Valuing Nature: What Success at COP26 in Glasgow Would Look Like

Event Summary

All nations in the world committed to the Paris Agreement in December 2015 to limit warming to 2 degrees and keep pathways open to limit warming to 1.5 degrees. Scientists estimate that the planet needs to slash 45% of its emissions by 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by mid-century.

However, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change reported on 17 Sept 2021 that, taking into account full implementation of all latest NDCs (including conditional elements), total global emissions are on track to increase by 16% by 2030 (compared to 2010 levels), leading the planet to warm by 2.7 degrees above pre-industrial levels.

Just as almost all impacts of global warming and loss of biodiversity are irreversible, unpredictable yet totally foreseeable, these measures to mitigate and adapt will have a similar impact on all aspects of the economy, including the financial system, and our way of life.

If Paris is viewed as a failure, what would it take for COP26 in Glasgow to be a success? Listen to 3 contributors describe pathways where ecosystem services are valued, countries increase their climate ambition and societies work together in a sustainable manner.

Program

9am Welcome note.

9:02am Keynote by Prof Dr James Salzman.

9:40am Q&A session with Prof Dr James Salzman.

10am Panel discussion with Meena Raman, moderated by Khoo Hsu Chuang.

10:20am Panel discussion with Chandran Nair, moderated by Khoo Hsu Chuang.

11am End.

About the Speakers

Prof Dr James Salzman is the Donald Bren Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law with joint appointments at the UCLA School of Law and at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at UC Santa Barbara. He formerly held joint appointments at Duke University as the Samuel F. Mordecai Professor of Law and Nicholas Institute Professor of Environmental Policy. In twelve books and more than 100 articles and book chapters, his broad-ranging scholarship has addressed topics spanning drinking water, trade and environment conflicts, ownership engineering, and creating markets for ecosystem services. A study by Phillips and Yoo ranked him as the fifth most cited environmental law professor in the field. There have been over 100,000 downloads of his articles.

Chandran Nair is Founder & CEO of Global Institute for Tomorrow. For more than three decades, Chandran has advised governments and MNCs on strategic management, leadership issues and sustainability, and is often invited to facilitate for top corporate education providers including Duke CE, INSEAD and NUS. He was previously Chairman of ERM in Asia Pacific, helping establish it as the world’s leading environmental consultancy. Chandran is on the Executive Committee of the Club of Rome and is a member of WEF’s Global Agenda Council on Governance for Sustainability and Experts Forum, where his thought leadership is sought for its fresh insights and intellectual honesty. He is the author of the best-seller “Consumptionomics: Asia’s Role in Reshaping Capitalism and Saving the Planet” and “The Sustainable State: The Future of Government, Economy and Society”.

Meena Raman is a legal adviser and senior researcher at Third World Network (TWN), a member of the board of Friends of the Earth International and honorary secretary to Friends of the Earth, Malaysia (Sahabat Alam). As Legal adviser to the Consumers’ Association of Penang in Malaysia, she currently heads its Community Mobilization Section, which works with farmers and fisherfolk. She has served as chair of Friends of the Earth International (2004-2008), an international organization with 77 member groups. At Third World Network, Meena currently coordinates the climate change program and has been actively involved in the intergovernmental climate negotiations, from Bali to Cancún. She has been monitoring and reporting on the negotiations and providing analysis and support both to developing country governments as well as to civil society participants. Upon graduation in 1982, Meena and a colleague set up the first public interest law firm in Malaysia, which launched her legal practice assisting consumers. In the past 25 years, she has represented the organizations she works with at numerous conferences and presented papers on issues ranging from

environmental and consumer protection to climate change, agriculture and fisheries, and globalization and trade.

Moderators:

Sunita Rajakumar is Chairman of Climate Governance Malaysia.

Khoo Hsu Chuang is a journalist and entrepreneur, with extensive experience in internal audit, tax consulting and financial media, Chuang counts over a quarter of a century’s experience working in and covering corporate, financial and capital markets in KL, Singapore, Tokyo, Hong Kong and London. He has worked for Arab-Malaysian Merchant Bank, KPMG Peat Marwick, The Edge, Bloomberg, Thomson-Reuters and BFM Media. Chuang was a co-founder of Asian Auto Interactive, an auto portal that was sold in its entirety to Main Market-listed Delloyd Ventures Bhd in 2002. In 2020, he co-founded an investment-focused social media platform, Xifu, in a joint venture with Main Market-listed Excelforce Bhd, exiting that same year. Chuang’s media experience spans print, newswire, Internet, radio broadcast and digital TV. Do More, a trademark of KHC Ventures Sdn Bhd., was begun in 2012 as a corporate content consultancy, adding podcasts and media spokesperson / crisis training in the present day.

As pre-read for the event, here are 2 articles authored by the panellists:

Meena Raman https://twn.my/title2/resurgence/2021/348/cover01.htm

Chandran Nair https://www.clubofrome.org/blog-post/nair-carbon-neutrality/