Carnegie Council Podcasts

A global and regional discussion is needed to learn about and create governance for climate-altering approaches like solar radiation modification, says Alicia Bárcena, executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), during a  C2GTalk interview. The UN's regional commissions, including ECLAC, can play an important role in bringing together a diverse range of actors in this discussion, including public and private experts in environment, energy, finance, economy, and planning. At the end of this C2GTalk, Bárcena said “And someday we will have to pay tribute to Maurice Strong . . . I think of him quite a lot.  I believe that he was really anticipating so many of these things. So hopefully someday we and C2G can do something about it”. On behalf of  Bárcena and Janos  Pasztor this C2GTalk is dedicated to the memory of Maurice Strong. Alicia Bárcena  assumed  office  as  the  executive  secretary  of  the  Economic  Commission  for  Latin  America  and  the  Caribbean (ECLAC) on July 1, 2008. She had previously served as the under-secretary-general for management at United Nations Headquarters in New York, chef de cabinet, and deputy chef de cabinet to the former secretary-general, Kofi Annan. This interview was recorded on August 6, 2021 and is available with interpretation into 中文, Español, and Français. For more, including an edited transcript, please go to C2G's website.

Emerging technologies with global impact are creating new ungoverned spaces at a rapid pace. In this critical moment, frameworks and approaches to govern these technologies, particularly in the international sphere, are often unclear or altogether nonexistent. In this podcast, the leaders of Carnegie Council's Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative (C2G) and the Artificial Intelligence & Equality Initiative (AIEI) discuss the ways they are working to educate and activate communities around these critical governance issues. For full transcript, please go to carnegiecouncil.org.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, new questions have arisen in regards to the ethics of global vaccine distribution. In a continuation of a series started over the summer, University of Pennsylvania's Ezekiel Emanuel returns to discuss boosters and vaccine hesitancy and how that affects vaccine distribution around the world. Plus, he shares his thoughts on Biden administration policies concerning the travel ban due to the Omicron variant, domestic mandates, testing, and masking. For more on these issues, read "On the Ethics of Vaccine Nationalism: The Case for the Fair Priority for Residents Framework," co-authored by Dr. Emanuel and published by Carnegie Council's Ethics & International journal and Cambridge University Press.  For a full transcript of this talk, please go to carnegiecouncil.org.

Understanding that we face a planetary emergency can help countries and citizens around the world overcome our many interlocking crises, says Sandrine Dixson-Declève, co-president of the Club of Rome during a C2GTalk interview. Bringing international, national and local leaders into inclusive, people-focused governance processes can help our emergence into a new type of civilization. Technology has a role to play—if governed properly—but cannot be relied upon to "save" us. In particular, climate-altering approaches like solar radiation modification (SRM) or large-scale carbon dioxide removal (CDR) need governance in order to manage risks. Science and stories are needed to help citizens understand potential futures, and to find a way forward for people, planet and prosperity. Sandrine Dixson-Declève is currently the co-president of the Club of Rome and divides her time between lecturing, facilitating change in business, and policy models and advisory work. She holds several advisory positions for the European Commission and the United Nations. She sits on the boards of organizations such as BMW, EDP, UCB, Climate KIC, UCL-Bartlett School of Environment, and the IEEP. Dixson-Declève is also a senior associate and faculty member of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), ambassador, for the Energy Transition Commission (ETC) and WEALL. She co-founded the Women Enablers Change Agent Network (WECAN) and has been recognized by GreenBiz as one of the 30 most influential women across the globe driving change in the low carbon economy and promoting green business. This interview was recorded on June 29, 2021 and is available with interpretation into 中文, Español, and Français. For more, including an edited transcript, please go to C2G's website.

One of the fastest growing—and underreported—subjects in international relations is the rise of private armies. Dr. Sean McFate, Atlantic Council senior fellow and former private military contractor, joins Doorstep co-hosts Nick Gvosdev and Tatiana Serafin to discuss his book The New Rules of War and how our current paradigm of warfare is obsolete. With cyberweapons, disinformation, and mercenaries presenting new threats, how can America shore up its defenses and rethink the trillions of dollars spent on defense? Is the risk of inaction creating a new "Middle Ages"? For more on this subject, don't miss Carnegie Council's panel on December 14 at 3pm ET,  "Is Militarization Essential for Security in 2022 and Beyond?" And, for more on this podcast, please go to carnegiecouncil.org.

It is important to reflect internationally on climate-altering approaches such as Solar Radiation Modification, in case the world is not capable of meeting the mitigation challenge, says Marc Vanheukelen the European External Action Service’s ambassador at large for climate diplomacy during a C2GTalk interview. But these approaches should not become an “alibi for inaction. International governance will be needed, but strategically it is best not to move too quickly, but rather first familiarize smaller groups with these ideas, at the expert level, and then to start moving these ideas gradually up the policy ladder as discussions gain traction. Marc Vanheukelen is "hors classe" adviser and ambassador at large for climate diplomacy at the EU’s External Action Service. From 2015 till 2019 he was the EU ambassador to the World Trade Organisation in Geneva. Prior to his ambassadorial posting, Vanheukelen was director in DG TRADE (European Commission) responsible for sustainable development, economic partnership agreements, and agri-food and fisheries, preceded by his role as head of cabinet for former EU Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht. He has also served as head of cabinet to the former Belgian minister for foreign affairs. This interview was recorded on May 25, 2021, and is available with interpretation into 中文, Español, and Français. For more, including an edited transcript, please go to C2G's website.

Context matters and without clarity on the impacts that climate-altering approaches will have from different perspectives, it will be difficult to deal with the ethical and governance dimensions, said Youba Sokona during a C2GTalk interview. He highlights the need for research that not only considers the global level, but seeks to understand the national and local levels where people’s lives are impacted. Sokona has over 40 years of experience addressing energy, environment, and sustainable development in Africa and has been at the heart of numerous national and continental initiatives. Professor Sokona was elected vice chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in October 2015. Prior to this, he was co-chair of the IPCC Working Group III on the mitigation of climate change for the Fifth Assessment Report after serving as a lead author since 1990. In addition to these achievements, Professor Sokona has a proven track record of organizational leadership and management, for example, as inaugural coordinator of the African Climate Policy Center and as executive secretary of the Sahara and Sahel Observatory. This interview was recorded on February 24, 2021, and is available with interpretation into 中 文, Español, and Français. For more, including an edited transcript, please go to C2G's website.  

Almost half of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are associated with the energy used to produce, process, transport, and dispose of the food we eat and the goods we use—multiply this around the world. Waste, from food to plastics, not only affects climate change but also affects people's lives in ways that we don't always consider. Saumya Roy brings these issues to life in her book Castaway Mountain. In this podcast, Roy and Carnegie Council Senior Fellows Tatiana Serafin and Nikolas Gvosdev discuss how Mumbai's forgotten community reflects the massive problem of waste around the world.  For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org.

Will AI systems transform the future battlefield so dramatically that it will render existing paradigms and doctrines obsolete, feeding new intense security dilemmas? In this Artificial Intelligence & Equality podcast, Senior Fellow Anja Kaspersen is joined by Kenneth Payne, a King’s College London reader and the author of I, Warbot: The Dawn of Artificially Intelligent Conflict, to discuss the impact of AI systems on military affairs, the nature and character of war and warfare, strategic culture, and geopolitical affairs. Fore more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org. 

Finding harmony between man and nature is essential as we tackle the climate crisis, said Professor Pan Jiahua in an interview with C2GTalk. In this episode, he explores the concept of ecological civilization, and how carbon dioxide removal and solar radiation modification approaches aimed at altering the climate might be considered in this framework. Pan Jiahua is professor of economics and director at the Institute of Ecocivilization Studies at Beijing University of Technology. He was elected in 2018 as member of the academic board of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. In 2020, he was appointed by the UN secretary-general as one of the 15 members of the Independent Group of Scientists for drafting the Global Sustainable Development Report 2023. Professor Pan is also editor-in-chief of the Chinese Journal of Urban & Environmental Studies, and a member of the China National Expert Panel on Climate Change and the National Foreign Policy Advisory Group, and advisor to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment. He has edited and authored over 300 papers, articles and books in English and Chinese, and was lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group III 3rd, 4th, and 5th Assessment Reports on Mitigation. This interview was recorded on February 25, 2021, and is available with interpretation into 中文, Español, and Français. For more, including an edited transcript, please go to C2G's website.