Cambridge Conference on Catastrophic Risk 2022
Day 3 - Looked at potential global solutions to catastrophic risk and how we can implement these in the current policy landscape.
The day opened with a talk by one of CSER’s academic programme managers, Paul Ingram, drawing on 30 years working on nuclear disarmament and asking how can we best respond to existential risk? This was then followed by a talk from Clarissa Rios Rojas about CSER’s Approach to Policy. This outlined the co-creation of policy and research with academics and policy brokers through a GCR Science-Policy Interface group and the use of science diplomacy.
Throughout the conference, artist Tom McLean created live-drawings based on the talks and panels.
The next session reflected on the range of institutions that have a role to play in preventing global catastrophes and the challenges they face in doing this, with a particular focus on overcoming barriers to global cooperation and cross-cultural understanding. It opened with a keynote address by Jenty Kirsch-Wood, of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, talking about UNDRR’s Preparation for Systemic and Cascading GCRs.
The discussion was then continued by a panel who focused on bringing concerns about global catastrophic and existential risk into a range of policy forums including, Shin-Shin Hua, a competition and tech lawyer, who talked about ther egulation of AI: governing the ungovernable?, James Ginns, of the Centre for Long Term Resilience, who talked about private sector perspectives on risk management in government and its global application, and Max Stauffer, of the Simon Institute, who talked about engaging with global institutions.
The day then closed with a talk by Oliver Letwin, former UK cabinet minister, on “Planning for Catastrophe: Why Resilience Equals Fallback”. This drew upon his experience of being responsibility for national resilience and civil contingencies for the UK government and his subsequent work on risk planning and public policy.
The conference was then formally closed by CSER’s deputy director Jess Bland providing her reflections on the event.
