Cutting Fossil Fuels: Progress and Pushback

This event is a part of our Climate Conversations, a series to provide informal opportunities to connect with colleagues on pressing climate topics, locally and globally.

The Climate Solutions Research Collective launched the year with a presentation of how recent international advisory opinions, as well as national and global climate litigation initiated by youth, are framing Canada’s responsibilities towards climate change.  

We will continue this discussion throughout the year through a series of Climate Conversations grounded in the topics that emerged during this first session, which you can view in full on our YouTube Channel or review an event summary on on website. 

In this Climate Conversation, Professors Philippe LeBillon (Geography) and Kathryn Harrison (Political Science) will discuss how fossil fuel supply in Canada is shaping up under evolving mandates.

This includes how projects currently proposed under the new Major Projects Office relate to fossil fuel production. They will discuss progress made by federal and global initiatives to cut fossil fuels, as well as reversals seen in recent months, and explore likely paths forward.

Presenters:

Dr. Kathryn Harrison (she/her) 
Professor, Political Science (Faculty of Arts), UBC. 

Kathryn Harrison is a Professor of Political Science who studies environmental, climate, and energy policy, federalism, and comparative public policy. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Western Ontario, Master’s degrees in Chemical Engineering and Political Science from MIT, and a PhD in Political Science from UBC.  She is the co-editor of Global Commons, Domestic Decisions: The Comparative Politics of Climate Change.  Dr. Harrison is a regular commenter in print and broadcast media, and regularly publishes op-eds published in regional and national media. She has advised local, provincial, and national governments, and is currently a member of the BC Climate Solutions Council and chair of the mitigation expert advisory committee of the Canadian Climate Institute.

Dr. Philippe Le Billon (he/him) 
Professor, Department of Geography (Faculty of Arts) and the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, UBC.  
Philippe Le Billon’s research engages with the environment-development-security nexus, including climate change, ocean governance, extractive sectors, and conflicts. He regularly collaborates with international and non-governmental organizations, including environmental defenders.  Dr. Le Billon was a Scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and held a Fulbright Research Chair at UC Berkeley and a Research Fellowship at Science-Po Paris.  He is co-author of the book “Oil” (Geopolitics of resources series, Polity Press, 2017). Prior to his position at UBC, he worked as a humanitarian and UN peacekeeper, as well as with the International Institute for Strategic Studies and French Foreign Affairs.