Stockholm Environment Institute, Stockholm University and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences are proud to present the Gordon Goodman Memorial Lecture 2017, to be delivered by Kevin Anderson, professor in climate and energy, and Uppsala University’s Zennström professor in Climate Change Leadership at CEMUS.
The seminar was recorded and is available here:
This annual memorial lecture is in honour of Gordon Goodman, founding director of the Beijer Institute at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences from 1977–1989 and the Stockholm Environment Institute from 1989–1991. The 2017 lecture is on the 21st of September, 13:30-17:00 at The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Kevin Anderson is Professor of Energy and Climate Change at the University of Manchester and Deputy Director of the internationally renowned Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. He is one of Great Britain’s most recognized climate researchers and is well known for his skills in communicating climate science to decision-makers, the business sector, civil society and media. He has been pivotal in establishing research around carbon budgets and the transformation of different societal sectors to acceptable mitigation levels based on politically agreed goals. In Uppsala, Kevin will carry on the work initiated by the first Zennström professor Doreen Stabinsky: to establish a world-leading node in the area of climate change leadership, that will be unique, both in Sweden and internationally.
Programme:
13.30 Welcome and introduction
Anneli Sundin, Communications Officer, Stockholm Environment Institute
Astrid Söderbergh Widding, Vice Chancellor, Stockholm University
Anders Wijkman, Member of The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Chair in the Governing Board, Climate-KIC
13.50 Memorial Lecture: Mitigation on Methadone – the trouble with negative emissions
Kevin Anderson, Professor in climate and energy, and Uppsala University’s Zennström Professor in Climate change leadership at the Centre for Environment and Development Studies (CEMUS)
14.30 Scientific discussion
Kevin Anderson
Respondents:
Jerker Jarsjö, Associate Professor, Stockholm University
Clarisse Kehler Siebert, Research Fellow, Stockholm Environment Institute
Moderator: Georgia Destouni, Professor, Stockholm University, Member of The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
15.15 Coffee break
15.45 Panel discussion: The broader perspective – What are the key steps to achieve a low-carbon future?
Kevin Anderson
Victor Galaz, Deputy Science Director and Associate Professor at Stockholm Resilience Centre
Teresa Anderson, Policy Officer, Climate & Resilience, ActionAid International
Eva Blixt, Research Manager Jernkontoret, Swedish Steel industry organisation
Moderator: Åsa Persson, Senior Research Fellow, Stockholm Environment Institute
16.30 Concluding remarks:
Bo Kjellen, SEI Associate, Stockholm Environment Institute
Johan Kuylenstierna, Executive Director, Stockholm Environment Institute
Abstract
Mitigation on Methadone: the trouble with negative emissions
With sixteen of the seventeen warmest years on record having occurred since 2000; with oceans both warming and acidifying; and with unequivocal scientific evidence that burning fossil fuels is the principal cause; – what can we do to rapidly reduce emissions?
This presentation will revisit the scale of the climate challenge, arguing that whilst the science of climate change has progressed, we obstinately refuse to acknowledge the rate at which our emissions from energy need to be reduced. The Paris Agreement exemplifies this duality – relying as it does on highly speculative negative emission technologies to balance incremental tweaks to a ‘business-as-usual’ model with rapidly dwindling carbon budgets for 2°C. Similarly, the eloquent rhetoric of green growth continues to eclipse analysis demonstrating the need for radical social as well as technical change.
Taking these issues head on, this seminar will outline a quantitative framing of mitigation, based on IPCC carbon budgets, before finishing with more qualitative examples of what a genuine low-carbon future may contain.