You are invited to this week’s session of the Political Economy, Technological Innovation and Values Dream Course. Our featured speaker is former United Nations director for the Division of Sustainable Development and lead author on the Nobel Prize-winning panel on climate change, Tariq Banuri, Ph.D.
Professor Banuri is giving two talks:
RESOLVING THE CLIMATE-DEVELOPMENT DILEMMA
Wednesday, Feb. 20, 10:30 a.m. – noon Price Hall 2030
Conventional climate policy has consistently envisaged the threat in terms of what economists call a zero-sum game, to wit, there is a finite atmospheric space available, and the goal of climate agreements is to agree on proportioning it between the North and the South (or further divisions thereof). Not surprisingly, the result has been a total impasse, neither side having enough condign power or moral authority to impose a solution. Admittedly, there is talk of technological alternatives, but these remain on the sidelines, i.e., as options that will emerge once the finite space has been allocated. The argument advanced in the attached paper is that (a) this is not how things work; (b) the better option is to shift the focus from “space allocation” to “technology incentivization”; and (c) here is how it can be done.
EARTHLAND: THE WORLD AS A SINGLE COUNTRY
Wednesday, Feb. 20, 6:30 p.m. Devon Energy Hall 120
In this talk Professor Banuri will focus on the implications of treating the entire world as the unit of analysis for addressing current and emerging challenges. The talk will bear upon the resolution of current policy dilemmas (including climate, energy, and development) and also help articulate the intricate nexus between politics, economics, and technology.
Dr. Banuri is a professor at the College of Architecture + Planning at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. He is the former director of the Division for Sustainable Development of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, and served as Head of Office of the Conference Secretary-General for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio20).
Previously he served as a Senior Fellow and Director of Future Sustainability Programme at Stockholm Environment Institute. He was a Coordinating Lead Author on the Nobel Prize-winning Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change.
He started his career in the Civil Service of Pakistan and held several key positions including as the founding Executive Director of the Sustainable Development Policy Institute.
Dr. Banuri received his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University.
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For Additional Information, visit http://www.ou.edu/content/coe/ame/research/dream_course_2013 or contact Farrokh Mistree at 405.325. 2438 or farrokh.mistree@ou.edu
Both talks are complementary and open to the public. The University of Oklahoma is an equal-opportunity institution. For accommodations on the basis of disability, please contact Sarah Warren at (405) 325-1715.
We hope to see you there!