ACDI ADAPTATION SEMINAR SERIES 2014

 

Join us for a lunch-time, weekly seminar series where we will hear from and engage with various academics and practitioners working in the climate change adaptation space.

 

When: Wednesday, 12 February 2014 @ 1pm

 

Where: Studio 5, Environmental and Geographical Sciences, , Upper Campus, University of Cape Town.

 

Why climate change mitigation matters for poverty alleviation - a research agenda

by Britta Rennkamp  (Researcher at UCT's Energy Research Center in the Energy, Environment and Climate Change Group, and an ACDI Senior Research Fellow)

 

Climate change and poverty generally fall into the adaptation category in current research literature and policymaking. If we acknowledge current findings of poverty research, we find that this categorization between poverty alleviation, mitigation and adaptation is challenged. Recent research suggests that poverty demographics have changed between 1990 and 2010. The majority of the poor nowadays live in the middle-income countries, whose industrial pathways increasingly contribute to human-induced climate change. As emissions in middle-income countries increase, their governments need to reduce emissions in the long term without jeopardising socio-economic development. This talk presents a research agenda that addresses the trade-offs between climate change mitigation and poverty alleviation

 

Britta joined the ERC in 2011 and works in the MAPS program and the CLIMIP project on the trade-offs between poverty alleviation and climate change, among other projects. She also researches industrial and innovation policy options for renewable energy technologies. Previously worked at the interface of technological innovation and social development in international cooperation for German International Cooperation (GIZ) in Recife, Brazil, in 2006 and 2007. After her return to Germany, she worked as a researcher at one of Europe’s leading think tanks on international development, the German Development Institute (DIE) in Bonn for four years. Besides her research on sustainable development and innovation, she advised the German and South African governments on linking mitigation efforts and technological innovation in their bilateral development cooperation.

 

Who to expect next : 19 February - Combined seminar with the ACDI Bergriver Interdisciplinary Project. Presentation of research undertaken in the Bergrivier Municipality: Sarah Haiden (ACDI MSc) and Nicola Kuhn.

 

*Bring your lunch along, refreshments will be provided