Forecasting Climate Diplomacy and International Security
Held Monday, September 18, 2023
10:00 - 11:00 AM (ET)
Meeting to be held virtually via Zoom
Featuring
Dr. Justin Dargin
Nonresident scholar, Middle East Program at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Senior scholar, Middle East-North Africa Energy and Climate at Oxford University
Ms. Erin Sikorsky
Director, The Center for Climate and Security
Director, International Military Council on Climate and Security
Moderated by
Dr. Carolyn Kissane
Academic Director and Clinical Professor, Center for Global Affairs at
New York University
Welcoming remarks by
Ambassador (ret.) Susan M. Elliott
President & CEO, NCAFP
The scientific community declared July 2023 Earth's hottest month on record. As global temperatures have risen, the intensity of storms, coastline flooding, wildfires, and prolonged droughts have exhausted national resources and cost trillions in damages worldwide. Furthermore, policy and environmental analysts have directly correlated climate change to mass migration, destabilized global supply chains, stressed energy grids, and other disrupted geo-economic models with alarming ramifications of increased internal and transnational conflicts.
Mitigating such challenges requires political compromise, market responsiveness, and international cooperation. However, is this possible in a multipolar world with increased competition of major powers? The Biden Administration has made climate a top priority, but can the US accomplish this agenda while embroiled in trade wars and strategic competition with China and Russia? At what juncture should national and geopolitical security override climate policy, or vice versa? Can ‘climate diplomacy’ ease geopolitical tensions in the most contested regions? And how should rising and middle-power states balance economic development and increased energy demands with varying multilateral commitments?
Please join this esteemed panel of experts as they discuss these matters and many other pressing questions. The event will be conducted via the video conferencing platform Zoom, which works on PC, Mac, or mobile devices. You do not need to create an account to use it. Guests will have the option to join the meeting through the Zoom application, or by calling in by phone.
In order to streamline the Q&A portion of the conversation, all guests will have their video feeds disabled. We ask that guests submit all questions through the Q&A function or the chat box. If you don't wish to use these functions, or will join by phone, please submit questions in advance or real time to [email protected] .
Dr. Justin Dargin is a nonresident scholar in the Middle East Program at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who has extensive experience working on a multitude of issues relating to the global and Middle East/North Africa energy sectors, geopolitical affairs, climate change, emergent carbon markets, and regional industrialization. Dargin is currently a senior Middle East-North Africa energy and climate scholar at the University of Oxford, where he pioneered the first policy prescriptions for the development of carbon markets in the Middle East as a means to reduce regional domestic energy consumption and achieve international climate pledges.
Previously, Dargin also worked as a legal advisor at the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), where he played a leading role in determining the legal framework of the accession proceedings for Angola to enter as a full member and in advising senior leadership about the U.S. and European energy market regulatory frameworks. Dargin was also a fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, where he developed the first major substantive work on transnational Gulf natural gas trade in the form of the Dolphin Gas Project. Dargin has also been featured extensively for his expert opinion on energy issues in such global media outlets as Al Jazeera, Time Magazine, the Financial Times, the New York Times, and the Economist. He received his PhD from the University of Oxford and his graduate law degree from Georgetown University Law Center with high distinction.
Dr. Carolyn Kissane serves as the Academic Director of the graduate programs in Global Affairs and Global Security, Conflict and Cybercrime at the Center for Global Affairs and is a Clinical Professor where she teaches graduate-level courses examining the geopolitics of energy, comparative energy politics, energy, environment and resource security, and climate change and security.
Dr. Kissane is Director of the SPS Energy, Climate Justice and Sustainability Lab, Coordinator of the Energy and Environment concentration at the Center, and is faculty adviser to the Energy Policy International Club. Dr. Kissane was awarded the esteemed NYU Excellence in Teaching Award in 2007, the SCPS Award for Teaching Excellence in 2009, and nominated for the NYU-wide Distinguished Teaching Award in 2008, 2009, 2016, and 2021. She is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations, member of the National Committee on US-China Relations and she serves on the boards of the New York Energy Forum, New York Energy Week, and the Clean Start Advisory Board. She was named Breaking Energy’s Top Ten New York Women in Energy and Top Ten Energy Communicator. She hosts Fueling our Future, an energy series she moderates which bring in energy and environment experts for conversation and debate. Dr. Kissane received her Ph.D. from Columbia University.
Ms. Erin Sikorsky is Director of the Center for Climate and Security (CCS), and the International Military Council on Climate and Security (IMCCS). She is an expert in geopolitical risk, strategic forecasting, and the national security implications of climate change, particularly the nexus of geopolitical competition and climate change. Previously, Ms. Sikorsky served as Deputy Director of the Strategic Futures Group on the National Intelligence Council (NIC) in the United States, where she co-authored the quadrennial Global Trends report and led the US intelligence community’s environmental and climate security analysis. She was the founding chair of the Climate Security Advisory Council, a Congressionally mandated group designed to facilitate coordination between the intelligence community and US government scientific agencies. Prior to her position on the National Intelligence Council, she worked as a senior analyst in the US intelligence community for over a decade, leading teams examining conflict and instability risks in Africa and the Middle East, and won the National Intelligence Analysis Award.