IGPS September Events

Wednesday 4 September

Looking Forward: NZ Aid Beyond 2015
New Zealand Aid and Development Dialogues

DATE: Wednesday 4 September
VENUE: Government Building, Lecture Theatre 2
TIME: 1:00pm-5:30pm
RSVP: admin@nzadds.org.nz by Wednesday 28 August

We live in a rapidly changing world. Over the past fifteen years, great progress has been made in reducing poverty and addressing global development problems. The Millennium Development Goals have helped to focus our efforts to ensure all people can enjoy a basic quality of life, free of poverty. These Goals draw to an end in 2015 and currently a new global development framework is being crafted. What is the role of aid amidst the shifting context of global development? How can New Zealand’s aid and development efforts best respond to these changes?

This half-day forum will provide an opportunity to reflect on such issues. It will commence with a keynote address by Professor Stephen Howes of the Australian National University’s Development Policy Centre on the topic: ‘The future of aid: does it have one, and if so what does it look like?’ Following this, various other experts on aid issues and political party spokespeople will discuss the future of New Zealand aid, and what role New Zealand can play in building a world where all people live safe, healthy and prosperous lives.

Programme available here

Thursday 5 September

Climate confusion: why the international climate change negotiations have unravelled, and what, if anything, can be done about it

DATE: Thursday 5 September
VENUE: Railway West Wing, Room 501 (Level 5)
TIME: 12:30pm-1:30pm

Speaker: Professor Stephen Howes, Australian National University

In 2009 (Copenhagen) and 2010 (Cancun), the world decided to move away from a top-down (Kyoto) approach to a more flexible bottom-up approach to tackling climate change. But in Durban (2011), we decided (apparently) to go back to a top-down approach. Subsequent negotiations, however, have revealed deep splits between powerful countries. How did we get into this mess, and what are the prospects for getting out of it? Read more>>

Thursday 12 September
Renewable Energy Futures to 2050: Current Thinking and Options for Cities

DATE: Thursday 12 September
VENUE: Government Building, Lecture Theatre 4
TIME: 12:30pm-1:30pm

Speaker: Dr Eric Martinot
Dr. Martinot will present some findings from his recent work, the REN21 Renewables Global Futures Report. This report provides a pioneering synthesis of the full range of credible possibilities for the future of renewable energy. The report is not one scenario or viewpoint, but captures the contemporary thinking of 170 leading experts from around the world, including CEOs and parliamentarians, as expressed in face-to-face interviews with the report author. The report also incorporates the results of 50 recently published and prominent energy scenarios by a range of organizations. The report looks at future shares of energy, investment levels, technology development, and the range of integration options for electric power grids, buildings, industry, and transport. The report also highlights the role of local governments and presents visions, practices, and policies for incorporating renewable energy at the local/city level. Read more>>

Friday 13 September

Valuing Nature and the Problem of Incommensurable Values
DATE: Friday 13 September
VENUE: Government Building, Lecture Theatre 2
TIME: 12:30pm-1:30pm

Speaker: Dr Geoff Bertram
The seminar will discuss the issues that arise in adjudication of conflicts between monetary values arising in the market sphere and incommensurable values from the environmental sphere that are not reducible or convertible to money terms. The issues are addressed through a survey of relevant literature and a review of some recent environment cases under the RMA. Read more>>

Monday 16 September

Insights on Models of Change: A Global and Pacific Perspective

DATE: Monday 16 September
VENUE: Government Building, Lecture Theatre 1
TIME: 5:40pm-7:15pm

Speakers: Duncan Green, Oxfam UK and Barry Coates, Oxfam NZ

Humanity's challenge in the 21st century is to eradicate inequality and achieve prosperity for all within the means of the planet's limited natural resources. The challenge means mobilising finance and technology to achieve the desired result of environmentally sustainable, pro-poor development - but the biggest transformation will come through people promoting active citizenship and effective states. How does this fundamental change happen? What is the role of policymakers and other actors, including the state and business, in actively fostering the development process? How can we challenge power and politics to break the poverty and inequality cycle? Read more>>

Friday 20 September

From Millennium Development Goals to Sustainable Development Goals

DATE: Friday 20 September
VENUE: Government Building, Lecture Theatre 2
TIME: 12:30pm-1:30pm

Speaker: Barry Coates, Oxfam NZ
We face important choices on the global goals we aim to achieve in the future. The Millennium Development Goals have played an important role in helping to mobilise resources and focus attention on key targets for poverty reduction by 2015. But as well as the ongoing challenge to reduce the numbers of people who live in poverty, we also live in an age of increasing environmental scarcity and pressures – on freshwater, land, oceans and fisheries and biodiversity. These challenges become even more serious as the impacts of climate change increase. The task ahead in deciding on global goals post 2015 is not just to pick some new indicators, but to embed them into an approach that will catalyse urgent action on a global scale. This is the right time to be thinking globally and acting together. Read more>> 

Friday 4 October

Mobilising people to protect and restore our environment –  the roles of paradigms, cosmologies, theories, values and beliefs
DATE: Friday 4 October
VENUE: Government Building, Lecture Theatre 2
TIME: 12:30pm-1:30pm

Speaker: Dr Rick Boven, Director, Stakeholder Strategies

The way we think about environmental issues affects the outcomes we will experience.  In recent years the long term mutual dependence of economy and environment has been widely recognised.  However, important short term trade-offs must be managed well so that there is an appealing long term future.  Incompatible climate and energy policies, the conflict between long term risk and short term growth goals and our inability to translate understanding into change are symptoms of a deeper failure to integrate historical, psychological and social thinking into our environment management paradigm.

Einstein pointed out that we cannot solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.  In this talk, Rick will explore how we think about our environment, explain why we manage the environment the way we do, identify alternative approaches, and offer some ways we can overcome obstacles to change.

ENDS

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