On Tuesday 15 November, experts from across the UK and Dubai came together for a special webinar to mark COP27: How can we make real change to tackle the climate crisis?
This panel discussion considered different perspectives from academia, industry and young people and allow for questions from the audience.
Panellists included;
Niheer Dasandi is an Associate Professor in the School of Government, University of Birmingham. His research focuses on the health dimensions of climate change, and the relationship between sustainable development and human rights. He has been part of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change since 2016, and is a co-lead of the politics and governance working group for the Lancet Countdown in Europe. Niheer will explore why we need to treat climate change as a public health issue.
Michaela Mahlberg is Professor of Corpus Linguistics at the University of Birmingham. Her research focuses on the relationship of language and reality. She is editor of the International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, with her team, she has developed the CLiC web app for the digital reading of fiction, and she is the host of the “Life and Language” podcast.
Heather McKay leads the UK sustainable finance team at E3G, working closely with CSOs, Business and Investors to deliver transformative finance policy in the UK. Heather also works to support global ambition setting by the UK in international fora such as COP. This has included leading campaigns around a number of crucial policy reforms including securing the Government’s commitment at COP26 to deliver a world leading Net Zero Financial Centre, and mandating private sector transition plan disclosures. Passionate about the issues of finance and inclusion within climate thinking, Heather has also spent the last five years campaigning around energy and climate finance issues and was the UK’s representative on the Youth Task Force at the NDC Partnership.
Mohammad Radfar is the programme director for MSc Urban Planning, School of Geography. He is an urban designer and planner who have also gained experience as a landscape architect and environmental planner and with an interdisciplinary and multi-professional background. In terms of teaching and research approach, he tends to use design concepts with cultural theories to explain and resolve urban problems. He is interested in social sustainability and put people and community at the centre of his research and teaching philosophy. As a principled culturalist, Mohammad believes that in the current super-divers society, in order to plan and develop successful sustainable places, understanding the complex relationships between people across different cultures and place is necessary.
Morgan Roberts MSci is a Graduate Changemaker. Morgan is a recent Biochemistry Graduate, who translated her personal passion for sustainability into her life as a student and now in her role in External Relations. She has developed a comprehensive network of sustainability professionals and is pioneering an institution-wide programme to push for system- and behaviour-change.
www.birmingham.ac.uk/climate
