Title:
Climate Geopolitics Through 2020: Disruptive Issues on the Horizon
Abstract:
The struggle to halt the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been the defining issue of climate politics for the last two decades. But even as the search continues for an international framework to effectively constrain global carbon emissions, the landscape of interconnected issues crowding the climate agenda is rapidly evolving:
- The recent explosion of 'new carbon' resources (particularly shale gas) is overhauling projections for the future of energy systems and carbon emissions, along with the diverse geopolitical dynamics tightly coupled to both;
- Increasingly poignant impacts of climate change (particularly on agriculture and food security), coupled with deeper understanding of (non-CO2) Short Lived Climate Pollutants, are nudging political attention toward regional and national strategies that could ameliorate near-term climate impacts; and
- Mounting concern that the long term aspiration of the "two degree limit" for global warming might already be beyond reach of even the most ambitious carbon emission reductions is motivating research into geoengineering technologies that may dramatically increase the leverage that individual nations have over the global climate system.
This presentation will explore the dynamics of these (and a few related) emerging issues for climate politics, and consider the challenges – and opportunities – they present for the creation of an effective international framework to limit the global risks presented by climate change.
Bio:
Presented by Dr. Jason Blackstock, University of Oxford, Institute for Science, Innovation and Society and Adjunct Associate Professor at SEED, University of Waterloo.
With a unique background spanning physics, technology development and international affairs, Jason is emerging as a leading international scholar and policy adviser on the interface between science and global public policy. Since 2008, he has developed and led research and policy engagement programs from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (Austria) and the Centre for International Governance Innovation (Canada) that have interactively examined the scientific, political and global governance dimensions of our planetary climate and energy challenges. These programs have included internationally recognized foci on the science and policy of emerging geoengineering technologies, short lived climate forcers and sustainable energy transitions.