How to keep the United Nations Environmental Agenda in Times of Crisis

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has shaken political institutions and the ways they prioritize some issues over others. In the United Nations system divided into programs and agencies working on separate issue areas, such a crisis challenges those in charge of promoting long-term concerns. Professor Lucile Maertens and Dr. Luis Rivera-Vélez from the University of Lausanne share insights into how UN actors keep an issue, which is not seen as a priority, on the agenda in times of crisis? Based on an investigation of the UN environmental agenda in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, Maertens  and Rivera-Vélez highlight the practices through which UN staff attempts to maintain the environment on the agenda at the operational and policy levels. 

In conversation with Daniel Naujoks, Director, International Organization & UN Studies, School of International and Public Affairs and Fabien Cottier, Postdoctoral Research Scientist, Center for International Earth Science Information Network of Columbia University. 

Columbia students, faculty and staff may attend in person; others please join us virtually. Please see the different registration options.

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