The world has entered 2022 in the stage of polycrisis. Climate change poses existential threat to humanity, disproportionately affecting poorer economies predominantly based on natural resources and related economic sectors such as agriculture, forestry, and fisheries. Yet even the more diversified economies are vulnerable to climate change, while climate risks are of cascading nature, causing unprecedented risks for global economy and security. Phasing out fossil fuels and building the adaptation capacity are of critical urgency and importance, but are we on track to respond to this threat?

The guests for this episode were:

- Saleemul Huq – Director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development and Professor at the Independent University in Bangladesh as well as Associate of the International Institute on Environment and Development in the United Kingdom. Saleem is an expert in adaptation to climate change in the most vulnerable developing economies and has been a lead author of the third, fourth, and fifth assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

- Louise van Schaik – Head of the Clingendael International Sustainability Center at the Clingendael Institute and Project Manager of the Planetary Security Initiative. Her fields of expertise are climate change and natural resources, global health and EU external action.

- George Abulashvili – Director of the Energy Efficiency Center in Georgia, a co-implementing partner of Helvetas in the frame of the regional program RECONOMY. His experience spans from energy efficiency and renewable energy to climate change mitigation and analysis of environmental policies and regulations.

We have interesting topics coming up, so stay tuned!