Leverage points to accelerate the transition to a fossil-free global economy
Join Simon Sharpe in this special inaugural lecture discussing how solutions to dangerous climate change are being held back.
- Event Time
- 6 Oct 16:30 - 6 Oct 17:30
- Event Location
- Alliance Manchester Business Schol
- Event Type
- Original Thinking Applied
The transition to a zero-emission global economy is a large and deliberate economic change that will affect many sectors, in many countries, over many decades.
At stake are the fortunes of many businesses and investors, and the stability of the climate. Our ability to accelerate this transition, or to navigate it successfully, depends on our understanding of the economy.
In this context, the dominant view of the economy as an equilibrium system is not helpful. It leads governments to waste their political capital, time, and public money; causes investors to look in the wrong places for financial risks; and can even result in campaigners squandering scarce public attention.
This lecture will explore how a different understanding of the economy, based on complexity and evolutionary economics, can generate a clearer view of the opportunities and risks of the transition – including those related to technologies, competitiveness, and finance.
Simon will particularly focus on the opportunities for policy at the national and international levels to accelerate clean technology innovation, cost reduction, and the widespread deployment that can eventually eliminate fossil fuels from the global economy.
Simon Sharpe
Simon Sharpe is Managing Director of S-Curve Economics, a non-profit research organisation dedicated to advancing understanding of the economics and diplomacy of the low carbon transition.
He is an Honorary Professor at the University of Manchester, and author of ‘Five Times Faster: Rethinking the Science, Economics, and Diplomacy of Climate Change’, which was listed by the Times and Financial Times as one of the best environment books of the year 2023.
He was previously Deputy Director of the UK government’s COP26 Unit, where he led international campaigns on energy, transport, land use, science and innovation.
His other roles in government included serving as head of private office to Ministers of State for Energy and Climate Change, and diplomatic postings to China and India. He has published academic papers and policy reports on climate change risk assessment, economics, decision-making, and diplomacy.