ED CARR
Expert on sustainability & climate change
With Ed's background in environmental science and his passion for social justice, he's set to deliver engaging and thought-provoking talks that inspire audiences to take action towards a more sustainable future.
Ed Carr is a tenured professor and Director (Dean) of International Development, Community, and Environment at Clark University, where he also directs the Humanitarian Response and Development Lab (HURDL). In 2020, Carr was named the Climate Change Adaptation Adviser on the Global Environmental Facility’s Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel.
Ed's research and teaching, which draw on more than twenty years of experience, focus on the intersection of international development, climate change adaptation, and the growing field of resilience. This work spans years of fundamental research living alongside agrarian communities in sub-Saharan Africa, synthetic large-scale work on large global environmental assessments (the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, UNEP’s Fourth Global Environment Outlook, and Working Group II of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report), and many things in between. Drawing on this broad range of experience, he's continuously identified opportunities to push the frontiers of knowledge, whether developing and refining new approaches to the study of agrarian livelihoods, or shaping the conversation about climate services for development.
His research and teaching are intimately connected to extensive experience in policy and implementation. Ed has served as a policy and scientific advisor to development donors and multilateral organizations, including at USAID as the first climate change coordinator for the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance (DCHA) and later as a climate change science advisor on the Climate Change Team in the Bureau for Economic Growth, Education and the Environment (E3). Through his Humanitarian Response and Development Lab at Clark and his consulting firm Society Environment Economy Group, Ed has led nearly $2 million in development and adaptation implementation projects (contributing to projects with approximately $80 million in total funding) ranging from the development of better gender assessment tools to the delivery of useful weather and climate information to farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Through this work, Ed has shaped how tens of millions of development and adaptation dollars have been spent.
Speech topics
Climate Change: Why 3 Degrees Matters
Why are scientists and policymakers so worried about a few degrees of temperature change? Ed Carr, development expert and lead author of several major environmental assessments, explains how a few degrees of temperature change can translate into significant human impacts, and what we can do about them.
Climate Change and Poverty: The Coming Challenge
The changing global climate is creating new challenges for development and poverty alleviation. Geographer, anthropologist and author Ed Carr draws upon more than a decade of work on the ground in sub-Saharan Africa and his experience authoring several major global environmental assessments to identify these challenges, and innovative ways of addressing them.
Delivering Development Differently
Development works, but not as well as we want it to. Famines, poverty, and conflict remain all too common in the lives of the global poor. Development expert and geographer Ed Carr draws upon more than a decade of work in the developing world to illustrate how commonly held beliefs about globalization and development have failed the global poor, compelling the audience to question conventional wisdom as they explore alternative ways of achieving meaningful, enduring improvements to human well-being.
The Genius of the Poor
Billions of people survive on less than $2 per day - often while living in harsh conditions. Development expert and professor Ed Carr explores how people make a living in the developing world, shedding light on the everyday genius that allows the world's poorest people to survive.
The View from the Village: How did Africa get to this Troubled Place?
Africa faces tremendous economic, political and social challenges in the 21st century. But were things always this bad? Ed Carr, geographer and anthropologist, sheds new light on Africa's current plight through the story of two villages in Ghana which have seen the best and worst of the African experience over the past 200 years.
Books
Delivering Development: Globalization's Shoreline and the Road to a Sustainable Future
Carr demonstrates how commonly held beliefs about globalization and development have failed the global poor.