Incoming Chairperson of the World Bank Inspection Panel, Mark Goldsmith joins our hosts Belle and Gaurav on this special episode of the Global Get Down to introduce the organisation and tell us about the work it has done in its 30 years of existence. Mark gives us an outline of what the Inspection Panel is and how it functions and talks through his personal journey and the career path that led him to this point. He answers questions about the legacies of the Panel and the impacts he hopes to have in his year of chairmanship. He also briefly touches on some ongoing cases that the Inspection Panel shall deal with over the next few months.

Back for our third episode in the Environmental Policy series running parallel to COP 28, Professor Naoko Ellis from the Chemical and Biological Engineering (CHBE) Department at UBC joins us to explain how Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) works. Hosts Gaurav and Sriya get Professor Ellis's view on when and under which circumstances CCS is a good policy option to encourage, and get a primer on how this technology works, along with learning what the different options to capture, sequester and utilise Carbon Dioxide from the Atmosphere are. This is the Global Get Down's first attempt at instituting an interdisciplinary bridge across the technical and policy facets of a problem. This episode should be of interest to both Engineering and Arts students and faculty.

Our Team spoke to Dr. Peter Arcese from the Faculty of Forestry at The University of British Columbia to help understand what Biodiversity Credits are, how they work and how they link to the more traditional Carbon Credits. Co-hosts Gaurav and Alyssa get Dr. Arcese's take on the inter-disciplinarity involved to make Biodiversity Credits a reality, and dig into the complex researcher-financier-policymaker nexus that this involves. This episode also gets into some of the global diplomacy that has been involved in the pursuit to cash in on conservation. This episode is Part 2 in our Environment Policy series running parallel to COP 28.

As COP 28 kicks off in Dubai, our team sat down with Professor Simon Donner, host of the Podcast Pacific Voices (that highlights his engagement with the Pacific Island of Kiribati) and a Lead Author for the most recent 6th Assessment Report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Professor Donner joins your hosts Alessia and Gaurav and reflects on his time spent at COP 27 in Sharm-el-Sheikh last year. They connect this journey to the now ongoing COP 28 in Dubai and discuss some realistic expectations we could have from the Event, especially dealing with the much-awaited "operationalisation of a loss-and-damages fund". This is Part 1 in our Environmental Policy series to commemorate the ongoing debate and discussion taking place at COP 28, and at dinner tables across the world, in the spirit of advancing further conversation on these crucial topics as the world heads towards a greater mean global temperature.

Starting today, the UBC IRSA, PSSA and VSEUS Clubs are hosting this year's rendition of the Canadian Undergraduate Policy Competition (CUPC) on the theme 'Emerging Technologies'. The event shall run from November 24th-26th, 2023. Join us in our conversation with Bridget Chu, one of the co-chairs for CUPC 2023 as we address some FAQs about the event. Register here for the Minister's Box Free Workshop on November 24th, 2023: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeBYi3Urd15iyEe3NzKRF2lDsF_aGX_BphADlOUmc9oc0ldRQ/viewform Access previous years' CUPC archives through their website: https://www.thecupc.ca/ Thanks for listening!

In Part 2 of 2 of our very special collaboration with the World Bank’s Air Quality Management (AQM) team on South Asia, based in New Delhi, co-hosts Gaurav and Thalin go deeper into the report ‘Striving for Clean Air’ with guests Jostein Nygard and Sayantan Sarkar. They address the methodology recommended in the report, which speaks of three policy priorities that South Asian governments should follow to effectively attain cleaner air across airsheds by 2030. Also discussed are lessons from AQM in the rest of the world, synergies and tradeoffs between national strategies on AQM and climate action, and positive actions that the World Bank is taking to help counter this problem. Listeners can find brief bios for both our guests and a link to the report ‘Striving for Clean Air’ below. Jostein Nygard Jostein Nygard, a Norwegian national, is an environmental economist with the World Bank where he has worked on Pollution Management and Environmental Health programs for over 20 years. He has developed the World Bank’s methodology for Air Quality Management (AQM) worldwide and developed the largest-scale AQM programs for the Bank in East Asia - particularly in China, Mongolia and Vietnam - as well as in other regions like Africa, South America and the Middle East, and more recently in South Asia. Jostein is presently based in New Delhi, where he coordinates the Bank’s regional AQM program in the South Asian region (particularly India, Pakistan and Bangladesh). Jostein is educated as an economist from Aalborg University in Denmark and Beijing University in China. Sayantan Sarkar Sayantan Sarkar has worked on air pollution and climate change issues for over a decade. He currently works with the World Bank’s Environment, Natural Resources and Blue Economy Practice, based in New Delhi. He supports the India Air Quality Management Program, and also works on regional air quality issues in South Asia. He has previously worked with bilateral and non-profit organisations including the UK FCDO (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office), the University of Chicago’s India Centre, and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) on a range of issues like international climate negotiations, low-carbon development policy, environmental transparency initiatives, air quality planning, and extreme heat resilience. Sayantan has a Master’s degree in Environmental Science from The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) University in New Delhi. Link to the report: https://www.worldbank.org/en/region/sar/publication/striving-for-clean-air

Join your host Gaurav as he gets a 101 on Canadian Climate Politics from UBC Professor Kathryn Harrison.

Welcome to Part 1 of 2 of a very special collaboration that the Global Get Down conducted with the World Bank’s Air Quality Management (AQM) team in South Asia. We discuss their report ‘Striving for Clean Air’ on how best to combat the deteriorating condition of Air Pollution in the region (encompassing India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and parts of Afghanistan and Iran). This episode, co-hosts Gaurav and Thalin introduce the contentious topic of Air Pollution with our guests, Jostein Nygard and Sayantan Sarkar and talk to them about the approach they followed in their report. They discuss the basic economic, social and political implications of this regional crisis and the unique character that the problem is demonstrating in South Asia. Listeners can find brief bios for both our guests and a link to the report ‘Striving for Clean Air’ below: Jostein Nygard Jostein Nygard, a Norwegian national, is an environmental economist with the World Bank where he has worked on Pollution Management and Environmental Health programs for over 20 years. He has developed the World Bank’s methodology for Air Quality Management (AQM) worldwide and developed the largest-scale AQM programs for the Bank in East Asia - particularly in China, Mongolia and Vietnam - as well as in other regions like Africa, South America and the Middle East, and more recently in South Asia. Jostein is presently based in New Delhi, where he coordinates the Bank’s regional AQM program in the South Asian region (particularly India, Pakistan and Bangladesh). Jostein is educated as an economist from Aalborg University in Denmark and Beijing University in China. Sayantan Sarkar Sayantan Sarkar has worked on air pollution and climate change issues for over a decade. He currently works with the World Bank’s Environment, Natural Resources and Blue Economy Practice, based in New Delhi. He supports the India Air Quality Management Program, and also works on regional air quality issues in South Asia. He has previously worked with bilateral and non-profit organisations including the UK FCDO (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office), the University of Chicago’s India Centre, and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) on a range of issues like international climate negotiations, low-carbon development policy, environmental transparency initiatives, air quality planning, and extreme heat resilience. Sayantan has a Master’s degree in Environmental Science from The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) University in New Delhi. Link to the report: https://www.worldbank.org/en/region/sar/publication/striving-for-clean-air

In this episode, host Belle is joined by Professor Christopher Kam, a researcher on comparative politics, to explore the demographic challenge that advanced industrial democracies worldwide are currently experiencing: the problem of simultaneously aging societies and falling birth rates. Integrating topics such as tax regimes, cultural shifts, economic productivity, and immigration, we discuss what smaller labour cohorts mean for national policy planning in the future, as well as the medium- and long-term consequences of the new way we think about children and families.

In this episode, cohosts Gaurav and Thalin are joined by Dr. James Jay Carney to explore the intersection of religion and politics in Central Africa. The Catholic Church has become an integral part of African national identity. It plays a significant role in the daily lives of communities at the grassroots level in post-colonial Africa. However, this position is not without conflicts and issues that revolve around society. With a focus on Uganda and Rwanda, we discuss the impact of Catholicism and the Church on national identity, social welfare, and political discourse in these countries and globally. Dr. Jay Carney is an Associate Professor of Theology at Creighton University, a U.S. Fulbright Scholar, and Visiting Professor at Uganda Martyrs University in Nkosi, Uganda. His work specializes in the intersection of history and theology, focusing on the Catholic experience in eastern and central Africa.