May 19 | 8:00 – 10:00am EDT
Climate change is affecting the entire world and the time available to balance the global carbon budget is running out. In order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius – a threshold recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to safeguard from the most serious impacts of climate change – carbon neutrality by mid-century is essential. Based on this target, more and more countries have announced national commitments to net-zero.
Universities, NGOs, and Think Tanks around the world working to mitigate climate change must coordinate actions and support countries to reach their climate targets through the development of decarbonization pathways and by filling key research gaps. In this spirit, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) will host a dialogue on deep decarbonization pathways in cooperation with the GEI Think Tank Alliance, showcasing work related to China’s Carbon Peak & Neutrality Research, America’s Zero Carbon Action Plan, and the European Green Deal.
Subject to national conditions politically, geographically, and culturally, there are both similarities and differences in terms of achieving carbon neutrality and the methods through which nations will work to get there. Which technical solutions have the highest potential in these regions? What is the cost-benefit analysis for investing in carbon neutrality? What lessons or practices can already be learned from these efforts and shared with each other?
Register here
Agenda
08:00 – 08:10 | Welcome & Opening Remarks
- Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, President, SDSN
08:10 – 09:10 | Presentations from the United States, China, and EU
- Michael Gerrard, Columbia Law School and Ryan Jones, Evolved Energy Research
- Bo Yuan, SGERI
- Professor Dr. Phoebe Koundouri, Athens University of Economics and Business
- Simone Borghesi, Director FSR Climate European University Institute, Secretary General POC EAERE, Full Prof UniSiena
09:10 – 09:45 | Panel Discussion
- Moderated by Mr. Frank Qiankun Wang, Executive Director of GEIDCO North America Office
09:45 – 09:50 | Introduction of GEI Think Tank
- Mr. Han Zhang, Bureau of Cooperation, GEIDCO
09:50 – 10:00 | Concluding Remarks
- Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, President, SDSN
Read the expert view of Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network titled “From Carbon Neutrality to Sustainable Development” that has been published in the June 2021 Edition of Global Energy Interconnection Information (special
issue on North America) in the following link (pages 52-54): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1W0-6k7ljMbFJ-ahnHLskDku7Cqtqjmvt/view.
Read the experts’ insights for the webinar at pages 55-56 (the opinion of Prof. Koundouri is on page 56) that have been published in the June 2021 Edition of Global Energy Interconnection Information (special
issue on North America) in the following link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1W0-6k7ljMbFJ-ahnHLskDku7Cqtqjmvt/view.