Events

Why are the upcoming UN Climate Negotiations important?

The twenty-first session of the conference of the parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will be held in Paris in December 2015. COP21 is considered to be a pivotal moment in international climate negotiations, with the objective to achieve, for the first time in over 20 years, a binding and universal agreement on climate, from all the nations of the world.

World Wide Views on Climate and Energy is a global citizen consultation that will be held on June 6th, 2015. One of the Canadian chapters of this worldwide event will be held in Waterloo, ON. 

On June 6, beginning at dawn in the Pacific Islands and ending at dusk in the West Coast of the United States, citizens around the world will take part in the largest ever public consultation on climate change and energy. Citizens will be asked an identical set of questions on climate change and energy policy, targets, and measures. 

One million migrants arrived in Europe in 2015 seeking asylum from war and conflict. Yet many researchers warn these numbers are small compared with the number of people who will be displaced global in coming decades because of climate change. Will the next great waves of international migration have environmental causes? What are the potential implications for North America? What can we do now to prepare for future climate migration? Join Canadian and American experts in an open discussion of what we know about global environmental migration, and what research has yet to tell us.

Last fall, the global media spotlight was on the United Nations climate change summit (a.k.a. “COP21”) when 195 countries came to an agreement to act on climate change.

Are you curious about what this might mean for our community, our country and the world?

Join the Waterloo Climate Institute and Kitchener Public Library for this co-hosted event at the Central Library in Kitchener. Using national and regional examples from her research, Dr. Michelle Rutty will highlight the key climate change risks facing the tourism sector, followed by an interactive discussion on how a shift to sustainable tourism can support our local climate goals.

How we feel about climate change is really important - so we need to think about it and measure it. There are a lot of words being used to describe how we feel about climate change: worry, anxiety, eco-anxiety, decreased well-being, and so on. This talk will be lead by Susan Elliott, Professor of Geography and Environmental Management. Susan Elliott's research interests are environment and health, the global environment, urban social geography,and philosophy and method in the social sciences.