The University of Warwick’s COP28 sustainability media networking event
The University of Warwick is bringing together world-leading academics from a wide range of disciplines who are actively researching areas critical to the COP summit.
The event, held at The Shard on 12 September (6-8pm, with drinks and nibbles from 5:30) will be hosted by Professor Elena Korosteleva, Director of Warwick’s Institute for Global Sustainable Development. Elena witnessed the tragic recent wildfires in Rhodes and helped to put out the flames with local residents.
The six research areas of discussion include:
- Unplugging The Grid –energy geo-politics, thecost of unplugging households from the grid and the potential mortgage timebomb that could be triggered.
- Changing Minds, Changing Behaviours – how behavioural science has allowed multinational corporations and governments to shift the focus on environmental change from regulation and policy to individual responsibility. How to use 'nudge theory' more effectively to help us adopt a more sustainable lifestyle. Reducing the environmental impact of filmmaking.
- The Green Revolution – advances in batteries, power storage, battery recycling, and training green collar workers. How companies can become totally net zero, with their supply chain and customers, revolutionising the whole chain.
- Human needs in the climate crisis – water security, sustainable transport planning, sustainable cities, the spread of disease as vector habitats shift position, how industry complies with sanitation and hygiene protocols.
- The Race for Space – Using technology to meet our green energy needs. Beaming solar power back to Earth, reducing space junk and harvesting solar power for sustainable space travel.
- Climate Justice –food security, preserving grasslands, and how countries, regions and companies can transparently measure social and environmental impacts. Encouraging company use of climate risk and impact management practices in investment.
There will be four Ted-style talks (6-8 mins) from key academics outlining the latest climate change and sustainability research, followed by breakout sessions for individual meetings between academics and journalists on topics you feel will be most useful.
Speakers will be:
Professor Nick Chater – Why nudges are not enough. On how there has been a lot of enthusiasm behind the idea that 'nudges' can shift people to more sustainable behaviour. But in reality nudges can only have a limited role. A far more important contribution for behavioural science is understanding how to help build public consensus behind conventional policies to change the "system" to move towards Net Zero.
Nick was on the advisory board of the Cabinet Office's Behavioural Insight Team (BIT), popularly known as the 'Nudge Unit'. He sat on the Climate Change Committee for six years until July 2022. He is Professor of Behavioural Science at Warwick Business School.
Professor David Elmes – how saving the planet will mean moving big and central to small and local. The future is decentralised generation in smart local energy systems rather than huge nuclear power stations or massive solar farms.
David spent over 20 years working in the energy & management consulting industries before joining WBS to head up its Global Energy Group. He is an expert on how the structure of the global energy industry is changing, how new business models are finding success and how management practices are changing. This continues his work before WBS on how companies achieve changes that transform their performance, including changes in organisation, culture and capabilities that enable and sustain new ways of working in ever-changing circumstances.
Professor David Greenwood – how advances in power production and storage will affect us all and what we research and investment we need in the UK to keep us at the forefront of global innovation as we race to combat climate change.
David is Director for Industrial Engagement, and CEO of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult at WMG. Previously, David established and led the Energy Directorate at WMG where he led a team of over 200 researchers and engineers. Projects spanned several fields, including cars, trucks, boats, off highway machinery, aircraft and motorcycles. His research covers batteries, electric motors, power electronics, and the integration and control of these for propulsion and energy applications. David can be contacted at d.greenwood@warwick.ac.uk
Shravani Sharma – Sustainable transport for all – why women and girls, young people, and people from diverse backgrounds must be included in urban transport planning.
Shravani is an Urban and Transport Planner, currently pursuing her PhD in Human Factors in WMG, University of Warwick. Her work focuses on the role of wellbeing on transport choices and her focus is to understand how different sections of the society, especially people with disabilities adopt new technologies for transport. Shravani grew up watching her Indian city of Guwahati expand from a simple, quiet town to a bustling metropolis. Her upbringing also centred around sustainable fashion and practices within her Assamese family, inspired her to pursue a career in sustainability.
Shravani actively spearheads climate action efforts and in her past positions with her work with organisations such as Climate Champions UNFCCC, Climate Group, WRI, ARUP etc. Her work focused on the transport sector in a role centred on building momentum towards an accelerated transition to zero-emission vehicles towards COP27 and beyond (which is responsible for a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions), and on persuading policymakers, operators and the public of the benefits of cleaner and healthier modes of transport supported by evidence-based research and analysis. She has led delegations at COP meetings, facilitated State engagements, and provided consultation to the Indian government on how to improve active mobility facilities and EV accessibility.
She is a passionate advocate for empowering more marginalised communities, youth and young women to take part in climate discussions. She believes that their perspectives as potentially vulnerable members of society and contributors to emerging economies are crucial in shaping policy changes for the environment's betterment.”
Also attending and available for discussions:
Professor Don Pollacco
Science Coordinator for the ESA PLATO mission, Don also heads up Warwick’s Centre for Space Domain Awareness (CSDA) – tackling issues relating to the safety and sustainability of satellite operations in the space domain. He is a seasoned media spokesperson; able to talk about his detailed research into exoplanets, everyday astronomy events for a layman – such as meteor showers, eclipses and light pollution – and his passion of creating a sustainable, decluttered near Earth environment.
Professor Ross Hatton
Ross is interested in solar energy; he is working on the next generation of photovoltaics which will be based on very thin films of semiconductors that can be processed from solution at low temperature, leading to exceptionally low-cost manufacturing processes and new application areas not currently achievable with conventional solar cells.
Professor Elena Korosteleva
As Director of the Institute for Global Sustainable Development at Warwick, Elena focuses on resilient communities, capacity-building and political relations. She saw first-hand the devastating impact of climate change while in Rhodes this year – helping to put out the wildfires sweeping the region.
Professor Caroline Kuzemko
Caroline's research focuses on the political economy of sustainable energy transformations. She is interested in how ideas, interests, and institutions shape policy decision-making at the global, national, and local levels. Her current project is on the Political Economy of Global Energy Transformations and is funded by the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC). She is co-chair of the European Consortium for Political Research network on Energy Politics, Policy and Governance.
Dr Feng Mao
Feng is Associate Professor of Global Sustainable Development. His key research interests lie in the intersection of water, ecosystems, society, and technologies. He particularly focuses on water security, resilience and water disasters.
Dr Long Tran-Thanh
Long Tran-Thanh is currently a Deputy Head of the Computer Science Department, and he does research in the broad area of Artificial Intelligence; building complex learning systems where humans and agents collaborate to deal with complex real-world problems. He is currently using AI to tackle social and environmental challenges, such as to improve East African grassland, helping to make it more sustainable, or to use AI to improve the mitigation of wildfires.
Dr Ludovica Gazze
Ludovica is an environmental and health economist researching urban policy issues. She focuses on one of the most pressing challenges facing society: conserving resources and reducing pollution. She helps to design and evaluate programmes to achieve these goals, by accounting for pollution damages and compliance behaviour by individuals and firms.
Dr Madeleine Fagan
Madeleine is an Associate Professor in Politics and International Studies. She works on the politics of the Anthropocene – the proposed new geological time period in which humans have become a planetary geological force. Madeleine’s work explores the reasons for the lack of political mobilization around the climate crisis and how this is impacted by scientific and security framings of climate issues.
Professor Pietari Kaapa
As Professor in Media and Communications and specialist in environmental screen media, Pietari combines his interests in the media and the environment. His recent publications include ‘Film and Television Production in the Age of the Climate Crisis: Towards a Greener Screen’.
Ivo Vlaev, Professor of Behavioural Science
Ivo has researched the use of behavioural science ‘nudges’ in a range of settings. He has used them to prevent littering, to nudge gay men to get tested for AIDS, to persuade people in rural India to improve sanitation and use latrines, and in reducing obesity. In 2010, Professor Vlaev co-authored the Mindspace report published by the UK Cabinet Office, advising local and national policymakers on how to effectively use behavioural insights in their policy setting. Since then, he has helped public and private organisations develop and apply lessons from behavioural science. He was Advisor for the Covid-19 Behaviour Change Unit, NHS England and NHS Improvement during the pandemic and has been a member of the Cabinet Office’s What Works Trial Advice Panel, helping civil servants design and implement effective trials and evaluations, since 2020.
Isabel Fischer, Associate Professor (Reader) of Information Systems
Isabel's research portfolio centres on the interdisciplinarity across Ethics, AI and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance criteria). She has worked with Rho AI, a data science firm, in its attempt to leverage artificial intelligence to encourage environmental, social and governance investments to limit the impact of climate change. Rho AI’s proposed open-source artificial intelligence tool integrates automated web scraping technology and machine learning with natural language processing. The aim of the tool is to enable investors to evaluate the climate impact of companies and to use this evaluation as a basis for making investments in companies.
Frederik Dahlmann, Associate Professor of Strategy and Sustainability
Frederik’s research focuses on understanding how companies respond to global sustainability challenges in their business strategies, management practices and corporate governance systems. A specific stream of research examines the factors that shape how companies address climate change and reduce corporate carbon emissions. Fred is also interested in the emerging phenomenon of the purpose ecosystem and its role within wider earth system governance and sustainability transformations. Finally, his research is concerned with the ethical implications of the Anthropocene for business and managers. Through his work, he has played a crucial role in shaping corporate sustainability agendas, advising businesses and policymakers on sustainable practices. Dr Dahlmann is also a Senior Research Fellow of the Earth System Governance network, and member of the ESG Taskforces on the Sustainable Development Goals (working group Private Governance and Partnerships for the SDGs) as well as Governance of Nature and Biodiversity.
Hendrik Vollmer, Reader of Accounting
Hendrik researches the potential for accounting to address ecological issues such as environmental impact, degradation, and renewal. His work focuses on how accounting systems can be enhanced to measure and communicate organizations' environmental and social impacts accurately. Through his scholarly contributions, Dr. Vollmer has been instrumental in driving awareness and encouraging businesses to adopt sustainable accounting practices, fostering transparency and accountability in their pursuit of economic, social, and environmental goals.
Katharina Dittrich, Associate Professor of Organisation Studies
Katharina is leading the four-year Future Leaders Fellowship project “Financially redesigning the Anthropocene”, funded by the UK Research and Innovation council. In the last few years, there has been a surge in Net Zero commitments by financial institutions (asset owners, asset managers, banks etc.) and increasing voluntary and mandatory disclosure around climate-related risks. The research looks at how financial institutions are working towards meeting their Net Zero targets, how they navigate the complexities of climate-related knowledge and GHG emissions data management, and how they integrate such knowledge into their ESG investing practices. More information can be found here and on this blog.
Giuliana Battisti, Professor of the Economics of Innovation
Giuliana’s current research is with the Bank of England and the risk of a mortgage crisis due to impending regulations to make homes more energy efficient. She estimates that standard mortgage pricing models using a unique data set of 1.8 million mortgages originated in the United Kingdom pre-2018, before energy efficiency regulations interventions were made. And so she finds no evidence of lenders charging higher rates on riskier mortgages against energy-inefficient properties. She has been advising and doing research for various governments and private organisations such as the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
Haley Beer, Associate Professor of Operations Management
Haley’s research focusses on the creation and measurement of social value and social impact: how organizations can have, and demonstrate, a positive influence (physical, emotional, cultural) on all stakeholders - not just make financial profit for shareholders. She looks to help organisations create an environment in which socially-oriented decision making has a positive impact on the profitability of the business as well as society. Haley has volunteered on and contributed to several regional, national, and international advisory committees, not-for-profit boards, and social value projects with United Kingdom and Canadian government entities and socially motivated organisations.
Hugh Wilson, Professor of Marketing
Hugh is passionate about leveraging marketing to achieve sustainability in business and society. Today, many firms are defining a higher purpose that relates to society's social and environmental goals. Businesses often need the help of consumers in achieving their social and environmental sustainability goals. He researches what techniques work best for nudging them. He also works on developing policies for sustainable lifestyles. It also involves estimating the impact of different lifestyle innovations to underpin these policy recommendations.
Please email annie.slinn@warwick.ac.uk if you would like to attend, or would like the contact numbers of the listed academics.