Climate futures | Seminar series

This ground-breaking seminar series will flip the script on climate discourse, imagining a future where we overcome climate challenges and try to answer “what happens next” with current research and creative thinking.

Join us as we explore:

• How cities can become carbon-negative powerhouses
• Ending gold and silver mining & promoting a circular economy
• Putting an end to the “century of fire” from a sustainable law lens

Forbes journalist Dave Vetter will host conversations and talk to experts and visionaries from science, activism, and business. They will explore outcomes where climate change is an empowering event for innovation, and a catalyst for transformation. Where warming temperatures inspire creative solutions for urban planning and urban biodiversity preservation. Where our future is inspired by possibilities that could only stem from challenging times, from a tech revolution that will work for the people and the planet.

This is not your usual seminar; it’s the beginning of meaningful conversation on a cooler, greener, and sustainable tomorrow.

The webinar format: a live streamed conversation where our speakers will be live on the youtube chat answering your questions! Tune in for an unique opportunity to engage with the research, practical steps from real life sustainability examples and an unmissable opportunity to have your questions answered live!

15 October 16:30 BST

Climate futures: Urban jungles: the solution to city planning?

The world is getting hotter, meaning cities will get progressively hotter posing a health threat to those who live there. So how do we keep cool, while also saving the planet?

In this session, Associate Professor Radhika Khosla, Programme Leader in Zero Carbon Energy Use at Oxford’s ZERO Institute and Principal Investigator, Future of Cooling and Angélica Ospina, CEO of Consejo Colombiano de Construcción Sostenible (CCCS or Colombia Green Building Council)  will discuss the challenges and solutions related to urban heat, why cities become vulnerable to extreme heat, and cooling demands in cities amidst global warming. They will also discuss the need to rethink architecture with sustainability, heat resilience and emissions impact reduction in mind.

13 November 16:00 GMT

Climate futures: Will fire be the beginning and the end of our story?

The discovery of fire was the beginning of civilisation - and it may well be the end of it, if we continue with the “business as usual” world moulded by fossil fuels. 

2024 Pulitzer Prize Finalist John Valliant, author of “Fire Weather” and Associate Professor Ben Franta, Associate Professor of Climate Litigation and the founding head of the Climate Litigation Lab will discuss the implications of the continued use of fossil fuels and how we navigate the legal landscape to mitigate fossil fuels’ most damaging impacts.

10 December 16:00 GMT

Climate futures: Is recycled gold the new philosopher’s stone?

Could we source all of our silver and gold solely by recycling these materials and put an end to gold and silver mining? Pandora has recently reshaped its business model to start producing jewellery made exclusively from recycled and responsible sourced materials. What can other businesses learn from Pandora’s shift to sustainably sourced materials? 

Mads Twomey-Madsen, SVP Global Communications & Sustainability at Pandora will be in conversation with Dr Stephen Lezak, Programme Manager, Sustainable Future of Commodities & Infrastructure and author of The case against gold mining discussing circular economy of mined precious materials.