On December 5th, Dr. J. David Tàbara from Sustainabilogy, a partner in the TRANSPATH project, participated in the 2024 Lovejoy Science for Nature Symposium organised by the central quarters of WWF in Washington. The symposium, held online, focused on the theme of "Sustainable Transformations: Tipping Into Positive Change," where experts discussed strategies to leverage and accelerate social change for reducing nature loss and addressing global crises such as climate change in equitable ways.
Dr. Tabara's presentation centered on the requirements for achieving ‘net-positive tipping points’, the moments in which additional actions taken by an individual, organisation or society do not only reduce the harm to life-support systems inflicted from their daily activities (with regenerative effects <0), or achieve neutral outcomes (=0), but most importantly, contribute to regenerate and enhance the basic conditions that ensure their long-term healthy integral functioning (>0).
He shared insights from regions heavily intensive in the production or use on coal and carbon, highlighting that rapid decarbonisation and replacement of jobs in green sustainable development pathways is feasible in these areas. A key takeaway from his research is the need to shift our perspective: rather than asking, "What is the problem?" we should ask, "Who is the solution and how to develop the necessary transformative capacities for systems regeneration ?"
This approach promotes place-based transformations and encourages community engagement in the sustainability journey. According to David Tàbara, to achieve net-positive tipping points, “second-order learning is needed - doing things differently under a different paradigm - for which deep transformations are needed in worldviews, social-ecological relationships and institutions”.
Find more information about the symposium here: https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/2024-lovejoy-symposium
To learn more about this topic, you can find TRANSPATH papers by Dr. David Tabara available for download from TRANSPATH’s library page:
- ESD Ideas: Positive Tipping Points Towards Global Regenerative Systems
- Regenerative Sustainability: A Relational Model of Possibilities for the Emergence of Positive Tipping Points
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