SEI Currents 2022 Join a panel of policy engagement experts for a lively discussion and Q&A session

Listen to experts from around the world as they provide perspectives on key trends for 2022 and beyond. Laurie Goering, Climate Change Editor at Thomson Reuters Foundation, will moderate a conversation with SEI chairperson Isabella Lövin, WRI Vice President and Regional Director for Africa Wanjira Mathai, Independent Strategic Advisor George C Varughese and Special Advisor to the President and CEO at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development Dominic Waughray.

The world is in transition, accelerated by the impacts of climate change, the effects of the pandemic and the growth of inequalities worldwide. What risks and opportunities are surfacing? What issues warrant greater attention?

SEI researchers from our eight centres on four continents have identified key trends affecting the transition of communities, societies, technologies, the private sector, public policymaking and international relations.

Take part in the event as experts from different continents offer their perspectives on these trends for 2022 and beyond.

Måns Nilsson, SEI Executive Director, will open the event and Robert Watt, Director of Strategic Communication and Policy Engagement, will introduce the trends we are watching. An expert panel will discuss the trends on the horizon for 2022.

Expert panel

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

• Isabella Lövin, Chairperson of the Board of Stockholm Environment Institute, and former Swedish Minister for the Environment and Climate, and former Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden
• Wanjira Mathai, Vice president and Regional Director for Africa, World Resources Institute
• George C Varughese, Independent Strategic Advisor
• Dominic Waughray, Special Adviser to the President and CEO, World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

About the panelists

Isabella Lövin

Chairperson of the Board of SEI, former Swedish Minister for the Environment and Climate and former Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden

Isabella Lövin is new chair of SEI and former Minister for Environment of Sweden and Deputy Prime Minister. She is an award-winning journalist and author of the renowned book Silent Seas – the Fish Race to the Bottom and was a member of the European Parliament from 2009–2014. In 2014, she was appointed Sweden’s Minister of International Development Cooperation and later became Minister for  Climate and the Environment. She was elected as co-spokesperson of the Green Party in 2016 and left politics in February 2021.

Isabella Lövin holds an Honorary Doctorate from the World Maritime University for her work to protect the oceans and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences for her efforts to focus on fishery issues in Sweden and internationally.

Wanjira Mathai

Vice President and Regional Director for Africa, World Resources Institute (WRI)

Wanjira Mathai is the Vice President and Regional Director for Africa at WRI. She formerly served as Co-chair of WRI’s Global Restoration Council and a Senior Advisor to the Global Restoration Initiative. She is the current chair of the Wangari Maathai Foundation and the former chair of the Green Belt Movement in Kenya.

Wanjira Maathai has over 20 years of experience advocating for social and environmental change on both local and international platforms. Over the years, she has also served important strategic and advocacy roles raising the prominence and visibility of global issues such as climate change, youth leadership, sustainable energy and landscape restoration, at Women Entrepreneurs in Renewables, the Wangari Maathai Foundation and the Green Belt Movement, the organization her mother, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai, founded in 1977. She was named one of the 100 Most Influential African Women in 2018 and 2020.

George C Varughese

Independent Strategic Advisor

George C Varughese is currently an independent strategic advisor to multilateral agencies, industry associations and other institutions. He is a former president of Development Alternatives and conceptualized and spearheaded several major initiatives, including the Community Led Environment Action Network, Corporate Environment and Social Responsibility, Development Alternatives Information Network and the Poorest Areas Civil Society Programmes.

He is a member of several international and national governing bodies, advisory panels and working groups on environment and development, including the Green Economy Coalition, Climate Action Network – South Asia, World Bank Community Development Carbon Fund and Global Water Partnership. He also spearheaded several NGO initiatives, including the Credibility Alliance nationally and the post-2015 Independent Research Forum.

Dominic Kailashnath Waughray

Special Adviser to the President and CEO, World Business Council for Sustainable Development

Dominic Kailashnath Waughray is Special Advisor at the World Business Council on Sustainable Development. He was previously with the World Economic Forum (WEF) for nearly 16 years, initially as inaugural Director of Environmental Initiatives, then as Head of Public Private Partnership, Member of the Executive Committee from 2013–2018 and Head of Centre for Global Public Goods from 2018–2021, with responsibility for WEF collaboration with the international community on delivering partnerships for the Sustainable Development Goals.

His affiliations include Associate Fellow, Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), Visiting Scholar, Stanford University Woods Institute for the Environment, Senior Fellow World Resources Institute, Special Adviser, China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development, Trustee, The Climate Group and Governing Board Member CGIAR International Water Management Institute.

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.