Maja Göpel: Shifting paradigms

2023 is on track to become the hottest year on record, currently 1.43C above pre-industrial average, coming dangerously close to breaching the 1.5C warming limit set out in the Paris Agreement. Redesigning our societies to stay well within planetary boundaries, and our economic paradigm to be regenerative rather than extractive, poses the greatest challenge ever faced by humanity. At the same time, the urgency with which this large-scale transformation needs to happen is becoming clearer by the day.

Individuals and organisations spanning civil society, change agents, governments, decision makers, academics and businesses are doing the best they can to contribute to addressing the climate and ecological crises. Yet, it is a fact that no “clean technology”, “externality correcting carbon price” or sustainable lifestyle changes made by individuals alone will be sufficient to address the climate and ecological crises, rooted in an unsustainable economic paradigm. To truly achieve a paradigm shift, greater coordination between actors and awareness of how different actions at different levels fit together is needed at a much larger scale.

What happens when we apply systems thinking not only to analyse the fabric of the challenge, but to design responses? How do we make large-scale systems change happen, pushing radical incremental changes, at a pace that is sufficiently rapid without triggering systemic collapse? Essentially, how do we change paradigms and transform socio-ecological-technological systems?

Drawing on her own work and writings, Maja Göpel is joining us for a presentation and discussion around these complicated and important topics, that preoccupy anyone concerned with climate crisis and ecological breakdown.

Maja Göpel is a political economist, transformation scholar, sustainability expert and one of the most influential voices advocating for a sustainable societal transformation at the intersection of economy, politics, and society. She has authored several books, including “The Great Mindshift: How a New Economic Paradigm and Sustainability Transformations go Hand in Hand” and the bestseller “Rethinking Our World: An Invitation to Rescue Our Future”. She is a member of the Club of Rome, and World Future Council, as well as a member and co-initiator of the Scientists for Future-network. She is an honorary professor for sustainability transformations at Lauphana University of Lüneburg, has been Director of Research at The New Institute, and was formerly the Secretary-General of the German Advisory Council on Global Change.  

Programme:

8.30-9.00:  Croissants and coffee
9.00-10.30: Presentation and discussion