GEOG Seminar 2/1: Julia K. Steinberger, "Living Well Within Limits: Is It Possible? And What Willl It Take?"

About the Speaker

Dr. Julia K. Steinberger is a professor of Ecological Economics at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, renowned for her pioneering research in the realm of examining the connections between resource use (energy and materials, greenhouse gas emissions) and societal performance (economic activity and human wellbeing). The Living Well Within Limits project investigates the energy requirements of well- being, from quantitative, participatory and provisioning systems perspectives.

Seminar Highlights

In this seminar, Steinberger will communicate individual and cross-cutting findings from the project, and their implications. In particular, Steinberger will share her team’s most recent results on the international distribution of energy footprints by country, consumption category, and income classes, as well as modelling the minimum energy demand that would provide decent living standards for everyone on earth by 2050. She will show that achieving low-carbon well-being, both from the beneficiary (“consumer”) and supply-chain (producer) sides, involves strong distributional and political elements. Political economy research is thus necessary to diagnose reasons for poor outcomes, and identify the most promising avenues for positive change. Thus, Steinberger argues for the active (as in activist) engagement of the research community.

Location: Zoom link: https://umd.zoom.us/j/91056495175?pwd=a0RORmJybk1VNm41MU8wdDY4QXJpdz09
Meeting ID: 910 5649 5175
Passcode: 196182