Climate Change Leadership – from personal and institutional responsibility to system change
A symposium with Kevin Anderson and Bob Massie
Watch the recording here:
When: Thursday October 13th 2016, 12.15-14.00
Where: Audhumbla Lecture Hall, VHC, SLU
Organizers: SLU Environmental Department in collaboration with CEMUS/CSD Uppsala.
12.15-12.20 Introduction and Welcome by Pro Vice Chancellor Professor Karin Holmgren
12.20-12.50 Talk by Kevin Anderson
12.50-13.20 Talk by Bob Massie
13.20-13.55 Moderated conversation between Kevin, Bob and the audience
13.55-14.00 Concluding Remarks
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Climate Change is System Change: reaping the legacy of 25 years of failure
Kevin Anderson, Zennström Visiting Professor in Climate Change Leadership at Uppsala University; & Professor of Energy and Climate Change at University of Manchester
With a focus on energy, this presentation will outline the successes and failures of the Paris process – offering not only an alternative take on the Agreement, but also sketching out a suite of opportunities that could yet deliver a sustainable and prosperous future. It will conclude by arguing that the real challenge now facing contemporary society, is to acknowledge that our abject failure to mitigate emissions has transformed climate change into an issue of profound and rapid ‘system change’. Only when we are sufficiently humble to concede this, will we be equipped to begin shaping a our post-carbon paradigm; but time is short!
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Towards a just, sustainable and low-carbon future – Political and financial leverage points for change
Bob Massie, Executive Director, Sustainable Solutions Lab, University of Massachusetts, Boston; founder of the Global Reporting Initiative and the Investor Network on Climate Risk (US); visiting scholar at Center for Sustainable Markets (MISUM), Stockholm School of Economics
The United States’ political failure to address climate change at the national level has forced the battle for change into different venues. One place is into the domain of municipal government, where mayors have greater responsibility and freedom to act independent of the state and federal systems. Another highly contested area is in the capital markets, where the debate over climate change has generated both strategic and philosophical questions. At the level of strategy, those who support action on climate differ on whether they should be engaging corporations or divesting from them. On a more philosophical level, the debate over climate change is changing conceptions of transparency, ownership, value creation, risk assessment, fiduciary duty, capital formation, and other basic concepts of capitalism. This talk will address a variety of questions including: How deep can these changes be? What impact will they have? And will they take place in time to make a difference within the urgent time frame spelled out at COP 21?
More information about SLU Certival of which this Symposium is a part: https://internt.slu.se/stod-service/stodomraden/miljo/miljoarbete1/certival-2016/
More information about the Climate Change Leadership initiative: http://www.csduppsala.se/ccleadership/