The Action Agenda: A collaborative approach to addressing climate change

March 02, 2016,
3:30pm - 4:30pm

At the recent UN climate talks in Paris, non-state actors and governments were asked to accelerate partnerships and increase climate action on the ground. The goal: to launch a virtuous cycle of climate action, where demonstration of action on the ground encourages negotiators to make more ambitious pledges, which, in turn, generate even more action.

Please join us on Wednesday, March 2, 2016, 3:30–4:30PM in MIT Building E19-319 to learn more about the UN’s action agenda, from its origins to its emergence at COP21 to its potential futureOur distinguished speaker is Janos Pasztor, Senior Advisor to the UN Secretary‑General on Climate Change.

A national of Hungary (and later also of Switzerland), Janos Pasztor received his MS and BS degrees at MIT. During the last 35 years, he has worked for various UN and non-governmental organizations on issues of energy and environment, with an increasing focus on climate change. His assignments included work with the World Council of Churches (WCC), the World Commission on Environment and Development (the WCED or “Brundtland Commission”), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), the secretariat of the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED, or the “Earth Summit”), the Secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the UN Environment Management Group - EMG. He first joined the office of the UN Secretary-General (EOSG) in 2008 as Director of the Secretary-General’s Climate Change Support Team. During 2012-2014 he worked at WWF International, and in January 2015 he returned to EOSG as Assistant Secretary-General on Climate Change—a position he filled until January 31, 2016. 

This event is cosponsored by the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, the MIT Energy Initiative, the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, the MIT Office of the Vice President for Research, The MIT Center for Collective Intelligence, the Climate CoLab and the MIT Sloan School of Management, the MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative.