IF THERE WERE A WORLD COUNCIL

Adopt global legislation to protect the world's great tropical forests and other ecosystems essential to the climate and biodiversity.

• Prohibit the destruction of primary forests and areas of exceptional ecological importance.
• Monitor deforestation through independent satellite systems.
• Establish an international fund to compensate countries and communities fairly for foregoing environmentally damaging economic activities.
• Finance alternative, sustainable livelihoods and economic activities.
• Safeguard the rights and participation of Indigenous peoples.

Objective: make forest conservation a shared interest and a collective financial responsibility for humanity.

Launch a major worldwide programme of reforestation and restoration of degraded ecosystems.

• Identify areas that are ecologically suitable.
• Use a diverse range of native species.
• Restore degraded land and suitable urban spaces.
• Fund nurseries, planting and long-term maintenance.
• Create jobs, particularly in economically disadvantaged regions.
• Measure not only how many trees are planted but how many survive and grow.

Objective: restore ecosystems, absorb some atmospheric CO₂, improve the water cycle and combat desertification.

Reforestation must not replace emissions reductions or damage naturally non-forested ecosystems.

Create an international organisation for preventing and responding to major wildfires.

• Strengthen national firefighting services.
• Organise an international fleet of aircraft and specialist equipment.
• Establish teams that can be deployed rapidly to affected countries.
• Use satellites, sensors and early-warning systems.
• Fund preventive management of forested areas.
• Share personnel, technology and operational expertise.

Objective: respond to fires before they become catastrophic, saving lives, forests and biodiversity.

Adopt common rules against the most serious forms of environmental destruction.

• Provide for severe but proportionate penalties for those responsible for widespread, severe and long-lasting environmental damage.
• Prosecute deliberate wildfires and organised illegal deforestation.
• Prevent forest destruction from becoming an opportunity for property development or financial speculation.
• Confiscate profits derived from serious environmental crimes, with appropriate judicial safeguards.
• Establish international mechanisms for investigation and judicial cooperation.

Objective: ensure that deliberately destroying the natural environment carries serious criminal and financial consequences.

Set an international timetable for reducing emissions and transforming energy systems.

• Gradually eliminate subsidies that encourage fossil fuel use.
• Accelerate the generation of low-emission energy.
• Upgrade electricity grids, energy storage and energy efficiency.
• Encourage the refurbishment and upgrading of existing facilities, including wind farms.
• Provide financial support to poorer countries and workers affected by the transition.
• Introduce common carbon-pricing mechanisms with social compensation measures.

Objective: cut emissions rapidly without leaving economically vulnerable populations behind.

Launch a global programme to turn large car parks into renewable energy generation and electric vehicle charging sites.

• Gradually require solar canopies in new large car parks at businesses, shopping centres, hospitals, stations, airports and public facilities, wherever technically and economically appropriate.
• Establish a programme to retrofit existing car parks, supported by incentives and low-interest financing.
• Install electric vehicle charging points, prioritising places where vehicles remain parked for several hours during the day.
• Promote smart charging that automatically adjusts charging power to solar generation and drivers' needs.
• Use the electricity generated to supply nearby buildings and feed unused power into the grid.
• Include energy storage where it is cost-effective and useful for grid management.
• Encourage workplace and public fleet charging during peak solar generation hours.

Objective: turn car parks into energy infrastructure, enabling millions of electric vehicles to recharge during everyday parking using electricity directly from the sun.

Launch an international programme to increase wind power generation, prioritising improvements to existing installations.

• Replace outdated turbines with more efficient models through repowering.
• Upgrade blades, generators and control systems through refurbishment and modernisation.
• Streamline permitting for projects that meet appropriate environmental standards.
• Strengthen electricity grids to accommodate additional generation.
• Fund the recovery and recycling of decommissioned components.
• Promote access to the most efficient technologies for less economically developed countries.

Objective: increase renewable electricity generation by making better use of existing infrastructure while limiting the need for new land.

Turn organic waste into energy while reducing methane emissions.

• Support plants using agricultural residues, livestock manure and the organic fraction of municipal waste.
• Encourage biomethane production for injection into existing gas networks.
• Recover heat generated by plants wherever possible.
• Use anaerobic digestion residues as fertiliser, subject to environmental safeguards.
• Avoid incentives that encourage harmful dedicated energy crops or the expansion of intensive livestock farming.
• Introduce controls on methane leakage throughout the supply chain.

Objective: turn some organic waste into an energy resource, reducing emissions and dependence on fossil fuels.

Establish a coordinated system for taxing greenhouse gas emissions, preventing companies from relocating to countries with weaker rules.

• Set an international minimum carbon price, with different pathways reflecting countries' economic circumstances.
• Apply the principle that polluters should contribute to the environmental costs they cause.
• Compensate low-income households and workers who have no realistic alternatives.
• Take measures to prevent unjustified price increases for essential goods.
• Use some of the revenue to fund clean energy, public transport and climate adaptation.
• Monitor economic effects and adjust measures that create excessive social hardship.

Objective: make pollution progressively less attractive without unfairly penalising the most vulnerable people.

Promote an international programme to reduce private vehicle use and transport emissions.

• Fund efficient railways, metro systems, trams and buses.
• Make public transport frequent, reliable and widely available.
• Gradually introduce free public transport where it delivers demonstrable environmental and social benefits.
• Develop cycle networks and safe walking routes.
• Encourage freight to shift from road to rail wherever feasible.

Objective: make sustainable travel more convenient and affordable than using a private car.

Launch an international programme to reduce the environmental impact of food production.

• Introduce progressively stricter standards for intensive livestock farming.
• Reduce methane emissions and water pollution.
• Remove incentives for production that causes deforestation.
• Support sustainable farming and livestock systems.
• Encourage diets that rely less heavily on high-impact products.
• Support farmers and workers through the economic transition.

Objective: ensure an adequate, healthy food supply for the world's population while reducing pressure on the climate, forests and biodiversity.

Adopt international rules to limit the waste of natural resources.

• Combat planned obsolescence.
• Promote repair, reuse and recycling.
• Reduce unnecessary packaging and single-use products.
• Set standards for product durability and repairability.
• Cut food waste throughout the supply chain.
• Encourage production processes that use less energy and fewer raw materials.

Objective: maintain a good quality of life while reducing resource consumption and waste generation.

Launch an international programme of prevention and adaptation to climate change already under way.

• Identify areas most exposed to floods, landslides, droughts, wildfires and heatwaves.
• Fund measures to protect communities, land and infrastructure.
• Restore wetlands, riverside forests and natural floodplains that can absorb floodwaters.
• Improve weather forecasting and early-warning systems.
• Adapt buildings, hospitals and schools to extreme temperatures.
• Provide financial support to the most vulnerable populations and countries with limited capacity to adapt.

Objective: reduce deaths, economic losses and communities' vulnerability to extreme weather events.

Establish a more effective international system for conserving marine and terrestrial ecosystems.

• Expand protected natural areas and ensure they are effectively managed.
• Combat illegal fishing and unsustainable exploitation.
• Reduce pollution from plastics, chemicals and industrial discharges.
• Protect coral reefs, mangroves and other vital marine habitats.
• Fund the restoration of degraded ecosystems.
• Strengthen controls on illegal trade in animal and plant species.

Objective: halt biodiversity loss and conserve the ecosystems on which human life and well-being depend.

Launch a worldwide programme based on education, freedom of choice and responsibility towards future generations.

• Ensure access to education for everyone, with particular attention to girls.
• Make family planning and reproductive healthcare services available.
• Raise awareness of the environmental and social consequences of demographic trends.
• Combat forced marriage and early pregnancy.
• Promote equal economic and social opportunities.
• Adapt population policies to different national circumstances, without coercive interference in reproductive choices.

Objective: foster a sustainable long-term balance between population, available resources and environmental protection, while respecting individual rights.

Bring nuclear-armed powers together to negotiate an international programme for the gradual reduction of nuclear weapons.

• Set verifiable limits on warheads and delivery systems.
• Agree deadlines for reducing arsenals.
• Introduce inspections and independent verification systems.
• Strengthen existing arms-control agreements.
• Provide mutual security assurances during disarmament.
• Gradually devote some of the resources released to preventing global risks.

Objective: reduce the number of nuclear weapons and establish a credible path towards their complete elimination.

Take immediate steps to prevent technical errors, false alarms or misunderstandings from triggering a nuclear catastrophe.

• Strengthen direct communication between the political and military leadership of nuclear-armed powers.
• Improve systems for verifying alerts.
• Introduce procedures that allow sufficient time to assess information before irreversible decisions are made.
• Negotiate reductions in the operational readiness of parts of nuclear arsenals, through reciprocal and verifiable measures.
• Conduct joint crisis-management exercises.
• Strengthen agreements to prevent military incidents and misinterpretations of opposing forces' manoeuvres.

Objective: reduce the likelihood of human error, technical failure or misjudgement leading to the use of nuclear weapons.

Prevent additional states or criminal organisations from acquiring nuclear weapons or the materials needed to build them.

• Strengthen international controls on fissile materials.
• Expand inspections of nuclear facilities covered by international agreements.
• Combat illicit trafficking in sensitive materials and technologies.
• Promote regional agreements establishing nuclear-weapon-free zones.
• Offer security assurances and incentives for cooperation to countries that renounce military nuclear programmes.
• Strengthen the physical protection of nuclear materials against theft and attack.

Objective: prevent the further spread of nuclear weapons and reduce the risk of their use by states or non-state actors.

Create international mechanisms capable of diplomatic intervention before tensions escalate into war.

• Establish a permanent international mediation service.
• Strengthen early-warning systems for emerging crises.
• Promote preventive negotiations in areas of heightened tension.
• Facilitate verifiable ceasefire agreements and the protection of civilians.
• Support post-conflict reconstruction and reconciliation.
• Provide for independent verification of agreements reached.

Objective: reduce the number of armed conflicts and prevent local crises from developing into regional or world wars.

Launch an international programme to devote an increasing share of resources currently used to prepare for war to protecting people and the environment.

• Gradually convert some military structures into civil engineering and international emergency response units.
• Deploy specialist personnel and equipment to prevent wildfires and floods.
• Use logistical and engineering capabilities to respond to earthquakes and natural disasters.
• Fund retraining for personnel moving into civilian roles.
• Support the conversion of arms manufacturers to civilian production.
• Link reductions in military expenditure to verifiable progress on disarmament and international security.

Objective: progressively transform some resources devoted to destruction into means of protecting lives, the environment and communities.

Establish international rules to prevent artificial intelligence systems from making autonomous decisions on the use of nuclear weapons.

• Prohibit delegating the final decision to use nuclear weapons to autonomous systems.
• Ensure meaningful and accountable human control over every launch decision.
• Subject military computer systems to independent security assessments compatible with confidentiality requirements.
• Reduce the risk of data manipulation and false alarms generated by automated systems.
• Promote international agreements on high-risk military applications of AI.
• Establish clear accountability for the use of automated systems in chains of command.

Objective: prevent errors, manipulation or unforeseen AI behaviour from causing a nuclear catastrophe.

Create an independent international body to assess and oversee the most advanced and potentially dangerous AI systems.

• Define risk categories based on systems' capabilities and uses.
• Establish international safety requirements for high-risk systems.
• Organise independent technical assessments.
• Require appropriate information from developers and operators.
• Coordinate national regulatory authorities.
• Provide powers to intervene in cases of serious risk, subject to appropriate procedural safeguards.

Objective: prevent economic and technological competition from taking precedence over humanity's safety.

Require potentially dangerous AI systems to undergo rigorous testing before deployment and throughout their operation.

• Assess capabilities that could enable harmful uses.
• Test resistance to manipulation and cyberattacks.
• Subject systems to independent testing under realistic conditions.
• Repeat assessments following significant updates.
• Document identified limitations, vulnerabilities and incidents.
• Prevent the deployment of systems that fail to meet minimum safety requirements.

Objective: identify and reduce risks before potentially dangerous systems are deployed at scale.

Introduce international procedures for intervention when an AI system exhibits potentially catastrophic capabilities or behaviour.

• Define in advance the criteria that justify suspension.
• Require developers to provide technical shutdown and containment procedures.
• Temporarily restrict access to particularly dangerous capabilities.
• Require independent assessments before operations resume.
• Establish rapid procedures for emergencies.
• Ensure transparency, accountability and the right to appeal decisions.

Objective: prevent systems that cannot be adequately controlled from continuing to operate when serious risks to the public emerge.

Adopt common rules defining the responsibilities of AI developers and operators.

• Specify the safety obligations of companies and organisations developing advanced systems.
• Make reporting of serious incidents mandatory.
• Establish an international register of significant incidents.
• Encourage the sharing of technical information needed to prevent similar incidents.
• Provide proportionate penalties for breaches of safety obligations.
• Protect employees who responsibly report serious risks or wrongdoing.

Objective: ensure that those who develop and use AI systems are accountable for their safety and contribute to risk prevention.

Adopt international rules to combat the use of AI to manipulate information and collective decision-making.

• Combat the fraudulent creation and dissemination of synthetic content.
• Promote reliable tools for identifying artificially generated or altered content.
• Require transparency in automated political advertising.
• Combat coordinated campaigns to manipulate public opinion.
• Protect personal data from unlawful use.
• Ensure that measures against manipulation respect freedom of expression and pluralism.

Objective: protect citizens' ability to form independent opinions and make informed democratic decisions.

Negotiate an international agreement to restrict or prohibit weapons systems that can select and engage targets without adequate human control.

• Define the categories of autonomous weapons that must be prohibited.
• Establish meaningful human-control requirements for other systems.
• Prohibit uses incompatible with international humanitarian law.
• Introduce pre-deployment assessments of systems.
• Define legal responsibility for commanders, developers and operators.
• Promote verifiable agreements to prevent an uncontrolled autonomous arms race.

Objective: ensure that decisions involving lethal force remain subject to human responsibility and international law.

Create an international research programme dedicated to understanding and preventing AI risks.

• Fund universities and independent research centres.
• Study the reliability, controllability and limitations of advanced systems.
• Develop techniques for detecting dangerous behaviour.
• Promote international cooperation among researchers.
• Make scientific findings available insofar as doing so does not enable harmful uses.
• Periodically assess the actual effectiveness of safety measures.

Objective: develop the knowledge and tools needed to keep AI development under control, without relying solely on the companies that build these systems.

Promote uses of AI that serve the common good rather than only the interests of a few large companies.

• Improve access to useful applications in healthcare, education and scientific research.
• Support training for workers affected by technological change.
• Fund retraining and career-transition programmes.
• Combat abuses of market dominance and excessive concentrations of power.
• Enable less economically developed countries to share in the benefits of innovation.
• Explore ways to distribute the economic gains from increased productivity more fairly.

Objective: ensure that advances in AI improve living conditions for all humanity rather than widening inequalities.

Create an international financing mechanism to support programmes approved by the World Council.

• Set contributions proportionate to countries' economic capacity and responsibilities.
• Consider dedicated international revenues from activities that impose global environmental costs.
• Finance priority measures in countries with fewer resources.
• Provide financial compensation to countries and communities that bear particular costs in the common interest.
• Subject all expenditure to independent audits.
• Publish budgets and results in a form accessible to citizens.

Objective: ensure that global decisions have the resources needed for implementation and that costs are shared fairly.

Establish an independent monitoring system to assess whether World Council decisions are actually implemented.

• Set measurable targets for every measure.
• Establish clear deadlines and responsibilities.
• Use scientific data, satellite observations and on-the-ground inspections.
• Publish progress reports regularly.
• Identify delays, non-compliance and inefficiencies.
• Revise policies when results fall short.

Objective: replace unverifiable promises with concrete, transparent and measurable commitments.

Create an international legal framework capable of ensuring compliance with legitimately adopted World Council decisions.

• Clearly define the obligations of countries and other relevant parties.
• Provide independent procedures for establishing violations.
• Introduce corrective measures and sanctions proportionate to the seriousness of breaches.
• Guarantee the right to a defence and the possibility of appeal.
• Avoid sanctions that unfairly harm populations rather than those responsible.
• Establish mechanisms to verify that legality has been restored and violations have ceased.

Objective: ensure that global decisions are not merely recommendations but become enforceable commitments.

Devote some of the resources released through peace and disarmament agreements to protecting humanity.

• Gradually reduce spending on armaments as international security improves in verifiable ways.
• Transfer a share of the savings to the World Fund.
• Convert parts of the arms industry to civilian production.
• Use personnel and equipment to prevent and manage disasters.

Objective: turn the peace dividend into resources for collective security.

Introduce much more effective international tax cooperation.

• Strengthen the automatic exchange of information between tax authorities.
• Identify the ultimate beneficial owners of companies, assets and capital.
• Combat the artificial shifting of profits to low-tax jurisdictions.
• Ensure that multinational companies' profits are taxed in the countries where they are actually generated, through coordinated international tax rules.
• Make large financial flows traceable while respecting citizens' privacy.
• Strengthen controls against money laundering and hidden assets.

Objective: recover resources currently lost to public budgets and ensure that everyone contributes under the rules.

Promote international agreements to make taxation fairer.

• Increase the progressivity of taxes on extremely high incomes.
• Require larger contributions from holders of substantial wealth.
• Consider higher taxes on large inheritances and investment income.
• Combat mechanisms that allow the wealthiest to artificially reduce their tax liabilities.
• Coordinate tax policies to limit harmful tax competition between countries.

Objective: raise additional resources while allocating contributions according to genuine ability to pay.

Introduce coordinated tax instruments for situations involving exceptional profits or financial activities with significant economic and social effects.

• Consider temporary levies on windfall profits where they can be clearly identified.
• Explore forms of taxation on speculative financial transactions.
• Combat tax avoidance through opaque financial instruments.
• Allocate a share of any additional revenue to global programmes.

Objective: secure an additional contribution from activities generating substantial gains, while avoiding unintended effects on the productive economy.

Allocate part of the revenue from emissions taxation to delivering the Programme.

• Implement coordinated carbon-pricing systems.
• Return a substantial share of the revenue to economically vulnerable households.
• Finance clean energy, energy efficiency and public transport.
• Allocate an agreed share to international climate measures.

Objective: apply the 'polluter pays' principle to cut emissions and finance the ecological transition without increasing inequality.

Gradually reform incentives that support activities contrary to climate and environmental goals.

• Phase out unjustified fossil fuel subsidies.
• Review incentives for activities that cause deforestation or serious environmental degradation.
• Protect vulnerable households during the transition.
• Redirect resources towards renewable energy, sustainable transport, research and ecosystem protection.

Objective: stop using public money to subsidise activities that the Programme seeks to reduce.

Complement tax revenues with financing instruments for long-term measures.

• Engage public development banks and international financial institutions.
• Encourage private investment in projects with verifiable environmental and social benefits.
• Use public guarantees where needed to reduce investment risks.
• Provide financial support to poorer countries without creating unsustainable debt burdens.
• Publish the costs, expected benefits and outcomes of funded projects.

Objective: expand the resources available without relying exclusively on taxation.