SCIENCE ADVICE FOR POLICY
BY EUROPEAN ACADEMIES

Time travel and climate: changing the past to fix the future

What would you do if you invented a time machine? Would you travel back to the past, to alter history or fix mistakes? Or would you rather jump forward, to collect future knowledge and bring back advanced technologies? And how could a time machine help us reinvent our energy system?

 

Led by the audience, we will be asking these and other challenging questions to two of Europe’s top experts on climate change and energy: Professor Nebojsa Nakicenovic, Chief Scientific Advisor to the European Commission, and Professor Peter Lund, co-chair of the SAPEA working group on Europe’s energy transition.

How did we get ourselves into such a mess with climate change? When and how did it all go wrong — and could we have done otherwise? What information about the future do we need to help guide our energy choices now? And how do today’s scientists model tomorrow’s world without the aid of a time machine?

The event will be hosted by AC Coppens, an experienced moderator who will make sure that the full audience — including those in the room and those joining via YouTube livestream — can actively engage with the experts and take part in lively conversation.

SPEAKERS:

Peter Lund is Professor on Advanced Energy Systems at Aalto University. He works on future energy questions and technologies having an interest in multidisciplinary approaches. He has chaired the Advisory Group Energy of the European Commission and the Energy Steering Panel of the European Academies Science Advisory Council, and co-chaired the SAPEA working group on Europe’s energy transition.

Nebojsa Nakicenovic is Deputy Chair of the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors to the European Commission. He is director of The World in 2050, a global research initiative in support of a successful implementation of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda, and Acting Director General of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.

AC Coppens is a marketing strategist, conference curator, speaker and the founder of THE CATALYSTS, a boutique agency for innovative and creative players working at the intersection of Digital Technologies and Film, Immersive Media, Design, Music and Sound.

This events is organised as a part of the Berlin Science Week. 

Berlin Science Week is a 10-day international festival that brings together the world’s most innovative scientific organisations in Berlin and online to celebrate science and facilitate an open and interdisciplinary exchange of ideas and knowledge. With thousands of participants, it is one of the largest science events and takes place annually from 1–10 November.

Throughout ten festival days and beyond, debates and knowledge exchange are being fostered in an open and interdisciplinary spirit. This year’s topics range from diversity in science, the ethics of AI, the future of mobility to circular economies, or to the question whether we are prepared for the next pandemic – or not?

Event details

Speakers

Nebojsa Nakicenovic

Professor Peter Lund

AC Coppens