November 18, 2022
ARLINGTON, Va (November 18, 2022) – Partnering with Conservation International, and with funding provided by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), Systems Change Lab is developing a centralized tracking platform where transformations across systems are monitored on a regular basis, providing the first complete picture of progress toward necessary transitions. This new initiative aims to enable decision-makers to accelerate the necessary transformational changes, such as how we power industries, build cities, govern societies and conserve nature.
The world is facing a series of crises, from climate change and rapid biodiversity loss to economic disparity and injustice. Creating a prosperous future for people and the planet will require a new path — a path that transforms our global systems to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, halt biodiversity loss and ensure a just transition along the way. While many have been working toward this new path for decades, actions to date have failed to create change at the necessary pace or scale.
The project has three primary components: monitoring the transformational change across key systems, learning and sharing the ingredients for change and mobilizing action for systems change.
During this two-year project, Systems Change Lab aims to track and accelerate transformational change across systems, including power, transport, the built environment, industry, land use, agriculture and management of the world’s freshwater and ocean. Cross-cutting transformations of economic and social systems will focus on how the world measures economic well-being, delivers basic services, sustainably produces and consumes goods, equitably distributes the costs and benefits of change, finances these transformations and governs the global commons.
This project spans both climate and nature, aligning closely with the GEF’s biodiversity, climate change and land degradation goals. By engaging decision-makers and sharing the key targets and actions needed to enable biodiversity protection, Systems Change Lab will underscore the importance of biodiversity in economic and policy planning. Focusing on actions to prevent warming above 1.5ºC, Systems Change Lab will indirectly integrate mitigation concerns into the national planning and development agenda.
Systems Change Lab will also create enabling environments to support the scaling up and mainstreaming of sustainable land management by translating the necessary transformations into actionable targets. Tracking these targets and other drivers of change will then equip decision-makers with key information.
While Systems Change Lab aims to progress toward many of the GEF 7 core indicators — from mitigating emissions to protecting or restoring land and marine areas — the initiative plans to specifically address 15,000 beneficiaries over a two-year period and half of whom will be women.
System Change Lab’s data platform serves as a virtual situation room for the world’s fight against climate change, biodiversity loss and inequity. Alongside partners and stakeholders, the project will accelerate crucial systems change and a better world for all.
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About Conservation International: Conservation International protects nature for the benefit of humanity. Through science, policy, fieldwork and finance, we spotlight and secure the most important places in nature for the climate, for biodiversity and for people. With offices in 30 countries and projects in more than 100 countries, Conservation International partners with governments, companies, civil society, Indigenous Peoples and local communities to help people and nature thrive together. Go to Conservation.org for more, and follow our work on From the Field, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.
About the GEF: The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is the world’s largest multilateral fund for the environment. Its family of funds works together to address the planet's most pressing challenges in an integrated way. Its financing helps developing countries address complex challenges and work towards meeting international environmental goals. Over the past three decades, the GEF has provided more than $27 billion in financing, primarily as grants, and mobilized another $155 billion for country-driven priority projects. For more information visit thegef.org and follow the GEF’s social media: LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
About Systems Change Lab: Systems Change Lab is a collaborative initiative convened by World Resources Institute and Bezos Earth Fund. Systems Change Lab supports the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions and works with key partners and funders including Climate Action Tracker (a project of NewClimate Institute and Climate Analytics), ClimateWorks Foundation, the Global Environment Facility, Just Climate, Mission Possible Partnership, Systemiq, the University of Exeter and the University of Tokyo’s Center for Global Commons, among others. Systems Change Lab is a component of the Global Commons Alliance.