Global Summit 2012

Cowes, Isle of Wight,

16th & 17th October 2012

Global summit logo

About the Summit

The inaugural Ecoislands Global Summit united island and regional communities from around the world on a journey to achieving sustainability by 2030. Islands are not only the communities that are the most vulnerable to the devastating effect of climate change and dwindling resources; they are the also the communities who have the smallest voice on the global stage. As the Rio 2012 Earth Summit showed only too clearly,communities simply cannot wait for the global superpowers to prevaricate whilst their very existence is threatened.

The Ecoislands Global Summit 2012 offered the chance for island communities to take control of their own futures by making the ambitious commitment to living with their means. The summit invited islands to publicly commit to becoming renewable energy self-sufficient by 2020 and sustainable by 2030 by signing the Ecoislands Accord. Sustainability is defined as the point at which a community’s ecological footprint is no bigger than the landarea that they occupy. The accord can signed by a member of the community with the authority to implement the commitment, on behalf of the population of that ‘island’. Those communities who were not yet ready to make the commitment had the opportunity to take learnings from the summit back to their own communities in order to lay the foundations form signing the Accord at the 2013 summit.

The Ecoislands Global Summit 2012 also showcased progress from the flagship Ecoisland project, the Isle of Wight. Delegates had the opportunity to learn from Ecoislands’ research and development activities, demonstration projects and community initiatives spanning energy, transport, water and waste management. Global partners including IBM, Toshiba, Cable&Wireless Worldwide, Sliver Spring Networks, Scottish and Southern Energy, ITM Power and Southern Water lead workshops on a range of technology solutions.

Summit memories

Image gallery, photos by Jason Swain

Click on the links to below to view archives of all Summit speeches and interviews

 

Watch

 
 
EcoIsland Partnership CIC, a community interest company registered in England and Wales, with registered number 7532908, registered office is at The Kennels, Woodvale Road, Cowes, Isle of Wight, PO31 8EB
© Ecoisland Partnership CIC 2013