The overarching question imparting urgency to this exploration is: Can U.S.-Russian contention in cyberspace cause the two nuclear superpowers to stumble into war? In considering this question we were constantly reminded of recent comments by a prominent U.S. arms control expert: At least as dangerous as the risk of an actual cyberattack, he observed, is cyber operations’ “blurring of the line between peace and war.” Or, as Nye wrote, “in the cyber realm, the difference between a weapon and a non-weapon may come down to a single line of code, or simply the intent of a computer program’s user.”
How unequal are current patterns of modern energy use and emissions? What do we mean by modern energy access and how many are without it? How much energy do we really need for decent living? And how can we achieve universal access to modern energy services in ways that achieve development and climate goals synergistically? These are some of the questions that this seminar will try to shed light on.
Shonali Pachauri is Research Group Leader of the newly formed Transformative Institutional and Social Solutions (TISS) Research Group in the Energy, Climate, and Environment (ECE) Program at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria. She has served as Adjunct Professor at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies in Fall 2016. She is a Lead Author for the IPCC WGIII AR6 report, serves on the Science Advisory Panel of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), and on the Advisory Group of the International Network on Gender & Energy (ENERGIA).
Dr. Pachauri researches the role of technological, institutional, and social innovations for inclusive human development, particularly for populations without access to basic infrastructures and services. Her work explores policy pathways for achieving universal access to basic services and technologies and assesses the wider impacts of this for sustainable development. She has published extensively on these topics, both in the form of scientific peer-reviewed articles and policy reports.
Dr. Pachauri has a Ph.D. in Energy Policy and Economics from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, and a M.Sc. In Environmental & Resource Economics from University College London