Climate Change: Challenges after the Paris Agreement

BC3 Basque Centre for Climate Change Ph.D. in Economics (Environmental Economics) from the University of Bath (UK), M.A. Economics at the University of Essex (UK) and B.A. Economics (speciality of International Economics and Development) at the University of Basque Country. He has worked as an environmental consultant for many years for both public and private clients such as the World Bank, the Department for International Development of the British Government or the Basque Government. He was co-founder of a consultancy company. Ibon taught microeconomics and macroeconomics at the University of Bath and Economic Policy at the University of Deusto.

Dr. Alina Averchenkova is a Distinguished Policy Fellow at the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics. She leads Governance and Legislation research theme at the institute. Alina’s most recent work focuses on the implementation of the Paris agreement, in particular the analysis of experiences with climate change governance and legislation around the world and capacity building and advisory to governments and parliaments on the design and implementation of climate and energy laws. Alina has over nineteen years of experience in climate policy and international development. Prior to joining the LSE in 2013, Alina worked for KPMG as Global Director for Climate Change and Carbon; the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change supporting international negotiations on climate change; for a carbon-asset manager First Climate in Zurich and for the Environmental Defence Fund in Washington, DC; Metroeconomica Ltd and for the Russia’s Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Since May 1st, 2012, Prof. Dr. Christoph Böhringer has been a member of the Commission of Experts for Research and Innovation that was established by the German government. Christoph Böhringer is professor for economic policy at the Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg. After his graduation as industrial engineer from the Technical University of Karlsruhe, he received a doctorate in economics at the University of Stuttgart in 1995, where he became head of the section „Energy Economics“ at the Institute for Energy Economics and the Rational Use of Energy (IER). From 1999 to 2006, he led the department „Environmental and Resource Economics, Environmental Management” at the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim. In 2002, he habilitated in economics at the University of Regensburg and in 2004 he became professor of economics at the University of Heidelberg.

Alejandro Cearreta graduated in Geology (University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU) and holds a PhD in Geology (University of Exeter, UK). Alejandro Cearreta is responsible for the Master degree, the PhD Programme and the UFI (Formation and Research Unit) in Quaternary: Environmental Changes and Human Fingerprint. Alejandro is leader of the Harea-Coastal Geology research group (IT976-16) at the UPV/EHU. He is responsible of the Joaquín Gómez de Llarena Laboratory (Geo-Q Research Centre, Sociedad de Ciencias Aranzadi) and Editor of the CKQ (Estudios de Cuaternario/ Kuaternario Ikasketak/ Quaternary Studies) Journal, ISSN 2174-3703, published by the Sociedad de Ciencias Aranzadi.

Guillem Chust holds aPhD in Ecology (2002, University of Paul Sabatier, France). He held Postdoc position at CNRS (France) in 2002-2004.Since 2005, is Senior Researcher at AZTI (Marine Research Division). Research interest: marine ecology and climate change impacts in ocean and coastal ecosystems. He is Leader of competitive national projects and WPs of European projects (MEECE, Euro-Basin). Some Relevant publications: Chust et al. 2014. Biomass changes and trophic amplification of plankton in a warmer ocean. Global Change Biology. DOI: 10.1111/gcb.12562. Chust et al. 2013. Latitudinal phytoplankton distribution and the neutral theory of biodiversity. Global Ecology and Biogeography 22: 531-543. Valle et al. 2014. Projecting future distribution of the seagrass Zostera noltii under global warming and sea level rise. Biological conservation 170: 74-85.

Marta Escapa (Ph.D. in Economics, 1996, UPV/EHU) is Associate Professor at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). Her research and teaching activity has developed in the area of Economic Analysis and, specifically, in Environmental and Resource Economics. She has over 20 years of research and teaching experience that covers both undergraduate and graduate courses on Natural Resource Economics and Environmental Economics and her research has focused on issues like: International Environmental Agreements on Climate Change; Intergenerational Dimension of Climate Change, Economic Analysis of Fisheries Management; Environmental Fiscal Reform and Unemployment; Solid Waste Management using System Dynamics. The main results from this research have been published in peer review journals with impact factor (JCR) like: Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Environmental and Resource Economics, Energy Economics or Ecological Economics.

S.H. Faria (Dr.rer.nat. Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany, 2003) is Ikerbasque Research Professor at BC3 and Adjoint Presidential Professor at the Nagaoka University of Technology (NUT), Japan. He is Head of the BC3 Research Line “Climate Basis”, Director of the “IzotzaLab” (BC3’s low-temperature research facility), and leader of the Team “Climate Change, Environment and Human Well-Being” within the UPV/EHU Doctorate Programme “Quaternary: Environmental Change and Human Ecological Footprint”. He is also European Coordinator of the “GIGAKU Education Programme for Innovative Global Engineers”, which is part of the “Top Global University Project” of the Japanese Government. He is Associate Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Glaciology and Editorial Board Member of Scientific Reports. He is also Lead Author of “Chapter 1: Framing, Context, Methods” of the 6th Assessment Report, Working Group 1 (AR6-WG1) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Iñigo Losada is the Research Director at IH Cantabria. He has also been Director of the Department of Water and Environmental Sciences and Techniques (2000-2003) and is Professor of Hydraulic Engineering at the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the University of Cantabria. He holds a Doctorate in Civil Engineering from the University of Cantabria and a PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Delaware (USA) where he worked as a researcher at the Center for Applied Coastal Research from 1989 to 1992. Iñigo has been lead researcher in projects within the Spanish National Plan, the European Union and other international research agencies. He has also led over 50 transfer projects for the United Nations, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Council of Europe and several national and international companies and public administrations. He is lead researcher of the Unique Scientific and Technological Infrastructure “Cantabria Coastal and Ocean Basin”.

Professor Markandya is a resource economist who has worked in this field for over thirty years and is acknowledged as one of the leading authorities. He is the former Scientific Director of BC3, Basque Centre for Climate Change. He graduated from the London School of Economics with a Master of Science in Econometrics in 1968 and was awarded his Ph.D. on the Economics of the Environment in 1975.Since then he has divided his time between academic and advisory work. On the academic side he has published widely in the areas of climate change, environmental valuation, environmental policy, energy and environment, green accounting, macroeconomics and trade. Some of his best-known works include, ´Blueprint for a Green Economy’, ´Green Accounting in Europe’, ´Reconciling Trade and Development’ and ´Cleaning the Ganges’.

Marta Olazabal is post-doctoral researcher at the Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3). She is Chemical Engineer by training specialized in Environment (School of Engineering of Bilbao, 2004). Combining work and studies, Marta gained an MSc on Environmental Engineering in 2009 and a PhD in the Department of Land Economy of the University of Cambridge in 2014. Marta has undertaken scientific stays in research institutes of Germany (IÖR, Dresden), The Netherlands (IVAM, Amsterdam) and United Kingdom (University of Newcastle, School of Civil Engineering & Geosciences, Newcastle upon Tyne). In 2011, she co-funded the Urban Resilience Young Researchers Network (URBNet) and she is also member of other international networks related to cities and resilience. Working mainly within the local scale, Marta collaborates in different national and international projects.

Gonzalo Sáenz de Miera holds Ph.D in Applied Economics by the UAM – He is Director of Climate Change and Alliances of Iberdrola, – Vice- President of the Spanish Association of Energy Economics – Vice-President of the Green Growth Spanish Group – Director of the MBA in Energy Business at Enerclub – He is an expert in the energy, economy, and climate change and environment fields.

I am a researcher and lecturer in the Department of Applied Economics at the UPV/EHU, as well as an associate researcher at the BC3. I hold a PhD in Geological Sciences (UPV/EHU) and my research focuses on studying the impacts of climate change, as well as adaptation policies and measures, from a socio-economic point of view. I started my professional career in a cooperative of the Mondragon Group and then I had the opportunity to work in the public administration as Director of Biodiversity (in the Basque Government). During this stage I became aware of the importance of science to support decision-making, so at the end of this period I decided to start my path in the academic world. In 2010 I was lucky enough to join BC3 to develop my PhD thesis on the impacts associated with sea level changes on the Basque coast. I have been a visiting researcher at the London School of Economics and have worked on several international, national and local research projects.

Prof. Sanz holds a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the Universidad de Valencia (1991) and has expertise in several scientific areas like Ecophysiology, Air pollution effects, lower and higher plants, Atmospheric dynamics and chemistry, Nitrogen and carbon cycles, Greenhouse Gasses and other related gases, Greenhouse gas inventories, LULUCF and REDD+. She has been strongly involved in the policy dimension of Climate Change, guiding political decisions carried out at centres such as the FAO (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation) or the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change). She has an expertise on multilateral processes, regulatory frameworks, policy measures and instruments of Climate Change Policy, and led the implementation of different programmes with a multidisciplinary-based approach.