G7 Strengthening Security & Sustainability: German & Canadian Contributions
Tuesday, May 10th, 2022
5:00 - 6:30 pm EST, with a reception to follow (in Toronto)
Campbell Conference Facility (1 Devonshire Place, Toronto)
Hybrid Event (options for virtual and in-person attendance)
With support from the
Embassy and Consulates of the Federal Republic of Germany in Canada
Konrad Adenauer Stiftung
Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen
Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History
G7 Research Group
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What have Germany and Canada done at home and in the G7, and what can they do in the G7 now, to strengthen national and human security and ecological sustainability, in mutually supportive ways?
Agenda
• Welcome remarks by John Kirton, G7 Research Group; Ambassador Sabine Sparwasser, German Embassy; Norbert Eschborn, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung
• Video message: Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office Tobias Lindner (tbc)
• Opening/keynote remarks: the Honourable Bill Graham, Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History
• Interventions and discussion
– Stefan Mair, director, German Institute for International and Security Affairs, and executive chair, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik
– Vincent Rigby, former National Security and Intelligence Advisor to the prime minister of Canada
– Michael Mehling, deputy director, Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a professor at the University of Strathclyde Law School, Glasgow
– Ella Kokotsis, co-author, Reconfiguring the Global Governance of Climate Change and The Global Governance of Climate Change: G7, G20 and UN Leadership
• Q&A with audience
• Closing remarks: Thomas Schultze, Consul General of Germany to Toronto
Biographies
Bill Graham
The Honourable Bill Graham was member of Parliament for Toronto Centre-Rosedale, then Toronto Centre, from 1993 to 2007. Prior to entering politics, he practised law with the firm Fasken Martineau and taught in the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. For six years he chaired of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade, and subsequently served as minister of foreign affairs from 2002 to 2004 and minister of national defence from 2004 to 2006. In 2006, he was leader of the Opposition and interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. He is currently chancellor of Trinity College in the University of Toronto and a member of The Bill Graham Centre Advisory Board.
Ella Kokotsis
Ella Kokotsis is co-author of Reconfiguring the Global Governance of Climate Change (2022), as well as The Global Governance of Climate Change: G7, G20 and UN Leadership (2015). She is also director of accountability for the G7 Research Group and the G20 Research Group based at the University of Toronto. An expert on summit accountability and compliance, she has consulted with the Canadian government’s National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations on their African development agenda, with the Russian government on global health issues in the lead-up to the 2006 St. Petersburg Summit, and with the Government of Canada on numerous summit-related issues during the 2010 Canadian G8 and G20 Summits. Her scholarly methodology for assessing compliance continues as the basis for the annual accountability reports produced by the G7 and G20 Research Groups. She is also author of Keeping International Commitments: Compliance, Credibility and the G7 Summits, as well as many articles and chapters.
Stefan Mair
Stefan Mair is the director of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs and executive chair of the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP). His areas of expertise include foreign and security policy challenges of Germany and the EU, geopolitical and geo-economic dynamics, and trade and foreign economic policy. He served on the executive board of the Federation of German Industries from 2010 to 2020 and held various positions at the SWP from 1992 to 2010.
Michael Mehling
Michael Mehling is deputy director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a professor at the University of Strathclyde Law School in Glasgow. His work focuses on climate policy design and implementation at the domestic and international level, including its intersections with environmental, energy, financial market and trade policy. He is a founding board member, inter alia, of the Blockchain & Climate Institute in London, the Ecologic Institute in Washington DC and the European Roundtable on Climate Change and Sustainable Transition in Brussels, as well as the founding editor of Carbon & Climate Law Review. He is a partner with Ecologic Institute in Berlin, a member of the advisory boards of the International Policy Coalition for Sustainable Growth at the US Chamber of Commerce and the Institute for Climate Protection, Energy and Mobility, a policy advisor of the Center for Climate and Trade at the Climate Leadership Council, an associate researcher with the Energy Policy Research Group at the University of Cambridge, a manager of the Konrad-von-Moltke Fund, and a member of the World Commission on Environmental Law. Previously, he was a member of the board of directors of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources – United States (IUCN-US) and co-chair of the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition Scientific Committee.
Vincent Rigby
Vincent Rigby is a senior fellow with the Norman Patterson School of Internal Affairs at Carleton University and a non-resident senior advisor with the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC. He has more than 30 years of experience in public service. Most recently, he was appointed National Security and Intelligence Advisor to the prime minister of Canada in January 2020. He retired in September 2021. He was previously associate deputy minister of foreign affairs at Global Affairs Canada (2019–2020), associate deputy minister of Public Safety Canada (2017–2019), assistant deputy minister of strategic policy at Global Affairs Canada (2013–2017), and vice president of the Strategic Policy and Performance Branch of the former Canadian International Development Agency (2010–2013). From 2008 to 2010, he was the executive director of the International Assessment Secretariat and the lead official on Afghanistan intelligence at the Privy Council Office. In 14 years at the Department of National Defence, he held a number of positions, including assistant deputy minister (policy), director general of policy planning, director of policy development, and director of arms and proliferation control policy.
Julia Kulik
Julia Kulik is director of research for the G7 Research Group, G20 Research Group, BRICS Research Group and Global Health Diplomacy Program, based at Trinity College at the University of Toronto. She has researched and written on G7, G20 and BRICS performance particularly on the issues of gender equality, global health and regional security. She has co-authored various publications entitled “Achieving Gender Equality through G7 and G20 Governance,” “Generating Global Health Governance through BRICS Summitry’’ in Contemporary Politics and “Connecting Climate Change and Health through Global Summitry” in World Medical and Health Policy. She has attended numerous G7 and G20 summits and delivered papers on various topics of global governance at pre-summit conferences since 2009. She has provided strategic advice to G7 and G20 engagement groups, including the W20 and the U7+ Alliance. Julia leads the groups' work on gender equality and summit performance.
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