Global Minnesota Talk: Climate Geopolitics

A Talk on Climate Geopolitics, hosted by Global Minnesota, based on the Great Decisions Program of the Foreign Policy Association

Presented: August 10, 2016 — 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm

Pathways to Worldwide Ecological Integrity

Climate change influences nearly every element of the geopolitical landscape, including human sustenance, international resource flows, and the viability of the civil state. The Paris Agreement brings all 195 nations that are parties to the 1992 UN Climate Convention into an active role in combatting climate change. It adds new principles to international law—like adherence to intergenerational equity and coherence of policy direction in decarbonization—and sends the strongest signal the world has yet seen to investors everywhere to change practices and eliminate climate damage from their activities.

Ultimately, solving the climate challenge will mean building much more inclusive and participatory societies the world over and standardizing climate-smart business practices to the point where the entire global financial sector is actively driving solutions through the everyday economy. We are now beginning to see concrete pathways to that smarter, more secure, and prosperous human future, because we are designing them. Learn how carbon pricing collaboration, innovative global governance strategies, and new modes of citizen engagement are bringing us closer to a genuinely ambitious global climate response.

Bio

Joseph Robertson is the Global Strategy Director for the nonpartisan, nonprofit Citizens’ Climate Lobby. He coordinates the building of CCL’s citizen engagement groups on 5 continents, leads the Citizens’ Climate Engagement Network and represents CCL in the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition, UNFCCC negotiations, and other UN processes. Joseph is the author of the 2010 report Building a Green Economy: On the Economics of Carbon Pricing and the Transition to Clean, Renewable Fuels. He is the founder and president of the Geoversiv Foundation, sits on the Executive Board of the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development, and is the lead strategist supporting the high-level climate dialogue series Accelerating Progress, Advancing Innovation.