University announces climate emergency lecture as part of new series

A CLIMATE emergency lecture is being hosted by a Scottish university as part of its Saturday Series of events.

“The Climate Emergency: Local Responses to a Global Menace” is the first event of the University of Dundee’s Saturday events.

The lecture will take place this Saturday and will be chaired by Vice Principal, Professor John Rowan who will be joined by  Professor Sue Dawson, Professor Volkar Roeben, Professor Pete Fox and Professor Mel Woods. 

Professor Dawson is Head of Geography and Environmental Science at Dundee with expertise in extreme coastal change, including tsunamis and storms.

Her research examines the risk and impact of tsunamis and the potential for an increase in this hazard as a result of climate change.

Additionally Volker Roeben is Professor of Energy Law, International Law and Global Regulation at the University of Dundee.

His research combines energy law with public international law, European Union law and the theory of global law, with several books and numerous articles published on the European Energy Union. 

Professor Pete Fox has been at the Environment Agency for the UK Government for more than 27 years in a variety of regulatory, operational and strategic positions.

Through this he has worked on projects focussed not only on climate change but also waster regulation, biodiversity and flood risk management.

Professor of Creative Intelligence at the University’s Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design is Mel Woods.

Professor Woods led the award-winning Grow Observatory soil monitoring study, which empowered thousands of volunteers across Europe to tackle environmental issues by bringing about change in their local communities.

The lecture will discuss the global impact of local actions from a science, law and design perspective.

Professor Rowan said: “This is a timely and important event because the scale of the climate emergency is such that we must all take positive actions now,”

“There is no silver bullet that will stop climate change in its tracks and the array of speakers at this event demonstrate the range of approaches necessary if we are to succeed.

“Across the University there are teams and individual researchers working to find solutions to the biggest issues of our times, and the climate emergency is top of the World Health Organisation’s list of major threats to global health.

“As an environmental change researcher myself, I am particularly looking forward to hearing more about how our University experts, each with different skills, are engaging with the fight, and what individuals and local communities can do to help.”