One of the greatest threats to humanity – the climate emergency – will be in the spotlight for the first King’s Great Debate of 2021.

From policy and technology to migration and economies, the debate will bring together a multi-disciplinary group of scholars and experts to address the issues shaping the global response to our changing climate, both now and over the generations to come.

Debaters will consider the question: ‘The Climate Emergency: Do We Need a Whole New Political Economy?’

The event will feature input from academics, students, campaigners, and professionals and is scheduled to take place on 18 March, from 14.00 – 17.00.

Professor Peter John, head of the School of Politics and Economics at King’s, said: “We want to be bold and ambitious with this series of debates and, to that end, the climate emergency is a fitting topic for our first offering of 2021.

“To help us cover as much ground as possible and ensure that we include as many voices as we can in the debate, we’ll be moving away from the panel format and inviting our audience to join working groups where some of the key issues will be in focus.

“We hope to produce a report after the event, taking into consideration much of what will have been discussed, and we also have a podcast series which will run alongside the debates to add another perspective.”

Working groups are set to include: justice, the global south, citizenship, technology, policy, communications, COVID-19, and radical politics.

You can find a full programme for the event here.

Attendees will receive links and further information about joining working groups closer to the scheduled date.

To tie in with the event, the King’s Great Debates podcast series also launches today, with Dr Hans Asenbaum, visiting researcher with the Department of Political Economy, joining Professor John to discuss what constitutes a great debate and why it is important to hear from different voices.

You can listen to the first episode here

Follow us on Twitter @GreatDebatesKCL and find out more about the series here.

Speakers

Professor Rebecca Willis, from Lancaster University.
Professor Sam Fankhauser, from the London School of Economics.