The British Museum, 27-29 May 2016
Chris Trott and Sandra Piesek of Foster + Partners will be participating in the Anthropology, Weather and Climate Change Conference at the British Museum on 27-29 May 2016. Sandra Piesek is the Convenor of a panel on ‘The role of indigenous knowledge in combating global climate change’ which seeks to understand how a multi-disciplinary global community including representatives that contribute to the built environment, the natural sciences, civil society and public policy could engage with local people and gain a deeper understanding of their knowledge regarding strategies to address the issue of climate change.
Combating climate change is a complex issue involving many disciplines. Over the past few decades, many global initiatives have tried to comprehensively address what is one of the most pressing issues of this century. More recently, the importance of indigenous local knowledge and technologies in finding solutions to combat climate change has come to the fore, as they represent the viable and implementable solutions at the grassroots level. The role of modern science and technology has also been acknowledged as an important catalyst in technology co-development. The challenge remains to find the best way to combine both to find the optimum solution.
The COP21 Paris Agreement offers a long term vision for combating climate change. Amongst other recommendations, technology development and transfer is recognised as a particularly important tool for building local resilience. The sustainable management of natural resources plays a vital role in restoring fragile eco-systems as well as regional economies.
The highlight of the panel will be the keynote by Tomasz Chruszczow, Chair of the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) of the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC), amongst other multidisciplinary contributions from Professor Paul Stilloe, Anthropologist, Chair of The Royal Anthropological Institute in Great Britain and Ireland Environment Committee; Dr James Coleman, Economist, Head of Economics, Buro Happold Engineering, London; Christopher Trott, Head of Sustainability and Partner at Foster + Partners, London; Dr Sandra Piesik, Architect at Foster + Partners, who is also the Convenor of the panel.
