In my annual New Year’s essay earlier this month I called upon all of us to enter the new year (and for some, a new decade) with deeper thinking, dedication to knowledge, and cautious optimism. This will be particularly important as we face a rapidly changing climate.
With global average temperatures already up by around 1˚C and the International Energy Agency projecting warming of 2.9-3.4˚C by 2100 under current policies (or just under 3˚C if countries stick to their Paris commitments) there is clearly a massive challenge ahead of us.
To offer guidance on the times ahead, I invited EV’s Senior Advisor Diana Fox Carney to put together a series of live briefing calls with experts who can help us understand the technologies that could get us where we need to go: first reducing emissions, then eliminating them or moving into negative territory, as well as some of the deeper psychological and political issues that we will face as we learn to live with unprecedented change.
Join the conversation
This series of briefings will run over the next few months, and will be open to the EV members. See below the list of all confirmed talks.
Join us for a series of discussions that will help you frame the issue of climate breakdown in relation to the decisions you make as a customer, a professional, and an individual within the society.
Current schedule:
Tuesday, 02/11, 2pm GMTÂ Rethinking food and agriculture [Recording and notes will be available to members of EV]
Wednesday, 03/05, 4pm GMTÂ Low carbon steel with Donald SadowayÂ
Wednesday, 03/25, 4.30pm GMTÂ Lithium battery recycling with Away Kochar
Monday, 04/06, 2pm GMTÂ Electric vehicles and decarbonization with Auke Hoekstra
Wednesday, 04/22 2pm GMT, Collective psychology and mourning the climate with Alex Evans
Thursday, 05/21, 2.30pm GMT, Hydrogen energy storage with Enass Abo-Hamed
The first briefing will look at the future of food and agriculture (which accounts, by some calculations, for up to 30 per cent of current global greenhouse gas emissions).
We’ll also be looking at new ways of making steel (iron and steel are responsible for about 7-9 per cent of global emissions), options for recycling lithium batteries and the lifecycle costs of electric vehicles.
On Earth Day we’ll hear from Alex Evans of the Collective Psychology Project about the psychological fallout from living through a mass extinction—and other traumatic aspects of today’s society—and how we might find ways to come together, to manage our grief and find new stories that sew the seeds of hope.