Smith in the City Evening Seminar Series

A joint programme between the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment and UBS 

The series profiles leading thinkers from around the globe looking at some of the major issues and challenges facing the world’s economies and people.

For information on the whole series please visit UBS Smith in the City Microsite.

FORTHCOMING SEMINAR

Thursday, 6 June 2013, 17:30

Seminar 10 - ‘Firm Commitment: Why the Corporation is Failing Us and How to Restore Trust in it’.

Professor Colin Mayer, Peter Moores Professor of Management Studies, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford

Hubert Jeaneau, Equity Research Analyst, Global Sustainability, UBS

UBS Conference Centre Ground Floor 1 Finsbury Avenue London EC2M 2PP

The corporation is one of the most important and remarkable institutions in the world. It affects all our lives continuously. It feeds, entertains, houses and, employs us. It generates vast amounts of revenue for those who own it and it invests a substantial proportion of the wealth that we possess. But the corporation is also the cause of immense problems and suffering, a source of poverty and pollution, and its failures are increasing.  While governments are subject to repeated questioning and scrutiny, the corporation receives relatively little attention.

In this lecture, Professor Colin Mayer and Hubert Jeaneau will discuss Prof Mayer’s book Firm Commitment published by Oxford University Press in February 2013.  It will discuss how the corporation is failing us, why it is happening now, what are the consequences and what steps are being taken to fix it.

PAST SEMINARS

Tuesday, 7 May 2013

Seminar 9 – “Climate Matters”

Professor John Broome, White’s Professor of Moral Philosophy, University of Oxford

UBS Conference Centre Ground Floor 1 Finsbury Avenue London EC2M 2PP

Because greenhouse gas is an externality, it creates inefficiency in the world’s economy. This means it is possible in principle to correct the externality without any sacrifice on the part of anyone. Why, then, do many economists call for sacrifices by the present generation for the sake of future generations? Professor Broome will answer this question, and argue that we need institutions that will make it possible in practice as well as in principle to correct the externality without any sacrifice. He will also consider whether the small chance of catastrophe – as opposed to the large chance of a lesser harm – should dominate our thinking about climate change.

Wednesday, 13 March 2013

Seminar 8 – “The Carbon Crunch: How we are getting climate change wrong – and how to fix it”

Professor Dieter Helm, Professor of Energy Policy, University of Oxford.

Despite commitments to renewable energy and two decades of international negotiations, global emissions continue to rise. Coal, the most damaging of all fossil fuels, has actually risen from 25 per cent to almost 30 per cent of world energy use. And while European countries have congratulated themselves on reducing emissions, they have increased their carbon imports from China and other developing nations, who continue to expand their coal use. As standards of living increase in developing countries, coal use can only increase as well – and global temperatures along with it. Prof Dieter Helm will present the findings of his new book, ‘The Carbon Crunch: How we are getting Climate Change wrong – and how to fix it‘ which looks at how and why we have failed to tackle the issue of global warming and argues for a new, pragmatic rethinking of energy policy – from transitioning from coal to gas and eventually to electrification of transport, to carbon pricing and a focus on new technologies.

Presentation Slides

For all past seminars please visit the UBS Smith in the City Microsite.