On the 23rd of June, 3 – 6 pm CEST, join us for a webinar organized by Navdanya International as part of the European project #ClimAlt, co-funded by the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme. ClimAlt is an online course engaging young people throughout Europe through an open e-learning platform on climate issues, and the Climate Hero Game. The goal of this project is to foster engagement to take action and generate real socio-environmental changes in the context of the current climate emergency.

During this special online event, you will get the opportunity to learn about the ClimAlt project, hear from Dr. Vandana Shiva, President of Navdanya International, and Nicoletta Dentico, journalist, and Director of the Health Justice Programme of the Society for International Development (SID), who join us to discuss real and false solutions to climate change. Also, find out about Navdanya International’s recent report on the dangers of technofix solutions, engage in a live Q&A, take part in interactive activities, and much more!

Limited seats – Register on Zoom

Programme

3:00 pm CEST

• Presentation of the event agenda
• Keynote speaker: Dr Vandana Shiva
• Q&A

4:30 pm CEST

• Guest speaker: Nicoletta Dentico + Q&A, following a short description of Navdanya International’s Report ‘Bill Gates and his fake solutions to Climate Change’

5:15 pm

• Presentation of ClimAlt project, and ClimAlt Hero Game
• Conclusions

Climate change is one of the most pressing and damaging issues of our times and is expected to have increasingly disastrous effects on human populations and biodiversity, contributing to the global extinction of species and potentially, our society. The climate crisis we are facing today is being exacerbated by the industrial food system which is both very vulnerable to climate change and a significant contributor to it. A global transition to biodiverse and local food and farming systems can be key both for mitigating and adapting to climate change and for ensuring food sovereignty. Through a transformative approach, agroecology can represent a true systemic solution, a cornerstone of the necessary paradigm shift, for building climate resilience by regenerating our planet, our biodiversity, our local communities, our health, and our democracy.

But in the name of solving the climate crisis, large corporations, industries, and lobby groups are now promoting a whole range of ineffective, unproven, and sometimes dangerous false solutions through ‘innovative’ technologies. These techno-fixes cover a wide range of areas and can include genetically modified crops and gene editing, artificial and lab-grown foods, geoengineering, biofuels, climate-smart or precision agriculture, carbon credits, and so on. The common thread between all these schemes is the mindset that any issue can and should only be solved through technological innovation and the rules of the private market. Not only do these hasty remedies present considerable risks for ecosystems, biodiversity, and communities, but they also create a blind spot for the root causes of the crises we are facing.

While these techno-fixes aren’t real solutions for the planet and human communities, we now have the choice to go down a different path, a path that acknowledges the central role agriculture has in building climate resilience.

The conference will also be broadcast live on the Navdanya International Facebook Page.