Organiser's description (via City, University of London)
Speakers:
Dr Tara Garnett, TABLE, University of Oxford
Paula Feehan, Centre for Food Policy, City, University of London
This event forms part of the COP26@City programme, a series of events and actions which demonstrate City’s commitment to reducing our environmental impact and playing our part in responding to the global climate challenge.
COP26 is the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties and this year it will take place in Glasgow between 31 October – 12 November. The COP26 summit will bring parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Abstract:
The UN climate meeting in Glasgow, COP26, is one of humanity’s last opportunities to work collectively to limit global warming to less than 2°C. The Centre for Food Policy marks the occasion with a special ‘Food Climate Thinkers’ event, bringing together the reflective voices of a veteran analyst and a Food Policy student.
Food and climate breakdown are inextricably linked. Food systems are responsible for around one third of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, and represent some of the most important routes to reducing emissions and stabilizing the climate. The fact that we now take this for granted is due in part to Tara Garnett, who more than two decades ago set up a small NGO, the Food Climate Research Network, to highlight the connections. The FCRN has now expanded into Table, which continues the work. In this talk, Tara will reflect on how perceptions of the issue have changed over time, and how she learned that assumptions and values are as important as facts in the process of enabling change.
Meanwhile, though a growing body of research provides evidence on the potential of dietary change to help tackle climate change, food – and particularly consumption – has historically received less consideration in climate policy than, say, the energy and transport sectors. Paula Feehan’s research looked at the extent to which food consumption featured in selected countries ‘Nationally Determined Contributions’ – the targets that nations at the COP commit to working towards as part of the global effort to rein in climate change. Paula asks, has evidence about the importance of dietary change been integrated into national climate plans? If not, why not, and what are the potential pathways for change?
The talk will be followed by an online Q&A session.
Read more and register here.
