BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 11. Transitioning from one era to another is impossible without innovation, Alohas Regenerative Foundation co-founder Marc Buckley said at a panel discussion on “Leveraging on Inner Development to Support the Transition to Regenerative and Empowering Cities” at COP29 at the UN Global Innovation Hub, Trend reports.
“Why are we discussing internal and external development here at the Innovation Hub? This is because every development and every transition requires innovation, whether it's the steam engine, the printing press, or going into space. All these technologies have changed humanity,” he noted.
"The complexity of systems can be confusing, but most life systems are autonomous and self-regulating. Problems arise when we try to simplify life using reductionist approaches and linear thinking. We don't need to reduce everything to simple schemes if we want to truly evolve,” Marc Buckley stated.
He added that internal and external development are inseparable: “We mistakenly think we can do internal development separately from the Sustainable Development Goals, but they work together 24/7, 365 days a year. The world is actually organized around cooperation, not competition.”
Buckley also drew attention to the importance of a long-term, systemic approach to the evolution of our lifestyles and habitats: “We must create a living system that evolves with the world and humanity, not just catch up. Putting 'Band-Aids' in the future will not solve our problems,” he added.
The opening ceremony of the much-anticipated COP29 conference has kicked off today at the Baku Olympic Stadium.
The highest-level event within COP29, the World Leaders Climate Action Summit, will take place from November 12-13.
To note, the decision to host COP29 in Azerbaijan was made at the COP28 plenary session held in Dubai on December 11 of last year. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, signed in June 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, aims to prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system. The “COP” (Conference of the Parties) is the highest governing body responsible for overseeing the convention’s implementation. A total of 198 countries participate in the convention. Unless otherwise agreed, COP is held annually. The first COP took place in Berlin in March 1995, with its secretariat headquartered in Bonn.