Understanding Accelerated Decarbonization
Prof. Dr. Brendan Barrett, UNU Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability, Osaka University,
The notion of net-Zero carbon emissions by 2050 has only recently gained traction in policy-circles following the 2015 Paris Agreement and the 2018 IPCC Special Report. This should be cautiously embraced for the following reasons. First, over the past three decades, we have collectively made negligible progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Second, contemporary net-zero pathways in many instances lack detailed implementation measures and associated financial investments. Third, there is a high likelihood that the 2050 target will be used as an opportunity to delay action. This presentation argues that accelerated decarbonization is required with a target for net-zero by 2035 or soone
About the speaker
Brendan is an urban planner by training and a fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce. He is currently professor at the Osaka University Center for the Study of Co*Design, adjunct professor at RMIT University and visiting professor at the UNU Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability. He was an official with the United Nations in Japan between 1995 and 2015, with UNEP and the UNU. At the latter, he set up the Media Studio and worked with a creative team of young professionals producing award-winning documentaries and online interactive educational resources on complex social and environmental concerns. In 2008, he launched the UNU's bi-lingual Our World web magazine focusing initially on energy and food security, biodiversity and the climate crisis. Since 2015, he has been undertaking research on ethical cities organizing an Urban Thinkers Campus (2016) as part of the World Urban Campaign and producing a Massive Open Online Course on FutureLearn. His most recent book on Ethical Cities was published with Routledge in December 2020.
Venue: via Zoom (please contact us at seminars@merit.unu.edu for the Zoom link)
Date: 28 October 2021
Time: 12:00 - 13:00 CEST
