This talk will discuss the prospects for addressing one of the fundamental institutional design challenges of the "Anthropocene" (the popular term acknowledging growing human influence on the earth system): how to shape the use of human power (agency) toward outcomes that are not entirely under individual or even collective human control. The first part of the talk will use a review of theory and specific cases to highlight some of the ways in which imperfect control changes the way that some core building blocks of governance work. It will highlight some of the ways in which policy areas as diverse as energy transitions, geoengineering governance, and air quality management share common institutional design needs. The talk will then turn to potential institutional design solutions - or at least directions to explore.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Dr Jessica Seddon
Jessica Seddon’s work on environmental governance focuses on how new sources of data can be leveraged to enable new (and more sustainable) ways of interacting with the environment around us. Her career in India and the U.S. spans academic, program leadership, and strategic advisory roles focused on institutional design for integrating science into policy and social initiatives. Seddon is a co-founder of The Institutional Architecture Lab (TIAL) and Senior Fellow at Artha Global, a networked policy consulting organization that supports governments in the developing world to design, implement, and institutionalize policy frameworks that promote prosperity, stability, and resilience. She is also an Adjunct Fellow with the Chair in U.S.-India Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and serves on the academic council of the Indian School of Public Policy in New Delhi.
Seddon has most recently focused on governance of various aspects of the atmosphere, from climate change to air quality to climate intervention. She built and led the global air quality program at the World Resources Institute (WRI) and co-chairs the Global Air Quality Forecasting and Information Services initiative of the World Meteorological Organization. She sits on the World Economic Forum Global Futures Council on Clean Air. Prior to joining WRI, Seddon co-founded and led Okapi, an India-based strategy group incubated at Indian Institute of Technology in Madras that focuses on institutional design for social innovation. She has worked with numerous institutions in India, including as visiting fellow at IDFC Institute (Mumbai) and senior fellow at the Center for Technology and Policy, IIT Madras.
