Bianca van Bavel

Name:

Bianca van Bavel

Job title:

Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Climate Change and Health

Area of work, and why it’s important: 

I focus on co-benefits and trade-offs of climate adaptation and mitigation actions.  This area of work is pertinent for incentivising early and appropriate climate action as well as ensuring climate equity. Furthermore, co-benefits can be used to make climate action relevant to a broader range of people – turning climate actions into health, economic, and social responses.  Rather than ancillary, co-benefits and trade-offs need to be considered as first order concerns in decision making processes. Early and integrated consideration of the broad scale range and distribution of co-benefits and trade-offs, as well as how they change across different contexts and populations is essential so as to avoid perverse trade-offs and inequities in climate change responses.

What will you be doing at COP27? 

Live presentation and panel discussion as part of a UK Pavilion co-benefits side event on Thursday 10 November with the Met Office and Imperial College London 

What are the big issues that COP27 needs to address? What are your hopes for the negotiations?

COP27 needs to both acknowledge and address issues of (in)equity at the heart of climate change decision making processes and actions. This includes recognising existing inequalities, both in terms of vulnerability under present and projected changes, and how without deliberate considerations decision-making processes and climate solutions may only seek to exacerbate such divides. 

What’s your message for world leaders at COP27?

Equitable decision-making processes and responses need to be met by equitable and appropriate financing for communities to lead responses to climate change. Furthermore, being able to demonstrate progress on previous COP26 commitments and NDCs will be critical in building trust and gathering support.