Climate Change and Global Citizenship: the post-Paris agenda

This year's UCL Global Citizenship Lecture will be delivered by Jonathon Porritt on 22nd February 2016:

Climate Change and Global Citizenship: the post-Paris agenda

‘Global citizenship’ is a much-loved rhetorical device for those who inhabit the world of international politics, with a long and honourable backstory. But it rarely translates into any substantive impacts on global policy-making or legal processes, and has literally zero resonance with the vast majority of global citizens!

However, it’s already clear that decisions taken over the last few years regarding measures deemed necessary to address the challenge of accelerating climate change are now starting to change all that – and these measures represent just the tiniest sliver of what will need to be put in place over the next couple of decades. Which must surely mark the period during which the concept of Global Citizenship, at long last, grows up.’

About Jonathon

Jonathon Porritt, Co-Founder of Forum for the Future, is a writer, broadcaster and commentator on sustainable development. Established in 1996, Forum for the Future is now the UK’s leading sustainable development charity, with 70 staff and over 100 partner organisations including some of the world’s leading companies.

Jonathon chaired the UK Sustainable Development Commission from 2000 to 2009, and was awarded a CBE in January 2000 for services to environmental protection.ù

Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP/Getty Images