Water Webinar Series

Water, Food and Climate Change in COP26: What was expected and what was achieved

Commencing on World Water Day, Tuesday 22 March, at 10.00am (GMT). The discussions will focus on the extent to which COP26 succeeded in addressing water and food security issues, and what aspects should be considered for COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt and beyond.

Watch Event

The webinar will be moderated by Professor Cecilia Tortajada of the School of Social & Environmental Sustainability. Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Glasgow, will introduce the webinar series. The panel members will be Professor Joachim von Braun, Dr Barbara van Koppen, Professor Taikan Oki and Professor Asit K. Biswas. Brief information on the speakers is given below.

 

Moderator

Professor Cecilia Tortajada is Professor in Practice, School of Social & Environmental Sustainability, University of Glasgow, UK; and Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Water Policy, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. She is a past president of the International Water Resources Association, and Member of the OECD Initiative on Water Governance and of the International Selection Committee of the Millennium Technology Prize, Technology Academy Finland. The main focus of her work is on impacts of global events on water resources, food, environment and societies.

 

Introduction to the Series

Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli is Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Glasgow. From 2007-2009 he was Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Heriot-Watt University. An economist, his research interests are monetary economics, central bank independence, fiscal policy, international finance and macroeconomics. Sir Anton advises the Scottish Government on the National Strategy for Economic Transformation and is a member of the advisory group for Sir Paul Nurse’s Review of the UK’s Research, Development and Innovation Organisational Landscape. He currently chairs the Commission on Economic Growth for the Glasgow City Region. From 2017-20 he was Chair of the Russell Group of UK research-intensive universities. He has been a special adviser to the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee on monetary policy, and he has advised the European Commission and the World Bank. He holds an honorary degree from McGill University in Canada.

 

Panellists

Professor Joachim von Braun is Distinguished Professor for economic and technological change at Bonn University, in the Center for Development Research (ZEF). His research is on economic development, science and technology policy, poverty reduction, food and nutrition security, agriculture, resource economics, climate, and trade. von Braun is President of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences of the Vatican, and of various academies of science. In 2020 and 2021 he served as Chair of the Scientific Group for the Food Systems Summit 2021 of the UN Secretary General.

Dr Barbara van Koppen (PhD) is Scientist Emerita at the International Water Management Institute, based in the IWMI Southern Africa office in Pretoria. She leads multi-country (action-) research in Africa and Asia on community-led water services for multiple uses and on plural water law from a gender and human rights perspective. She is lead-author and -editor of five books and (co-) author of over 150 international peer-reviewed publications. She served as member of the Board of the Water Research Commission South Africa and the Steering Committee of the Global Water Partnership.

Professor Taikan Oki is a Special Advisor to the President, and a Professor at Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo. He was the Senior Vice-Rector, United Nations University for 2016-2021. He was one of the coordinating lead authors for the chapter “Freshwater Resources” of the IPCC WGII AR5. He is the first Japanese AGU Fellow in its Hydrology Section (2014), and a full member of the Club of Rome since October 2020.

Professor Asit Biswas is Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Glasgow, UK. He is one of the world’s leading authorities on water, food, environment, and development-related issues. He has a very distinguished career as an academic and holds seven Honorary Doctorates from leading European and Asian universities. He has been advisor to Presidents, Prime Ministers and Ministers in 23 countries, six Heads of United Nations Agencies, two Secretary-Generals of OECD. He is a Stockholm Water Prize laurate.

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Pictured: Professor Cecilia Tortajada; Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli; Professor Joachim von Braun; Dr Barbara van Koppen; Professor Taikan Oki; Professor Asit Biswas

First published: 8 February 2022