Climate Seminars 2019: Recent Episodes
Cambridge University
The Paris Agreement was a big step forward on climate change diplomacy, but disturbing news is now emerging around whether Paris is actually working. Emissions keep rising; warming is accelerating; efforts to reach diplomatic agreement even on topics that should be straightforward are faltering. This talk offers a diagnosis of whether the Paris process is likely to work along with gameplans—for science, industry and government—to help make Paris more effective.
In the penultimate seminar of the Christ’s Climate Seminar Series, Rebecca Willis, Independent Environmental Researcher, discusses the findings of a collaborative research project to investigate how politicians think and act on climate change.
Climate change has been repeatedly described as humanity’s greatest threat and action by government is generally considered unambitious and insufficient. Craig Bennett, CEO at Friends of the Earth (England, Wales and Northern Ireland), argues that solutions to the climate change challenge should come from and be done by the people, not to them. During this seminar, he describes how public engagement is missing from the climate change conversation and provides examples of the impacts this has had on government policies.
How business is learning to cooperate in pursuit of climate action
Eliot Whittington, Development Director at Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL)
Julia Knight, Deputy Director, Head of Energy and Climate Science, BEIS
Date: Thursday 17 January 2019
Time: 17:30-19:00
Venue: Plumb Auditorium, Christ's College
Setting targets and actions on climate change is an increasingly mainstream business activity – built on foundations of a real business case around developing opportunities in a new clean economy and managing risks associated with climate impacts and climate policies.
A growing number of businesses are taking action to cut their carbon emissions, and the most vocal and visible are setting targets and taking actions that position them ahead of comparable ambitions of government – driving action where public policy is lacking. However there are limits to the level of change any business, no matter how sizable its investments or significant it’s supply chain are – and this is where leading businesses are increasingly participating in new collaborations with other businesses and with government to deliver change on a systemic level.
This talk will recap the recent history of business action on climate change, and explore both how the bar for business leadership is rising and also map the growing body of collaborations between business and with government and their implications.