manchester climate monthly

From here.  My chat will begin “Hi Chris, will anyone be interested in IPCC AR9, or will we be fighting over who to eat next?”

LONDON: You can chat live to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) co-chair Chris Field in a special Twitter Q&A entitled Post IPCC: HOW do we build a Clean Revolution?, at 4pm GMT/8am CDT on April 22.

The IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) findings have dominated headlines recently. Last week the final instalment Mitigation of Climate Change was released, warning that an urgent global switch to renewable energy is needed to avoid runaway climate change. It followed The Physical Science Basis published in September 2013, which concludes humans are to blame for man-made climate change, and March 2014’s Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability, which reveals the devastating impacts on the planet’s resources, economy and communities that climate change is already responsible for.

All instalments of the AR5 make clear that a huge scale-up of the clean technology and policy that already exists is needed: a global clean revolution. In light of the IPCC’s findings, this live Twitter session offers you the chance to speak directly to one of the lead authors and co-chair of IPCC Working Group II (WGII): Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability, about how we can achieve a safe, low carbon future.

Dr. Chris Field is a leading climate scientist who has authored over 200 publications, including extensive research on climate change’s impacts on agriculture and California’s grasslands. He is the founding director of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology, and a Professor for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies at Stanford University, as well as Faculty Director of Stanford’s Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve.

In a statement following the release of WGII last month, Chris Field commented: “Climate-change adaptation is not an exotic agenda that has never been tried. Governments, firms, and communities around the world are building experience with adaptation. This experience forms a starting point for bolder, more ambitious adaptations that will be important as climate and society continue to change.”

You can ask Chris Field your questions from 4pm GMT on April 22, using hashtag #CleanRevolution. You can also ask questions early on Twitter, or post lengthier questions or discussion in our new Google+ Community. Just don’t forget the #CleanRevolution hashtag or we may miss them.

Image: Stanford Professor Chris Field speaking at a Senate hearing on climate change in 2012, courtesy of Stanford University

This is exciting! Open to the public, part of the PhD conference organised by the Tyndall Centre (the cross-university collaboration looking at all aspects of climate – the science, economics, psychology, sociology, you name it…)

Debate Panel: Individual Responsibility and Climate Change Mitigation

Friday 25th April, Harwood Room, Barnes Wallis Building, 11.30am-1pm

The debate will consist of a 10 minute presentation by each of our four speakers on the topic ‘To what extent does individual responsibility have a role to play in climate change mitigation?’, followed by an interdisciplinary dialogue and questions from the audience. The panellists are:

Dr Lorraine Whitmarsh, lecturer in Psychology at Cardiff University. Lorraine’s research, which employs both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection and analysis, focuses on three main areas: (a) public engagement with climate change and low-carbon lifestyles; (b) public/stakeholder participation in sustainability science and policy; and (c) perceived risk and behaviour change with respect to new or controversial technologies (e.g., smart grids, electric vehicles, unconventional fossil fuels).

Dr Sarah Mander, research fellow at Tyndall Manchester. Sarah is a Chemical Engineer by training, who’s research interests are focused on climate change mitigation, renewable energy, long term energy scenarios, sustainable energy in the urban environment, recycling and climate change governance.

Dr Julia Steinberger, lecturer in Ecological Economics at the University of Leeds. Julia’s research examines the connections between resource use (energy and materials, greenhouse gas emissions) and societal performance (economic and human wellbeing). She is interested in quantifying the current and historical linkages between resource use and socioeconomic parameters, and identifying alternative development pathways to guide the necessary transition to a low carbon society.

Dr Tom Crompton, Change Strategist at WWF-UK. Tom is interested in understanding how organisations like WWF might work to help create the political space for more ambitious change on sustainability issues. He works with social psychologists and political scientists, asking questions such as: What leads to more vocal expressions of public concern about sustainability issues? What motivates people to bring more pressure to bear on their elected leaders? This work was recently compiled into the report, “Common Cause”.

And if you can’t make that, maybe this-

Keynote Address: Mike Childs, Prof. Corinne Le Quéré & Prof. Andrew Gibson

‘Time to think differently in addressing climate change’

Wednesday 23rd April, Harwood Room, Barnes Wallis Building, 3.30pm – 4.45pm

They keynote session of the 2014 Tyndall PhD Conference will have three speakers:

• Prof. Andrew Gibson, Head of the School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering at the University of Manchester, will welcome the conference delegates and speakers to the school of MACE.
• Prof. Corinne Le Quéré, Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research will deliver a presentation on the state of the climate science as shown in the recent IPCC assessment and what we can do about it in the next two years.

·         Mike Childs, Head of Policy, Research and Science at Friends of the Earth UK will deliver a keynote lecture titled ‘Time to think differently in addressing climate change’, exploring the role of NGO’s, academia, global governance & cities in addressing the emerging big issues in sustainability. Mike Childs will draw from his experience working at Friends of the Earth for more than twenty years, during which he helped lead Friends of the Earth’s Big Ask campaign for the Climate Change Act 2008. This was the first ever national law to commit a Government to making annual cuts in greenhouse gases. He is currently leading the three-year Big Ideas research programme.