Paying for our planet’s survival: who should foot the bill for decarbonization and how?
Climate change is an existential peril. In order to avoid the catastrophic effects of climate change, we urgently need to reduce our emissions from greenhouse gases. This requires nothing short of a complete transformation of the way our societies produce and consume energy. Ideally, a green economy would usher in an era of decarbonization, good jobs, and environmentally-friendly economic growth. But how do we actually get there? And who should pay for decarbonization? Various market-based mechanisms have been proposed to reduce emissions, where doing good for the planet is also good for the bottom line. Will market forces alone be sufficient to incentivize the green economy? Or do we need government intervention? Dr. Lépissier will take us on a tour of the various ways in which markets and governments can come together to combat climate change. Join us for a discussion on the political economy of climate change, where tricky issues of fairness and efficiency come up, and where we will discuss whether financial forces can be harnessed towards achieving a decarbonized world.
Dr. Alice Lépissier
Dr. Alice Lépissier is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University (Providence, USA), where she works on climate finance and illicit finance. She is affiliated with the Rhodes Center for International Economics and Finance and the Climate Solutions Lab at Brown. Dr. Lépissier is a political economist and applied statistician. Her research leverages cutting-edge quantitative techniques such as machine learning to answer questions about pressing environmental and developmental problems. Another strand of her research agenda focuses on finding statistical evidence of illicit activity: behavior which, by definition, seeks to remain hidden.
Dr. Lépissier has published in top peer-reviewed scientific journals, and has produced numerous policy reports for international organizations and NGOs. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, and she regularly engages with policy-makers on climate change and illicit finance. Dr. Lépissier developed the new estimates of illicit trade for the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. Prior to that, she worked as a researcher for the development economics think tank Center for Global Development in Europe, where she led the development of a climate change simulation tool called www.skyshares.org.
She holds a PhD in Environmental Science and Management and an MA in Statistics from the University of California in Santa Barbara. She also has a MSc in Economic History from the London School of Economics, and an MSc in Economics and Public Policy from Sciences Po Paris and Ecole Polytechnique. Her BA is in European Social and Political Studies from University College London. Dr. Lépissier is a proud alumna of the British section of the Lycée International in Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
You can find out more at https://alicelepissier.com/.