Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Friday 13 March
6:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Location
wheelercentre.com
This event has been cancelled, and will be offered as a live-stream instead. The stream will include Auslan interpreting.
You can find updates on our response to the unfolding COVID-19 (coronavirus) advice here.
Christiana Figueres, the architect of the 2015 Paris Agreement, sees the 2020s as a critical moment of opportunity – the ‘golden decade’ – in the future of our species and our planet.
Earlier this year, the former executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change said: ‘If we do the right thing this decade, we can continue to design the future but if we don’t, we are really condemned to a world of increasing destruction, conflict and pain ... It is a golden ten years in the history of humankind.’
At this special event in March, Figueres will be joined by distinguished Australian climate economist Ross Garnaut. With his new book, Superpower, about energy economics in Australia, Garnaut brings a message of optimism, opportunity and urgency, too. ‘We have unparalleled renewable energy resources,’ he writes. ‘We also have the necessary scientific skills.’
After the chaos and failure of the Copenhagen talks in 2009, Figueres spearheaded a historic agreement of 196 nations at Paris – an achievement few believed was possible. Garnaut has been a household name in Australia since his prescient report on the economics of climate change to the Commonwealth Parliament in 2008.
Hear these two peerless heavyweights in conversation at the Athenaeum Theatre, as they discuss reasons for hope and roadmaps for change, with host Andrew Wear.
This event will be Auslan interpreted.
Presented in partnership with WOMADelaide's Planet Talks Programme.
Featuring
Christiana Figueres
Christiana Figueres is a Costa Rican citizen and was the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 2010–16.
During her tenure at the UNFCCC, Ms. Figueres brought together national and sub-national governments, corporations and activists, financial institutions and NGOs to jointly deliver the historic Paris Agreement on climate change, in which 195 sovereign nations agreed on a collaborative path forward to limit future global warming to well below 2°C, and strive for 1.5°C in order to protect the most vulnerable. For this achievement Ms. Figueres has been credited with forging a new brand of collaborative diplomacy, for which she has received multiple awards.
Since then Ms. Figueres has continued to serve her one and only boss, the global atmosphere. She sits on multiple boards and is a founding partner of Global Optimism Ltd., a purpose driven enterprise focused on social and environmental change. She convenes Mission 2020 and co-chairs the Global Covenant of Mayors.
She is a graduate of Swarthmore College and the London School of Economics. She lives in Costa Rica and has two fantastic daughters.
Ross Garnaut
Professor Garnaut is a Professor of Economics at The University of Melbourne. He was previously distinguished Professor of Economics at the Australian National University, the Director of the ANU Asia Pacific School of Economics and Management and was the longstanding Head of the Department of Economics. He is the author of numerous publications in scholarly journals on international economics, public finance and economic development, particularly in relation to East Asia and the Southwest Pacific. Recent books include The Great Crash of 2008 (with David Llewellyn-Smith, 2009); Dog Days: Australia After the Boom (2013); Forty Years of Reform and Development in China (2018), Superpower: Australia’s low carbon opportunity (2019) and Reset: Restoring Australia after the Pandemic Recession (2021). He is Distinguished Fellow of the Australian Economic Society, Distinguished Fellow of the Australian Agricultural and Resources Economic Society, Fellow of the Australia Academy of Social Sciences and Honorary Professor of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Professor Garnaut has had longstanding senior roles as policy advisor, diplomat and businessman. He was the senior economic policy official in Papua New Guinea’s Department of Finance in the years straddling Independence in 1975, principal economic adviser to Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke 1983-1985, and Australian Ambassador to China 1985-1988.
He is the author of a number of influential reports to the Australian Government, including Australia and the Northeast Asian Ascendancy, 1989, The Review of Federal State Financial Relations (with Vince Fitzgerald) 2002, The Garnaut Climate Change Review 2008, and The Garnaut Review 2011: Australia and the Global Response to Climate Change.
Professor Garnaut has chaired the boards of major Australian and International companies since 1988, including Lihir Gold Ltd (1995 – 2010); Bank of Western Australia Ltd (1988 – 1995); Primary Industry Bank of Australia Ltd (1989 – 1994); Papua New Guinea Sustainable Development Limited Pty Ltd (2002 – 2012) and its subsidiary OK Tedi Mining Ltd; Lonely Planet Pty Ltd; Aluminium Smelters of Victoria Ltd; ZEN Energy Technologies Pty Ltd. He is currently the Director of ZEN Energy and Chairman of Sunshot Energy.
Professor Garnaut was made Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 1991 for service to education and international relations and a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in 2017 for service on climate change and energy.
Andrew Wear
Andrew Wear is a senior Australian public servant. He has degrees in politics, law, economics and public policy, and is a graduate of the Senior Executive Program at Harvard Kennedy School. A fellow of the Institute of Public Administration Australia, he is also a director of Ardoch Ltd, a children’s education charity. His work appears in peer-reviewed journals as well as in The Mandarin, the Guardian and others. His first book is Solved!: How Other Countries Have Cracked the World's Biggest Problems and We Can Too.