HYPOTHETICAL #3 SUSTAINABILITY & SURVIVAL

An Aarhus 2017 Commission
THE HYPOTHETICALS
Presented by Aarhus 2017 with Clement Kjersgaard

The world is facing huge challenges, and opposing opinions are rife: Which problems are most important? What are the solutions? And who is responsible for turning thought into action? Join in when DR host and moderator Clement Kjersgaard – accompanied by international and Danish guests – converts Aarhus Theatre into a community centre with room for key questions to be asked.

Will the human race know how to correct its course if its own survival is unquestionably endangered? If this is indeed the question put to us by global warming, what is the answer? Seven years after the disappointment that was COP15 in Copenhagen, the nations of the world reached a new solemn consensus about the massive problem of climate change at COP21 in Paris. Yet the politicians are still racing to catch up with the scientists, whose warnings grow only darker month by month. Will we make it? If we succeed, how will we do it? We present a series of prominent, sharp, and influential thinkers, politicians, journalists, activists, and scientists.

SPEAKERS:

FIRST ACT

Jason Box
Dark Snow and how we need to react to climate change
American professor of glaciology. Has since 2013 researched the melting of the inland ice for GEUS (The National Geological Research Institution for Denmark and Greenland). Cast in Leonardo DiCaprios documentary ‘Before the Flood’ (2016).

Jens Hesselbjerg Christensen
The future climate – what will it look like?
Professor in climate physics at Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen. One of the authors of the UN Climate Assessment Report and amongst the world’s leading scientists in the application of climate models for predictions of the future climate.

Katherine Richardson
The world’s sustainability goals
Professor in marine biology and director of Sustainability Science Centre at University of Copenhagen. Appointed by UN secretary-general as a member of the panel that prepares ’The Global Sustainability Development Report’ for the UN General assembly in 2019.

Connie Hedegaard
Next step and who does what?
Chairman of the board of the green think tank CONCITO. Former European Commissioner for Climate Action and Danish Minister for Climate and Energy. Is engaged with the next big steps in the green transition, which hurdles are most important to overcome and the question: Who does what?

SECOND ACT

Peter Birch Sørensen
Are we on the right path?
Chairman for Danish Climate Council, economist and professor at University of Copenhagen, where he researches in environmental-, resource- and climate economy. How far away are we from reaching the goal of reducing CO2-emissions by 80-95 % in 2050? We take stock of the situation and ask; wherein lies the challenges? Will we reach the goal?

Otto Brøns-Petersen
New and efficient climate policy
Head of Analysis in think tank CEPOS, where he is primarily concerned with the financial sector and energy politics in relation to climate issues. Former director of the Ministry for Taxation. Concerned with the question: How to implement a new and efficient climate policy?

Jacob Bundsgaard
The sustainable and desirable city of the future
Mayor of Aarhus and deputy chairman in the board of Local Government Denmark (KL). Aarhus aspires to be a desirable place to live and work. Simultaneously, the city has developed a plan for climate adaptation and has set an ambitious goal to be CO2-neutral in 2030. How to create a desirable, sustainable and climate adaptable city? How to get support from the citizens, and how to keep them interested and engaged? 

Mads Flarup Christensen
From words to action
Secretary-General for Greenpeace in the Nordic countries. Greenpeace works for a sustainable development and has emphasised in particular the accelerating climate changes during the past decades. What does it take, and according to Greenpeace, what focus areas should we work on in order to resolve the climate challenges in Denmark and globally?  

THIRD ACT

Gregers Andersen
A green transition is a cultural transition
Cultural researcher and author of the debate book ’Grænseløshedens kultur’ (2016) about how ecological systemic changes that people create around the world, are inextricably linked with the Danish culture we live in. Advocates that climate change requires new ways of thinking, living and acting politically, and that art can be guiding in this issue.

Johanne Stenstrup
Sustainable living and action
Entrepreneur and founder of Sustain Daily - a web magazine and blogger network focusing on sustainable ways of living and actions in everyday life. As a fashion blogger, she also highlights the aesthetic aspects of sustainability, and how to inspire people to lead a sustainable life.  

Hanne Juel
Circular economy – the answer for the 17 Sustainability Goals?
Strategic Developer for Energy and circular economy in Central Denmark Region. Works with circular economy as an alternative for the current extract-, produce-, and throw away-culture. Has been inspired by the natural cycles where nothing is wasted, in showing how circular economy can create new partnerships, innovation, new jobs and hope for the future.

Paul Holmbeck
Organic production and climate struggle
Director of Økologisk Landsforening since 1999 (Organisation for promotion of organic production and consumption). Has since 1995 fought to develop and propagate organic production in Denmark, where organic produce has shifted from a marginal movement to a popular consumption. Denmark has taken a world leading position in organic sales and policies. Which principles from the organic movement can be applied in other areas of the green transition such as the climate struggle? And what happens in farming, including organic farming, if agriculture must pull its weight in climate challenge efforts?

Programme:

13.00-14.30: First act
14.30-15.00: Pause

15.00-16.30: Second act
16.30-17.00: Pause

17.00-18.30: Third act
18.30-19.30: Dinner in Hack Kampmanns Salen (buy your menu separately HERE)

19.30-21.00: Aftertalk in Café Hack

Practical:
8 hours of presentations and discussions from 13.00-21.00
Price: 250 DKK
Discount for students and young people under the age of 25: 60 DKK

Supported by FO-Aarhus.