Webinar: Removing Barriers to Buy Time
Date: 15 – 17 February 2021
Context
Following the very successful Singapore conference “Disrupted Balance – Society at Risk” (December 2016), Para Limes began planning a conference called “Buying Time”, aimed at developing action-plans to mitigate the consequences of climate change for people most likely to be affected by those consequences.
Extensive discussions between the main participants led to the insight that a succeful execution of action plans depends on the succes with which five strongly interrelated stumbling blocks in the process are recognized and dealt with: finance, talent, vested interests, bureaucracy and political will.
Put in a broader context: The survival of humanity as a technological species is not threatened by a lack of understanding about the threats we face or the actions we could take to mitigate them. Rather, it is threatened by five classes of stumbling blocks that keep us from successfully adapting to what is bearing down on us at an accelerating pace.
Extensive discussions between the main participants led to the insight that a succeful execution of action plans depends on the succes with which five strongly interrelated stumbling blocks in the process are recognized and dealt with: finance, talent, vested interests, bureaucracy and political will.
Put in a broader context: The survival of humanity as a technological species is not threatened by a lack of understanding about the threats we face or the actions we could take to mitigate them. Rather, it is threatened by five classes of stumbling blocks that keep us from successfully adapting to what is bearing down on us at an accelerating pace.
Focus
Thus we will focus the coming webinar on exploring and defining principles, strategies and tactics to overcome these stumbling blocks on the way to formulating explicit and effective action plans.
The areas selected for the development of such action plans (food, water, health, urbanization and finance) will give a context and a focus for the discussions during the webinar. The format for the webinar is chosen so that we can be as concrete as possible for each of the selected areas.
The areas selected for the development of such action plans (food, water, health, urbanization and finance) will give a context and a focus for the discussions during the webinar. The format for the webinar is chosen so that we can be as concrete as possible for each of the selected areas.
Day 1 Presentations
Martin Rees – Climate Change and Emerging Threats
Tim Benton – Food Systems and Their Sustainability
Gert van Santen – Fisheries and Climate Change
Daniel Brooks – What are Emerging Infectious Diseases?
Hillary Brown – Climate-Induced Managed Retreat
Andrew Sheng – Finance as a Barrier to Address Systemic Climate Change
Alexander Zehnder – Resilient Water Management