COP15

Bengi Akbulut (Concordia University): Bengi Akbulut has a background in political economy in Turkey, the United States and England. She specializes in ecological economics, feminist economics and political ecology.

Clifford Atleo (Simon Fraser University): Clifford Atleo a has a background in political science and is a specialist in indigenous governance and resource management issues. A member of the Tsimshian (Kitsumkalum/Kitselas) and Nuu-chah-nulth (Ahousaht) nations, he has studied how indigenous communities adapt or resist capitalist imperatives while preserving their identity. His work includes indigenous responses to the Transmountain pipeline and First Nations relations with bodies of water.

Patrick Bond (University of Johannesburg): Patrick Bond has a background in political economy. A specialist in political economy and social mobilization, he has taught at some 100 institutions in southern Africa and has been a visiting professor at universities in Asia, Europe and North America. A prolific author, he has published around twenty books on subjects linking political ecology and social justice.

Mathieu Dufour (Université du Québec en Outaouais): An economist specializing in public policy issues and worker productivity and compensation, Mathieu Dufour is interested in how economics can be better taught as a social science, from an open and pluralistic perspective.

Joshua Farley (University of Vermont): Joshua Farley is an ecological economist. His research focuses on the design of an economy that can reconcile the planet's biophysical limits with practices that are socially, psychologically and ethically desirable. He is currently interested in the economics of essential goods, social dilemmas, the democratization of the financial system and agroecology. He is also working on issues relating to the commons. He is one of the co-authors, with Herman Daly, of Ecological Economics, Principles and Applications (2010).

Helmut Haberl (University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna): With a background in ecology, Helmut Haberl specializes in land use, resource management and sustainability issues. His multidisciplinary approach combines notions of spatial ecology, ecosystem resources and ecological footprint to study issues such as the link between the reallocation of agricultural and forest land and climate change.

Andrea Levy (Polémos) : Trained as a historian and a committed journalist, Andrea Levy has directed the magazine Canadian Dimension for the past 20 years. She writes mainly on ecological issues and the reduction of working hours. She is also an independent researcher and member of the Polémos collective on degrowth, with several publications to her credit in this field. She is active in municipal politics in Montreal and is also a member of Québec solidaire's Collectif justice animale.

Donnie Maclurcan (Post Growth Institute): Donnie Maclurcan has a background in social sciences and specializes in environmental sustainability issues. He teaches economics and sustainability, but is best known for his role as director of the Post-Growth Institute since 2010. In this capacity, he has helped more than 500 non-profit projects in Africa and Asia to get off the ground and ensure their sustainability. He is the author of three books, including one on social entrepreneurship.

Deborah McGregor (Osgood Hall Law School): Deborah McGregor is Anishinaabe from the Whitefish River First Nation in Ontario. She holds a PhD in forestry and is a specialist in indigenous knowledge systems, environmental justice and sustainable forest management. Her research on indigenous knowledge and practices in governance and sustainability has led her to give numerous public and academic lectures. She co-directs the publication of the proceedings of a series of Anishinaabewin conferences.

Bill McKibben (Third Act): Author, educator, activist and founder of Third Act, Bill McKibben has become one of the world's most influential environmentalists. Most of his career has been devoted to the fight against climate change. He was one of the first to sound the alarm to the general public with his book The End of Nature, published as early as 1989. He has written some twenty books in all, as well as countless media articles. In 2009, his 350.org campaign held 5,200 simultaneous climate protests in 181 countries.

Laura McKinney (Université Tulane): Laura McKinney is a sociologist specializing in environmental sociology, local/global sustainability and quantitative methods. She develops new theoretical approaches borrowing from social and natural sciences to study the interactions between nature and society. She is also interested in the effects of natural disasters on disadvantaged communities.

Brian Napoletano (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México): Brian Napoletano has a background in forestry, natural resources and biology. His research focuses on the geography of environmental degradation, expressed in terms of land-use change, dispossession and territorial alienation.

Iago Otero (University of Lausanne): Iago Otero is an environmental researcher. He specializes in transformative change, particularly in the context of nature conservation, from the angle of personal change, values, worldview and spirituality. He is interested in degrowth scenarios aimed at transforming biodiversity policies. A member of the Interdisciplinary Mountain Research Centre in Switzerland, he is the lead author of the IPBES report on the assessment of transformative change.

Éric Pineault (Université du Québec à Montréal): Éric Pineault is an economist and sociologist. Specialized in ecological economics and resource-related issues, he is a member of UQAM's Institut des sciences environnementales (ISE). His interest in the development of the Canadian extraction sector has led him to focus on issues of social metabolism, particularly the role of capital in advanced capitalism.

Maude Prud’homme (Réseau québécois des groupes écologistes): An agriculturalist and environmental activist, Maude Prud'homme is interested in food autonomy, popular education, the protection of old-growth forests and the fight against hydrocarbons. She works to develop a peasant lifestyle and is known for her long involvement with the Réseau québécois des groupes écologistes.

Julia Steinberger (Université de Lausanne): Julia Steinberger has a background in physics and also specializes in ecological economics. She is interested in the links between resource usage and human well-being. In particular, she has collaborated in the development of models describing in detail what a modern, sober lifestyle within planetary limits might look like. She was one of the lead authors of the 6th report to IPCC Working Group 3, published in 2022.

Sara Teitelbaum (Université de Montréal): Sara Teitelbaum is a sociologist specializing in nordic forest management and aboriginal relations in Canada and Scandinavia. She is interested in the boreal forest management framework and the relationship between rural communities and the natural environment, as well as in cooperative and self-management practices.

Jim Thomas (ETC Group): Trained in history and English literature, Jim Thomas is known for his long-standing activism for Greenpeace, then for the ETC Group. He is a critic of new technologies, particularly biotechnologies, but also geoengineering, nanotechnologies and digital technologies. He is a regular participant in conferences organized by the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the author of numerous documentaries and articles published in the international media.

Emiliano Teran Mantovani (Université Centrale du Venezuela): Emiliano Teran Mantovani has a background in sociology and ecological economics. He specializes in issues related to resource extraction and environmental justice in Latin America.

Brian Tokar (University of Vermont): Brian Tokar has a background in biophysics, and is a specialist in climate justice and food security issues. A professor in the Environmental Studies program at the University of Vermont, he is best known for his long-standing commitment to environmental activism. He is a member of the Vermont chapter of the environmental NGO 350.org. He is the author of six books and has edited various publications on biotechnology and genetically modified organisms.

Aaron Vansintjan (University of Vermont): Aaron Vansintjan has a background in environment and natural resources. He is currently a PhD candidate at the University of London, Birkbeck. His interests lie in political economy, urban geography and food security issues. In 2022, he co-authored The Future is Degrowth, an acclaimed book on degrowth and the transition to post-capitalist societies.

Arild Vatn (Norwegian University for Life Sciences): Arild Vatn is an economist specializing in ecological economics, with a particular focus on environmental governance and regulatory processes relating to resources and pollution. He is a former president of the European Society for Ecological Economics. His book Institutions and the Environment, published in 2007, won a prestigious academic prize.

Valérie Vedrines (Masse Critique): Valérie Vedrines is a marketing strategist. She specializes in brand positioning, strategic coaching and responsible communications. After holding senior corporate positions in Montreal, she founded Masse Critique, a group of communications and marketing players proposing standards and measures to reduce the industry's socio-environmental footprint.

Peter Victor (Université de York): An economist recognized as one of the founding fathers of ecological economics as a discipline, Peter Victor was the first economist to apply the physical law of the conservation of matter to the functioning of national economies. He is a consultant and advisor to governments and a host of environmental organizations. He is a member of the Club of Rome. He is the author of several books, including 2008's Managing Without Growth, which has become a must-read.

Richard York (Université de l’Oregon): Richard Yorkhas has a background in sociology and environmental studies. Using quantitative methods, he is interested in the structural characteristics of societies, in particular how demographic, economic and technological factors affect resource consumption and pollutant emissions.

Lisa Young (UINR, Unama’ki Institute of Natural Resources): Lisa Young is a biologist specializing in wildlife protection. After working in the field, she became Executive Director of UINR, a Mi'kmaq organization in Nova Scotia dedicated to nature conservation. She has developed the concept of “two-eyed-seeing”, a practical way of reconciling traditional Aboriginal knowledge with Western scientific analysis.