Greening Governance Seminar Series: Open Government for Climate Action

Open government reforms, an unexpected approach to achieving the Paris Agreement? Experts explain how strengthening transparency, public participation and accountability can accelerate climate action.

Deadly heatwaves, crop-withering droughts and unprecedented, catastrophic superstorms in the Caribbean foreshadow a perilous tomorrow if we don’t tackle climate change today. The window of opportunity to limit warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels is still open but closing quickly. In a very real sense, 2050 is now.

2018 will be a pivotal year. Countries must step up to set more ambitious commitments under the Paris Agreement and make significant progress implementing the pledges they have already made. Open government reforms can accelerate climate action. Increasing public participation in decision-making, for instance, helps policymakers build widespread support for climate action and develop more effective, equitable policies. Improving transparency and access to climate data allows experts across sectors to design innovative solutions to meeting nations’ Paris Agreement targets, while strengthening accountability mechanisms can help safeguard climate finance from corruption.

Join experts from the Open Government Partnership and World Resources Institute as they profile a range of innovative approaches that open government advocates have taken to strengthen countries’ climate commitments under the Paris Agreement. Together, they will unpack how improving transparency, accountability and public participation in climate decision-making processes can help governments and civil society leaders around the world achieve ambitious climate targets.

Speakers

Sanjay Pradhan, Chief Executive Officer, Open Government Partnership 

Eliza Northrop, Associate II, International Climate Initiative, World Resources Institute 

Moderated by Mark Robinson, Global Director, Governance, World Resources Institute

About the Series

WRI's Greening Governance Seminar Series bridges the divide between the governance and environmental communities to identify solutions that benefit people and the planet.

• Why do some environmental policies succeed in one country but fail in another?
• What will it take to transform the Paris Agreement’s ambitious commitments into actionable policies?
• How can decision-makers engage a range of stakeholders, from average citizens to Fortune 500 companies, to build support for policies that protect natural resources and the communities that depend on them?
• How can governments sustain this environmental action across election cycles?

Many of the answers to these questions are, at heart, issues of governance.

Increasing public participation in environmental decision-making can deepen civil society’s commitment to climate change mitigation and yield more equitable, effective policies. Enhancing government transparency equips communities with the information that they need to engage in these policy-making processes. Strengthening accountability frameworks helps ensure that governments make progress on their Paris Agreement emissions reduction targets. In short, good governance can improve climate and environmental outcomes.

Yet the governance and climate communities continue to work in silos, conducting research and implementing programs that remain largely divorced from one another.

WRI’s Greening Governance Seminar Series seeks to bridge this divide by bringing together leading experts from both fields to discuss the intersection of their work, the most pressing environmental governance issues at hand, and solutions that benefit people and the planet.

 

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