Christiana Figueres: The future we choose

We’re in the midst of a climate crisis, so what can we do to ensure our survival? 

How we address the Earth’s changing climate in the next 30 years will determine not only the world we live in but the world we will pass on to our children and theirs.

The architect of the Paris Agreement on climate change, former United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres, provides us with the options; what governments, corporations and each of us can do to fend off disaster. 

Sharing insights from her new book, The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis, Figueres explains that we still have the opportunity to not only protect ourselves and the future generations, but actually create a much better world for us all. 

Offering 10 practical steps that we can all take today, this talk is essential to transforming the climate change narrative from blame games and political rhetoric, to optimism and purpose-driven action.

This is the final hour; it can be our finest hour. 

If you're interested in learning more about what you can do for the environment, Christiana Figueres' The Future We Choose is available from the UNSW Bookshop. 

It is the intent, it is the decision, it is the willpower and frankly, the stubborn optimism of individuals that is going to get us onto a path of change.

Christiana Figueres

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Photo credit: Prudence Upton

This talk was chaired by Professor Emma Johnston, Dean of the Faculty of Science, UNSW Sydney, and was presented by the UNSW Centre for Ideas and is a part of the UNSW Grand Challenge on Thriving in the Anthropocene. Supported by WOMADelaide Planet Talks.