The Conversation Event: Can technology solve climate change?

with Amandine Denis-Ryan and Sophia Hamblin Wang

Thurs 24 Mar 2022, 6:30 PM – 9:00 PM @ Zoom (online)

As torrential rain and flooding severely impact our neighbours up north, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a “dire warning about the consequences of inaction” on climate change.

The IPCC’s latest report makes for difficult reading: the world faces unavoidable multiple climate hazards over the next two decades with global warming of 1.5°C, and there is a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a livable future for humanity.

Technology advances, especially the discovery and use of fossil fuels, have contributed to climate change. But technology is already playing, and will continue to play, an important role in climate action. For example, affordable, market-ready renewable energy technologies are being deployed, and new and emerging technologies have the potential to accelerate the global transition to ‘net zero’ by 2050.

This timely conversation will focus on the role that technology can and should play in responding and adapting to human-induced climate change.

Sophia Hamblin Wang is a cleantech entrepreneur, circular economy expert, university lecturer and diversity advocate. Sophia is the Chief Operating Officer of Mineral Carbonation International (MCi), a technology platform that transforms CO2 into building materials and other valuable industrial products.

Sophia is also a co-founding director of CO2 Value Australia, a member of the Australian Capital Territory Climate Change Council and board member of the Climate Ready Initiative. Sophia is a lecturer at the University of Sydney Business School and has been featured in ABC TV’s Q&A, the New York Times, Time Magazine, TEDx, The Australian, and the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting.

Amandine Denis-Ryan leads Climateworks’ System Change and Capability team, which applies a systems change approach to support the organisation’s ambition for real-life impact at scale. This includes developing organisational capability in systems change acceleration, research and analysis, policy, finance and corporate practices.

Previously, Amandine oversaw Climateworks’ national programs, including research and analysis. She led several Climateworks’ seminal research outputs, including Decarbonisation Futures (2020) and Pathways to Deep Decarbonisation in 2050 (2014).

Prior to joining Climateworks, Amandine worked as a management consultant for McKinsey and Company in Sydney, advising clients across public and private sectors on strategy, sustainability, carbon abatement opportunities and associated policies. She has also developed extensive expertise in the industrial sector.

Amandine holds an MBA, as well as a MSc. from Ecole Polytechnique (France) and a MSc. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.).