind), instead of addressing the Common Good (Stable Climate) itself, we don’t have a proper system to manage the use of the Stable Climate and its permanent maintenance. Climate Change as a Common Concern limited the action strategy to trying to reduce/neutralize emissions (to mitigate de problem), preventing the development of a system of incentives to clean the already existent excessive CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. In the Concern approach, the benefits that ecosystems perform to the Stable Climate are invisible in our global economy, disappearing into a global legal void. This makes it impossible to build an economy capable to actively clean the atmosphere, and permanently maintain a Stable Climate. Even though the last reports of UNFCCC clearly demonstrated that only by actively removing CO2 from the atmosphere it will be possible to avoid catastrophic climate change, there are still no systems in place to compensate actions and services that reduce the total existent amount of CO2, that is negative emissions, for the benefits of present and future generations
Belongs to no one. The Tragedy of the Commons on a Global Scale.
By only addressing the problem of Climate Change, the Common Good Stable Climate was left with an undefined legal status. Being the Stable Climate a Common Good that belongs to no one, the conditions for the Tragedy of the Commons to happen on a global scale were in place.
A Stable Climate is a manifestation of a well-functioning Earth System as an interconnected whole, and not only the result of CO2 levels in the atmosphere, as seems to be the main focus of the Concern approach. Recovering the Stable Climate requires recognizing the natural Heritage that belongs to all humankind, as well as developing congruent rules between producing benefits and damages to the Common Good, which are currently non-existent in Paris Agreement.
The undefined legal status of the Common Good Stable Climate means that the most basic structural condition to allow for any human action – that is the existence of an adequate legal environment - is not yet present in the strategy to fight Climate Change and protect life on Earth.
Only an urgent system-wide transformation can avoid climate disaster.
On November 5th, 2021, the Portuguese Parliament approved the Climate Law, which states in its article 15th paragraph f), the diplomatic objective of recognizing the Stable Climate as a Common Heritage of Humankind by the United Nations. This critical legal evolution, can produce several positive cascading effects on human societies, namely in the restoration of ecosystems reducing emissions and climate justice.
This is why Porto-Portugal will host the TEDx CountDown, with the goal of opening a worldwide discussion about the concept of global commons and the legal status of climate.
This is a true practical step for our common future.
On June 6th and 7th 2023, join us on this discussion!
This will be an in-person Event.
Mandatory registrations will open in February 2023