Global Citizen Launches New Campaign 'Power Our Planet: Act Today. Save Tomorrow.'

New York, April 27, 2023 - Today Global Citizen, the world’s leading international advocacy organization on a mission to end extreme poverty NOW, launched its new global campaign, Power Our Planet: Act Today. Save Tomorrow. Announced during the Global Citizen NOW action summit in New York City, and Co-Chaired by Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados, Power Our Planet is a global effort to mobilize critical financing for developing countries to fight climate change and extreme poverty.

Global Citizen, together with Power Our Planet’s Co-Chair and supporters, is calling for a seismic shift in the way the world’s financial systems work, and is urging governments, development banks, philanthropists and major corporations to give the world’s poor and developing nations access to the financing they urgently need to quicken their transition to clean energy, strengthen defenses against natural disasters, and more rapidly invest in critical health, food, and education programs for their populations.

Power Our Planet will galvanize millions of global citizens around the world to take action, raise their voices and demand urgent changes from world leaders, starting with delivering on the financing promises they’ve already made, including closing the $16.7 billion* climate finance gap outstanding from the Paris Agreement. The campaign will amplify their calls for action through advocacy initiatives, activations, and live events. Inflection points throughout this year will include the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan in May; the New Global Financial Pact Summit in Paris, France in June; the G20 summit in New Delhi, India in September; Global Citizen Festival during the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, USA in September; and COP28 in Dubai, UAE in November.

"Increasing inequality and climate change threaten to undo a generation’s progress on ending extreme poverty and push millions more people into oppression that is entirely preventable,” said Hugh Evans, Co-Founder & CEO, Global Citizen. “Power Our Planet is a coalition of governments, leaders across sectors, global citizens, artists and activists, and together we’re demanding that it’s time for accountability on past promises and bold, new commitments from world leaders. And we have a clear message for the heads of the World Bank and the IMF – it’s time for major institutional reform."

"We call on all institutions, including the World Bank, to release the funds necessary to help the world poorest countries to adapt, to transition, and to withstand the climate crisis, not tomorrow but NOW,” said Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados. “The leaders of wealthy countries must step up and pay up on the $16 billion of climate financing they have promised if we are to help save the planet and save lives. The climate crisis is our reality, and adaptation is key. Join me and take action as part of Global Citizen’s Power Our Planet campaign."

An alliance of world leaders representing both Global North and Global South countries has joined the Power Our Planet campaign alongside Global Citizen and Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley, including supporters Emmanuel Macron, President of France; Julius Maada Bio, President of Sierra Leone; Pedro Sánchez, Prime Minister of Spain; José Ramos-Horta, President of Timor Leste; Biman Prasad, Deputy Prime Minister of Fiji, the Government of Zambia and the Alliance of Small Island States.

Power Our Planet’s coalition of supporters also includes leading activists, philanthropic foundations, nonprofit organizations, and private sector leaders, including Dr. Rajiv Shah, President, Rockefeller Foundation; Mark Malloch Brown, President, Open Society Foundations; Benedict Oramah, President of AfreximBank; Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization; Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi; Kate Higgins, CEO, Cooperation Canada; Jennifer Jones, President of Rotary International; Ban Ki-Moon, Former Secretary-General of the United Nations;  Eloise Todd, Executive Director & Co-Founder, Pandemic Action Network; Ineza Umuhoza Grace, Co-Founder of the Loss and Damage Youth Coalition and 2023 Global Citizen Prize winner; and organizations including the Center for Environmental Peacebuilding; the Focus 2030; Germanwatch; Malala Fund; The ONE Campaign; Oxfam; and ReWild.

Further details of the campaign will be announced in the coming weeks. For more information visit globalcitizen.org/powerourplanet.

*In 2009, wealthy nations promised to allocate $100B annually in climate financing by 2020 as part of the Paris Agreement. There is an outstanding $16.7 billion yet to be delivered from countries including the U.S., the U.K., Japan, Australia, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Greece and Portugal.

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