Events
Check here for upcoming and past events featuring Pardee Center faculty, staff, partners, and research.
GEO-7 Meeting in Shanghai
September 4th-7th, 2023
During the week of September 4th, 2023, representatives from the Pardee Center participated in the seventh Global Environmental Outlook (GEO-7) series' second Policy and Outlooks Workshop and Author's Sprint meeting hosted by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and Tongji University outside of Shanghai.
The purpose of the meeting was to bring together the groups working on GEO-7 Policies and Outlooks (modeling) chapters to collaborate across and within teams and make progress toward their Zero-Order Draft. The workshop was held over three days, which involved discussions ranging from definitional (what is a “pathway” and reaching agreement over terminology) to continuing to refine the group's understanding of the modeling plan. Events of that week also featured a dialogue panel promoting discussions between many of the Coordinating Lead Authors and some local experts.
Through its GEO series, UNEP assesses the state and trends of the global environment, the possible solutions, and pathways to transform towards an environmentally sustainable world as well as provides an outlook that assesses the possible environmental and socio-economic implications of these transformational changes.
Pardee Center Director, Jonathan Moyer, PhD, and Pardee Center Associate Director for Development Analysis, Taylor Hanna, are Lead Authors contributing to the GEO-7 assessment - specifically to chapters in the Outlooks section, which are focused on modeling potential paths forward to achieve global environmental change.
The Republic of Finland’s Ambassador to the U.S. Visits Pardee
June 14th, 2023
On Wednesday, June 14, 2023, the Pardee Center gave a live demonstration of the power of its signature International Futures (IFs) tool to a delegation of visitors from Finland. The Republic of Finland’s Ambassador to the U.S., Mikko Hautala, was in attendance and joined by a group of Finnish aerospace, quantum companies, researchers, and state officials. The Finnish delegation was visiting the University of Denver and other key sites in Colorado as part of an ongoing technology and science collaboration between the State of Colorado and the Republic of Finland announced in February 2022. Taylor Hanna, the Pardee Center's Associate Director of Development Analysis, engaged the IFs tool to forecast possible futures and outcomes for Finland and some of its key neighbors to show how different scenarios could influence progress along key variables and indicators.
This US-Finland science and technology collaboration covers three industry areas: Aerospace, Green Economy, and Quantum and High-Performance Computing (HPC). This visit was designed to create new and strengthen existing connections between Colorado and Finland’s world-class competencies in atmospheric research, aerospace, and advanced computing and discover new collaboration opportunities.
Climate Security in Central America Hosted By the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
May 3rd-4th, 2023
Korbel professor and Director of the Pardee Center, Jonathan Moyer, attended a “Climate Security in Central America” workshop hosted by the U.S. National Academic of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Professor Moyer attended as an expert speaker and participant. The event centered around the idea that Central America is a region of high concern for climate security. Over two days, Dr. Moyer shared a presentation and contributed to discussion workshops.
Ukrainian Mayoral Delegation Visits Pardee
April 26th, 2023
On April 26th, 2023, Pardee hosted a delegation of mayors from Ukraine for a presentation and an open conversation regarding post-conflict recovery pathways. In attendance were Mayor Yuriy Bova of Trostyanets, Mayor Ihor Terekhov of Kharkiv, Mayor Ivan Fedorov of Melitopol, and Mayor Oleksandr Kodola of Chernihiv. Professor and Faculty Affiliate with the Center Keith Gehring led this discussion and used the Pardee Center International Futures Model to demonstrate potential scenarios for Ukrainian recovery. With the information in both English and Ukrainian, Gehring opened the event by explaining how IFs works, what it does, and how it can be used for these wartime mayors. Gehring then presented pre-full-scale invasion forecasts and contrasted them with post-full-scale invasion forecasts. Gehring introduced four scenarios, No War, War, Success, and Misfortune as they relate to economic, demographic, and agricultural prospects in Ukraine. The event concluded as the mayors from Ukraine and Pardee faculty exchanged ideas and advice about future collaboration on projects and forecasts on a subnational level for each of their cities.
UNEP GEO-7 2023
March 13th, 2023
On March 13, 2023, Taylor Hanna, Pardee Center Associate Director for Development Analysis, attended the opening First Authors session for the seventh Global Environmental Outlook, GEO-7, a research process created and led by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP). Through its GEO series, UNEP assesses the state and trends of the global environment, the possible solutions, and pathways to transform towards an environmentally sustainable world as well as provides an outlook that assesses the possible environmental and socio-economic implications of these transformational changes.
Ms. Hanna and Dr. Moyer are Lead Authors contributing to the GEO-7 assessment - specifically to chapters in the Outlooks section, which are focused on modeling potential paths forward to achieve global environmental change. Ms. Hanna attended a three-day workshop specific to the authors of the GEO-7 Outlooks chapters to discuss modeling strategy and protocol, and then the following week attended a wider first author’s meeting to discuss drafting of the report overall and the Outlooks chapter in particular.
The Pardee Center is supporting the GEO-7 effort, led by Ms. Hanna and Pardee Center Director Jonathan Moyer, Ph.D., through providing quantitative modeling and scenario development. Specifically, they are developing socioeconomic outcomes from IFs – the marker model for socioeconomic results in the modeling framework – as well as results for economic, agriculture, and energy indicators which will be used for comparison with other models.
Geopolitics, Development, and Africa with Institute for Security Studies
February 22, 2023
On February 22, 2023, Pardee hosted Yakkie Cilliers of the Institute of Security Studies (ISS) and a panel of African scholars for the Geopolitics, Development, and Africa Event. Cilliers and the discussants discussed issues that affect the future of African development. Cilliers opened the event by discussing how ISS uses IFs to predict African countries’ GDP under different scenarios. Cilliers discussed how climate change, China’s geopolitical trajectory, and the war in Ukraine are some of the most influential factors in different development outcomes in Africa. Regarding the role of the West in African development, Cilliers highlighted the importance of the EU, the US, and China as stable trading partners in Africa mentioning that in order to retain influence, the West must consider de-risking investments on the continent. Cilliers finished his presentation by returning to the ISS mission: “All our work is about what Africa can do for itself... Ultimately, it comes down to African leadership promoting African development.”
Pardee Visits Nairobi
February 16th, 2023
The African Union is currently at the end of the first decade of implementation (guided by the First Ten-Year Implementation Plan) of Agenda 2063. Pardee Center Associate Director for Development Analysis Taylor Hanna and Pardee Director Jonathan Moyer participated in a four-day workshop in Nairobi with the Technical Working Group to draft the Second Ten-Year Implementation Plan.
Participants included representatives from AUC, AUDA-NEPAD, ACBF, APRM, JSSO, UNDP, UNICEF and RECs. Sessions included walking through proposed STYIP targets and evaluating their feasibility and what policy interventions might be required to successfully meet the target.