Climate change is a major global challenge that attracts diverse and often contested views in Northern and Southern hemispheres. It is currently one of the most pertinent issues across a number of academic disciplines and development debates. Climate change adaptation and mitigation are complex processes in which environmental, political, economic and social aspects and interests intertwine in a wide range of constellations. Consequently there is an urgent need to tackle these issues through interdisciplinary research and wide public debate. For development studies, the central question is how the multifaceted and multidimensional concept of development should be reframed in an increasingly climate constrained world, and how this new challenging phenomenon affects global North-South dynamics. This conference aims to bring together researchers, practitioners, civil society actors and policy makers from different backgrounds in order to rethink, debate and reframe development and sustainability.

The conference is organized by the Finnish Society for Development Research (FSDR), Finnish University Partnership for International Development (UniPID) and Department of Political and Economic Studies/Development Studies (University of Helsinki). The main partners include the Finnish Service Centre for Development Cooperation (KEPA), Siemenpuu Foundation, Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).