At the Nexus: equity and justice in tackling biodiversity and climate

Policymakers now discuss “transformative change” in social and economic behaviour as a radical way to protect climate and biodiversity. Yet, transformative change raises significant challenges for integrating scientific analysis with social values. This talk will discuss the movement within environmental science from assessing change towards finding socially valued “solutions,” and what this means for environmental assessment processes, interdisciplinarity, and social participation. The presentation will draw in particular from the assessment on transformative change conducted by The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

The Graham Woodgate Annual Lecture on Interdisciplinarity is named for Dr Graham Woodgate, a key contributor to UCL Arts and Sciences and to the Institute of Americas, UCL, who sadly passed away in 2023. Graham was an innovative interdisciplinarian who was fascinated by all aspects of nature-society relations and was involved in the emerging field of agroecology, an interdisciplinary intellectual endeavour that is particularly strongly rooted in the Americas and encompasses scientific research, agricultural practice, and agrarian social movements. He offered intellectual innovations based on his unusual background that began with his training as a forester and on to his work as an academic with his PhD and research interests in the Americas, indigenous communities and socio-ecology.

Graham was also a generous colleague, giving his time and intelligence to both departments and particularly to the students in those departments. He was Head of Department for Arts and Sciences and contributed innovative teaching on the Americas and environmental sociology. These lectures are named in honour of his immense contribution to UCL.

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