Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).
Please note that all times are shown in the time zone of the conference. The current conference time is: 14th May 2024, 04:53:13pm CEST
How Can ESG Research Contribute to Transformative Change for Climate & Biodiversity?
Time:
Wednesday, 25/Oct/2023:
10:30am - 12:00pm
Location:GR -1.070
Session Conference Streams:
Inter- and Transdisciplinarity for Sustainability Transformations
Presentations
How Can ESG Research Contribute to Transformative Change for Climate & Biodiversity?
Chair(s): Harriet Bulkeley (Durham University, United Kingdom), Esther Turnhout (University of Twente)
Presenter(s): Michele Betsill (University of Copenhagen), Stacy VanDeveer (University of Mass. Boston)
The past five years have witnessed growing calls across climate and biodiversity research and policy communities for transformative change. Yet despite an apparent consensus about the need for transformative change to address the intersecting crises of global inequality, biodiversity loss, and climate change, what transformative change is, how it can be realised, and how we might evaluate its impacts and consequences remains elusive. Various perspectives focus on changes in systems, political or economic structures, or processes of decision-making, and across the climate and biodiversity domains there are differences in the extent to which justice and equity are prioritised, the direct or indirect drivers of change are in focus, or the extent of technocratic approaches which focus on specific outcomes in terms of tonnes or carbon or hectares of biodiversity saved. These different conceptualizations of transformation matter deeply since they affect what mechanisms, policies and options for action are advanced and recognised as legitimate. Ultimately, what is at stake is the question of whether transformative change will end up catalzying deep and positive change, or as a red herring that reproduces the status quo.
This innovative session brings together researchers from across the ESG community working on transformative change in relation to climate change and/or biodiversity with practitioners and policy-makers who are seeking to pin-down the concept of transformative change and put it into action. Our panel members will each offer some opening remarks about what transformative change means to them, the opportunities and challenges they see ahead, and what (if any) signs of transformation they have personally encountered:
Astrid Hilgers, Team Lead for Forests, Climate and Landscapes, Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality
Eloisa Vittoria Menguzzo, Advisor Responsible Investment, PGGM Investments
Shuaib Lwasa, Professor at the International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam & at the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) of the University of Twente
Eefje Cuppen, Professor and Director, Rathenau Instituut, University of Leiden
After this initial round of provocations and discussion with the audience, we will break into discussion groups to consider the perspectives on transformation offered in the dialogue so far, to interrogate where there is common ground and which gaps need further exploration to chart new directions for transformative change research and practice.
