Here is a recording and transcript of the event, Surviving the Polycrisis: Do we need to change, transform or replace our economic system?
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This year Baku will host the 29th CoP… so 30 years since anthropogenic climate change was recognised by the UN and its over 190 participating national members as sufficiently important to meet annually to address.
And yet greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, and with them global temperatures; destroying the lives and livelihoods of some, disrupting many, and threatening us all. At the same time, we see a 70% reduction in wildlife over the last 50 years, unmanaged pollution at record and accelerating levels; and staggering levels of inequality with the world’s richest 1% having more than twice as much wealth as 6.9 billion people.
Our economic system, with its relentless quest for growth, is clearly complicit if not a primary cause of these crises aka the polycrisis. Whilst the benefits of the system are unevenly distributed, the system does indeed deliver positive outcomes too.
Can our growth-led, capitalist-shaped economic system help us out of our current predicament? Or do we need to replace it?
Come and participate in an evening of expert opinion, debate and interaction as we develop these themes and seek conclusions. London Business School, the LBS Alumni and Business Declares are hosting an evening for all those concerned about the status quo and wanting to influence the future.
This session will be chaired by Sam Baker, Strategic Advisor of Business Declares, with speakers and panellists including:
Speakers
Simon Sharpe is Managing Director of S-Curve Economics, a new non-profit organisation dedicated to advancing understanding of the economics of the low carbon transition. He is also Director of Economics for the Climate Champions Team, and author of Five Times Faster: Rethinking the Science, Economics, and Diplomacy of Climate Change, which was listed by the Times and Financial Times as one of the best environment books of the year 2023. Simon was previously Deputy Director of the UK government’s COP26 Unit, where he led international campaigns on energy, transport, land use, science and innovation. His other roles in government included leading international climate change strategy, developing the approach to clean growth in the UK’s industrial strategy, and serving as head of private office to Ministers of State for Energy and Climate Change. He also served on diplomatic postings to China and India. Simon has published academic papers on climate change science and economics, and policy reports on climate change risk assessment, economics, and diplomacy. His paper ‘Upward-scaling tipping cascades to meet climate goals: plausible grounds for hope’ was the most widely read paper in Climate Policy journal in 2021.
Book website: fivetimesfaster.org
Project website: eeist.co.uk
Michael J. Albert is a Lecturer in Global Environmental Politics at the University of Edinburgh. His research explores the global politics of climate, energy, and food system transformations from a world-systems theory perspective. While primarily based in the subfield of global environmental politics, his work is transdisciplinary - i.e. indifferent to disciplinary boundaries. His first book - called Navigating the Polycrisis: Mapping the Futures of Capitalism and the Earth - brings complexity theory and world-systems thinking together with insights from the earth system sciences, ecological economics, energy studies, and critical security studies to investigate the possible futures of the world-system. His work has appeared in Global Environmental Politics, Review of International Political Economy, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Global Policy, Globalizations, Theory & Event, and Review of International Studies.
Panellists
Dominique is a Youth Climate Justice Activist, Global Speaker, Writer, and a recent graduate of Political Science student and International Relations in the U.K. She works on uniting people for climate action, speaking to world leaders, intersectional climate justice, making environmental spaces inclusive, and using creative means and the arts to create a cultural shift for our protecting our earth. She is also an advocate of sustainable fashion and has modelled for earth focused campaigns.
Rachel Donald investigates why the world is in crisis—and what to do about it. She's the creator of Planet: Critical, the podcast and newsletter for a world in crisis. With 12,000+ subscribers in 164 countries, Planet: Critical connects the dots of science, art, language, politics and power to reveal the big picture. Rachel speaks internationally on this ecosystem as an independent researcher and writer, and collaborates on crisis initiatives around the world. Her investigations into climate corruption have been published internationally and she was the first journalist in the world to break the stories on the resource wars driving the genocides in Palestine and Sudan. She is currently writing her first book on violence.
Tim is a bookseller, regenerative business designer and rebel economist on a journey to understand his role in the great system of life.
Having previously established England’s only carbon negative Local Industrial Strategy whilst working as Head of Economic Policy, he now specialises in regenerative businesses transformation.
Through his practice Tim cultivates an emotional connection with this pivotal moment for life on Earth to create change and transformation that comes from the heart not just the head. Because of this work, the Doughnut Economics Action Lab have, very kindly, called him a thought leader, though he prefers to think of himself as a thought weaver.
Tim is currently working in the role of source for the Piʌot project – the people powered movement for regenerative transformation.
He also works as a consultant, facilitator and public speaker on regenerative design, and runs a monthly book subscription, Adventurous Ink, which helps people reconnect with themselves and the wider world.
Connect with Tim on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/timfrenneaux/
Hans is the Chief Economist of Triodos Bank NV, Europe’s leading sustainable bank. In this role, he is responsible for economic and sustainability research and for Triodos Bank’s impact strategy. He initially joined Triodos Investment Management, the impact investing arm of Triodos Bank, in 2017 and prior to that has over twenty years of experience as an economist, working on different fields of macroeconomics, long-term forecasting and scenarios, strategy and circular business models. Before joining Triodos, he worked at Rabobank as chief economist, CPB (the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis) and labour union ABVAKABO. Hans studied Economics at Maastricht University. He writes a weekly column in Dutch newspaper, Het Financieele Dagblad (The Dutch Financial Times).
In November 2023, Triodos presented its Economic Outlook for 2024. Hans Stegeman said: “Both the ongoing ecological degradation and the rising inequality stem from the relentless pursuit of economic growth. Therefore, a discourse on growth itself and the exploration of alternative routes to a flourishing and future-proof society should inherently form a core aspect of a long-term vision for an institution like ours, which champions the transition to a sustainable economy.”