Climate conversations at SLU: impacts, adaptation and vulnerability

SLU Global and SLU Future Food, SLU Future Forests, SLU Future One Health and SLU Urban Futures take the launch of the IPCC reports as an opportunity to increase the scientific conversation about climate change across disciplines at SLU

How should we adapt food production in a changing climate?

IPCC Working Group II contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report is scheduled to be finalised in February 2022 focusing on Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. This webinar will therefore give an introduction to the report by Debra Roberts, Co-Chair of Working Group II. In addition, Jennie Barron and Harry Fischer from SLU will add their perspectives, in relation to the report and their research, on adaptation to climate change, food production and livelihoods.

Programme

9:00 – Welcome by Sara Gräslund, Head of SLU Global

9:05 – Introduction by moderator Paul Egan, Researcher, SLU

9:10 – Debra Roberts, Co-Chair, Working Group II IPCC

9:25 – Jennie Barron, Professor, SLU

9:45 – Harry Fischer, Associate Professor, SLU

10:00 – Panel discussion

10:20 – Concluding remarks

Speakers

Dr Debra Roberts – Dr Roberts is currently head of the Sustainable and Resilient City Initiatives Unit in eThekwini Municipality in Durban, South Africa. She was a Lead Author of Chapter 8 (Urban Areas) and a Contributing Author to Chapter 12 (Africa) of the Working Group II contribution to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report. She was elected as Co-Chair of Working Group II for the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment cycle in 2015. Debra Roberts was also a member of the South African United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiating team until December 2015, and has sat on various international advisory bodies focused on climate change issues in cities.

Professor Jennie Barron – Professor Barron develops, leads and coordinates research, teaching and outreach in national and international contexts within agricultural water management for sustainable intensification of agro-ecological landscapes at SLU. Her research activities aim to deliver evidence-based knowledge for policy and investments for food security, productivity and resilience in an era of climatic and social change, in Sweden and in regions of Sub-Sahara Africa and Asia.

Associate Professor Harry Fischer – Associate Professor Fischer’s research explores the intersection between environmental governance, rural development, and democratic politics in the developing world, with a focus on India and Nepal. Some of his ongoing research projects involve “Institutional networks and self-organised adaptation: Tracing the democratic architectures of climate response”, “Impacts of Afforestation on Sustainable Rural Livelihoods in India”. Fischer has his PhD from the Department of Geography, University of Illinois, USA, and has been a research fellow at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, and the Australia-India Institute at the University of Melbourne, before coming to SLU, Uppsala.

Moderator

Dr. Paul Egan – Dr Egan is a researcher at SLU and research officer advisor at SLU Global. His research focuses on food security, and in particular how to ensure more climate-resilient modes of pest and pollinator management for smallholder farmers. He has explored practical and policy solutions for adaptation in Nepal, as well as in low-income countries generally, in collaboration with UNESCO, FAO, and CGIAR.