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What kind of new normal? Addressing the health and climate crises simultaneously
08 June 2020, 4:30 pm–6:00 pm
Join the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) as we examine the connections between the health and climate crises and make the case for an integrated response with leading experts Els Torreele, Carlota Perez, and Antonio Andreoni.
This event is free.
Event Information
Open to
- All
Cost
- Free
Organiser
-
UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented decline in human carbon emissions. However, climate scientists have warned against celebration because of the danger that a rush to bring economic activity back to normal will further commit humanity to an unsustainable and high-risk future. If anything, the pandemic has highlighted the vulnerability of many countries to adverse shocks and their inability to adequately protect the health of their citizens.
This webinar will examine the connections between the health and climate crises and make the case for an integrated response. It will ask:
- How should states transform their public health and innovation systems to navigate out of the pandemic and increase global resilience to future health crises?
- What conditionalities are then needed in the economic response to ensure that it produces a more sustainable and health-focused economy?
- Can the pandemic serve as a trigger for a comprehensive shift to a new normal with different values, different lifestyles and a different societal paradigm?
A global engagement series: Public purpose in the time of COVID-19
Hosted by the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP), this virtual events series will ask the questions: What is ‘public purpose’ in the time of a global pandemic? What is the role of the State in shaping a social and economic recovery with a new directionality? Throughout the series, IIPP will be in conversation with leading global thinkers on today’s most pressing challenges, from the macroeconomic policy response to the effectiveness of different public governance solutions and civic engagement experimentation.
This series will also explore how to give public purpose to powerful digital technologies and rebuild more resilient economic systems and institutions, as well as what is needed across emerging economies to avoid spiralling into more debt and inequality.
The current global COVID-19 crisis is a wake-up call for a new public purpose which works for a more inclusive and sustainable global society.
Follow the conversation at #IIPPCOVID19
About the Speakers
Els Torreele
Former Executive Director at Médecins Sans Frontières Access Campaign
Els Torreele is a leading figure in the global effort to increase the access of the world's population to suitable and affordable medical treatments. Until recently, she directed the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Access Campaign where she worked to push the development of medicines, vaccines and diagnostics that address shortfalls in global health provision. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, she has argued for treatments such as a vaccine to be supplied widely and affordably based on the principles of equity and need. Previously, she was a founding member of the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) where she directed several medical R&D projects from discovery through to clinical trials. She has also worked for the Open Society Foundations in New York, leading their work on transparency, accountability and civil society voices in policies that shape access to medical innovation.
More about Els TorreeleCarlota Perez
Honorary Professor at UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)
Carlota Perez is a pioneering scholar on the role of innovation in long-run economic and social change and the interaction between technology and institutions. Her 2002 book Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages had a great influence on our understanding of role of finance in the emergence and diffusion of technological revolutions and the connection of this to financial crises. She is currently working on Beyond the Technological Revolution, a four-year research project which builds on her past work by further examining the role that government, business and civil society play in realising the potential of technological revolutions. Her career began in the Venezuelan civil service and she has been a consultant for many governments and multilateral organisations, including UNCTAD, UNIDO, the OECD and the World Bank, as well as major international corporations like IBM, Cisco and ING Bank.
More about Carlota PerezAntonio Andreoni (Chair)
Associate Professor of Industrial Economics and Head of Research at UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)
Antonio Andreoni is Associate Professor in Industrial Economics at University College London (UCL) and Head of Research at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP). He is also Visiting Associate Professor in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, SARChI Industrial Development, University of Johannesburg. His work on industrial systems and innovation, development and governance, financialisation and corruption and industrial policy have appeared in leading international journals, including the Cambridge Journal of Economics, Development and Change, Cambridge Journal of Regions Economy and Society, Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Oxford Review of Economic Policy and Energy Policy. Antonio has also worked on research and policy issues for the World Bank, OECD, DFID, GIZ, UNIDO, UNCTAD, ILO, UNDP, UNECA, UNU-WIDER, and governments in South Africa, Tanzania, Italy and the UK.
More about Antonio Andreoni (Chair)