The world is in transition. New trends are emerging. Which of these will shape 2023?

SEI Currents 2023 taps the institute’s expertise and insights from SEI centres across five continents to identify trends emerging in 2023 and beyond. At Currents 2023 on 11 January, four trends were discussed by a diverse expert panel.

The transitions are accelerated by the impacts of climate change, an unfolding energy crisis, the effects of the war in Ukraine and inflation growing in many parts of the world. What risks and opportunities are surfacing? What issues warrant greater attention? SEI researchers have identified four key trends affecting the transition of communities, societies, technologies, the private sector, public policymaking and international relations.

Måns Nilsson, Executive Director of SEI opens the event, followed by Robert Watt, Director of Strategic Communication and Policy Engagement at SEI, who introduces the trends we are watching.

An expert panel discusses the trends on the horizon for 2023, moderated by Laurie Goering, Climate Change Editor at Thomson Reuters Foundation. Ambassador Csaba Kőrösi, President of UN General Assembly, presents inspirational closing comments.

Speakers

• Ambassador Csaba Kőrösi, President of UN General Assembly
• Måns Nilsson, Executive Director of SEI
• Robert Watt, SEI Director of Strategic Communication and Policy Engagement

Expert panel

Moderator: Laurie Goering, Climate Change Editor, Thomson Reuters Foundation

• Arunabha Ghosh, CEO, Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) and Member, UN Secretary General’s High-Level Expert Group on the Net-Zero Emissions Commitments of Non-State Entities
• Arame Tall, Senior Climate Change Specialist at the World Bank
• Lauri Myllyvirta, Air Pollution and Climate Expert, Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air
• Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, Leader, Climate and Energy Practice, WWF International
• Seonaid Hyslop-Parsons, Corporate reputation and media relations specialist, Portland
• Åsa Persson, Research Director and Deputy Director, SEI

About the panellists

Arunabha Ghosh

Founder-CEO, Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW)

Arunabha Ghosh is an internationally recognized public policy expert, author, columnist and institution builder. Since 2010, he has led CEEW to the top ranks as one of Asia’s leading policy research institutions and among the world’s 20 best climate think tanks. The Asia Society honoured him recently with the 2022 Asia Game Changer Award.

Dr. Ghosh advises governments, industry, civil society and international organizations around the world. He currently serves on Government of India’s G20 Finance Track Advisory Group and advises the Sherpa Track for India’s G20 Presidency in 2022–23. In 2022, the UN Secretary-General appointed him to the High-Level Expert Group on the Net-Zero Emissions Commitments of Non-State Entities. Since 2018, on the UN Secretary-General’s nomination, Dr. Ghosh has served on the UN Committee for Development Policy. He is also a member of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water.

He is the co- author/editor of four books and dozens of research papers and reports. He is co-Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Clean Air. Dr. Ghos serves on the Board of Directors of ClimateWorks Foundation, and is a member of the Climate Crisis Advisory Group.

Arame Tall

Senior Climate Change Specialist at the World Bank

Before joining the World Bank in 2017, Dr. Tall worked for 15 years in climate adaptation and development, holding senior positions with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and the Red Cross/Red Crescent Climate Centre.

Dr. Tall leads coordination of the Bank’s work on adaptation and resilience and is the team leader for the World Bank Group’s Action Plan on Climate Change Adaptation & Resilience.

With over 15 years of work experience at the interface of climate & society, Dr. Tall is one of the world experts on climate services, adaptation, resilience and community-based early warning systems, widely published on research at the nexus of climate science and societal benefits.

Lauri Myllyvirta

Air Pollution and Climate Expert, Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air

Lauri Myllyvirta has over 10 years experience as an air pollution and climate expert. He has led numerous research projects on air pollution, assessing air quality and health impacts of energy policies, including more than a dozen modelling studies of the air quality and health impacts of coal-fired power plants. This research has been published and utilized in numerous countries in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Europe, Turkey, South Africa and others.

Myllyvirta has also contributed to numerous publications about energy solutions and air pollution and is asked frequently to attend seminars and conferences as an expert speaker. He served as a member of the Technical Working Group on regulating emissions from large combustion plants in the EU and currently serves as a member of the expert panel on regulating sulfur dioxide emissions in South Africa.

Manuel Pulgar-Vidal

Leader, Climate and Energy Practice, WWF International

Manuel Pulgar-Vidal is the global leader of Climate & Energy at WWF and interim chair of the IUCN Climate Crisis Commission. He has more than 35 years of experience in environmental law and policy. He served as Minister of the Environment of Peru (2011 to 2016) and President of the Twentieth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – COP20 in 2014.

Pulgar-Vidal was the Executive Director of the Peruvian Society for Environmental Law, an influential institution in Latin America. He has a law degree from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, where he is a professor, and has completed studies for a master’s degree in Business Law at the Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas. He is a board member of Forest Trends, Amazon Conservation Association, Peruvian Society of Environmental Law, CARE-Peru and the Science Based Targets initiative and a member of the Assembly of the World Wide Fund for Nature – Colombia.

Seonaid Hyslop-Parsons

Corporate reputation and media relations specialist, Portland

Seonaid is a corporate reputation and strategic communications specialist, with over a decade of experience advising high-profile businesses and organisations at global and UK levels.

She works with some of the world’s best known brands across health, tech and leisure on integrated communications strategies that encompass the breadth of Sustainability and ESG to drive understanding and action.

In recent years this has included supporting the publication of net zero strategies for FSTE100’s, engagement at global platforms, addressing supply chain challenges and devising external and internal launch strategies to navigate an increasingly complex external operating environment.

Åsa Persson

Research Director and Deputy Director, SEI

Dr Persson is a social scientist and expert on governance for sustainable development. She is Adjunct Associate Professor (Docent) at the Department for Thematic Studies, Environmental Change, Linköping University. In 2020, she was appointed by the UN Secretary-General to the Independent Group of Scientists to draft the 2023 UN Global Sustainable Development Report.

Her research focuses on global governance, including the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the global governance dimensions of climate change adaptation, and the planetary boundaries framework. In the SDG context, she has particularly focused on research and advisory work for better policy integration and coherence across the goals.

Laurie Goering

Climate Change Editor, Thomson Reuters Foundation 

Laurie Goering edits the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s news website on the human impacts of climate change. She was previously a Chicago Tribune correspondent based in New Delhi, Johannesburg, Mexico City, Havana, Rio de Janeiro and London.