Northwestern Qatar faculty join Evanston campus seminars
NORTHWESTERN Qatar professors Anto Mohsin and Jairo Lugo-Ocando joined the Northwestern Faculty at seminars hosted by the Buffet Institute for Global Affairs and the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program in Evanston.
Mohsin joined Northwestern Professors Mary McGrath, Michael Barsa, and Mar Reguant for a session, ‘Prospects for the US and Global Climate Action with the Biden Administration’, exploring the challenges and opportunities of the new administration’s role in leading international climate change cooperation efforts.
Panelists expressed optimism about the ability of the Biden administration to overcome the US partisan climate change divide and put the world on a sustainable climate path.
In his remarks, Mohsin noted that international progress has been made on the adoption of renewable energy solutions, but outlined the challenges facing some countries, particularly the Global South, in reducing carbon dioxide emissions and shifting towards renewable energy.
“Over the past 20 years, we have seen a steady increase in the global production of renewable energy, as well as a decrease in price for solar and wind power technology, but production levels are still far
below international targets set for 20 0 and 2050,” Mohsin said quoting the World Resources Institute’s State of Climate Action 2020 report.
Mohsin added that one of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic is a record drop in
global carbon dioxide emissions however, he noted that this dip is not expected to be a sustained trend and that carbon emissions are likely to rebound as economies and producers around the world begin to re-open.
Mohsin pointed to Indonesia as an example of how countries in the Global South are taking alternative solutions to mitigate the impact of climate change. The country’s capital, Jakarta, is one of the fastest sinking cities in the world, and the Indonesian government plans to move it further inland due to rising sea levels. Although the Covid-19 pandemic halted this plan, priority was given to developing electricity generators that run on renewables. Mohsin also said that Indonesia has the potential to become a global leader in renewable energy, given the country’s abundant renewable energy resources, but Indonesia plans to include only a modest increase in the share of renewable energy in 2026, according to the 201 Electricity Supply Business Plan. “Not even the looming threat of climate change impacts, such as the fall in capital, has prompted the government to make more electricity from renewables or to reduce deforestation,” Mohsin concludes.
Lugo-Ocando spoke at the Faculty Colloquium, titled “Media Governance in Latin America Polarisation in the Digital Age the (Failed) Quest for Plurality,” explaining the role of the media in transforming the relationship between the public and political leaders.
Explaining how the transition from dictatorships to democracy in Latin America excluded mainstream media, prompting them to “act as political players by galvanising weak opposition and in uencing the formation of the political landscape of the region.”
Despite finding success in bringing new democratic leadership to Argentina, Chile and Uruguay in the 19 0s, LugoOcando noted that Latin America’s media institutions and conglomerates have continued to serve their owners and the interests of the powerful economic elite. In an attempt to reform the media landscape, left-wing governments used the polarised media landscape they inherited in their favor to create “political silos” that forced people to subscribe to pro-government narratives and affected journalists’ reporting of the truth.