Space and speed: Bridging the intention-action gap
This year marks the third birthday of the Sustainability Accelerator, and we’re marking the occasion by taking stock of where we are, where we’ve come from – and where we’re going next.
Our speakers in the limelight in a discussion on Reinventing Movies. Image credits: Carmen Valino
Last month we reflected on our role at this moment in the transition to a 1.5°C world, and within the context of Chatham House. This time we’ll look back at some of the key lessons from the projects we have led or participated in over the three years.
It’s been a varied experience – from convening COP26 President Alok Sharma’s COP reflection - where we brought together business leaders to work on how to maintain momentum on climate action in the private sector - to holding working sessions on the future of squid fishing, rolling out the red carpet for our Reinventing Movies event and hosting open mic nights in the hallowed rooms of Chatham House.
Business leaders and former COP President Alok Sharma discuss how to maintain climate ambition and momentum in the private sector.
Our team and partners have learned a lot during that time, about the landscape we must navigate, the solutions that can make an impact, and the role we can play. One thread that connects all our engagements is the importance of finding the right combination of speed, space and stakeholders – and that’s what we explore in this article.
Given the escalating impacts of the climate crisis, we know increasing the speed of our collective response is vital. But the push for speed can have unforeseen consequences. For example, rushing to support poorly conceived policies might create negative blowbacks, or enthusiasm for surface-level solutions might crowd out the opportunity for deeper change. We are seeking ways to balance urgency with the importance of asking the right kinds of questions.
Complex and knotty topics need deep multi-disciplinary expertise and independent spaces to resolve tensions and contradictions and surface trade-offs. Chatham House offers exactly this – a safe and high-trust space where stakeholders can step back and reflect, explore hypotheses, and design solutions. Our work on the bioeconomy is a good example of how we do this.1 We are looking to fill key knowledge gaps so that public and private sector leaders can develop pathways that unlock positive impacts for nature and our economy. But it can be complex – and so expertise from the public, private and third sectors around the world is needed to make progress. Even then, we are often operating within a futures context that can be exciting, but deeply uncertain.
Take our event ‘How will innovation impact the land footprint of the bioeconomy?’. We brought together experts at the forefront of research and innovation – sometimes from competing industries – to scan for the next generation of innovations that can play a role for the collective good. We got creative in thinking about how these innovations might play a role together in a global bioeconomy system. This work will allow us to progress public knowledge about new approaches for explorative bioeconomy modelling and strategic decision-making.
Finding the right combination of stakeholders willing to step into the Accelerator space is another piece of the puzzle. As one example, we have interacted with key agents of the UK financial system through the New Capital Consensus initiative, our collaboration with influential actors across the investment system to act on the leverage points that can increase productive capital for the green transition.2
In the finance sector, stepping away from the ‘business as usual’ mindset can be difficult when the system itself is designed to achieve short-term outcomes. At the Sustainability Accelerator, we provide a place for deeper and more philosophical questions to be voiced – which opens up new opportunities for more radical, more effective solutions to be identified.
Within the world of sustainability and climate action, speed is often the order of the day. We share this sense of urgency – but we also know that speed is only part of the story. It is only by creating space for deeper reflection and consensus building and bringing the right people together that we can gain the movement and momentum needed to move towards a better future.
