FINAL REPORT- Delivering the Human Future Conference

Humanity is grappling with an existential emergency characterized by a myriad of interlinked catastrophic risks that are converging at an alarming rate. The scale of these threats is so vast that few truly comprehend their impact. Together, they jeopardize our ability to sustain a civilization and may even threaten our survival as a species. 

At the heart of this crisis are the overwhelming scale of human activities: overpopulation, overconsumption, inequality, poor technological choices, and ineffective social arrangements. These elements contribute significantly to the climate crisis and the challenges faced by our planet.

The ramifications of this crisis are complex and interconnected, affecting everyone on Earth. Key dimensions highlighted by speakers at the conference include: 

- A decline in the Earth’s resources, especially fresh water, alongside diminishing soil, forests, fish stock, and climatic stability. 

- The alarming extinction rates of species and the collapse of ecosystems critical to human life, unprecedented in history. 

- The urgent risk of reaching a point of no return regarding the climate crisis, where temperatures may spiral out of control, leading to disastrous hothouse conditions for our civilization. 

- The persistent inability to adequately identify and prevent future pandemics, despite the lessons learned from Covid. 

- An unstable global food supply teetering on the edge due to resource decline and climate volatilities. 

- A freshwater crisis claiming millions of lives through preventable deaths, further endangering food security. 

- An unprecedented risk of nuclear conflict, with the threat of nuclear weapons usage looming larger than ever, unless they are abolished. 

- Unchecked global poisoning from human chemical emissions, resulting in 13 million deaths annually and damaging our biosphere. 

- The risks posed by artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies, which remain poorly understood and even less regulated, threatening societal stability and our human future. 

- A rapidly growing human population, with discussions on mitigating this issue often silenced. 

- The breakdown of global environmental stability primarily driven by interconnected social and economic systems, as most countries prioritize consumption growth over sustainability. 

- A broken economic model in need of replacement.

However, the conference participants also affirmed that there are viable climate crisis solutions and much that can be done to mitigate these threats, reduce the number of lives lost, and enhance human prosperity and well-being. 

They called upon governments, businesses, and communities worldwide to engage in urgent sustainable future initiatives that comprehensively address these risks and their interconnected nature.

Speakers proposed immediate actions, including: 

- A necessity for a ‘survival revolution’ far more extensive than the industrial revolution. 

- Achieving the Paris climate targets and restoring the biosphere might enable us to stabilize the Earth's climate, with a goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2040 at the latest. 

- A commitment to reducing consumption and impacts on nature to halt extinction, accompanied by a global initiative to restore environments that support all life, including humanity. 

- Implementation of a global Clean Earth plan to combat the chemical poisoning that annually claims millions of lives and devastates our environment. 

- A universal ban on nuclear weapons and related materials must be enacted. 

- Management of freshwater resources should focus on sustainability and equity, necessitating new thinking, advanced technologies, improved economics, effective institutions, outreach, and collaborations. 

- Development of a global awareness system to combat future pandemics and health threats, emphasizing healthcare as a human right through ‘bottom-up’ health systems. 

- Creation of a renewable, climate-proof food supply accessible to all, fostering peace, prosperity, health, and environmental repair. 

- Implementation of worldwide family planning strategies to voluntarily reduce human population growth, encouraging open and respectful discussions around having fewer or no children. 

- Improved regulation of powerful new technologies like artificial intelligence to manage risks while maximizing benefits. 

- The introduction of a Green New Deal aimed at reducing inequality, promoting sustainability, and transitioning to a new model of prosperity and abundance through investment. 

The conference concluded that these issues demand urgent attention from governments, institutions, corporations, and policymakers around the globe. 

It encouraged all individuals to advocate for action and to instigate changes in their own lives for a safer, fairer future for humanity. 

The Conference was conducted in the interest of humanity and our home planet by: 

Council for the Human Future (CHF) 

Millennium Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere (MAHB) 

Common Home of Humanity (CHH) 

Media partners: 

The Planetary Press