Land use and climate change: new pressures and new possibilities?

 Land use and climate change: new pressures and new possibilities?

Since humans arrived in Aotearoa New Zealand, we have been modifying the land to suit our purpose. Our current land use patterns reflect the influence of a range of factors including climate, soils, landform, biodiversity, ownership, culture, and economics.

But with climate changing more rapidly due to human-induced global warming, what are the implications for land use, here and around the globe?

NZ editor of The Conversation, Veronika Meduna delves into these issues with a panel of international contributors - their expertise is in global food security, sustainable resource management, renewable energy, sustainable development, and economics relating to climate change.

This event will be opened by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group III co-chairs Professor Jim Skea (UK) and Dr Youba Sokona (Mali), who are in attendance of a the IPCC lead authors' meeting on Land Use and Climate Change in Christchurch, New Zealand, March 2018.

Speakers:

Professor Tim Benton (UK)
Professor and Dean of Strategic Research Initiatives at the University of Leeds and Distinguished Fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, London. Formerly the Champion of the UK's Global Food Security programme.

Professor Annette Cowie (AUS)
Principal Research Scientist -Climate, NSW Department of Primary Industries
Research experience includes sustainability assessment and greenhouse gas accounting in agriculture and forestry; investigating key aspects of soil carbon dynamics; life cycle assessment of forestry, bioenergy and biochar systems.

Dr Fatima Denton (Ethiopia)
Head of the African Climate Policy Centre, Director of the UN Economic Commission for Africa's Special Initiatives Division.
In 2016 she was nominated by the Borlaug Dialogue International Symposium, as one of the Women Leaders Driving Agricultural Transformation in Africa.

Dr Anita Wreford (NZ)
Agribusiness and Economics Research Unit, Lincoln University (NZ)
Applied economist specialising in responses to climate change, Anita is a lead author for the IPCC Working Group III.

This event is hosted by the University of Canterbury in partnership with the IPCC, the Ministry for the Environment, Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, The New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre and Royal Society Te Apārangi.

All Welcome.
This will be a popular event, guarantee your seat(s) by registering now.

For comprehensive resources on the implications of climate change, the impact on health, and mitigation options for New Zealand, visit royalsociety.org.nz/climate-change-and-new-zealand

Views that are expressed at this event may not reflect those of Royal Society Te Apārangi.

Rakaia River aerial photo credit. Andrew Cooper