About webinar
IC3 hosted a webinar that unpacked the international governance framework of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Moderated by Waterloo Professor Ian Rowlands, the discussion explored how COP fits into the global climate change governance system, and featured guest speakers who shared their own COP experiences. Guest speakers included Elizabeth Atkinson, Senior Policy Manager at Natural Resources Canada, and UWaterloo students and past COP delegates Lowine Hill, Brooklyn Rushton, and Valentina Castillo Cifuentes.
Speakers
Elizabeth Atkinson: With 20 years working in climate change adaptation policy, Elizabeth currently serves as Vice-Chair of Canada’s National Adaptation Platform and represents Canada as a climate change adaptation negotiator to UNFCCC and COP processes for the Government of Canada. Through her leadership of a strategic adaptation policy team, current focuses also include the deeper mainstreaming of adaptation across sectors and regions in Canada, and emerging areas such as virtual engagement, climate finance and transboundary impacts.
Valentina Castillo Cifuentes is the Program Coordinator of UWaterloo’s Youth & Innovation Project. She holds a masters in Sustainability Management from UWaterloo, and has experience in community engagement through various research projects.
Lowine Hill is a PhD Candidate at the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability at UWaterloo. Through an intersectional, transdisciplinary approach, she investigates disaster risk governance in the Caribbean; specifically looking at how social networks, gender(s), and power can influence policy making. Lowine is currently involved in global policy making processes on the topics of climate change and (not natural) disasters. She is also co-leading an initiative on “Decolonising the research process for sustainability”, in the Faculty of Environment at UWaterloo.
Ian Rowlands is Associate Vice-President, International at UWaterloo. He is also a Professor in the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability in the Faculty of Environment. Prof. Rowlands has research and teaching interests and activities in the areas of climate change, energy, sustainability, and internationalization.
Brooklyn Rushton is a PhD Student in Geography and Environmental Management at UWaterloo working with Dr. Daniel Scott and Dr. Michelle Rutty. Her research focuses on sustainable tourism pathways in mountain destinations and stewardship of large-scale protected areas.