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10 December 2021

09:00-10:30 (Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin)

15:00-16:30 (Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh City)

16:00-17:30 (Hong Kong)

17:00-18:30 (Tokyo)

In the last ESG Speaker Series of the year, we turn our attention to the discussions, outcomes, and implications of the COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow from the perspective of the Asia-Pacific Region. Our two speakers will present some examples of cause and effects relationship between the national contexts, commitments and the results of the COP 26. By the end of this session, we hope to obtain a better understanding of the contextual challenges and implications of COP 26 not only at the national level but also at the level of the Asia-Pacific Region to keep up with the international climate agenda set in Glasgow.

Our first speaker, Dr. Hong Quan NGUYEN from the Vietnamese National University, Vietnam will present his reactions to the commitment of the Vietnamese government toward carbon neutrality by 2050 and the need to combine efforts to mainstream renewable energy with other solutions, such as carbon sequestration. He will explore this issue from the viewpoint of “Agricultural Circular Economy.” Our second speaker, Dr. Erwin Nugraha from the University of Twente, The Netherlands and Resilience Development Initiative (RDI) Indonesia, will discuss how multilateral climate governance affects domestic climate agendas and can be informed by what he refers to as “climate imagination.” He will discuss the role and contestation of imagination in climate change governance in Indonesia.

We have invited two discussants to further explore the speakers’ topics. The first discussant is Dr. Mahesti OKITASARI from UNU-IAS Tokyo, who will react to the presentations from the viewpoint of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The second discussant is Dr. Haomiao DU from Utrecht University, The Netherlands, who will link the discussion to her expertise on the international environmental law of climate mitigation and adaptation.

The session will be moderated by Dr. Annisa TRIYANTI, a postdoctoral researcher at the Environmental Governance Group, Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, and Prof. Paul G. HARRIS, Chair Professor of Global and Environmental Studies at the Education University of Hong Kong. They co-convene the newly launched ESG Asia-Pacific Working Group (This ESG speaker seminar marks the first open webinar initiated by the working group – to find more information about the Earth System Governance Project, visit the website (embed link www.earthsystemgovernance.org)

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Speakers:

1. Hong Quan NGUYEN is currently an associate professor at the Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh city (VNU-HCM). He is leading a newly established Institute for Circular Economy Development (ICED) at the Institute for Environment and Resources (IER), VNU-HCM. He has a special interest in solving environment-related issues based on inter-/trans-disciplinary study and by a strong partnership among academia-industry-government. He has been working in environmental hydrology (e.g. saline intrusion, flood/drought, water pollution) in Southern Vietnam over the past 15 years and expanded his expertise in other disciplines, e.g. climate change adaptation/mitigation, circular economy, socio-ecological system, sustainability science.
2. Erwin NUGRAHA is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Twente, the Netherlands, and a senior research fellow at the Resilience Development Initiative, Indonesia. His research focuses on climate change adaptation, urban environmental justice and planetary decolonisation. He was one of the recipients of the Allianz Climate Risk Research Award in 2017

Discussants

1. Mahesti OKITASARI is a Research Associate at the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS) based in Tokyo, Japan. She is interested in understanding institutional architecture for transformative change and pervasive linkages between development policies and global sustainable development frameworks. Her current works include assessing multilevel governance arrangement and policy processes to implement the 2030 Agenda, researching gaps and opportunities in the urban development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) nexus, and building knowledge on the partnerships and financing for the SDGs.
2. Haomiao DU is a post-doctoral researcher at the Law Department of Utrecht University (UU). She also serves as the legal expert in an interdisciplinary research group on climate change and sustainability at UU. Haomiao holds a PhD degree in International Environmental Law from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. She was an intern at the department of Legal Affairs of the secretariat of the UNFCCC in Bonn, Germany. Her research interests are legal and policy issues associated with climate mitigation (e.g. the legal framework for climate neutrality) and adaptation (e.g. the role of law in promoting climate resilience).