Over the last year, the world has seen deadly wildfires, extreme heatwaves, extensive flooding, and more. Scientists now have the data to link these hazards directly to climate change, and world leaders can no longer ignore the need to take decisive action.
Because of this, all eyes have been on Glasgow, Scotland, where the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference is taking place. But what exactly is COP26? What can the conference achieve? And can it help us save the world from climate change?
Join Perry World House experts who participated in the summit to hear what COP26 was like behind-the-scenes, what's next once the conference ends, and what it means for the future of global climate policy and our planet's survival.
In-person access to our hybrid events is now open to the public as well as the Penn community. All in-person attendees will be REQUIRED to wear a mask and MUST either show their Green PennOpen Pass (University of Pennsylvania faculty, students, postdocs, and staff or badged contractors) OR Green PennOpen Campus (all other visitors including event attendees) in order to take part in-person. You must complete your PennOpen Campus screening on your cell phone BEFORE arriving at Perry World House. Click here for more information about PennOpen Campus and how it works: https://coronavirus.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/PennOpen%20Campus%20How%20It%20Works.pdf
We will continue to provide virtual access to all of our hybrid programming. Zoom details will be found in your order confirmation email.
SPEAKERS
Mauricio Rodas started his professional career with the UN’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean in Santiago de Chile and Mexico City. Later he worked as a policy consultant for the Mexican government. In 2007, he founded and served as the Executive Director of Ethos Public Policy Lab, a think tank based in Mexico ranked among the most influential in Latin America by the Global Go-To Think Tank Index Report. In 2011, Rodas returned to Ecuador and founded SUMA, a national political party. In 2013, he ran for president of Ecuador; the following year he was elected as Mayor of Quito (2014-2019). During this period, Rodas was the hosting Mayor of the UN’s Conference on Urban Sustainable Development – Habitat III. He also had an active leadership role in the main city networks: two terms as world Co-President of UCLG, member of the global boards of C-40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, ICLEI, and the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy. He is a Distinguished Fellow on Global Cities at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and a Senior Fellow of the Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center at the Atlantic Council. Currently, Rodas is also a Visiting Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute for Urban Research and the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, working on the “Cities Climate-Resilient Infrastructure Financing Initiative –C2IFI.” Rodas has a J.D. from Universidad Católica de Quito. He also holds two master’s degrees in Government Administration and Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania.
Koko Warner focuses on climate risks and impacts, migration, and resilient futures at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). She manages the Vulnerability subdivision, where she guides the UN climate secretariat’s adaptation knowledge hub and the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform. Warner is a lead author for the IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land and 5th Assessment Report. Previously at UNFCCC, she supervised the loss and damage workstream. Before joining UNFCCC, Warner was founder and Executive Director of the Munich Climate Insurance Initiative and head of research on environmental migration and social resilience at UN University in Bonn. The International Council of Science named Warner among the top 20 in the climate change debate. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics and publishes in Nature journals, Climate Policy, Global Environmental Change, Journal of Population and Environment, Natural Hazards, and PNAS.
MODERATOR
Michael Weisberg is Senior Faculty Fellow and Director of Post-Graduate Programs at Perry World House, as well as Bess W. Heyman President's Professor and Chair of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. He serves as Editor-in-Chief of Biology and Philosophy, advisor to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Nairobi Work Programme, and directs Penn’s campus-wide transdisciplinary research in Galápagos. He is the author of Simulation and Similarity: Using Models to Understand the World and Galápagos: Life in Motion, as well as a contributing author to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 6th Assessment Report. Much of Professor Weisberg’s research is focused on how highly idealized models and simulations can be used to understand complex systems. He also leads efforts to better understanding the interface between humans and wildlife, between humans and the climate system, and how scientific issues are understood by communities in the Americas and in East Asia. Professor Weisberg received a B.S. in Chemistry and a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of California, San Diego in 1999, and continued graduate study in Philosophy and Evolutionary Biology at Stanford University, earning a 2003 Ph.D. in Philosophy.
