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Critical minerals were once again near the top of the agenda for G7 leaders as they met in Évian, France, this week, a year after the G7 launched the Critical Minerals Action Plan.
The energy transition is in the midst of its own transition. Spiking electricity demand and geopolitical events are driving up energy prices, while debates over the best sources...
This event will take place in-person in Washington DC, at the Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2168 (Gold Room). Advance registration is required. Announcing New Columbia University Publications...
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Rethinking the Sahel: Climate, Social Capital and Knowledge
Past Event
November 22, 2021
12:00 pm - 1:30 pm utc
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The outlook for climatic changes in the African Sahel is bleak: spectacular temperature increases and further rainfall variability will continue to challenge the livelihoods of millions of inhabitants–sedentary and nomadic–that live in this vast region. These environmental impacts are usually understood as complicating long-standing problems of weak statehood, economic marginalization and physical insecurity and risk rendering the Sahel more prone to jihadist violence and various forms of migration. Yet this pessimistic–some would say alarmist–perspective on the Sahel as a zone of crisis is not the only possible one.
In this event co-organized by Columbia University and the University of Oxford, a panel entirely drawn from the Sahel region explored dynamic responses by various population groups to environmental change and focused on the social capital and economic opportunities that this part of Africa harbours. Panelists discussed historical perceptions of environmental degradation and sustainability and drew attention to both long-established indigenous forms of knowledge as well as innovative new approaches to land use, reforestation and resource management.
This event was the second in a new webinar series through which the Center on Global Energy Policy seeks to foreground the heterogeneity of perspectives found around the continent on what climate means in different African contexts and how more than one billion Africans are already living with extraordinary climatological variability and constraints on the use of natural resources. This session also formed part of the Oxford Department of International Development’s Climate Change and the Challenges of Development series.
Moderator:
Dr. Harry Verhoeven, Senior Research Scholar, Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University SIPA
Speakers:
Nora Berrahmouni, Senior Forestry Officer for Africa, Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO)
Ousseyni Kalilou, Chair of the Forest Interest Group of the Environmental Peacebuilding Association
Dr. Cheikh Mbow, Director of Future Africa, University of Pretoria
This roundtable is open only to currently enrolled Columbia University students. To register, you must sign in with your UNI. The Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP) at...
Event
• Center on Global Energy Policy
1255 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY 10027
The Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP) at Columbia SIPA and the Fashion, Energy, and Climate Network invite you to join the first session of our new talk...
Event
• Center on Global Energy Policy
1255 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY 10027
The Columbia Global Energy Summit 2026 is an annual event dedicated to thought-provoking discussions around the critical energy and climate challenges facing the global community.
This event is open to Columbia University students only. Join the Center on Global Energy Policy’s Women in Energy initiative for an interactive discussion on human rights and...
Event
• Large Conference Room Center on Global Energy Policy
On March 20, Governor Kathy Hochul proposed significant changes to New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), the landmark climate law passed in 2019.
