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Poverty, Natural Capital and the Climate Crisis, with Sir Partha Dasgupta and Dr Rowan Williams

History &
Social Policy

An exclusive livestream from St Martin in the Fields Church, London

We cannot put a price on the value of the biosphere – it is an asset upon which we are all wholly dependent. Yet poor communities in the global south are bearing the brunt of biodiversity loss, as well as having to deal with the impact of the climate crisis.

In this inaugural lecture for the international development charity Christian Aid, Partha Dasgupta, one of the UK’s most eminent economists, traced ecological loss back to power, knowledge and agency and highlighted how important it is for local voices to put forward their own answers to ecological crises, rather than have external solutions foisted upon them, which can often be destructive. After the lecture, which was livestreamed from St Martin-in-the-Fields Church in London, Dasgupta was joined in conversation by Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury and Chair of Christian Aid.

Speakers for the motion

  • Sir Partha Dasgupta

    Frank Ramsey Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge

  • Rowan Williams

    Former Archbishop of Canterbury and chair of Christian Aid

Speakers are subject to change.

Speakers

Speakers

Sir Partha Dasgupta

Frank Ramsey Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge

Frank Ramsey Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge, and Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and the Royal Society, a Foreign Member of the US National Academy of Science, the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He taught at the London School of Economics during 1971-1984 and moved to the University of Cambridge in 1985 as Professor of Economics, where he served as Chairman of the Faculty of Economics in 1997-2001. In Spring 2019, the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer commissioned him to lead a global independent review on the economics of biodiversity. Professor Dasgupta’s review, launched in February 2021, presents the first comprehensive economic framework of its kind for biodiversity. 

Rowan Williams

Former Archbishop of Canterbury and chair of Christian Aid

Chair of the Christian Aid board and former Archbishop of Canterbury. He was appointed Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge in early 2013. He began his career as a lecturer at Mirfield (1975-1977), before returning to Cambridge as Tutor and Director of Studies at Westcott House. After his ordination in Ely Cathedral, and serving as Honorary Assistant Priest at St George's, Chesterton, he was appointed to a university lectureship in divinity. In 1984, he was elected a Fellow and Dean of Clare College. He was awarded the Oxford higher degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1989, an honorary DCL degree in 2005, and an honorary DD from Cambridge in 2006. He holds honorary doctorates from more than a dozen other universities and is Fellow of the British Academy. Dr Williams is a noted poet and translator of poetry, and, apart from Welsh, speaks or reads nine other languages. 

 

Speakers subject to change.