About this event
Overview
As we approach COP26 the impacts of climate change and the ecological crisis have been well expressed in firstly, the Committee on Climate Change’s 4th Risk Assessment and the even more disturbing report from the IPCC described by the UN Secretary-General as ‘Code Red for Humanity’. Sir Patrick Vallance, the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser and five other scientific advisers wrote in response, "transformation is required at every level of society: individuals, employers, institutions and international partners will need to work together to understand the trade-offs, agree on compromises and seize opportunities.”
These three webinar sessions on 9th and 23rd September and 7th October leading up to COP26 have and will explore how we can take the opportunities available to act with the agency required.
Session 3: Engaging with climate change – you are already the answer
In a recent article, Tim Harford commented that the climate crisis would not be solved without adopting policies and norms that change the behaviour of businesses, local governments and individuals. In Humankind: A Hopeful History Rutger Bergman’s proposition is that human beings are mostly decent and research has shown that about 70% of people in the UK support action on climate change. But what actions? What changes? To what extent will be we change our values to achieve the necessary transformation needed? How should we present the urgency of our situation to inspire action with the agency needed? Time to rethink how we take on our individual and professional responsibilities engaging with climate change?
This discussion facilitated by Lucy Shea will explore these issues.
Hosted by
Peter Newell is a Professor of International Relations at the University of Sussex and co-founder and research director of the Rapid Transition Alliance.
Alice Bell is co-director at climate change charity Possible. She is the author of Can We Save the Planet? (Thames and Hudson, Spring 2020) and Our Biggest Experiment, a history of the climate crisis (Bloomsbury, Summer 2021).
Lucy Shea is the CEO of Futerra, the change agency. She is an expert in the business of climate action and sustainable lifestyles and was a founder member of the UN’s Sustainable Lifestyles Taskforce in 2005, when she authored Communicating Sustainability.
Simon Allford is a founding director of Allford Hall Monaghan Morris. Their work focuses on the belief that outstanding architecture must last through time and accommodate different uses to those that called it into being. Simon will assume the Presidency of RIBA from 1 September 2021.
SOS-UK the National Union of Students’ sustainability charity represents 7 million students in higher and further education. I have over 10 years of experience in engaging students and staff in sustainability programmes and behaviour change within universities and wider society.
