5 March 2015 (Thursday) | 10am - 11:30am | EOS Seminar Room (N2-01b-28)Speakers: Dr. Viktor Galaz and Dr. Per Olsson of Stockholm Resilience Centre

Frontiers in Global Sustainability Transformations – Insights and ChallengesDr. Per Olsson (10.45am - 11.30am)

Transformations are often discussed as necessary to achieve a just society. This talk focuses on the challenge for transformation towards sustainability which involves the need to solve problems in the Anthropocene while creating conditions for "the good life" for people - today and future, while strengthening Earth's life support system. It explores the research frontiers in this developing field for understanding large-scale systemic changes and fundamental redirections in people-planet relationships that can have an impact at scales that match the challenges of the Anthropocene.

The talk will focus on three aspects:• Patterns of transformations and what transformative change means in Anthropocene. • Innovation and scaling up for transformative impact and factors for

fundamentally changing human-environmental interactions & feedbacks.• Role of change agents in sustainability transformations.

Insights on these aspects will help to critically examine whether the solutions (including technological and social innovations and other sustainability initiatives) currently promoted by various change agents to deal with the challenges of sustainable development contribute to the large-scale transformations that humanity needs, or whether they reinforce current unsustainable pathways.

Dr. Per Olsson is a researcher and theme leader for Adaptive Governance at Stockholm Resilience Centre. He leads the Centre's initiative on

Innovation and Transformation in Social-Ecological Systems. He holds a Ph.D. in natural resource management from Stockholm University.

Dr. Olsson's primary interest is in linked social-ecological system dynamics and resilience. His is researching into global sustainability transformations and how to reverse current trends of crossing critical thresholds and tipping points in Earth system. This involves studies of agency, social-ecological innovations, and the emergence of new multi-level governance regimes in response to uncertainty and rapid change.

He is currently collaborating with SHIFT (an accelerator for start-ups), Biosphere Innovation System (a platform for social-ecological innovation), Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship Program on Social Innovation, and Coral Guardians (combining music and science for better coral reefs stewardship).

Earth system complexity and governance– Can we bridge the Anthropocene gap?Dr. Viktor Galaz (10am - 10.45am)

Studies from Earth system sciences show that human activities drives multiple interacting effects that cascade through Earth system, pushing us into a new geological epoch denoted the “Anthropocene”.

The drivers, interactions and effects (such as surprises, “tipping points” and cascading failures) are increasingly being explored through a complex systems’ lens, These phenomena pose not only a new generation of global environmental risks (Lenton et al. 2008, Rockström et al. 2009, Steffen et al. 2015), but also challenges to political decision-making and global governance – including international institutions and regimes, international law, global networks and partnerships.

What are the most creative and useful ways to analyse and respond to these complex, interacting and poorly understood global environmental stresses from a governance perspective? What are the biggest conceptual and theoretical gaps? Can we ever bridge the “Anthropocene” gap – in view of our current inabilities to grapple and respond to major implications induced by our transgression on a human- dominated planet?

Dr. Victor Galaz is an Associate Professor in political science at Stockholm Resilience Centre (Sweden), and Acting Executive Director for Global Economic

Dynamics & Biosphere Program at Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (Stockholm).

He publishes in English in the journals of Environment, Frontiers in Ecology & Environment, Science, Ecological Economics, Public Administration, Nature Climate Change, International Environmental Agreements, Environmental Politics, Ambio, Ecology & Society, and Governance. His work has been featured in international media such as Wired, The Guardian, New Scientist and Nature.

Also the author of "Global Environmental Governance, Technology and Politics: the Anthropocene Gap" (Edward Elgar, 2014).

Enquiry: Weng Kin at wengkin@ntu.edu.sg / Tel: (65) 6793 0351

Co-sponsored by the Complexity Institute and Asian School of the Environment

REGISTER HERE >>REGISTER HERE >>