June 3, 2021  |  WebEx, 3:00 pm PT
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About this Lecture

Photo of Earth from space.

For more than three decades the world’s diplomats have been hammering out agreements on global climate change. So far, there is little evidence that all this diplomacy has had much impact. This talk will look at the fundamental technological and economic factors that explain why political and diplomatic progress has been slow. It will also show how new ideas that will allow for more rapid progress are taking hold. European countries have been the leaders on climate action for decades, but parts of the US, China and other places are now joining that leadership.

About

Photo of Dr. David Victor

Dr. David Victor i is a professor of industrial organization and innovation at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at UC San Diego. He co-directs the campus-wide Deep Decarbonization Initiative, an effort to understand how quickly the world can eliminate emissions of warming gases. He is adjunct professor in Climate, Atmospheric Science & Physical Oceanography at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and a professor (by courtesy) in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Prior to joining the faculty at UC San Diego, Victor was a professor at Stanford Law School where he taught energy and environmental law. He has been heavily involved in many different climate- and energy-policy initiatives, including as convening lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations-sanctioned international body with 195 country members that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. His Ph.D. is from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and A.B. from Harvard University.