Climate Week 2024, New York

New York Climate Week 2024 took place from 22-29 September 2024, and alongside it, the much awaited UN Summit of the Future — a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to reinvigorate the multilateral system. To seize this opportunity, Iswe Foundation formally launched the Global Citizens’ Assembly for People and Planet and championed the initiative through other key events, detailed below.

Launch of the Global Citizens’ Assembly for People and Planet

Monday 23 September, 5.30pm - 7.30pm ET, The New York Society for Ethical Culture

On Monday 23 September 2024, leading thinkers and doers from all walks of life gathered during the UN Summit of the Future for the launch of the Global Citizens’ Assembly for People and Planet.

Summit of the Future: What’s next for Global Governance?

Saturday 21 September, 9.45am - 11.00am ET, United Nations HQ, Room CR6

As part of the Summit of the Future Action Days, a number of ImPACT Coalitions that include members of the Coalition for a Global Citizens’ Assembly, held a side event to explore how we can build on the seeds planted in the Pact for the Future to build more inclusive, accountable, and effective global governance architecture.

Speakers included:

  • Mary Robinson, Chair of The Elders, Lead Co-Chair of the Climate Governance Commission, and Former President of Ireland

  • Mark Malloch Brown, advisor, Bretton Woods at 80 initiative, former UN Deputy Secretary-General; former UK State Minister 

Ideas explored included a permanent Global Citizens’ Assembly, represented by Iswe’s Aishwarya Machani, a UN Parliamentary Assembly promoting international courts and tribunals for accountability under international law, a UN Declaration of Planetary Emergency, a Planetary Emergency Platform, the creation of a Global Environment Agency, a UN Charter review conference, and more.

Defending Civic Space: Opportunities and Challenges for Civil Society from the Local to the Global

Monday 23 September, 1.00pm - 2.30pm ET, UN Church Center

This session, organised by members of the Coalition for a Global Citizens’ Assembly, Democracy Without Borders, Plataforma CIPÓ, alongside other organisations, explored the future of deliberative democracy at the international level and highlight various civil-society campaigns to open the doors of the UN, and the wider multilateral system, to people around the world.

How can Global Public Deliberation Shape AI?

Friday 20 September, 9am - 11am ET, Thoughtworks, Inc.

This event, organised by Connected by Data in partnership with TechSalon New York, explored the need for global deliberation to guide the future of Artificial Intelligence and options for a global citizens’ assembly on AI. It built on a design lab hosted by Connected by Data in partnership with Iswe Foundation at our Oxford Conference 2024, following which a paper was published to present a series of options for bringing the voices of those affected by AI development and deployment into decision-making spaces, through processes that can deliver informed and inclusive dialogue.