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Climate and Sustainable Development in the Aftermath of the Coronavirus Crisis

On June 3, at 17:00 Moscow time (GMT+3), the Valdai Discussion Club held an online round-table discussion, titled “Climate and Sustainable Development in the Aftermath of the Coronavirus Crisis – How Will the World Change?” in collaboration with the Russian Carbon Fund, the Foundations 20 platform and the Climate Partnership of Russia.

Even before the pandemic violated the plans of all mankind, the Valdai Club planned that climate and environmental issues will become a central theme in its work for this year. Every pandemic ends sooner or later, but climate-related problems remain on the agenda, so this event fits into the logic of the “green agenda” in the Club’s activities. Earlier this year, the Club submitted a joint project with the All-Russian Centre for Public Opinion Research and the Future Preparedness Index (G20 countries); one of the analysis categories was the sphere of resources and the environment.

In 2019 and early 2020, the world focused its attention on the problem of climate change, which gained newfound awareness thanks to the radical statements and actions of the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. Today, the topic of sustainable development sounds new in connection with the pandemic. This year, which was preceded by the warmest decade on record, was supposed to be crucial for climate policy and sustainable development in the light of the COP26 conference in Glasgow, but related plans were postponed due to the coronavirus. The most important issue that concerns everyone is what to learn from the crisis which could transform the world’s social and economic systems to allow us to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The joint online round table of the Valdai Club and its partner organisations consists of a series of brief sessions that cover the following topics:

  • Environmental and climate agendas for early 2020
  • Is the pandemic likely to improve the environment?
  • The impact of the crisis on environmental policies and the global green economy
  • The impact of the crisis on strategies for sustainable business development in the short and long term
  • How can a crisis help accelerate technology adoption in the name of sustainable development?
Round table participants are invited to answer the following questions:

What successes have been achieved in the five years since the Paris climate agreement? Why is the next COP26 so important? What is the essence of the European Green Deal and how should its implementation affect the global economy? What environmental consequences of the quarantine are already evident and what should be expected in the foreseeable future? Can a sustainable agenda become a driver for restoring business to its pre-crisis level? How is it necessary to rebuild the economy in the aftermath of the crisis in order to maintain a balance between environmental, economic and social interests? What lessons for sustainable development can be learned from COVID-19?

Speakers:

  • Klaus Milke, Chairman of the Steering Group of the international F20 Platform, founder of the Stiftung Zukunftsfähigkeit foundation, Honorary Chairman of Germanwatch e.V.
  • Angelina Davydova, environmental journalist, director of the Bureau of Environmental Information, observer at the UN negotiations on climate change
  • Mojib Latif, Professor at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (GEOMAR Helmholtz-Zentrum für Ozeanforschung Kiel), Chairman of the Board of the German Climate Consortium; President, German Chapter of Club of Rome;
  • Agrafena Kotova, expert from the Russian delegation to the 25th COP of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
  • Caio Koch-Weser, Chair, Advisory Board, European Climate Fund; Deputy Minister of Finance of Germany (1999-2005), Deputy Chairman of Deutsche Bank and Managing Director of the World Bank
  • Sergey Chestnoy, Advisor to the President, UC RUSAL; Chair, Commission on the Economics of Climate Change and Sustainable Development, ICC
  • Luke Manning, Global Head of Sustainability and Enterprise Risk, Refinitiv
  • Evgeny Kuznetsov, CEO of Orbita Capital Partners, Ambassador of the University of the Singularity
  • Xiaochen Zhang, President of FinTech4Good, Member of the Executive Board of UN ESCAP ESBN.

Moderators:

  • Andrey Sushentsov, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club
  • Alexey Shadrin, Founder of the Russian Carbon Fund and Evercity, Head of the Climate Chain Coalition Finance Team
Working languages: Russian, English