In this event, which will launch the new book on Great Powers, Climate Change and Global Environmental Responsibilities, the panelists will discuss how international power inequality intersects with the global ecological crisis, and what special role great powers could and should play in the international fight against global warming.

Great powers are also great polluters, particularly when it comes to the global greenhouse gas effect. Through the 2015 Paris Agreement and recent international conferences, all major powers - from the United States to China, India, Brazil, Russia and the EU - have committed to bringing greenhouse gas emissions under control and decarbonising their economies by 2050. 

Meet our speakers and chair

Alina Averchenkova (@averchenkova) is a Distinguished Policy Fellow at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at LSE and a Senior Research Fellow at the Elcano Royal Institute.

Barry Buzan is Emeritus Professor of International Relations at LSE (formerly Montague Burton Professor); honorary professor at Copenhagen, Jilin, and China Foreign Affairs Universities; a Senior Fellow at LSE IDEAS; and a Fellow of the British Academy.

Kathryn Hochstetler (@hochstet) is Professor of International Development and Head of the Department of International Development at LSE. Kathy holds a PhD in Political Science (Minnesota), but has always been interested in the interdisciplinary study of environment and development.

Miriam Prys-Hansen (@m_prys) is Lead Research Fellow and Head of Research Programme 4: Global Orders and Foreign Policies at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA).

Stacy Vandeveer (@StacyDVanDeveer) is Professor of Global Governance and Human Security and Chair of the Department of Conflict Resolution, Human Security and Global Governance in the John C. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Robert Falkner (@robert_falkner) is an Associate Professor of International Relations at LSE. He serves as the Research Director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at LSE and as the Academic Director of the TRIUM Global Executive MBA, an alliance between LSE, NYU Stern School of Business and HEC Paris.

More about this event

We are now in our 94th year - one of the oldest as well as largest IR (@LSEIRDept) departments in the world, with a truly international reputation. We are ranked 2nd in the UK in the QS World University Ranking by Subject 2021 tables for Politics and International Studies.

The Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment (@GRI_LSE) was established by the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2008 to create a world-leading centre for policy-relevant research and training on climate change and the environment, bringing together international expertise on economics, finance, geography, the environment, international development and political economy.

This event forms part of LSE’s Shaping the Post-COVID World initiative, a series imagining what the world could look like after the crisis, and how we get there. The series will lead up to the LSE Festival 2022, which this year is taking place from Monday 13 to Saturday 18 June 2022.

You can order the book, Great Powers, Climate Change and Global Environmental Responsibilities (UK delivery only), from our official LSE Events independent book shop, Pages of Hackney.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEPostCOVID

Podcast & Video

A podcast of this event is available to download from Great Powers, Climate Change and Global Environmental Responsibilities.

A video of this event is available to watch at Great Powers, Climate Change and Global Environmental Responsibilities.

Podcasts and videos of many LSE events can be found at the LSE Public Lectures and Events: podcasts and videos channel.