Forum on Advancing Inclusive Climate Action in Foreign Policy and Development
A recording of the morning plenary session held at the White House can be viewed at the bottom of this page.
The Forum on Advancing Inclusive Climate Action in Foreign Policy and Development was held in collaboration with the White House and USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, with support from the USAID Climate Adaptation Support Activity. The Forum addressed the longstanding connections between foreign policy, environmental justice, and climate change, and the increasingly pressing questions on how to develop and apply more effective and inclusive frameworks that benefit the populations most adversely impacted by climate change.
Earlier this year, the Council on Environmental Quality hosted the inaugural White House Summit on Environmental Justice in Action. This event highlighted the significant progress made across 24 federal agencies and showcased the Biden-Harris Administration’s leadership in addressing long-standing environmental inequities in the United States. The Forum built on this effort by presenting diverse initiatives and approaches from across the U.S. government and its partners that advance community-led climate action and facilitate multi-sector discussions on fostering climate-resilient economies in a just manner. The Forum also provided a valuable opportunity to explore the complexities of this work in both domestic and international contexts, define progress, share lessons learned, and identify future pathways.
Forum Agenda:
9:00am - 9:15am | White House Opening Remarks
9:15am - 10:30am | Plenary Session: Investing in Green Energy: Accelerating Just Transitions
12:15pm - 12:30pm | Wilson Center Opening Remarks
12:30pm - 1:30pm | Roundtable: Indigenous and Community Power: Localizing Climate Action
1:35pm - 2:45pm | Plenary Session: Financing Inclusive Climate Action: Investing In and Empowering Communities
2:45pm - 3:00pm | Closing Remarks
Introductions
Keynote Speakers
National Presiding Prelate, The House of the Lord Churches
Moderators
Panelists
Hosted By
Environmental Change and Security Program
The Environmental Change and Security Program (ECSP) explores the connections between environmental change, health, and population dynamics and their links to conflict, human insecurity, and foreign policy. Read more
Africa Program
The Africa Program works to address the most critical issues facing Africa and US-Africa relations, build mutually beneficial US-Africa relations, and enhance knowledge and understanding about Africa in the United States. The Program achieves its mission through in-depth research and analyses, public discussion, working groups, and briefings that bring together policymakers, practitioners, and subject matter experts to analyze and offer practical options for tackling key challenges in Africa and in US-Africa relations. Read more
Brazil Institute
The Brazil Institute—the only country-specific policy institution focused on Brazil in Washington—aims to deepen understanding of Brazil’s complex landscape and strengthen relations between Brazilian and US institutions across all sectors. Read more
China Environment Forum
Since 1997, the China Environment Forum's mission has been to forge US-China cooperation on energy, environment, and sustainable development challenges. We play a unique nonpartisan role in creating multi-stakeholder dialogues around these issues. Read more
Global Europe Program
The Global Europe Program is focused on Europe’s capabilities, and how it engages on critical global issues. We investigate European approaches to critical global issues. We examine Europe’s relations with Russia and Eurasia, China and the Indo-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa. Our initiatives include “Ukraine in Europe”—an examination of what it will take to make Ukraine’s European future a reality. But we also examine the role of NATO, the European Union and the OSCE, Europe’s energy security, transatlantic trade disputes, and challenges to democracy. The Global Europe Program’s staff, scholars-in-residence, and Global Fellows participate in seminars, policy study groups, and international conferences to provide analytical recommendations to policy makers and the media. Read more
Indo-Pacific Program
The Indo-Pacific Program promotes policy debate and intellectual discussions on US interests in the Asia-Pacific as well as political, economic, security, and social issues relating to the world’s most populous and economically dynamic region. Read more
Latin America Program
The Wilson Center’s prestigious Latin America Program provides non-partisan expertise to a broad community of decision makers in the United States and Latin America on critical policy issues facing the Hemisphere. The Program provides insightful and actionable research for policymakers, private sector leaders, journalists, and public intellectuals in the United States and Latin America. To bridge the gap between scholarship and policy action, it fosters new inquiry, sponsors high-level public and private meetings among multiple stakeholders, and explores policy options to improve outcomes for citizens throughout the Americas. Drawing on the Wilson Center’s strength as the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum, the Program serves as a trusted source of analysis and a vital point of contact between the worlds of scholarship and action. Read more
Maternal Health Initiative
Despite global attention and calls to action, women continue to die while giving birth. The Maternal Health Initiative (MHI) leads the Wilson Center’s work on maternal health, global health equity, and gender equality. MHI works to connect issues critical to global health and women’s empowerment to foreign policy and US leadership, with a focus on improving the lives of women, adolescents, and children around the world. Through collaborations with policymakers, academia, donors, and practitioners, MHI produces cutting-edge research, fosters cross-sectoral engagement, increases awareness of key issues, and informs US leadership on solutions for ending maternal and newborn deaths and addressing gender-based global health issues. Read more
Mexico Institute
The Mexico Institute seeks to improve understanding, communication, and cooperation between Mexico and the United States by promoting original research, encouraging public discussion, and proposing policy options for enhancing the bilateral relationship. A binational Advisory Board, chaired by Luis Téllez and Earl Anthony Wayne, oversees the work of the Mexico Institute. Read more
Middle East Program
The Wilson Center’s Middle East Program serves as a crucial resource for the policymaking community and beyond, providing analyses and research that helps inform US foreign policymaking, stimulates public debate, and expands knowledge about issues in the wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Read more
Polar Institute
Since its inception in 2017, the Polar Institute has become a premier forum for discussion and policy analysis of Arctic and Antarctic issues, and is known in Washington, DC and elsewhere as the Arctic Public Square. The Institute holistically studies the central policy issues facing these regions—with an emphasis on Arctic governance, climate change, economic development, scientific research, security, and Indigenous communities—and communicates trusted analysis to policymakers and other stakeholders. Read more