The Earth Diplomacy Leadership Initiative was founded in 2022, in collaboration with The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. The aim was to support multidisciplinary strategic thinking and negotiation for mutual gains as core elements of nation state diplomacy in the 21st century, and as levers for adding value in climate-related diplomacy.

Since the Paris Agreement was signed in April 2016, all nations have seen climate risks and impacts becoming more frequent and more intense, with costs, risks, and ripple effects, compounding each other and threatening to destabilize communities and regional and national economies. These cascade effects of pervasive climate disruption are now interfering with international relations and with political and trade conditions, in countries of all income levels and political structures.

• The Triple Planetary Crisis of climate disruption, Nature loss, and pollution, is now adding cost to all areas of economic activity, in the day to day lives of people in all regions.
• In the area of food systems alone, unsustainable practices and their impacts have cost more than $154 trillion, over 10 years (April 22, 2016 – April 22, 2026).
• Midway through the 2020s, diplomacy in general and climate crisis response, specifically, are under enormous pressure, both from rapidly rising costs of inaction, impact, and destabilization, and from the distracted way in which political leaders are addressing those cascade effects.

Most national governments are not treating the cascade effects of planetary crisis as what they are, but are campaigning on some variant of their own unique qualifications to ‘confront’ a challenging world. This creates real obstacles to successful cooperative problem-solving, as incumbent industries—those responsible for the Triple Planetary Crisis and its cascade effects—demand to be treated as automatic solutions.

Climate negotiators need to be able to work on the basis of scientific fact, international law, and good faith problem-solving. They need political leaders to see multilateral cooperation as an engine for solutions that bring enhanced security, active sustainable development, and a renewed landscape of promise and opportunity.

So, the Earth Diplomacy Leadership Initiative is looking at the particulars of the negotiations—how decisions about Adaptation Indicators and cooperative financing modalities will shape the future for all of us—and also at levers for mainstreaming climate action, including food systems transformation, restoration of ecosystems, and climate banking innovation.

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REPORTS & DISPATCHES

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MAINSTREAMING

Mainstreaming climate action means meeting the “integrated. holistic, and balanced” standard set the Paris Agreement—formulating plans, investments, and opportunities that play out across the everyday economy and allow people of all levels of income and expertise to contribute to climate risk reduction and resilience building.

Some key background on mechanisms for mainstreaming:

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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Article 6.8 Reading List

Article 6.8 of the Paris Agreement calls for multidimensional “non-market” international cooperation to accelerate climate action. This resource library contains an overview of Article 6.8 and links to concepts and examples of value-building multilateral cooperative arrangements to drive climate-resilient development.

Climate Banking Innovation Dialogue

The Climate Banking Innovation Dialogue is a multi-part discussion forum exploring the structural imperatives and far-reaching opportunities linked to mainstream banks beginning to work as climate banks, supporting local risk reduction, resilience building, and business model innovation.

COP30 Briefs & Dispatches

The COP30 round of UN Climate Change negotiations in Baku, in November 2024, produced a contested global commitment to deliver $300 billion per year from wealthy countries and $1.3 trillion “from all sources”. Get into the details in this interactive resource library tracking the process and outcomes.

The Resilient Prosperity Forum

In 2026, the Resilient Prosperity Forum will host a series of multistakeholder discussions, connecting leaders and stakeholders, to examine themes ranging from vulnerability and risk reduction to climate banking innovation, access to information and the effects of artificial intelligence technologies on economies and societies, and cooperative strategies for climate-resilient development.

The Earth Civics Toolkit

The Earth Civics Toolkit is designed to provide clarity, structure, and flexibility, for anyone wishing to organize such a meeting. We also recognize that ongoing processes tend to require networks of engaged individuals and institutions, so the Toolkit includes suggested coordination strategies for supporting such networks.