by David Spratt
We know where we are heading: towards a planet that will be unlivable for most people, as the human systems built up over centuries collapse. This is not news. Nor is the evidence that we have reached 1.5°C and that, with accelerating warming, the world will hit 2°C around 2040.
On present indications — with the fossil fuel giants and petrostates on the offensive — emissions will decline only slowly to 2050, as a number of reports on the "production gap" have indicated.
Yet by 2°C or more, and perhaps even before then, there is the prospect of a "Hothouse Earth" scenario, a threshold in which a cascade of system changes makes warming self-sustaining, leading to conditions hotter than any experienced over the last few hundred thousand years by modern humans.
So cooling the system is must now be a key task, and that is the focus of coming online conference: The global heating emergency and preventing 2°C by 2040: What's The Plan? organised by the The Healthy Planet Action Coalition.
Each day’s program will be 2.5 hours, with these starting times on 15 and 16 October:
5:30 am Pacific Time (US)
1.30 pm British Summer Time (UK)
2.30 pm Central European Time (Paris, Rome, Madrid)
3.30 pm East Africa Time (Nairobi, Kampala, Dar es Salaam)
8.30 pm Singapore/Philippines Standard Time
11.30 pm Australian Eastern Standard Time (Canberra)
Programme
[Disclosure: I have a speaking slot in Session 2.]
DAY 1
Introduction
Welcome from the event host
Ms. Aria McKenna, Co-Chair, Media & Communications Team, Healthy Planet Action Coalition (HPAC)
Conference overview and outcomes expected
Dr. Dennis Garrity, Chair, HPAC
Session 1: The Accelerated Global Heating Emergency
How much is global heating accelerating?
Dr. Leon Simons, Climate and Energy Researcher and Communicator
Why is global heating accelerating?
Dr. James Hansen, Climatologist and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University's Earth Institute
We passed the 1.5°C climate threshold: We must now explore extreme options
Sir David King, Founder and Chair of the Climate Crisis Advisory Group
The climate emergency is a race we are losing, but it is a race we can win
Mr. Antonio Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General
Moderated Panel Discussion
Session 2: What Happens If We Fail to Avert 2°C?
The risks of triggering multiple feedback and tipping points
Dr. Tim Lenton, Professor of Climate Change and Earth System Science at the University of Exeter
What are the global impacts and levels of suffering expected at 2°C?
David Spratt, Research Director for the Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration
Moderated panel discussion
DAY 2
Session 3: How Do We Avert 2°C by 2040? What’s The Plan?
How much emissions reduction and greenhouse gas removals can be expected by 2040? What effect would this have on averting 2°C?
Mr. Bruce Parker
How much albedo enhancement can be expected by 2040? What effect would that have on averting 2°C?
Deploying Stratospheric Aerosol Injection
Dr. Doug MacMartin, Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University
A plausible pathway to deployment
Mr. Wake Smith, Climate Researcher, Author, and Adjunct Professor at Yale and Harvard
Deploying Marine Cloud Brightening
Prof. Hugh Hunt, Professor of Engineering, University of Cambridge
Deploying other near-term cooling methods
Dr. Ron Baiman, Climate Cooling Researcher
Moderated panel discussion including Andy Parker, Founder and CEO at The Degrees Initiative
Session 4: Deploying a New Climate Plan
Building a coalition of climate-vulnerable countries
Mr. Pascal Lamy, Chair, Overshoot Commission
Why we need a new climate plan
Dr. Mike MacCracken, Chief Scientist for Climate Change Programs at the Climate Institute
Moderated panel discussion
Developing and deploying a new integrated climate plan that averts 2°C by 2040
Next Steps
Summary and Closing Remarks
Preventing2degrees website
