Webinar: Managing Climate Crisis Conflicts

Join us in our next conversation on Managing Climate Crisis Conflicts: A Decade of MBBI Work in the UN Climate Change Negotiations by Dr. Thomas Fiutak and Dr. Gregg Walker, Co-Leaders of MBBI’s Climate Change Policy Project on Tuesday, November 19, 2019, at 12:00 PM ET. In this webinar, Tom and Gregg will review the CCPP and highlight CCPP member activities throughout the decade.

Register here

Prior to the two weeks of United Nations climate change negotiation meetings (COP 15 or Conference of the Parties) in Copenhagen in December 2009, expectations were high among many of the parties, the media, and non-government organizations (NGOs) that an international climate change agreement could be achieved. Although an agreement would not emerge until six years later in Paris, the conflicts among parties and the negotiation failures in Copenhagen provided a foundation for success in Paris.

Observing the Copenhagen experience were members of an NGO participating in the UN meetings for the first time – Mediators Beyond Borders International. Having received NGO accreditation from the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) Secretariat, a large contingent of MBBI members traveled to Copenhagen to participate in COP 15. MBBI members hoped to share their knowledge of conflict management processes such as mediation and lobby for specific language about mediation and conflict management to be included in a UN climate change agreement.

The MBBI climate change initiative – the Climate Change Policy Project (CCPP) – is now a decade old.


This webinar will:

  • Include a history of the UN climate change negotiations
  • Examine why these negotiations have taken so long
  • Highlight the nature of the Climate Change Policy Project and how it has evolved

This webinar will provide significant time for participant contributions – questions, answers, discussion, and knowledge sharing.

Register here


Thomas Fiutak is currently a Senior Fellow in the Technological Leadership Institute, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities as well as Lecturer in the faculty of the Conservation Biology department. He has taught Conflict Management, and Mediation Systems in the Humphrey Institute for Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota and initiated and directed the Conflict and Change Center, which coordinated research in the areas of negotiation, mediation models, and conflict management systems.

His specific focus has been on organizational and conflict cultures and their effect on the negotiation arenas they create. Since 1985 as Fellow at the Salzburg Seminar (Austria) on Dispute Resolution, he has provided negotiation training for policymakers, government officials, educators, judges, private sector negotiators, leaders of non-government organizations, and financial officers in North America, as well as 15 other countries in Asian, Europe, and Africa.  Tom is one of three Co-Founders of the Climate Change Project at Mediators Beyond Borders International (MBBI).

 

Gregg B. Walker is a professor of Communication and an adjunct professor in the College of Science (Environmental Sciences), the College of Forestry (Forest Ecosystems and Society), and the College of Earth, Oceanic, and Atmospheric Sciences (Marine Resource Management, Water Resources Policy and Management) at Oregon StateUniversity.  On campus Gregg teaches courses in conflict management, bargaining and negotiation, mediation, international negotiation, natural resources decision making, environmental conflict resolution, science communication, and argumentation.  Off campus, Gregg conducts training programs on collaborative conflict management, designs collaborative public participation processes, facilitates collaborative learning community workshops about natural resource and environmental policy issues, and researches community-level collaboration efforts.  He has authored a numerous articles and papers on environmental communication and conflict resolution, is co-author (with Steve Daniels) of Working Through Environmental Conflict: The Collaborative Learning Approach (2001, Praeger), and co-editor of the forthcoming book, Breaking Boundaries: Innovative Practices in Environmental Communication and Public Participation (2019, SUNY Press). He has served as a Fulbright Senior Specialist in the fields of Peace and Conflict Resolution.  Gregg is an advisor to the National Collaboration Cadre of the USDA-Forest Service and on the roster of the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution.  Gregg is co-director of the Climate Change Project for Mediators Beyond Borders International, Chair of the Climate Change Negotiations Working Group for the International Environmental Communication Association, and a member of the Steering Committee of the Research and Independent Non-Government Organizations (RINGO) Constituency of the UN Climate Change negotiations process (UNFCCC).   In these roles he attends most of the United Nations climate change negotiation meetings and conducts related research on those negotiations.  Gregg holds Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in Communication Studies from the University of Kansas and B.A. and B.S. degrees in Speech Communication, Sociology, and History from the University of Minnesota.


Please note that the deadline to register for this webinar is one day before the event. We will send the Zoom access link to registrants after the registration closing time and again on the day of the event. For further information about this our other webinars, contact us at webinars@mediatorsbeyondborders.org

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