2015: The Year the World Changed

2015 is the year of opportunity -- the year to take impactful measures to combat climate change; the year to empower women; the year to lead action for a better planet. 

And for The Global Brain, this is the year when we will manifest into actions all the work we have done since the inception of the company last year. This is the year we are launching global movements for climate change and nonviolence and are forging powerful partnerships and collaborations to effect real change.

One that is near and dear to The Global Brain is our efforts on climate change because this is also the year when the Conference of the Parties (COP 21) to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 11th session of the Meeting of the Parties (CMP 11) to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol will take place.

Background on the upcoming Paris COP21

In 1992, countries joined an international treaty, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to consider what they could do to limit global temperature increases and the resulting climate change, and to cope with its impacts. 

By 1995, countries realized that emission reductions provisions in the Convention were inadequate. As a result, they launched negotiations to strengthen the global response to climate change, and, in 1997, adopted the Kyoto Protocol, which legally binds developed countries to emission reduction targets. The Protocol’s first commitment period started in 2008 and ended in 2012. The second commitment period began on 1 January 2013 and will end in 2020.

There are now 195 Parties to the Convention and 192 Parties to the Kyoto Protocol. The Protocol entered into force on 16 February 2005. Since then, the Protocol  the Parties to the Protocol have continued the negotiations and have amended the Protocol to achieve more ambitious results by 2030.

Mobilizing Climate Action for People and the Planet: Beyond Paris COP21

Although the COP21 in Paris is the key event of 2015 that will determine the course of the future for global actions for Climate Change, focusing only on the COP would be short sighted. The Global Brain's People and Planet Campaign will launch nationally in September 2015 at the United Nations Summit to adopt the post-2015 development agenda, and globally at the COP21 in Paris, France. This campaign focuses on awareness, education and action to combat climate change at a large scale globally. Key focus of the campaign is divesting from fossil fuels and investing in clean and conscious consumerism. This campaign will help the world's citizen realize that every dollar they spend is a vote and an investment in the world they want to see.

If anyone is interested in joining the campaign at a sponsorship level please email marketing@globalbrain.is. Please stay tuned for more updates on how you can participate and help spread the word.