During the Alumni TGIF (“Thank Goodness I’m a Forester” event at F&ES) last October, I shared with Gao, a Ph.D. candidate from China, my interest in learning about the environmental footprint of Chinese investments overseas. Despite my passion, I had little experience in the topic at the time and had no idea where to start looking for resources. Gao immediately introduced me to Dr. Helen Gichohi, the McCluskey Fellow at F&ES, at the Alumni Event. Helen is a renowned scholar from Kenya and wildlife conservation field practitioner – also former President of African Wildlife Foundation (AWF). I expressed my interest to Helen and made quick connections with her along with two other classmates, American and Ugandan students who shared a similar passion for the subject. As our interest overlapped with…
At a time when global climate change negotiations are aiming to determine the world’s priorities, 2018 and 2019 have become landmark years to decide on the future of finance, adaptation, technology transfer, capacity-building, nationally determined contributions, and the future of the Paris Agreement as a whole.
At F&ES, students dive deep in their diverse passions and focus outside classrooms through a unique way – Student Interest Groups (SIG). As one of the fastest growing SIGs, Energy SIG (NRG) focuses on increasing opportunities and knowledge within the energy sector at Yale and providing a rigorous learning community for students interested in the nexus between energy, business, and the environment. NRG organizes diverse activities, including hosting guest speakers, running workshops, organizing field trips, and providing networking opportunities. The members of the SIG are known as electrons. Here we featured the experience of three electrons attending energy-focused conferences in New York, Boston, and Palo Alto in November.
1. Cornell Energy Connection 2018
By Lucy (Myung Eun) Shim, MESc ’20
My name is Lucy Shim, and I’m…
This piece is part of a series of posts looking to highlight the Global, Interdisciplinary and Entrepreneurial character of F&ES. It’s hard to keep track of all the initiatives students are involved in, and we hope to provide a spotlight for them. For prospective students who wish to know more, and current students who wish to have their work featured in this series, please email fesinfo@yale.edu.
When it comes to the potential ramifications of international development and trade, F&ES students Tina Huang M.E.M. ’19 (China), Kate Logan M.E.M. ’20 (United States) and Nicholas Lo M.E.Sc ’19 (Hong Kong) share the goal of creating awareness among their peers, by making sure they spread dialogue in the U.S. about the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a Chinese…
The Global Climate Action Summit had many powerful moments. During the three-day event, held last week in San Francisco, former Vice President Al Gore brought the crowd hope by asserting that the U.S. is still officially in the Paris Agreement, and that the next president could easily reverse President Trump’s decision to withdraw. Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley of Barbados reminded us that the intense storms, which have been fatal to her neighboring countries, happened at a higher rate than ever recorded with only a 1-degree C rise — and that we are on the path to a 4-degree rise. Jane Goodall reminded us to protect forests, and to not let them be “the forgotten solution.” Deforestation represents one-third of greenhouse gas emissions globally, while efforts to control it receive…
During the October fall break, a group of roughly 30 students from three Yale graduate schools (FES, School of Management, and Public Health) traveled to Quito, Ecuador. The majority of these students were FES-ers, who 1) attended the UN Habitat III conference as accredited stakeholders and 2) either presented research related to urban resilience or participated in a consultancy project.
The UN Habitat III conference was a unique occurrence. It is an event that only happens every 20 years, where national and subnational governments gather to discuss urban development. In this past Habitat, the New Urban Agenda was adopted. This is a guidance document that will dictate how urbanization will occur worldwide, and encompasses many areas including but not limited to social inclusion, ending poverty, environmentally sustainable…
Henri Lefebvre’s famous idea, Right to the City, has stirred up numerous discussions as preparations for the Habitat III conference is in full swing. Right to the City has been interpreted and used in many different ways, often in the sense of human rights and access to urban resources. In his 1968 book Le Droit à la ville, Lefebvre proposed the novel definition of Right to the City as a “demand…[for] a transformed and renewed access to urban life”. David Harvey, Professor of Anthropology and Geography at
Climate change threatens cities worldwide, but urban leaders face a myriad of funding, logistical, and political challenges in trying to reduce the associated risks at the local level. When planning for climate adaptation, or “climate-proofing,” some urban planners and civic leaders are thinking beyond their jurisdiction to develop creative solutions and partnerships at the regional level. From California to Nepal, organizations are demonstrating that taking a collaborative, regional look at climate change adaptation planning can help leverage resources and increase community resilience.
The upcoming UN Habitat conference, Habitat III, in October will be one of the largest gatherings of global urban decision makers to date. It presents an ideal forum for catalyzing new regional climate adaptation planning partnerships already happening across the world.
A Regional Approach…
Habitat III
Habitat III, a global summit born out of the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, is set to take place in Quito, Ecuador in October 2016. This round of global gathering is the third in a series that began in 1976 with the goal to reinvigorate a global, political commitment to the sustainable development of rural and urban human settlements. Termed the New Urban Agenda, Habitat III delegates have the auspicious goal of setting a global strategy for the next two decades of urbanization (“New urban agenda”, 2016). On the docket are topics such as poverty, environmental degradation, quality of life, development patterns, and – last but not least – global climate change.
With more than 50 percent of the world’s population living in…
Large Chinese cities such as Beijing are already bursting at their seams. Imagine the daily commute for one of Beijing’s 21.7 million residents. Most people live in the outskirts of the city, where there is housing, but have to commute to the city center for jobs. Although public transportation is available, average commutes still can be upwards of an hour and a half. And more people are driving too – rush hour traffic in the urban core increased by 50%, even though average travel distance is only about 6 miles.
Because of the way Beijing is expanding both vertically and horizontally, with
