The trouble with negative emissions

Kevin Anderson, professor in climate and energy, and Uppsala University’s Zennström professor in Climate change leadership at the Centre for Environment and Development Studies (CEMUS).

Kevin Anderson, professor in energy and climate change, will deliver the annual Gordon Goodman Memorial Lecture on 21 September.

SEI, Stockholm University and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences are proud to announce the Gordon Goodman Memorial Lecture 2017.

With 16 of the 17 warmest years on record having occurred since 2000; with oceans both warming and acidifying; and with unequivocal scientific evidence that burning fossil fuels is the principal cause – what can we do to rapidly reduce emissions?

Watch the 2017 Gordon Goodman Memorial Lecture

In his presentation “Mitigation on methadone: the trouble with negative emissions”, Kevin Anderson, professor in energy and climate change at the Univeristy of Manchester and deputy director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, will argue that while the science of climate change has progressed, we obstinately refuse to acknowledge the rate at which our emissions from energy need to be reduced. The Paris Agreement exemplifies this duality – relying as it does on highly speculative negative emission technologies to balance incremental tweaks to a “business-as-usual” model with rapidly dwindling carbon budgets for 2°C. Similarly, the eloquent rhetoric of green growth continues to eclipse analysis demonstrating the need for radical social as well as technical change.

Taking these issues head on, the lecture will outline a quantitative framing of mitigation, based on IPCC carbon budgets, before finishing with more qualitative examples of what a genuine low-carbon future may contain.

The lecture will be followed by a scientific discussion. A panel bringing together the research, civil society and the business communities will then discuss key steps to achieve a low-carbon future.

The annual memorial lecture is in honour of Gordon Goodman, founding director of the Beijer Institute at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences from 1977–1989 and the Stockholm Environment Institute from 1989 to 1991.

Kevin Anderson is professor of energy and climate change at the University of Manchester and Deputy Director of the internationally renowned Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. He is one of the UK’s most recognized climate researchers and is well known for his skills in communicating climate science to decision-makers, the business sector, civil society and the media. He has been pivotal in establishing research around carbon budgets and the transformation of different societal sectors to acceptable mitigation levels based on politically agreed goals.

In 2016 Prof. Anderson became Uppsala University’s Zennström professor in climate change leadership at the Centre for Environment and Development Studies (CEMUS).

13.30 Welcome and introduction

Christina Moberg, President, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Astrid Söderbergh Widding, Vice Chancellor, Stockholm University

Anneli Sundin, Communications Officer, Stockholm Environment Institute

Anders Wijkman, Member of the Environmental Committee, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

13.50 Memorial Lecture: Mitigation on Methadone – the trouble with negative emissions

Kevin Anderson, Professor in climate and energy, and Uppsala University’s Zennström Professor in Climate change leadership at the Centre for Environment and Development Studies (CEMUS)

14.30 Scientific discussion

Kevin Anderson 

Respondents:

Jerker Jarsjö, Associate Professor, Stockholm University

Clarisse Kehler Siebert, Research Fellow, Stockholm Environment Institute

Moderator: Georgia Destouni, Professor, Stockholm University, Member of The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

15.15 Coffee break

15.45 Panel discussion: The broader perspective – What are the key steps to achieve a low-carbon future?

Kevin Anderson

Victor Galaz, Deputy Science Director and Associate Professor at Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University

Teresa Anderson, Policy Officer, Climate & Resilience, ActionAid International

Eva Blixt, Research Manager Jernkontoret, Swedish Steel industry organisation

Moderator: Åsa Persson, Senior Research Fellow, Stockholm Environment Institute

16.30 Concluding remarks: 

Bo Kjellén, SEI Associate, Stockholm Environment Institute

Johan Kuylenstierna, Executive Director, Stockholm Environment Institut

Date and time

Thursday 21 September 2017
13:30–17:00 CEST

Location

Royal Swedish Academy
4A Lilla Frescativägen
114 18 Stockholm