Global Governance Futures: Imperfect Utopias or Bust

Crucial climate negotiations loom in 2021. Despite the incredible disruption caused by COVID-19, the work of the climate policymakers, researchers and activists is not, in any way, on hold. It is important to flag that this interview with one of UCLs leading climatologists was recorded before the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020. Nevertheless, this lively conversation ranging from climate change to green capitalism remains as pertinent today as ever. Mark Maslin FRGS, FRSA is a Professor of Climatology at University College London. His areas of scientific expertise include causes of past and future global climate change and its effects on the global carbon cycle, biodiversity, rainforests and human evolution. He also works on monitoring land carbon sinks using remote sensing and ecological models and international and national climate change policies. In addition to advisory positions with the Global Cool Foundation, the Sopria-Steria Group and the Cheltenham Science Festival Advisory Committee, Mark has written 8 books, and over 30 articles. His popular book “Climate Change: A Very Short Introduction” by Oxford University Press is now in its third edition and has sold over 40,000 copies. Mark was also a co-author of the seminal Lancet report ‘Managing the health effects of climate change’ and the Lancet review paper on the health links between Population, Development and Climate Change. You can find more information on Mark’s ongoing research and activities here: https://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/people/academic-staff/mark-maslin

More than 300 human rights defenders were killed in 2019 and many more face regular threats, physical assaults, arrests, harassment, and defamation campaigns. In this episode of Global Governance Futures, we speak with leading human rights expert and advocate Mary Lawlor about the growing list of challenges facing human rights defenders around the world. Mary was recently appointed UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of Human Rights Defenders. As an independent expert, her mandate includes identifying the risks to human rights defenders on the ground and recommending strategies to better protect them. Mary is also currently an Adjunct Professor in the Centre for Social Innovation, School of Business, Trinity College Dublin, and she is the founder and former Executive Director of Front Line Defenders, an organisation that focuses on human rights defenders at risk.

Is global governance failing? This podcast provides a space for dialogue and reflection, with a view to fostering well-informed principles and pragmatic visions for a better tomorrow.