Sustainable futures - Tyndall Centre researchers' international conference

28 Mar 2011

An international conference assessing future sustainability has been organised by doctoral students at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and the Sustainable Consumption Institute at the University of Manchester.

The conference has been organised entirely by Manchester PhD researchers and is looking at the different aspects of sustainable futures, covering both the level and type of action needed to avoid the worst environmental and societal impacts of climate change, and how to deal with the effects of these impacts.

There will be 21 presentations of international PhD research over the two days of 30-31 March at the Manchester Business School.

There is a £300 prize from Elsevier Science, co-sponsor of the event, for the best conference presentation.
Research that will be presented at the conference includes:

•    How modern infrastructure such as electricity supply and clean water rely upon each other and how they can be made more resilient to climate change hazards

•    The positives and negatives of growing biofuels instead of foodcrops as a new source of renewable energy

•    Where in the world to build solar and wind farms for optimum effectiveness

•    Evaluating the prospect of harnessing solar energy in deserts to desalinate water for agriculture

•    The role of the internet blogosphere in communicating climate change science and contrarian information

Eminent speakers from academia, business and policy are also presenting and discussing. These include:
Professor Paul Ekins of University College London; Andrew Simms of the New Economics Foundation; Professor Andy Gouldson, director of the ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy; Professor Libo Wu, economist at Fudan University, Shanghai; Professor Nick Pidgeon, director of the Understanding Risk research group at Cardiff University; Molly Conisbee of the Soil Association; Stephen Heal, former head of climate change at Tesco; and Colin Challen, former MP and founder member of the All Party Climate Change Group.

“We wanted an event where PhD students and established experts could have a chance to discuss topics of national and international significance across a broad range of academic disciplines” said Maria Sharmina, one of the organisers.  Maria is at the University of Manchester researching a PhD on Russia’s carbon emission trajectories.

The conference will also be streamed online so that participants can take part worldwide. The link to the webstreaming facility is http://www.ustream.tv/channel/manchester-business-school