Events

Past Event

The Climate Crisis, Global Land Use, and Human Rights

September 27, 2019
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
America/New_York
Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice, 320 E 43rd St, New York, NY 10017
Registration is free but required. On September 27th, the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI), Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, Landesa, and Wake Forest Law School will be hosting a day-long conference on the intersection between land use, the climate crisis and clean energy transition, and human rights. The climate crisis threatens to dramatically alter people’s relationships with the land on which they rely. Meanwhile, many climate solutions are themselves land-intensive, including solar and wind energy, carbon dioxide removal, and finding places for people displaced by climate change to live and grow food, thus potentially increasing competition for land. This conference will analyze the critical role that land plays in achieving climate solutions, the degree to which climate change may reshape regional abilities to support sustainable ecosystems, and the ways in which these land and climate interactions might affect land rights, human rights, and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. In particular, the conference will focus on: The necessity of land for many climate solutions, such as renewable energy, metals for energy efficient solutions, and carbon storage and sequestration; The increasing tension between insecure land tenure for communities reliant on land and climate solutions tied to land, as well as the potential for climate solutions to increase socially inclusive land uses; The consequences of climate-driven land scarcity and climate-solution land demands; and Sustainable and equitable solutions to some of the most challenging land-centric climate change issues, such as relocation of displaced persons and activities Confirmed Panelists Include: Karol Boudreaux, Chief Program Officer, Landesa Michael Burger, Executive Director, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law Kaitlin Cordes, Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Michael Gerrard, Andrew Sabin Professor of Professional Practice, Columbia Law School; Director, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, Columbia Law School Kristen Hund, Senior Mining Specialist, Energy and Extractives Global Practice of the World Bank Taiko Lemayian, Executive Director, Kenya Community Based Tourism Network (KECOBAT) Jane Meriwas, Founder, Samburu Women’s Trust; UN Fellow Barron Orr, Lead Scientist, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification; Professor and Geospatial Extension Specialist, University of Arizona César Rodríguez-Garavito, Visiting Professor of Clinical Law, New York University School of Law Cynthia Rosenzweig, Senior Research Scientist, Head of Climate Impacts Group, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies; Co-chair, New York City Panel on Climate Change (NPCC). Rukka Sombolinggi, Secretary General, Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN) Gerald Torres, Professor of Law, Cornell Law School Janene Yazzie, Sustainable Development Program Coordinator, International Indian Treaty Council and Co-Convenor, Indigenous Peoples Major Group for Sustainable Development (IPMG) Registration is free but required.

Contact Information

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment