Led by Michael Greenstone of the University of Chicago, this event will discuss the impacts of climate change on human wellbeing in developing countries, as well as policy options to address them.

Climate change is already increasing global temperatures, changing rainfall patterns, and resulting in more frequent and severe floods and droughts. Developing countries are most vulnerable to climate change, which can aggravate the effects of poverty and rapid urbanisation. Without effective policies for adaptation and mitigation, climate change may push hundreds of millions further into poverty and limit the opportunities for sustainable development. In order to formulate effective and equitable adaptation and mitigation strategies, governments must be equipped with a thorough estimation of the costs and benefits of various policies.

Meet our speakers and chair

Tamma Carleton is an Assistant Professor at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at UC Santa Barbara. She is an affiliate of the Climate Impact Lab, a research associate at the Environmental Markets Lab, and a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Tamma joined Bren after a postdoc at the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. She completed her PhD in Agricultural & Resource Economics at UC Berkeley, where she was an EPA STAR Fellow and a Doctoral Fellow in the Global Policy Lab at the Goldman School of Public Policy. Tamma is an environmental and resource economist, focusing on questions at the intersection of environmental change and economic development.

Public Policy Practitioner with 26 years working for the Government of Pakistan, Asad Rehman Gilani is a permanent civil servant and an officer in the Pakistan Administrative Service. He joined the service in 1996 and has experience of multiple sectors and jurisdictions. His current assignment is the Secretary of the Board of Investment at the Prime Minister’s office in the Federal government.

Michael Greenstone is the Milton Friedman Distinguished Service Professor in Economics as well as the Director of the Becker Friedman Institute and the interdisciplinary Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. He previously served as the Chief Economist for President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, where he co-led the development of the United States Government’s social cost of carbon. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the Econometric Society, a Carnegie Fellow, and a former editor of the Journal of Political Economy. Formerly, Greenstone was the 3M Professor of Environmental Economics at MIT and directed The Hamilton Project.

Prior to joining Ghana's Public Utilities Regulatory Commission, Eric Obutey worked as a Consultant in Price Waterhouse, Ghana, Ernst & Young, Ghana and the Adam Smith Institute of UK as an Associate Consultant. He joined the Commission as an Assistant Manager and rose through the ranks to become the Director of Research and Corporate Affairs, having worked in several Directorates/Departments of the Commission.

Jonathan Leape is the Executive Director of the IGC and an Associate Professor of Economics at LSE. He was the founding director of the Centre for Research into Economics and Finance in Southern Africa, which was established at LSE in 1990 as an initiative of the Commonwealth Heads of Government to support the democratic transition in South Africa.

More about this event

During LSE Environment Week we are using economics to address the climate crisis in a series of events convened by the Department of Economics (@LSEEcon), the Economics of Environment and Energy Programme (EEE), the International Growth Centre (@The_IGC) and the Programme on Innovation and Diffusion (@POID_LSE).

This is one of three public events during LSE Environment Week, the others are:

20 September - Whatever It Takes – Is There A Plan B For Climate Change?

21 September - Ray of Hope? Innovation and the Climate Crisis.

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEEnvironmentWeek

Featured image (used in source code with watermark added): Photo by Jamal Dawoodpoto on Unsplash.

Podcast & Video

A podcast of this event is available to download from The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Wellbeing in Developing Countries.

A video of this event is available to watch at The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Wellbeing in Developing Countries.

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