Seminar to focus on engaging community in renewable energy

photo of windmills

York’s Sustainable Energy Initiative (SEI) wraps up this year’s seminar series Monday with talks on community involvement and Ontario’s role in photo of windmillsrenewable energy.

The seminar, New Research in Sustainable Energy, takes place March 19 from 3 to 5pm at the Osgoode Professional Development Centre, 1 Dundas St. W., Suite 2602.

The speakers are three 2011 graduates and one faculty member of York’s Faculty of Environmental Studies master’s program.

Sarah Martin (MES ’11) is a researcher at World Resources Institute, a Toronto-Sarah Martinbased global environmental think tank. She will give a talk, “The Sustainability Case for Community Power: Empowering Communities Through Renewable Energy”. Before doing her MES, Martin was coordinator of a community power working group at World Wind Energy Association.

Ian Rice (MES ’11) works on climate change policy for the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. He will give a talk, “Ontario’s Low-carbon Transition: The Role of a Provincial Cap-and-trade Program”. Rice was Anton Tabunsthe inaugural recipient of the Jack Layton Prize for Environmental Research & Action. Last year, as part of the FES 2011 Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Series, he presented a paper on the same topic, asking how Ontario can design an environmentally effective greenhouse gas emissions trading system in the context of policy gridlock in Canada and through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change process.

Anton Tabuns (MES/JD ’11) is articling at Willms & Shier Environmental Lawyers LLP in Toronto. He will give a talk, “Leaving the Lights on for Community Involvement in Renewable Energy: Devising a Legal Framework for Feed-in Tariffs to Promote Community Investment in Renewables”.

Mark Winfield is co-chair of the Sustainable Energy Initiative and Mark Winfield coordinator of York’s MES/JD Joint Program. He will give a talk about his recently published book, Blue-Green Province: The Environment and Political Economy of Ontario (UBC Press 2012), which examines the interplay between public concern for environmental issues and the ideology of the province’s Liberal, Progressive Conservative and NDP governments in understanding their approaches to environmental issues.

This event is free, but registration is required due to limited space. RSVP to tarob@yorku.ca.