Virtual Launch of the University Network for Strengthening Macro-financial Resilience to Climate and Environmental Change

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Anthropogenic climate change is causing more frequent and intense extreme events, with significant adverse impacts and related losses and damages to nature and people. Its many impacts, from floods and storms to wildfires and droughts, are disproportionately affecting developing countries which often have only few ways and means to adapt to a rapidly warming world. The Paris Agreement made capacity building a central focus of the climate convention process and both bilateral and multilateral efforts have sought to strengthen developing countries’ abilities to respond to climate change. Yet despite these developments, many countries vulnerable to climate change continue to face significant capacity challenges which undermine their ability to pursue effective adaptation and resilience-building interventions, including a shortage of strong policies and effective planning in central ministries, as well as a lack of integrated teaching and research on these matters at university level. In educating current and future leaders to address climate-related macrofinancial risks and vulnerabilities that threaten public finances, financial and macroeconomic stability, and economic development, universities can act as important catalysts for increasing adaptation and building more sustainable and resilient societies.

Against this backdrop, we are establishing the University Network for Strengthening Macrofinancial Resilience to Climate and Environmental Change (‘the Network’) to promote multi-disciplinary academic teaching and research in areas important for strengthening macrofinancial resilience to climate change. The Network consists of global universities that seek to build capacities to carry out relevant high-quality teaching and research, and acts as a strategic and knowledge partner of major international organisations working in this field. The Network is managed by a secretariat hosted by the Centre for Sustainable Finance at SOAS, University of London, and has received initial funding from the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

The University Network is a key part of the Resilience Adaptation Mainstreaming Program (RAMP), an initiative seeking to accelerate climate adaptation in developing countries by building capacity in ministries of finance, planning and economics to understand, plan for, and finance climate adaptation actions. RAMP is supported by a secretariat hosted by the World Resources Institute, working in close partnership with the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, UNDP, regional development banks, and other stakeholders.
Join us at London Climate Action Week 2022 for the formal launch of the University Network and a discussion on the transformative role universities can play in adaptation and resilience-building.

Programme:

Welcome:

Ulrich Volz, Academic Director of the University Network & Professor of Economics, SOAS, University of London

Presentation : The University Network

Harald Heubaum, Deputy Academic Director of the University Network & Senior Lecturer in Global Energy and Climate Policy, SOAS, University of London

Keynote:

Rachel Kyte, Dean of the Fletcher School at Tufts University

Panel 1: Capacity building for enhancing adaptation and resilience

• Chair : Nisha Krishnan, Director for Climate Resilience, Africa, WRI
• Su Dinh Thanh, President of the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City
• Saleemul Huq, Director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) and Professor at the Independent University Bangladesh
• Umar Kakumba, First Deputy Vice Chancellor of Makerere University
• Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana (tbc)

Panel 2: Universities as catalysts of change

• Chair : Andrea Cornwall, Pro-Director Research & Enterprise, SOAS, University of London
• William-Andey Lazaro Anangisye, Vice Chancellor of the University of Dar es Salaam
• Daniel Olago, Chairman of the Department of Earth and Climate Sciences
  and Research Director of the Institute for Climate Change and Adaptation at
  the University of Nairobi
• Nicola Ranger, Head of Sustainable Finance Research for Development in the Oxford Sustainable Finance Group, University of Oxford
• Stacy Richards-Kennedy, Interim Pro Vice-Chancellor for Global Affairs of the University of the West Indies

To book a free place for this event, please register on zoom