Global Climate Justice in the Age of Adaptation
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Because the world has been unwilling and unable to respond to the threat of global climate change in time with appropriate measures of mitigation, we are now condemned to live in the “Age of Adaptation.”
Global Climate Justice in the Age of Adaptation
Speaker: ADIL NAJAM, Dean Emeritus and Professor, Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University
Tuesday, April 22, 2025
4:00pm to 5:30pm Pacific Time
Online via Zoom (details below)
About the Topic
Because the world has been unwilling and unable to respond to the threat of global climate change in time with appropriate measures of mitigation, we are now condemned to live in the “Age of Adaptation.” Adaptation, after all, is essentially the failure of mitigation. This does not mean that the need to mitigate has gone away – the less we mitigate today, the more we will have to adapt to the impacts of climate change tomorrow. This does, however, mean that dealing with the impacts and consequences of climate change is no longer a ‘future’ challenge. It is a pressing and immediate challenge – most so in high vulnerability countries which are economically impoverished and climatically imperiled.
About the Speaker
Dr. Adil Najam (عادل نجم) is inaugural Dean Emeritus at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University and Professor of International Relations and of Earth and Environment. He served as the founding Dean of the Pardee School (2014-2022), and was awarded Dean Emeritus status by Boston University in 2022, while continuing as Professor at the Pardee School.
Since July 2023 he also serves as the President of WWF International, one of the world’s oldest, largest and most respected environment and conservation organizations.
Earlier, Prof. Adil Najam served as Vice Chancellor of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) in Lahore, Pakistan and as the Director of the Boston University Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future. In addition to Boston University, Prof. Najam has taught at MIT and at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. He was a Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford’s Wolfson College in 2022-23 and was named the first De Janosi Fellow at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria for 2023-24. He is also the Mahathir Mohamad Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies (OCIS) where he leads research on Islam and Environment. His research and teaching focuses on issues of global public policy, especially those related to global climate change, South Asia, Muslim countries, environment and conservation, and human development.
Professor Najam was a co-author for the Third and Fourth Assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); work for which the scientific panel was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for advancing the public understanding of climate change science. In 2008 he was invited by the United Nations Secretary-General to serve on the UN Committee on Development (CDP). He was a member of the President of Pakistan’s Special Task Force on Human Development (2001) and served on Pakistan’s Presidential Commission on Higher Education (2002). During 2019-20 he was appointed to the Prime Minister of Pakistan’s Advisory Council on Foreign Affairs. The government of Pakistan has conferred on him two of the highest civil awards for his global contributions to education and to climate change research: in 2010, the Sitara-i-Imtiaz (Star of Excellence); and in 2023, the Hilal-i-Imtiaz (Crescent of Excellence), both awarded by the then President(s) of Pakistan.
Dr. Najam has written over 100 scholarly papers and book chapters and is frequently cited both in academic literature and in policy studies and global media. His recent books include: South Asia 2060: Envisioning Regional Futures (2013); How Immigrants Impact their Homelands (2013); The Future of South-South Economic Relations (2012); Envisioning a Sustainable Development Agenda for Trade and Environment (2007); Trade and Environment: A Resourcebook (2007); Pakistanis in America: Portrait of a Giving Community (2006); Global Environmental Governance: A Reform Agenda (2006); Environment, Development and Human Security: Perspectives from South Asia (2003); and Civic Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Development (2002). He was also the lead author for the 2017 Pakistan National Human Development Report on Youth and for the Living Indus Initiative (2021).
Adil Najam teaches courses on global environment and climate policy, sustainable development and environmental justice, negotiation and diplomacy, NGO management, and Global Policy Analysis. He is a past winner of MIT’s Goodwin Medal for Effective Teaching, the Fletcher School Paddock Teaching Award, and the Stein Rokan Award of the International Political Science Association, the ARNOVA Emerging Scholar Award, and the Pakistan Television Medal for Outstanding Achievement.
In 2013 he was elected a Trustee of The Asia Foundation (TAF) and in 2024 was granted the status of Trustee Emeritus. He served on the Board of WWF International from 2011 to 2019. He has also served as the Chair of the Board of the Switzerland-based Luc Hoffmann Institute, was the Board Chair of the South Asia Network of Development and Environmental Economics (SANDEE), and is a past Board Chair of Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD), Pakistan. He has served as a Council Member of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Vienna, Austria; Dr. Najam has also served on the Academic Council of the South Asian University (SAU), New Delhi, India, on the Syndicate (Board) of the University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Lahore, Pakistan, and as a Board’s Visiting Committee member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He serves as Senior Advisor to the Jinnah Center for Character and Leadership (JCCL) in Pakistan. Prof. Najam is frequently interviewed by and writes for the popular media and is the founding editor of the award-winning blog Pakistaniat.com.
Professor Najam’s areas of expertise include international negotiation, sustainable development, global environmental justice, human development and human security, international environmental politics, environmental conversation, politics of the Muslim world, and politics of South Asia.
Recommended Reading
- “Welcome to the ‘Age of Adaptation,’” by Adil Najam in the Boston Globe, originally published 7 November 2022.
- “The time to act is now: the world’s highest court must weigh in strongly on climate and nature,” by Adil Najam in Nature, originally published 8 August 2024.
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About the Host
The Center for the Blue Economy is a research center at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, that provides economic and policy analysis to support the development of a robust and equitable blue economy for the 21st century. The Center uses the World Bank’s definition of the Blue Economy: the sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods and jobs, and ocean ecosystem health. We must maintain ocean health to maintain human health, economic health, and the health of the planet. Climate change is linked, inextricably, to a healthy ocean. We are co-leading a movement for Ocean Climate Action Now. We’ve launched a new website in collaboration with our research partners, Monterey Bay White Sharks. Consider joining our Center for the Blue Economy Newsletter List (3-4x per year by email).