November 1, 2018: IRES Faculty Seminar with Dr. Amanda Giang

IRES Seminar Series

Time: 12:30pm to 1:30pm (every Thursday)

Location: AERL Theatre (room 120), 2202 Main Mall

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Policy Evaluation Problems: Evaluating the effectiveness of a global mercury treaty

 

Abstract: The Minamata Convention on Mercury, a global environmental agreement that aims to protect human health and the environment from anthropogenic mercury pollution, entered into force in August 2017.  As the Convention shifts into its implementation phase, critical questions for mercury science and governance are: Will the Convention be effective at protecting human health and the environment? And how will we know? This talk will present preliminary research on strategies to evaluate the effectiveness of global-scale mercury policy given a changing, uncertain, and multi-stakeholder world. It considers both technical (e.g., what to monitor and where) and social (e.g., actors, institutions, norms) dimensions of the effectiveness evaluation challenge. Finally, it will explore how insights from the Minamata Convention may inform evaluation processes for other global environmental agreements, such as the global stocktake under the Paris Agreement.

This seminar will not be filmed.

Dr. Amanda Giang

Assistant Professor, IRES and Department of Mechanical Engineering

 

Bio: Amanda Giang is an Assistant Professor in the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability and the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UBC. Her research address challenges at the interface of environmental modelling and policy through an interdisciplinary lens, with a focus on air pollution and toxic chemicals. Combining integrated modelling and qualitative approaches, she is interested in understanding how environmental assessment processes can better empower communities and inform policy decision-making. She received a PhD in Engineering Systems from MIT, a MS in Technology and Policy from MIT, and a BASc in Engineering Science from the University of Toronto.

Website: www.agiang.com

 

 

Photo Credit: Rocio Lopez, IRES PhD Student