Planning for an Uncertain Future: Environmental Planning Strategies in Habitat Adaptation and Energy Transition

On 18 January (Sat) 2025, UNU will host “Planning for an Uncertain Future: Environmental Planning Strategies in Habitat Adaptation and Energy Transition”, a BIG IDEAS Dialogue with Dr. Christina von Haaren, professor emerita at Leibniz University Hannover. This hybrid event (online and in-person) will start at 16:00 on Zoom and in the 1F Annex Space at UNU Headquarters in Tokyo.

The world is becoming extremely uncertain both in tangible and intangible manners.  Global climate change is triggering unpredictable extreme weather events around the world.  Unstable geopolitical conditions are disrupting energy and material supply chains.  Such uncertainties are presenting major challenges for planning, especially in environmental and landscape planning.

Dr. von Haaren will join UNU Senior Vice-Rector Sawako Shirahase to discuss the practical consequences of these uncertainties by examining two examples: 1) uncertainty of adaptation strategies of habitats to climate change and 2) renewable energies, their spatial allocation and public participation. The event will focus on the local level and refer to findings about dealing with uncertainty in practice by including case studies from Germany and Taiwan.

Registration

To attend this event in person at UNU Headquarters in Tokyo, register here: https://go.unu.edu/qMm7J

To attend this event online via Zoom webinar, register here: https://go.unu.edu/AnU0r

Please note this event will be in English; Japanese interpretation will not be provided. Advance registration (by 16 January 2025) is required. Online registrants will receive an email on the day of the event with a link to join the Zoom webinar.

For the in-person event, please be prepared to present identification at check-in.

About the Speaker

Dr. Christina von Haaren is professor emerita at Leibniz University Hannover. She completed her doctoral studies in 1988 and became to be a professor in landscape management and nature conservation at the Institute of Environmental Planning, Leibniz University Hannover, in 1998. Between 2000 and 2008, Professor von Haaren served as a member of the German Advisory Council on the Environment, an advisory board to the Federal Government. In 2019, she was appointed as the Vice President for International Affairs and Sustainability at Leibniz University Hannover, a position she held until September 2024.