GIZ: GSI

Background

The Global Solutions Initiative (GSI) is a global, non-profit and non-partisan platform for ideas. It advances global economic, environmental, and social prosperity by connecting thought leaders and decision makers, visionaries and pragmatists. Headquartered in Berlin, the Initiative proposes research-based policies to the G20, the G7, and beyond. Annually, it hosts the Global Solutions Summit in Berlin, a festival of ideas for better global governance.

The policy recommendations and strategic visions are developed through a disciplined research program in collaboration with leading think tanks and scientific organizations and refined in policy dialogues among decision-makers from academia, politics, business and civil society. Complementary to G7/G20 thematic priorities, concepts on global challenges and issues such as circular economy and sustainable supply chains are developed with renowned think tanks. The resulting policy recommendations also aim to be relevant for emerging and developing countries.

The Global Solutions Summit is the world’s premier forum for transforming research-based insights into policy recommendations for the G20 and the G7. Its goal is better global governance for the common good. This high-level meeting brings together senior government officials with top-level academic researchers, NGO leaders, and international CEOs. Among many others, the Summit has been attended by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Development Minister Svenja Schulze, Environment Minister Steffi Lemke, the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN) António Guterres, and EU Commissioner Frans Timmermans.

Aim of the cooperation

The objective of this cooperation was to disseminate environmental technology solutions from the GIZ global project “Support of the Export Initiative Environmental Protection” (GV ExI), of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV), and thus support sustainable transformation processes outlined in the Paris Climate Convention and the 2030 Agenda.

The module makes a direct contribution to fostering global partnerships for sustainable development (SDG 17), enhancing North-South, South-South and triangular regional and international cooperation (target 17.16) on access to technology and knowledge sharing. The module was complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships for the mobilization and exchange of knowledge, expertise on technologies and financial resources, to support all member countries – especially emerging and developing countries - in achieving key sustainability goals.

What we do

• Policy dialogues: Together with our international partners, we analyzed mechanisms embedding circularity in various project sectors and devised context-sensitive strategies for localized implementation, while inspiring a compelling narrative which feeds into the G/T20 and G/T7 processes. The results were made available via a dedicated GSI webpage and the Greentech Knowledge Hub.
• Knowledge management: We brought the results and experiences from partner countries into the G20 process via policy dialogues, Global Solutions Summits, and the INTERSECTING e-publication.
• Policy recommendations: We analyzed policy-relevant experience gained from global project partners and policy dialogues. We also drafted policy recommendations to scale up the project’s impact.
• Visibility: Our activities’ aim was to expand the visibility of BMUV’s Export Initiative Environmental Protection and its results within the scope of the G/T20 and, since 2022, the G/T7 as well.

Key results

• Terms of the cooperation with the GSI have been defined and current work activities are implemented.
• Series of the “Circular Economy Solutions Dialogues” (CESD) have been designed and carried out on three main topics: prevention of single-use plastics; circular economy and global supply chains as well as “urban metabolism” (material cycle in cities). The experiences of the global project EXI activities have been continuously integrated into these policy dialogues.
• Circular Economy and Plastics (May 2021 – June 2021).
• Circular Economy and Global Value Chains (October 2021 – January 2022).
• Circular Economy and Urban Metabolism (March 2022 – June 2022).
• A Sounding Board for the CESD has been established and meets on a regular basis.
• Three volumes of the GSI e-publication INTERSECTING were published on the following circular economy topics:

1. plastic value chains
2. global value chains
3. urban metabolism

• The books contain contributions from the international members of the project and CESD participants.
• The Global Solutions Summit 2021 was successfully executed, with two expert panels communicating the global project’s main theme of circular economy to an international audience. The project’s ideas reached a wider audience at the Global Solutions Summit 2022, where three circular economy-related sessions were convened.