"Climate Politics in the Shadow of Genocide": A Faculty Inaugural Lecture by Prof. Jan Selby

Join us at the fourth lecture in the Faculty of Social Sciences Inaugural Lecture Series!

We are delighted to announce that the fourth lecture in the 2024-25 Faculty Inaugural Lecture Series will be given by Professor Jan Selby from the School of Politics and International Studies. 

Professor Selby is a professor of International Politics and Climate Change whose research focuses on the links between climate and other environmental changes, and structures and dynamics of politics and power. His work cuts across five areas: Climate Security, Water Politics, Climate Impacts, Vulnerability and Adaptation, the Politics of Climate Mitigation and Low-carbon Transitions, and broader contributions to International Relations.

The Lecture

Climate Politics in the Shadow of Genocide

Abstract

As if climate change was not challenging enough already, humanity’s efforts to address it are currently unfolding against a backdrop of escalating great power tensions, multiple wars, entrenched authoritarianism, resurgent far-right movements and, not least, a genocide. But what actually are the implications of this extremely fraught geopolitical conjuncture for climate politics? How are today’s international climate negotiations being affected by the terrible wars in Ukraine, the Middle East and elsewhere? And how, more broadly, should we understand the relationships between climate change on the one hand, and such ‘big politics’ on the other? Reflecting on these difficult questions and several decades of work on climate and environmental issues, this lecture will argue that both climate change and our responses to it are deeply political, and inevitably shaped by political and conflict contexts. And in light of the ongoing Western-backed atrocities in Gaza plus the re-election of Donald Trump, the lecture will also venture a more specific thesis: that if humanity is to successfully transition away from fossil fuels, then a fundamental shift towards a global politics centred upon practices of solidarity, demilitarisation and reconciliation will be required.

We would like to welcome everyone – be they colleagues, postgraduate researchers, students, alumni or visitors – to this lecture celebrating the achievement and research contributions of Professor Selby.

The lecture will take place on Wednesday 4 November 2024 at 16:00 in Liberty Building (Moot Court) LT (1.28) on the Western University of Leeds campus. The lecture will take place from 16:00-17:00 including introductions and a Q&A session, after which there will be a drinks reception.

To register your attendance at this lecture, please complete this short registration form.

If you have any queries about this lecture, or about the series, please direct them via email to Izzy Jenkinson (Faculty Events Coordinator) at I.K.S.Jenkinson@leeds.ac.uk.