Feature

Q&A with Teresa Ribera: “We need to recover our confidence in cooperation”

New SEI Board Member Teresa Ribera talks about the most pressing development challenges and aspirations for the next four years, and how policy research can help.

Caspar Trimmer / Published on 16 March 2017

Teresa Ribera started a four-year term as a member of the SEI Board in January 2017. Trained as a lawyer and political scientist, her prestigious career has seen her serve as Spain’s Secretary of State for Climate Change, and before that Director-General for climate (2004–2008). She is now Director of the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI) in Paris.

Alongside being an SEI Board Member, Ribera chairs the Advisory Board of the Momentum for Change UNFCCC Initiative. She is also a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Advisory Council on Climate, and of SDSN’s Global Leadership Council.

You were Spain’s Secretary of State for Climate Change from 2008 to 2011. Since then we have had the Paris Agreement and Agenda 2030, along with many other developments both positive and negative. How far has the landscape of climate action changed since 2011, and what would you see as the top priorities in the coming two years?: These have been fascinating years. We have collectively learned and accepted that a deep transformation of our development patterns is needed; we have understood that no-one can do it on their own; and we have understood that the smart way to face the challenges ahead us is to settle on a shared learning process to join forces, strengthen benefits and overcome difficulties. We have also learned that such a deep change needs to be grounded in mechanisms of solidarity. The world is interdependent; therefore, investing in our neighbours is also investing in ourselves.

Another thing we have learned is that there is no silver bullet that will solve everything. So: we have established the basis of a good governance system, and many forums where we need to develop consistent action. Now we need to be smart enough to invest in this paradigm shift in a convincing and generous manner, to recover our confidence in cooperation as a means to build the future we want. Also, other players like local governments, societal leaders and business people need to be visibly and constructively engaged.
Your career has spanned national government, the private sector, international policy processes and, as Director of IDDRI since 2014, policy research. In your opinion, what would help these different sectors pull together towards achieving the aims of Agenda 2030, and what could undermine it?: We need to build win-win alliances and use systems thinking and strategic approaches in order to identify the respective roles and complementarities of the different players. The worst thing that any of us could do would be to try to impose a very individual approach for the sake of a single beneficiary. Shared prosperity within the limits of the planet needs to rely on the active involvement and ownership of as many people as possible.

Policy research, in this context, has a critical role to play in supporting these win-win alliances. First, it can analyse trade-offs and possible synergies to inform political choices. Even more importantly, policy researchers can help these alliances to happen and to function, by engaging, for instance, as brokers; helping to avoid two kind of poor responses to the challenges: ineffective responses due to inertia, and confrontational ones.
You have become the newest member of SEI’s Board. How would you most like to see SEI contribute to global sustainability efforts during your term?: I joined the SEI Board at the very moment that SEI was recognized as the most influential think tank of the world in its category, so my first inclination would be to contribute to SEI keeping this position during my term!! That said, I think SEI can help a lot to develop regional cooperation and broader understanding on how to realize the 2030 Agenda. These early stages of implementation, and definition, are the most delicate and most crucial to the agenda’s success.