Welcome!
We are thrilled to welcome you to the inaugural edition of the newsletter of the Forum for Atlantic Climate and Energy Talks. FACET has been founded as a collaborative platform to maintain and advance transatlantic dialogue on climate change, sustainable development, and the required deep transformations of our economies, societies, and political systems. FACET is built on our firm belief that these critical issues demand unprecedented international cooperation, including across the Atlantic.
We invite you to participate in this forum to share observations and opinions, explore innovations and best practices, highlight existing insights and initiatives, and help progress concrete solutions that benefit citizens on both sides of the Pond, in Canada, Europe, Mexico, the United States, and beyond. FACET is envisioned to serve as a multiplier platform for showcasing existing work, as an agora for promoting new ideas, and as an anchor for exchange and teamwork among leading experts and opinion-makers.
FACET wants to keep transatlantic exchange and collaboration alive when many official ties are cut. Americans and Europeans have shared values about human and individual rights and social responsibilities for so long that we started to think they were given and irrefutable. We now learn that they were not, and that we can no longer afford to take them for granted. We need to rethink, redirect, and put them into action every day. There is a need and desire, more than in a long time, for positive messages and narratives about what is possible when we work together guided by a shared vision of more sustainable and equitable communities.
Climate change and environmental degradation are profound global threats, endangering the very future of humanity and the ecosystems that sustain us. Yet within these challenge lies immense opportunity — the chance to transform our industries, energy systems, transportation, and agriculture in ways that foster greener, healthier, and more equitable communities.
In this newsletter, you will find success stories from individuals, communities, companies, cities and municipalities, provinces and states that have turned bold ideas into reality. We will highlight inspiring examples and discuss what can be learned from them, and how they can be scaled up and applied elsewhere.
FACET will create discussion tracks for the sustainable development topics that are most relevant for transatlantic partnership and mutual learning. These will include technology trends and pathways; governance tools and approaches; policy design and their impacts; financial markets and instruments; as well as national policy-making and international negotiations. A lot is currently in the making, and the pipeline for contributions is starting to fill.
Over 80 renowned individuals have joined our internal group of friends and contributors. If you want to contribute yourself, please do not hesitate to contact me. We are looking for authors, editors, illustrators. As we are building our presence on Substack, we will soon be able to include podcasts and videos as well, should these be your preferred options for communication and discussion.
FACET thus far is entirely self-funded and based on pro-bono contributions. We are now reaching out to universities and thinks tanks for academic partnerships. And we are starting a call for individuals and foundations to join our Funding Circle. If you have an appetite to learn more about how you can support us with human or financial resources, please get in touch.
FACET is far more than this newsletter. In coming editions, we will tell you more about our other plans, from Substack to Blueskies, from Youtube to Spotify, and our plans to organise a physical conference in one year from now. Altogether, we want to contribute to a movement for positive change. We invite everyone who cares about building just, equitable, fair, inclusive, resilient, sustainable societies to join us. Together, we can turn climate urgency into an opportunity to create a better future for all.
If you prefer to be in touch by email, please contact us at facet.editor[at]sd-strategies.com.