FROM GLOBAL WARNING TO GLOBAL
POLICY
Turin, 28-29 March 2008
The Future Belongs to All
Final Statement
The Conference on the topic “From
Global Warning to Global Policy” was convened by
the World Political Forum and the Club of Rome and chaired
by President Mikhail Gorbachev in Turin on March 28-29
2008. It gathered representatives from parliaments and
other political institutions, science, education and global
civil society, business and finance from different continents
and from professional interests ranging from research
to action. It focused on the underlying causes of our
inability to take effective action to avert the intensifying
problems which threaten sustainable development and peace
and, indeed, the future of our civilization.
The participants concluded that the world
has entered a period in which the dramatic scale, complexity
and speed of change caused by human activities threaten
the fragile environmental and ecological systems of the
planet on which we depend. It is urgent therefore that
the world community should agree rapidly on strategies
and effective action to avert irreversible change in world
systems, brought about by accelerating climate change,
the ecosystems crisis, the depletion of energy resources
and the diminishing availability of water, the degradation
of environments across the world, persistent poverty and
deprivation and the rising gulf between rich and poor
within and between countries. Also, global population
is in the midst of a transition from explosive growth
to a new paradigm of development, never before experienced
by humankind.
Over many years, warnings have been raised
but governments, political elites and societies have generally
proved unable to take proactive action to prevent the
negative impacts that have been identified. The end of
the Cold War did offer a unique chance to discover the
common challenges, to redefine more meaningful futures
and priorities, reorient the commitment of societal resources,
and to take concerted action to make the world a common
home for all. The reason for this failure lies largely
in lopsided priorities, neglect of social and ethical
imperatives, partial and inadequate solutions and a single-minded
focus on material and financial goals. But we are now
in a radically new situation: the global scale of the
problems we face is such that, if we wait for the impacts
to be evident, it may not be possible to prevent massive,
irreversible consequences.
And yet never in the history of mankind
have we had so much knowledge on the state of the planet,
on the needs and aspirations of people and on how these
needs can be met. In fact, today’s technologies,
if properly used, would be fully capable of providing
for a decent and full life for all, even within the finite
limits of our planet. The problems of endemic poverty,
malnutrition, starvation and marginalization, disease
and lack of education, access to water and other natural
resources, participation or access to the instruments
of development can be solved – but they will require
a different level of determination, the commitment of
political will and responsibility and substantial transformations
of the political and economic systems that exist today.
Encouraged by the numerous positive solutions
proposed by science and technology, by the potential of
civil society and the full participation of people in
community processes, and by the contributions of socially
responsible business in fields such as innovative food
production, renewable energy sources, water and health,
the participants at the Turin conference believe that
the time is ripe to introduce a new political architecture
that bridges the local and global.
We call upon those who have the power
of taking decisions to face their responsibilities and
to make the hard choices that are now required. We call
upon those who form public opinion to confirm that human
survival, the eradication of poverty and the right to
a decent life for all are matters of top priority. We
underline the central importance of the availability of
water as critical to health and food production for millions
across the world. We stress the importance of the active
engagement of women and of younger generations in the
large scale action which must be initiated to promote
the efficient implementation of sustainable development
along the lines set out in the Earth Charter. We invite
the education community, religious and moral leaders and
the media to promote planetary transparency and glasnost
and to stimulate education campaigns to alert the world’s
civil society to the crucial importance of the present
moment in world history.
We are convinced that the needs and aspirations
of all for a secure, equitable and sustainable future
can be attained, if we are willing to make the political
quantum leap that the world expects and that future generations
deserve.
LIST OF PARTICIPANTS
- Edward Ayensu, Chairman of the Council for Scientific
and Industrial Research (CSIR) and former Chairman of
the World Bank's Inspection Panel, Ghana
- Mercedes Bresso, President of the Piedmont Region,
Co-President of the WPF, Italy
Tiziano Butturini, President TASM society (water treatment),
Italy
- Giancarlo Chevallard, Ambassador and expert of European
Affairs, Italy
- Giulietto Chiesa, Member Temporary Committee on Climate
Change of the European Parliament, member of The WPF’s
Executive Committee, Italy
- Corrado Clini, General Director Ministry for Environment,
Italy
- Andrea Comba, President CRT Foundation, Prof. of International
Law at the University of Turin, Italy
- Jean-Michel Cousteau, President of Ocean Futures Society,
USA
- Ricardo Diez-Hochleitner, former President of the
Club of Rome, Spain
- Lena Ek, Member of the European Parliament, Member
and Coordinator for the ITRE Committee and the Climate
Change Committee, Sweden
- Massimo Gatti, President CAP Gestione, Italy
- Mikhail Gorbachev, President of The World Political
Forum, Russia
- Andrei Grachev, Chairman of The WPF’s Scientific
Committee, Russia
- Orhan Güvenen, Professor of Strategic Decision
Systems and Econometrics, Bilkent University (Ankara)
and former Chair of the Council of Europe Development
Bank, Turkey
- Rebecca Harms, Vice-Chairwoman of the Temporary Committee
on Climate Change of the European Parliament, Germany
- Xiaojun Heng, Professor, Vice President of China Foreign
Affairs University, China
- Niclas Ihren, CEO Globe Forum Business Network, Sweden
- Sergei Kapitsa, Vice rector of the Russian New University,
Russia
- Ashok Khosla, Co-President of the Club of Rome, India
- Chai Szu Kiang, Founding Dean of College of Environment
at Peking University, Chairman of Peking University
Environment Fund, Shanghai
- Bo Kjellén, Former Chief Negotiator For Environment
and Senior Research Fellow at the Stockholm Environment
Institute, Sweden
- Eija-Riitta Korhola, Member Temporary Committee on
Climate Change of the European Parliament, Finland
- R Martin Lees, Secretary General of the Club of Rome,
Austria
- Corinne Lepage, former Minister for Environment, Lawyer
and Professor, France
- Alexander Likhotal, President of Green Cross International,
member of the Earth Charter Steering Committee, Russia
- Ruuds Lubbers, former Prime Minister of The Netherlands,
member of the Earth Charter Initiative, The Netherlands
- Mona Makram-Ebeid, Professor of Political Science
at the American University in Cairo, former MP, Egypt
- Carla Marchese, Director of the POLIS Department,
University of Eastern Piedmont, Italy
- Federico Mayor, former Director General of UNESCO,
Spain
- Mohan Munasinghe, Vice Chair of the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Chairman of the Munasinghe
Institute for Development (MIND), Sri Lanka
- Yves Paccalet, President of French Green Cross, philosopher
and writer, author of L'Humanité disparaîtra,
bon débarras! and Sortie de secours, former writer
of the Cousteau team, France
- Fabrizio Palenzona, Vice-President Unicredit, Italy
- Gunter Pauli, social and ecological entrepreneur and
founder of the ZERI Foundation, Belgium
- Roberto Peccei, Vice Chancellor for Research at the
UCLA, Italy
- Riccardo Petrella, expert of water issues, Prof. Emeritus
of Globalisation at the Catholic University of Louvain
and member of The WPF’s Scientific Committee,
Italy
- Rolando Picchioni, Executive Director of The World
Political Forum, Italy
- Vittorio Prodi, Vice-Chairman Temporary Committee
on Climate Change of the European Parliament, Italy
- Roberto Savio, Chair World Social Forum's Commission
for Communication, Chairman of Inter Press Service,
Deputy Chairman of the WPF’s Scientific Committee,
Italy
- Luigi Sertorio, Professor of Ecophysics at Turin University,
Italy
- Valery Tishkov, Professor of History and Anthropology
and Director of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology
at the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia
- Jean-Francois Trémeaud, former Executive Director
International Labour Organization, member Scientific
Committee WPF, France
- Mary Evelyn Tucker, Institution for Social and Policy
Studies, Yale University, USA
- Wouter van Dieren, President of IMSA Amsterdam, consultancy
firm and think tank in the area of sustainability and
innovation, The Netherlands
- Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, Professor of Climatology
at the Université catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve,
Vice-Chair of IPCC Working Group II (Impacts & adaptation),
Chair of the Energy & Climate Working Group of the
Belgian Federal Council for Sustainable Development,
Belgium
- Antje Vollmer, former Vice-President of the Bundestag,
Germany
- Eberhard von Koerber, Co-President of the Club of
Rome, Switzerland
- Anders Wijkman, Member of the Temporary Committee
on Climate Change of the European Parliament, Vice President
of the Club of Rome, Sweden
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