IUCN and its diverse member organizations are uniquely positioned to devise new climate solutions and refine existing ones, especially at the intersection of nature and climate.
The commission would create a rallying point from which IUCN members could shape the global response to climate change. Specifically, a commission would create a platform to:
Leverage IUCN’s collective expertise while coordinating to prevent duplication
Achieve global consensus on climate-related projects and proposals
Spread these ideas worldwide and injecting them into policy-making efforts
In short, we envision a Climate Change Commission which would, in time, implement a climate protection plan to protect the earth from warming to 1.5 degrees.
To learn more, see our draft mandate and deep dive blog post. The draft mandate is still a work in progress, and we welcome your questions, comments, and suggestions.
During the IUCN motions review process, Motion 003 - Establishing a Climate Change Commission, was amended to call for another Climate Change task force instead of the Climate Change Commission that we so desperately need. As an IUCN mechanism, a task force is a feeble alternative to a new commission composed of thousands who are united by a clear purpose. Based on our careful legal analysis, amending Motion 003 so drastically is not consistent with the IUCN’s own Statutes, Rules, and Regulations. Motions can and should be amended, but the amendments must retain the original intent of the motion. As an IUCN member, it is your right to vote on the original intent of Motion 003.
IUCN will likely cease to exist within forty years when the earth heats to two degrees. The damage to life sustaining ecosystems and extreme weather events will create chaos and instability that will make impossible the attainment of IUCN’s mission to protect nature. A fourth task force on climate change will be a useless distraction from the need to take action within the next seven years to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and place us on a path to carbon neutrality within the fifty years. A climate crisis commission will organize IUCN to protect nature from the ravages of climate change.
To learn more about why a fourth IUCN climate task force is woefully inadequate, see our "Why a commission?" deep dive blog post.
