Tuesday, November 16th, 2021 In Conversation: COP26 in Glasgow: What happened, what it means, and what was missed

Description

Description: Amid intensifying extreme weather events linked to climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the publication of a bombshell UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report in August 2021, there are growing calls from NGOs, activists for climate justice. Postponed for one year due to the pandemic, the stakes will be high at COP26 to achieve concrete and robust outcomes, including updated emission reduction commitments, implementation rules for the Paris Agreement, and development financing.

Join the Environmental Governance Lab for a conversation with Dr. Jennifer Allan, Amalie Wilkinson, Kimberly R. Marion Suiseeya and Raul Salas Reyes to discuss what happened in Glasgow, what was missed in media coverage of the events, the significance of COP26 for Canada, and where global climate governance will go from here.

Speakers:
Dr. Jennifer Allan is a lecturer at Cardiff University and Strategic Adviser and Team Leader with Earth Negotiations Bulletin

Dr. Allan’s research explores environmental and social movements, and how global rules are made and remade. Her publications engage with a wide range of environmental issues, including climate change, biodiversity, forest protection, and chemical and wastes management. Through contributing to the Earth Negotiations Bulletin – the de facto record of global environmental negotiations— she has attended roughly 40 UN conferences where states negotiate the rules of global environmental rules and has published over 100 Bulletins with her ENB colleagues. She also edits a yearly round of up the State of Global Environmental Governance for ENB.

Amalie Wilkinson
Amalie Wilkinson is a dedicated climate justice advocate and a second-year undergraduate student at the University of Toronto, where she double-majors in International Relations and Peace, Conflict and Justice Studies. She leads the Toronto chapter of Stop Ecocide Canada, an organization dedicated to the criminalization of Ecocide at the International Criminal Court, as a deterrent and accountability mechanism for environmental destruction.

Amalie has long been a strong social justice advocate, leading U of T’s Hart House High Schools Women and Gender Minorities Debate Tournament in 2021, speaking on issues of climate and gender justice as her high school’s valedictorian, and more. During the summer of 2021, Amalie worked as a Research and Advocacy Intern at World Without Genocide, a human rights organization based out of St Paul, Minnesota. Her research focused on underrepresented genocides, climate change as a threat multiplier, and the proposal to criminalize ecocide. This year, she is a member of Professor Donald Kingsbury’s Research Opportunities Program team at U of T, focusing on the emerging Lithium extraction industry as a key component in the clean energy transition.

Kimberly R. Marion Suiseeya
Kimberly R. Marion Suiseeya is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Environmental Policy and Culture program at Northwestern University. Trained as an interdisciplinary environmental social scientist, Suiseeya’s research examines complex questions around how the politics of justice and representation in different approaches to addressing global environmental challenges are negotiated and experienced from global to local scales, with particular attention to Indigenous Peoples and environmental justice communities. She co-leads the Presence to Influence project that examines how Indigenous Peoples influence international climate change and biodiversity policies and the Disproportionate Impacts of Environmental Change working group that is co-developing transdisciplinary resilience research initiatives with tribal Nations and Indigenous communities in the US and Southeast Asia. Suiseeya is Faculty Affiliate with the Center for Native American and Indigenous Research, the Center for the Study of Diversity and Democracy, the Institute for Policy Research, and the Northwestern-Argonne Institute for Science and Engineering.

Raul Salas Reyes
Raul is a senior PhD candidate in the Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences at UTSC and is currently researching the evolution of the differential treatment norm in the climate regime, which is embedded within the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR). Raúl has been working in climate governance and transparency issues for more than a decade where he has assisted developing and developed countries in meeting their obligations under the UNFCCC.

Moderator:
Dr. Matthew Hoffmann, Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto, Co-Director of the Environmental Governance Lab

Matthew Hoffmann is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto and co-director of the Environmental Governance Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. He is also co-editor of the flagship journal Global Environmental Politics, a lead faculty member in the Earth Systems Governance network, and an Honorary Professor at Australia National University. His research on climate change and environmental politics has been published in 4 books and over 50 journal articles and book chapters. Professor Hoffmann is also the chair of the board of directors for the environmental NGO, Green Economy Canada.