Land use and climate change: How can we respond to new pressures and new possibilities?

Presented by: Panel discussion

2018 marks the 30th year of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change. Christchurch will host the IPCC lead authors' meeting on land use and climate change in March 2018. Given the importance of this research to New Zealand as a whole, we are delighted to announce a free public event: a panel of distinguished international IPCC climate scientists in a public discussion about land use and climate change.

This public event is free but book early as places are limited.

The distinguished speakers include:

Professor Tim Benton is Dean of Strategic Research Initiatives at the University of Leeds and Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Energy, Environment and Resources Department at the Royal Institute of International Affairs at Chatham House, UK. From 2011-2016 he was the “Champion” of the UK’s Global Food Security programme which was a multi-agency partnership of the UK’s public bodies (government departments, devolved governments and research councils) with an interest in the challenges around food. The key role of GFS was to undertake systemic analysis and horizon scanning, in order to identify research priorities to mitigate the challenges of providing sufficient, sustainable and nutritious diets for all. He has published over 150 academic papers, most tackling the core themes of agriculture’s environmental impact and more generally how systems respond to environmental change. He has worked advising industry and policy communities and research funders; worked with UK governments, the EU and G20. He is an agenda steward for the World Economic Forum on the topic of food and agriculture.

Professor Annette Cowie has a background in soil science and plant nutrition, with particular interest in sustainable resource management. She is Principal Research Scientist -Climate, in NSW Department of Primary Industries. From 2009 to 2014 she was the Director of Rural Climate Solutions, (NSW DPI and the University of New England). Annette is also Task Leader of the International Energy Agency Bioenergy research network "Climate Change Effects of Biomass and Bioenergy Systems", Land Degradation advisor on the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel of the Global Environment Facility, and a member of the Science Policy Interface of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. Her research experience includes sustainability assessment and greenhouse gas accounting in agriculture and forestry; investigating key aspects of soil carbon dynamics; life cycle assessment of forestry, bioenergy and biochar systems. Previously Annette led the New Forests research program in the NSW DPI for ten years, researching environmental services from planted forests, focusing on greenhouse gas mitigation, amelioration of dryland salinity and land rehabilitation through use of recycled organics and served on the Domestic Offsets Integrity Committee, under Australia's Carbon Farming Initiative.

Dr Fatima Denton, is the Head of the African Climate Policy Centre which focuses on innovation, science, technology and natural resource management and the Director of the UN Economic Commission for Africa's Special Initiatives Division. Her extensive published work covers renewable energy, sustainable development, climate change, gender, climate change adaptation, vulnerability, food security and water and energy poverty. She has served as a lead author for Working Group II's Fifth Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and for the IPCC Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation (SRREN) and on many global scientific committees including the Independent Science Panel (ISP) of the CGIAR Climate Change and Food Security Programme (CCAFS). In 2015 Dr Denton was invited to give the International institute for Environmental Development Barbara Ward Lecture on challenging policy-makers, researchers, and academics in London to re-examine Africa and its relationship to climate change In 2016 she was nominated by the Borlaug Dialogue International Symposium, as one of the "Women Leaders Driving Agricultural Transformation in Africa".

Dr Anita Wreford is an applied economist specialising in responses to climate change, based in the AERU at Lincoln University. Anita is a Lead author for the IPCC Working Group III and has experience across many areas of climate change, including economic evaluations of adaptation and applying robust methods to deal with climate uncertainty; identifying and evaluating the effectiveness of adaptation options across sectors; mitigation options and costs in agriculture; community resilience to extreme weather events; and adaptation decision-making among various stakeholders. Anita has worked closely with policy makers at a national level and local government (in the UK and New Zealand), providing advice and analysis for adaptation decisions. In addition to the IPCC, Anita has also conducted work for the EU Commission, the OECD, the Scottish Government's ClimateXChange programme, and the UK's Committee on Climate Change.

The panel will include comment from the Co-chairs of IPCC:
Professor Jim Skea is Co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group III, the branch of the IPCC that looks at the actions that can be taken to reduce the rate of climate change and Jim is the Chair of Sustainable Energy at Imperial College Jim Skea has been Research Director of the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) since 2004 and was Director of the UK Policy Studies Institute for siz years and Director of the Economic and Social Research Council's Global Environmental Change Programme. The previously led the Environment Programme at SPRU (Science and Technology Policy Research), University of Sussex and spent two years at the Department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie-Mellon University. His main research interests are: energy/environmental policies; climate change; environmental regulation and technical change; sustainable development; and general business and environment issues. was appointed as one of the founding members of the UK's Committee on Climate Change , its role is to independently assess how the UK can achieve its emissions reductions goals for 2020 and 2050.

Dr Youba Sokona is also Co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group III. He has over 35 years of experience addressing energy, environment and sustainable development issues in Africa. He is currently Special Advisor on Sustainable Development at the South Centre, an Intergovernmental Organization of Developing Countries intended to meet the need for analysis of development problems and experience. Until May 2012, he was Coordinator of the African Climate Policy Centre at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. He was the Executive Secretary of the Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS) in Tunis, Tunisia from 2004 to 2010. He has been involved with the IPCC since 1990, first serving as a Lead Author, then as Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group III for the Fifth Assessment Report. He was elected Vice-Chair of the IPCC in October 2015.

The panel is chaired by award winning science journalist Veronika Meduna. Veronika trained and worked as a microbiologist before becoming a science journalist. She is currently NZ editor of the Conversation, a digital platform that makes academic research accessible to the public. She has previously produced and hosted a weekly science programme for RNZ, written seven books, and contributed to local and international media including NZ Geographic, New Scientist and Deutsche Welle. She was the Oxford University Chevening David Low Fellow, studying the media's role in communicating scientific risk and uncertainty.

This event is co-hosted by the University of Canterbury, The New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre, with Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu and NZ Royal Society Te Apārangi.

More information

Bronwyn Hayward
Email: bronwyn.hayward@canterbury.ac.nz