Podcast alert: reflections from the Changing Climates Summer School

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Scientists at The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released their starkest warning yet today as part of periodic stock-take reports and ahead of the next COP meeting in November.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on the report’s findings:

“Today’s interim report from the UNFCCC is a red alert for our planet. It shows governments are nowhere close to the level of ambition needed to limit climate change to 1.5 degrees and meet the goals of the Paris Agreement”,

We’ll be delving into the report in more depth, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, co-convenors of the Climate & Development Study Group, Ciara Finnegan and Gerard Maguire, based in the Development Studies Association, Ireland (DSAI), have been working their socks off this summer.

Following the 2-day summer school on ‘Changing Climates’ in June they sat down with speakers and participants for some post-event commentary on topics such as slavery, conflict and international development.

I was delighted to be invited to share some reflections following our interactive session, which is included in one of the episodes in the podcast series (link below).

There are 11 episodes in the series, all of them available now on Spotify. I have many highlights from these, including Dr Lauren Napier on space law and the SDGs, Ireland’s climate envoy Dr Sinead Walsh on being a good citizen and DSAI chairperson Dr Nita Mishra with some strong words, asking where are all of the trouble makers?

Onward reading

Here are jumping points for onward reading for anyone interested the rabbit holes we ended up chatting about during the podcast. [suggestions for new / more / better readings are always welcome!]

Special Rapporteur on human rights and extreme poverty (on inequality between global north and south, and confronting this)

  • On Philip Alston’s report in 2019 on ‘climate apartheid’ between rich and poor countries (“there is no shortage of alarm bells ringing over climate change”) (source: The Guardian and the original report.
  • Alston’s final report on the failed global efforts to eradicate extreme poverty, and how measuring the poverty line is a dismal baseline to hold the standard of basic dignity against (2020)

On decolonising knowledge

On the subsidies figure

Fact checking (and related!)

‘What can you do’

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