Environment Lecture Series – A breath of fresh air: Sharing air quality knowledge across continents

Tuesday 31 October 2017, 6.30pm to 8pm

Speaker: Professor Martin Williams, King’s College London

The SEI York Annual Seminar, in collaboration with IDN and YESI

Air quality has experienced a rapid rise in public awareness in recent years and has seen a corresponding rise up the political agenda in the UK and Europe. The keynote talk in this session will look at how the policy response – local, national and continental (European) – has been based on scientific evidence, but also how the ‘correct’ response is not always clear or easy. How do we deal with local versus international impacts or diesel cars and air pollution versus petrol cars and CO2? What are the win-wins? And how are impacts differentiated across different members of our society?

A panel discussion will then explore the fact that Africa will face some of the most substantial air quality challenges globally over the coming decade. On the face of it there might be leapfrogging opportunities for development and technological transfer, but there are also social costs and resistance to change, including competing political needs. What are the biggest challenges involved in transferring technology, ideas and policies about air quality from one context to another? Who is in the conversation currently, and who else is needed?

1SEI-Stockholm Environment Institute, IDN-International Development Network, YESI-York Environment Sustainability Institute

Keynote speaker:

•             Prof Martin Williams, Environmental Research Group, King’s College London

Former head of air quality Programme at Defra; Chair of Executive Body of UNECE LRTAP convention (air pollutant emissions data viewer) and Professor at KCL. His research interests lie in the application of atmospheric science to policy on air quality, the relationship between air quality and health, and on the linkages between air quality and climate change. I have a particular interest in the effectiveness of air quality policies on urban and regional air quality as evidenced by measurement.

Panel discussion, chaired by Johan Kuylenstierna, Executive Director of SEI

•             Andriannah Mbandi, PhD student, Stockholm Environment Institute

Andriannah Mbandi works on the contribution of road transport emissions to air pollution in Sub-Saharan African cities. Andriannah has a Masters in Chemical Engineering from Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), South Africa. She has worked as a project safety engineer for a textile manufacturing where she was responsible for chemical analysis, auditing and substitution of hazardous chemicals. She later worked for an electromechanical engineering company as a product leader for vehicle emissions products and services. Prior to coming to York, Andriannah worked as a lecturer in thermodynamics at CPUT.

•             Dr Philippe Frowd, Lecturer, Department of Politics, University of York

Philippe Frowd specializes in critical security studies and, more specifically, the global governance of borders and migration. His main research interest is on the role of security professionals around international interventions in the area of border security, with a focus on security governance in the Sahel region of West Africa.

•             Mike Southcombe, City of York Council

Analytical chemist and Environmental Protection; Mike manages an expert team of environmental health officers, trading standards officers and scientists, through City of York Council’s Public Protection service and The York Environmental Services (YES) consultancy.

Location: Bowland auditorium, Berrick Saul building

Admission: is by free ticket only. Please book below.