Several expert researchers from Yale’s Data-Driven Environmental Solutions Group  (Data-Driven Yale) will be attending the Paris COP-21 Climate negotiations from November 30-December 12.

Here is a list of the events our group will be engaged in:

Friday, December 4
Climate Summit for Local Leaders
All Day – Invitation only

Director Angel Hsu, PhD, is an invited expert to discuss the group’s work on sub-national climate actions and China’s low-carbon urban innovation. The group’s report: “Scaling Up: Local to Global Climate Action,” a white paper produced in collaboration with R-20 Regions for Climate Change, the Stanley Foundation, and USC’s Schwarzenegger Institute for Global Policy will be launched.

The Rise of Non-State Actors: From Companies to Cities—New Report Provides Snapshot of Commitments to Climate Action
1:15 – 1:45 pm
Location: Press Center (accreditation required)

Director Angel Hsu, PhD, will join Laurent Fabius and Christiana Figueres in a panel releasing data on the Data-Driven Yale team’s work analyzing and contextualizing non-state and sub-national commitments made on the Non-State Actor Zone for Climate Action (NAZCA) platform. 

Saturday, December 5
Mapping the State of Play: Analyzing Non-State and Sub-National Climate Actions
3:00 – 5:00 pm
Location TBD – RSVP here

This event, which is hosted by the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, in partnership with the Yale Data-Driven Environmental Solutions Group and the NewClimate Institute, will discuss the state of analysis around climate action from cities, regions, businesses, and investors. 

The workshop will explore topics of recent research around sub-national and non-state climate action; identify shared methodological challenges and data gaps; and discuss emerging and potential areas of research and collaboration.  

Sunday, December 6
Culture of Change: An afternoon with Robert Redford; The Power of Story to Avert Global Catastrophe
3:00 – 4:30 pm
Location: Maison de l’UNESCO, Université de la terre (only open to invited participants) 

The event will feature Robert Redford and indigenous artists, activists, and storytellers as they discuss their shared efforts to educate people about the precious places threatened by climate change—and build a cultural movement to save them before it’s too late.

Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies – Reception for Yale alumni and friends
5:30 – 9:00 pm
CIEP, Sevres, France

Monday, December 7
Our team will be present at the following events:

Ministerial Launch of the Inaugural 1 Gigaton Report
12:15 – 1:45 pm
Nordic Pavilion (only open to accredited participants)

Galvanizing the Post-2015 Groundswell of Climate Actions
12:30 – 5:30 pm
Hotel Bel Ami (only open to invited participants)

Side Event Launch of the Inaugural 1 Gigaton Report
5:45 – 7:15 pm
Salle 8 of the Civil Society Space – open to both accredited and non-accredited participants

The Action Agenda: Climate Action from the Ground-up to 2020 and Beyond
6:00 – 8:00 pm
Hotel Bel Ami (only open to invited participants)

Forum with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on the role of cities, states and regions in global climate change
7:00 – 9:00 pm
Sciences Po (only open to invited participants) 

Tuesday, December 8
LPAA Cities and Subnationals Day
10:15 am – 1:30 pm
Le Bourget, Blue Zone (accreditation required)

Our team will follow this event’s launch of a 5-year vision for cities, states and region, and its discussion on the conditions for meaningful collaboration between different levels of government in the design and implementation of ambitious climate policy.

Wednesday, December 9
Beyond 2015 – Catalyzing NAZCA commitments into action
11:00 am – 12:30 pm
Climate Generation Area Room 4

Our team will attend this high-level event that brings together the founding members of the NAZCA platform as well as private sector speakers, celebrating the momentum it has created and envisioning the future of the non-state actor action agenda. 

Climate Action in the United States – From the local to the national to the global (NRDC event)
1:30 – 3:00 pm
Climate Generations Area, Room 9

Our team will follow the event’s discussion of the role of different scales of climate action in the United States.  

Thursday, December 10
Climate Change Mitigation Policy Progression Indicator (CPPI)
3:15 – 4:00 pm
Japan Pavilion

Director Angel Hsu, PhD, will be presenting at this side event to discuss tools for measuring climate progress at the national level.

What Our Team will be following in Paris:

Amy Weinfurter, Research Fellow

“I will follow climate actions from cities, regions, businesses, investors, and civil society organizations during COP-21. In preparation for the Paris climate talks, I helped assess cooperative commitments for the Lima-Paris Action Agenda, and supported the contextualization of the NAZCA platform’s sub-national and non-state commitments. I am also a lead author on two reports that will be released during COP-21: Narrowing the Emissions Gap: Contributions from renewable energy and energy efficiency activities and Scaling Up: From Local to Global Climate Action.”   

Area of expertise: sub-national/non-state climate action

Yaping Cheng, Research Fellow

“I have primarily been working on analysis of non-state and sub-national climate commitments through the NAZCA platform. I am also a lead author on the Narrowing the Emissions Gap: Contributions from renewable energy and energy efficiency activities. During COP-21, I will support the team’s work to follow the US-China bilateral climate negotiations.”

Areas of expertise: sub-national/non-state climate action, energy in developing countries, climate finance, China

Andrew Moffat, 2nd-year MEM candidate, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

“I will be closely analyzing US-China bilateral climate negotiations and contributing to the group’s work on sub-national and non-state actor climate change.”

Areas of expertise: China, energy, sub-national/non-state climate action

Kaiyang Xu, 2nd-year MEM candidate, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies

“I will be following the US-China bilateral relationship and presenting our group’s analysis of non-state and sub-national actors’ contributions to global climate mitigation. I was also a lead author of two reports that will be launched in Paris: Scaling Up: From Local to Global Climate Action and Narrowing the Emissions Gap: Contributions from renewable energy and energy efficiency activities.

Areas of expertise: China, energy, sub-national climate actions

Stefanie Wnuck, 2nd-year MEM candidate, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies

I will be participating in events at COP that highlight the role of cities, states, and regions as leaders on climate action. In advance of COP, I’ve been working to assess climate leadership of sub-national and non-state actors to demonstrate how their efforts can encourage countries to adopt ambitious targets. Our team developed a set of case studies to quantify the impacts of selected local and state/provincial climate mitigation policies, and to estimate the potential of these actions to contribute to broader climate goals. I also assisted with an assessment of global climate initiatives for the Lima-Paris Action Agenda. Our project partners will present our findings at COP21.”

Area of expertise: US local climate policy

Emily Wier, 1st-year MEM candidate, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies

“My analysis of urban land-use planning in Climate Action Plans will shed light on the ways that cities are addressing urban form; the way a city is built impacts whether people drive or take public transportation, where they shop, what type of community forms. The talks at COP21 are about preparing the global community for a new way of living — one with reduced fossil fuel use — and studying the way our cities are built will help drive changes toward more sustainable and climate resilient urban areas. In producing a synthesis paper and suggestions for city planners to engage with at COP, I hope to show how climate planning and urban form are related, help facilitate an important dialogue, and build global solutions that can be implemented at the local level.”

Area of expertise: cities and climate change

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