Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford
Upcoming Events
Please also see our listings on the Oxford Talks website for more information about our events. Information on past events hosted by the School may be available on request, please contact our Events Officer
Current Series
The following events are recurring event series hosted by the ECI.
Seminar Series
After the success of our 2016 Big Ideas anniversary seminar series, the ECI continues to host more lectures within the series.
Welcome to the Anthropocene
Wk 1, Michaelmas Term | Lecture Theatre, School of Geography and the Environment
Five keynote lectures introducing 'the Anthropocene' launch our MSc in Environment Change and Management.
Podcasts from the series
Oxford Centre for Tropical Forests Seminars
Weekly lectures throughout the year | Herbertson Room, School of Geography and the Environment
Weekly lectures throughout the year organised by the Oxford Centre for Tropical Forests.
Booking required | Podcasts from the series
Oxford Networks for the Environment
Various events, lectures and conferences organised across Oxford University related to the environment
ONE website | Events usually open to the public
Oxford Energy Colloquia
Tuesdays during term time
A series of talks on current energy research and implementation from internal and external speakers.
Read more
Event Archive
The ECI host and get involved in numerous events every week. Below are a selection of the major events and lectures we have hosted over the last few years, and specifically includes those with a recorded output/resource.
2018
May 2018 |
Building Resilience to the Impacts of El Nino
An event at London’s Royal Society, organised by the ECI and ICCS, will showcase fourteen UK Government projects which aim to help build resilience to future extreme climate events such as El Niño
May 2018 |
Planetary health: does our planet have boundaries? with Prof Yadvinder Malhi and Kate Raworth
16 February 2018 |
Surviving the Anthropocene: A story of biological gains as well as losses | Professor D Thomas
31 January 2018 |
Transforming Britain: Green Politics in the 21st Century | Caroline Lucas MP
January 2018 |
The Carbon Debate 2018
This debate took place on January 22nd at CICERO Center for International Climate Research and involves Richard Miller and Myles Allen of the Oxford Martin Net Zero Carbon Investment Initiative discussing some of the points raised in their recent study in Nature Geoscience. Temperature choices, the role of CO2 & other gasses and the usefulness of carbon budgets are also topics of the discussion.
2017
7 December 2017 |
UNFCCC COP23 University of Oxford Debrief : What happened at COP23 in Bonn? | Various speakers
27 November 2017 |
Oxford Networks for the Environment Networking Event | University Museum of Natural History
12 November |
Oxford @ COP23 Bonn: Q&A Session: Emission budgets and pathways to 1.5 degrees in the context of the global stocktake | Prof Myles Allen
8 November |
Culture's role in hazard and climate change risk: worldviews, belief systems and 'alternative facts' | Dr Lisa Schipper
25 October |
Transformation for All - Implementing the Agenda 2030 in Germany from a Practical Policy Perspective | Dr Joerg Mayer-Ries
18 October |
Big History: Humans and their Environment | Sir Crispen Tickell
October |
Concept of the Anthropocene | Professor Yadvinder Malhi
11 October |
Doughnut Economics: How to Think Like a 21st Century Economist | Kate Raworth
6 September 2017 |
From ECM to Imagining Sustainable Futures | Vanessa Timmer, One Earth | ECM Alumni Dinner Lecture
19 June 2017 |
Green-Win Conference 2017
Tues 31 January 2017, 5pm |
Prosperity without Growth - Foundations for the economy of tomorrow | Tim Jackson, Professor of Sustainable Development, University of Surrey
18 January 2017
Dispatches from the front lines of the Carbon War: Dramatic progress in the climate-energy-information nexus | Dr Jeremy Leggett, Carbon Tracker, SolarAid, Solarcentury
2016
2 November 2016
Policy for Environmental Change: Info-Gap Response to Uncertainty | Yakov Ben-Haim, Israel Institute of technology
19 October 2016
Are universities & research councils doing nearly enough to tackle climate change? | Craig Bennett, CEO, Friends of the Earth
21-22 September 2016
International Conference | 1.5 Degrees: Meeting the Challenges of the Paris Agreement
The ambition of the 2015 Paris Agreement of the 21st Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has caught the world by surprise. "Holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C" represents a substantially more ambitious mitigation objective than many were expecting, and reveals a significant research gap on the nature, benefits and feasibility of a 1.5 degree world, as well as a huge policy challenge.
The 1.5 degrees conference brought together researchers, policy makers, businesses and members of civil society to understand the impacts of warming of 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels and assess the feasibility of meeting the challenges in the Paris Climate Agreement. The conference will review the arguments behind the 1.5 degrees goal and will seek to understand how the goal is to be interpreted. It explored the options for how a 1.5 degrees target could be achieved and evaluated the possible consequences of the goal from a wide range of perspectives.
Watch full playlist of conference talks online
20 September 2016
1.5 Degrees Conference Public Launch | The Paris climate deal: origins, ambitions and implications
Launching the 1.5 Degrees International Conference the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford was proud to present a special evening of keynote speeches and discussion from some of the key figures behind the historic Paris Climate Agreement on 20 September 2016. Keynote speeches were given by Laurence Tubiana, French Ambassador for climate negotiations, Nebojsa Nakicenovic, IIASA and IPCC scientist, and Janos Pasztor, Senior Advisor to the UN Secretary-General on Climate Change. The evening was opened by Vice-Chancellor, Professor Louise Richardson and moderated by the award winning Environment Correspondent at the Financial Times, Pilita Clark. It featured a poem by Hazim Azghari, ECI MSc student and an introduction from Professor Jim Hall, Director of the ECI.
1 June 2016
Economic Growth, Structural Transformation and the evolving food security-environment challenge | Professor Prabhu Pingali, Director, Tata-Cornell Agriculture and Nutrition Initiative (TCi), Cornell University
4 May 2016
Can we deliver nutrition security and climate change mitigation without wrecking the planet? | Professor Pete Smith
Watch our 'Bitesize Big Idea' with Professor Pete Smith
11 March 2016
Diesel Deception - the Volkswagen emission scandal and its aftermath
11 Feb 2016
The Invention of Nature - Alexander von Humboldt's New World
A conversation between the author, Andrea Wulf, and Prof Yadvinder Malhi, Professor of Ecosystem Science, SoGE. Rothermere American Institute Special Event.
15 January 2016
What is Ecomodermism: debate with Mark Lynas
Organised by AgileOx. | Watch debate online
2015
9-11 December
Water Security 2015
International conference by the REACH: Improving Water Security for the Poor programme and OECD.
7 December
COP21 Side Event: Metrics of progress towards net zero and the two degree goal - science for a safe climate
Oxford's COP21 Side Event, Paris
11 November
Revisiting the Green Sahara
4th Annual Trapnell Lecture | Dr Jessica Tierney, University of Arizona
Michaelmas Term 2015
Oxford Energy Colloquia
A series of talks on current energy research and implementation from internal and external speakers
12 -21 October 2015
2015 Welcome to the Anthropocene Lectures
The ECI's annual lecture series to launch the MSc programme in Environmental Change and Management
16 October 2015 | tbc | Said Business School
Launch of the Carbon Innovation Programme
Oxford University Estates
Drought risk and decision making
One-day symposium | 8 September 2015, Exeter College |
This annual symposium brings together global experts and will showcase multidisciplinary research being undertaken on droughts from across the world.
ECI's 2015 Alumni Dinner
One-day workshop and celebratory dinner | 3 September 2015 |
Infrastructure Investment in Emerging Markets and Developing Economies - Systems Thinking for New Institutions and Global Challenges
One-day Conference | Various speakers | 2 July 2015 |
Creating a climate for change: what's at stake in global climate negotiations
Oxford Martin School Series | Various speakers | Jan-May 2015 | Listen to talks
2nd SoGE Annual Lecture: Are we bigger than the biosphere? An ecologist's examination of our human dominated planet.
Professor Yadvinder Malhi | 12 February 2015 | Listen to talk
Water scarcity and drought management
Professor Jim Hall | 2 February 2015
2014
8th Annual Ocean Policy Symposium
Organised by Dr Thomas Thornton | Various speakers | November 2014
Drought risk in the context of change: One day symposium.
Oxford Water Network | Various speakers | September 2014
Celebrating 20 Years of the MSc in Environmental Change and Management - Alumni event
Organised by Christine Baro-Hone | 6 September 2014
3rd Annual Oxford Energy Conference - Transformative Change in Energy: Where will it come from?
Organised by Oxford Energy Network | 17 June 2014
ITRC Conference: The Future of National Infrastructure Systems and Economic Prosperity
Organised by ITRC | 27-28 March, St Catharine's College, Cambridge. | Watch keynote talks
Oxford Centre for Tropical Forests Annual Members' Day
Organised by Oxford Centre for Tropical Forests | 28 February 2014 | Listen to talks
2013
7th Annual Ocean Policy Symposium
Organised by Dr Thomas Thornton | Various speakers | November 2013
The Political Economy of Ecosystem Services
Professor Joshua Farley | 5 March 2013 | Listen to talk
Even ostriches need third party insurance: the case for action on climate change in a polycentric world
The Rt Hon John Gummer | 28 February 2013 | Listen to talk
Oxford Water Network open afternoon
Various Speakers | 3 June 2013 | Listen to talks
Sustainable Production and Consumption: Are we making the link?
Organised by Dr Constance McDermott | 31 May 2013 | Listen to talks
Oxford Centre for Tropical Forests Annual Members' Day
Organised by Oxford Centre for Tropical Forests | 8 March 2013 | Listen to talks
2012
Banking on Biodiversity: the Experience of the European Investment Bank
Peter Carter, Chief Environmentalist at the European Investment Bank | November 2012 | Listen to talk
Climate and Land-use Change
Professor Britaldo Soares-Filho | 27 October 2012 | Listen to talk
Water Security in Changing Climates
Professor David Grey | 26 October 2012 | Listen to talk
Climate Change as a Global Shifting Force
Professor Sir David King | 25 October 2012 | Listen to talk
Planet Under Pressure
Core organisers | 26-29 March 2012 | Resources available online
Beyond Carbon, Ensuring Justice and Equity in REDD+ conference
23-24 March 2012 | Listen to talk
The People's Planet: Reconnecting climate science, climate policy and reality
Inaugural Lecture of Professor Myles Allen | 7 February 2012 | Watch talk
2011
ECI Climate Lectures
Various speakers in the ECI's public lecture series to mark the start of the MSc in Environmental Change and Management | October 2011 |
Linacre Lectures: Riding the perfect storm
The 2011 Linacre Lectures were based upon Professor Sir John Beddington's "Perfect Storm" idea, first presented in early 2009 that the world is at significant risk of facing multiple interacting environmental and natural resource challenges by "2030" | Jan - March 2011 |
International Conference
Intact Forests in the 21st Century
18-20 June 2018
A major international conference bringing together leading scientists, researchers, policy experts and practitioners from around the world to review and debate the current state of knowledge relating to intact forests, their values, the threats they face, and the most appropriate responses.
International Conference
Megafauna and Ecosystem Function: from the Pleistocene to the Anthropocene
March 2014
Exploring the role that large animals play (or have played) in the structure and function of ecosystems from the high Arctic to the tropics.
International Conference
Water Security, Risk and Society conference
April 2012
A platform for over 200 academics, policymakers and business leaders to respond to society’s pressing water security challenges by (i) taking stock of the evidence base informing policy choices and strategic business decisions; and (ii) establishing investment priorities for science-policy-enterprise partnerships.
International Conference
Climate Change, Deforestation and the Future of African Rainforests
January 2012
a multidisciplinary examination of the fate of African tropical forests in the 21st century.
International Conference
Energy and people: futures, complexity and challenges
September 2011
An interdisciplinary conference focusing on the relationship between society and energy use, particularly in the context of the major transition to a low carbon energy system.
International Conference
4 Degrees and Beyond
September 2009
Implications of a global climate change of 4+ degrees for people, ecosystems and the earth-system
