TRANSCEND Seminar: Climate change transformation and adaptation in risk-sensitive urban development
Our fourth seminar takes place on Tuesday, 30 November 2021 and we’re delighted to welcome guest speakers Dr. Rasmus Benestad from the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, Norway, and Dr. Swenja Surminski from the London School of Economics.
The theme of the seminar is Climate change transformation and adaptation in risk-sensitive urban development.
AIM
There is an urgent need to transform current development practices that increase or create risks as well as sometimes promote the unfair distribution of risks to vulnerable communities. Therefore, under the ESRC / GCRF funded TRANSCEND project we investigate building resilience and also promote social justice in considering risk-sensitive urban development in developing countries.
As part of this project, the aim of this seminar series is to showcase ongoing research and new initiatives in climate change mitigation and adaptation within the considerations of risk-sensitive urban development.
THEMES
The recent IPCC sixth assessment report indicates that climate change is occurring in every region and globally. It emphasises that there is still time to act but it must happen immediately, particularly those changes in systems that will significantly reduce and lead to sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Managing climate change has sometimes conflicting objectives that constitute its measures of mitigation and adaptation.
Climate change mitigation is focused on the drivers of climate change and is defined by the IPCC as “a human intervention to reduce the sources or enhance the sinks of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Climate change adaptation on the other hand seeks to reduce vulnerability and enhance coping capacity and is defined by the IPCC as “the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects” inhuman and/or natural systems (IPCC, 2014). Both climate change mitigation and adaptation require the assemblage of several skill sets, policymakers and practitioners working across several knowledge domains and geographic areas. Hence our TRANSCEND project takes a multidisciplinary approach in tackling climate change mitigation and adaptation.
SPEAKERS
Dr. Rasmus Benestad, The Norwegian Meteorological Institute, Norway:
‘Learning from stress testing cities/regions with potential climatic hazards’
Dr. Swenja Surminski, The London School of Economics:
‘Climate change adaptation and the role of business and finance’
AGENDA
Please note: all times are based on UK times. Please adjust to your local geographical time zone.
8.15 am: Registration and event open.
8.30 am: Welcoming the participants, Prof. Bingunath Ingirige, Centre for Disaster Resilience, School of Science Engineering and Environment, University of Salford, UK.
8:35 am: Opening Remarks, Prof. Terrence Fernando, Director of the THINKlab, University of Salford, UK.
8.40 am: Speaker 1 – Dr. Rasmus Benestad, The Norwegian Meteorological Institute, Norway: ‘Learning from stress testing cities/regions with potential climatic hazards’.
9.15 am: Q&A Session 1.
9:30 am: Speaker 2 – Dr. Swenja Surminski, The London School of Economics, UK: ‘Climate change adaptation and the role of business and finance’.
10:05 am: Q&A Session 2.
10.20 am: Closing Remarks, Dr. Sara Biscaya, School of Science Engineering and Environment, University of Salford, UK.
10.30 am: End of Session.
Please note: the event opens at 8.15 am and starts at 8:30 UK time. The event is online and the link will be sent before the event date.
Funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) in the UK, the TRANSCEND project is investigating socio-technical systems required for enabling a transition towards a more risk-sensitive and transformative urban development approach in Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Malaysia.
It aims to promote a participatory approach that supports the transparent and democratic involvement of all the relevant stakeholders (including experts from local authorities, disaster management authorities, developers, poor and vulnerable communities, and humanitarian organisations) to analyse, forecast, visualize and debate disaster-risk trade-offs and to choose development plans that ensure sustainability and equitable resilience, giving considerations to climate change adaptation.
Tickets are FREE and registration is via this link
