Roundtable: Urgency, Action, Ambition, Adaption

Icons on a black background, with a green brain, surrounded by the words Urgency, Action, Ambition and Adaptation.

Watch the live recorded event here.

A roundtable discussion on Urgency, Action, Ambition, Adaption:

16:00-16:15 - Wolfson College CO2e Review - Stephen Hoath
16:15-16:30 - Decarbonising a Cambridge College - Josh Matthews
16:30-16:45 - Improving building energy efficiency - where are we? - Hui Ben
16:45-17:00 - Audience Q&A
17:00-17:15 - Adaptation is as urgent as mitigation of climate change - Marie Anne Coninsx
17:15-17:30 - How nice should we be to the oil and gas industry? - Josh Matthews
17:30-17:45 - Design thinking and cultivating a culture of adaptation - Golnar Malek
17:45-18:30 - Roundtable Discussion

[End]

18:30onwards - Informal Discussion + on to Dining Hall

Moderator: Helene Hoffmann (Wolfson Junior Research Fellow)

Seeking discussion on
How can we make sustainability fair and equitable for all?
What is the role of corporate vs government vs personal responsibility?
What is the role of adaption and mitigation?
How do we limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees?

Extra Info
This event will be held online. However, those on-site are welcome to join in-person from the Gatsby Room.

All welcome to the Wolfson bar (in-person) from 20:00 to continue the discussion informally over a friendly refreshment.

Descriptions

16:00-16:15 - Wolfson College CO2e Review - Stephen Hoath

The Science Based Targets for Wolfson College. An update of previous Wolfson Research Event presentations on CO2e performance at Wolfson College and future prospects.

Stephen Hoath is an Emeritus Fellow and supporter for the Wolfson College S&C Hub, previously a Chair of Sustainability Committee and member of the Carbon Reduction Committee. He has worked in the 2019/20 Green Impact team and was Director of Studies for Engineering and Wolfson Fellow (2011-2018). The Hoath Family Awards at Wolfson were made in memory of his parents.

16:15-16:30 - Decarbonising a Cambridge College - Josh Matthews

Discussing getting everyone involved in putting together a roadmap for a College to reach net-zero.

Josh Matthews is a Practice Leader at HFS Research for sustainability, and the energy and utilities industries. Josh is a former Cambridge City Councillor and shadow portfolio holder for climate change, environment, and the city. Josh holds degrees from Cambridge University's Institute for Manufacturing and Loughborough University's Chemical Engineering department. He is a former Process Engineer at TotalEnergies and visiting researcher at UC Santa Barbara.

16:30-16:45 - Improving building energy efficiency - where are we? - Hui Ben

This talk will look at how much we have achieved in mitigating climate change with building energy efficiency improvements, and where the rest of our ambitions and pathways should lie in order to meet net-zero.

Dr Hui Ben is a passionate researcher in Sustainable Architecture and currently working on a funded project: using high-resolution thermal infrared space telescopes to globally target building energy efficiency, which is led by Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge. She has been awarded a Doctorate and MPhil in Architecture at the University of Cambridge and Wolfson College, and is currently contributing to S&C Hub Living Lab programme.

16:45-17:00 - Audience Q&A

Questions from the audience are invited.

17:00-17:15 - Adaptation is as urgent as mitigation of climate change - Marie Anne Coninsx

Until recently, the focus of most discussions on climate change, has been on the urgency to limit increase of temperatures, or in brief, on “mitigation”. However, real dramatic consequences of climate change in all parts of the world , such as extreme weather patterns (heat/draught and extreme cold), major flooding, unseen heavy wildfires or landslides, did not get the same attention. These are forcing people to migrate (climate migration) and are requiring policies & measures to adapt to these new realities. “Adaptation” should prevent the negative impacts of climate change, to saving lives, to protect infrastructures, and should be taken into account e.g. in urban planning, waterways management and much more. In brief, green policies alone are not sufficient to address climate change; adaptation is the other side of the climate-action-coin.

Marie Anne Coninsx was the first Ambassador at Large for the Arctic of the European Union (EU) from September 2017 to October 2019. She previously was the European Union' Ambassador to Canada (2013-2017), after serving four years as the EU Ambassador to Mexico. In Canada, she extensively visited the Canadian Arctic. Before her studies of the Law of the Sea at Wolfson, she studied law at Ghent University in Belgium.

17:15-17:30 - How nice should we be to the oil and gas industry? - Josh Matthews

Balancing divesting from fossil fuels and working with an industry that's so tightly woven into every part of all our lives (a discussion).

17:30-17:45 - Design thinking and cultivating a culture of adaptation - Golnar Malek

Text incoming...

17:45-18:30 - Roundtable Discussion

A discussion hosted by the moderator Helene Hoffmann to seek answers to any or all of our four COP26 at Wolfson guiding questions:

How can we make sustainability fair and equitable for all?
What is the role of corporate vs government vs personal responsibility?
What is the role of adaption and mitigation?
How do we limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees?

[END]

18:30onwards - Informal Discussion + on to Dining Hall

We will formally close the event at 18:30, however, if you would like to continue the discussion to 19:00, we warmly invite you to do so. We will head to the Wolfson Dining Hall after 19:00, and continue socialising for those interested at the College bar from 20:00 onwards. All welcome!