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Apologies for cross posting Seminar Four of the seminar series on Local Action on Climate Change and Resourse Constraints is now organised for 14th November in Newcastle-on-tyne. Places are available as before on a first come first served basis, and again there are a limited number of travel bursaries for unfunded PGs and members of community and voluntary groups. Applications to me please. ESRC Seminar series on local action on climate change Seminar Four: Learning from the Global South Wednesday 14 November 10-5pm in Newcastle. Star and Shadow Cinema Stepney Bank Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 2NP T: 0191 261 0066 Rationale: We know that dangerous climate change is a major problem to be avoided, and that many people argue that we are beginning to run out of oil. Both issues mean that over the next twenty years or so we might have to change the way we organise our economies, which are currently focused entirely on growth. Yet the rise of China and India, as more and more of their citizens understandably want first world life styles mean that cutting back on growth does not seem credible. The global North, the South argues, caused the problem, and now wants the South to cut back just as they are beginning to give their people the living standards we in the North take for granted. But is it good enough for the global South to regard climate change as a Northern problem when many Chinese cities are characterised by choking air pollution and contaminated groundwater, and some of the early victims of problems associated with climate change are in the global South? How China and India, for example, develop dwarfs anything we can do locally in the UK. More positively, western-centred conceptions of economic development conventionally draw on experiences developed in the global North which are then diffused South. In recent years more cognisance has been taken of good practice developed in the South: this seminar therefore looks to examine what lessons we can learn from Southern experience in developing local action to mitigate the effects of dangerous climate change. • how does local action on climate change look from perspectives from the global south?; • what are the geographies of responsibilities of the global North (which arguably created the problem) to the global South (where the worst problems are already being experienced?; • what lessons should, and could, we learn from the South? And • how can we use transnational activist and institutional networks to pass knowledge on. This seminar aims to explore in more detail how new ways of thinking about climate change might inform sustainable alternatives to growth in the global North. Speakers: 1. Pushpam Kumar, University of Liverpool, “Local Action on Climate Change: a perspective from India” 2. Phil o’Keefe, University of Northumbria, “What are the wider issues for South/South and South/North learning about local action on climate change?” 3. Darryn McEvoy, University of Maastricht, “What sort of lessons should we in the North be learning? The case of Inner Mongolia (China).” 4. Felix Tuodolo, University of Liverpool “FOE’s organising in Nigeria and the delta.” 5. Dave Featherstone, University of Liverpool. “Climate change, transnational networks and subaltern political ecologies.” Registration The seminar is free and lunch will be provided, but places are limited. Places will be allocated on a first come, first served basis, and prior registration is required. Please contact Peter North ([log in to unmask]) There are also a limited number of ESRC-funded travel bursaries available on a strictly first come first served basis for postgraduate students and practitioners – again, please send applications to Pete. More details of the seminar series and forthcoming seminars can be found at: http://www.liv.ac.uk/geography/seminars/ESRC-funded_seminar_series.htm Map of the venue: http://www.starandshadow.org.uk/pages/Where%20We%20Are Accommodation suggestions: http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/core.nsf/a/accommodation Peter North Department of Geography University of Liverpool