The Oxford Department of International Development has over the years brought together a critical approach to development and an exploration of policy-relevant issues. The challenge now is how to incorporate to this approach the planetary threat posed by climate change and the costs of environmental degradation.

The ecological crisis may call for a new understanding of development, that includes a rethinking of key concepts such as economic growth, productivity, profitability as well as the introduction of new tools for measuring material progress.

We want to do more to reflect collectively upon the impact that the climate and biodiversity crises are having, and will continue to have, on the burning issues of development. As a community of scholars, we also strive to build more links with academics, policymakers, environmentalists and practitioners in different parts of the global North and the global South. To do so, we are launching the new lecture series Climate Change and the Challenges of Development.

Guest speakers in the series (academics, policy makers, activists and leading practitioners) will debate with our researchers and students: (1) the ways in which climate change becomes associated with representations of the world; (2) the impact climate change has on the way we think about development, welfare and wellbeing; and (3) the policies and political steps required to keep the global temperature rise to 1.5 C and, failing that, the policies and political steps required for adaptation.