While every cloud has a silver lining, the year 2020 brought a few too many clouds. This year brings the COVID19 pandemic, BREXIT, and an impending economic recession bearing down on the UK’s ability to pursue its climate goals. The Agora Oxford Roundtables offer a platform to look for that silver lining after all, together with experts from the worlds of politics, academia, industry, think tanks, and activism. What are the pitfalls, and the opportunities that the UK should uncover, and how can it make the most of it? What does the pandemic uncover about different ways we could organise our labour, transport, and city centers? How can the UK use its new diplomatic position to promote renewable energy in its new trade agreements? And how can it ensure that climate policy does not fall behind when the economy shuffles political priorities?
Together with Prof Nick Eyre, Professor of Energy and Climate Policy at the Environmental Change Institute here in Oxford, Geraint Davies MP, Sponsor of multiple bills on air pollution, fracking, maintaining EU standards on environmental protection, and plastics, Sarah Handley, Head of Sustainability and Environmental Governance at Siemens Energy, a new, global renewable energy company, Alex Scott, Senior Policy Advisor at E3G, London-based climate policy think tank, and Julia Spragg, Greenpeace activist and volunteer Greenpeace Speaker in Oxfordshire, we will search for answers to these questions, and ultimately the overarching issue of ‘How can the UK turn the year 2020 from a climate crisis to a green milestone?’
To express interest in discussing with specific speakers, please fill out this form: forms.gle/DT5EffEADjouAHYo8.
The event will take place online via Zoom: us02web.zoom.us/j/88670138965. Please join the meeting by 5.50pm for a prompt start at 6pm.
Format
The event will start with a quick introduction, after which participants will be divided into 5 rooms with each of the 5 experts. Every 20 minutes, all attendees will be shuffled by the Agora tech host into different rooms, for a total of three 20-minute slots with three different speakers for each attendee. Each 20-minute slot will have a specific question guiding the discussion, and we expect each table to be interactive, with the experts providing inside knowledge, and the students coming with fresh perspectives and exciting ideas. At the end of these three roundtable slots, we will all meet again in the plenary to discuss the main ideas that were developed at the different tables.
