Singularity Expert | Dr. Robert Muggah

Location
Brazil
Areas of Expertise
Computing
Energy Technology
Artificial Intelligence

Expert Bio

Dr. Robert Muggah specializes in cities, cyber security, digital technologies, and climate resilience. He co-founded the Igarapé Institute, a leading think tank, SecDev, a cybersecurity and data science company, and Bioverse, a forest intelligence start-up. Robert advises tech companies, governments and international organizations and is a fellow or expert at Princeton, Bosch Foundation, the Graduate Institute, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and Singularity University. In addition to working with UN agencies and development banks such as the IMF and World Bank, Robert advises the World Economic Forum’s annual Global Risk Report. He has authored eight books, over a hundred peer-reviewed journal articles and is a regular contributor to the Atlantic, BBC, CNN, Conversation, Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Guardian, New York Times, Reuters, and Wired. Robert gave TED talks in 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2021 and earned a DPhil at the University of Oxford and an MPhil from the University of Sussex.

Sessions

Resilient Cities are Key to our Future Survival-1

Smarter and more resilient cities are key to our surviving the twenty-first century. If we design and manage them right, we stand a fighting chance. We get them wrong, and humanity is in deep trouble. The biggest challenges are not just faced by the European and American cities in advanced economies, but especially in fast-growing urban agglomerations in Africa and Asia where 90% of future population growth is set to take place. A precondition to moving from fragile to resilient cities in the coming decades is good data, smart technologies, and effective management.

In this session, we'll review the global threats to our cities and explore some of the strategies urbanites are deploying to address them. We will explore several data visualizations that track dozens of climate and anthropomorphic risks. In this session you will:

- Better understand how fragility is affecting thousands of cities, especially in the Global South where most urban population growth is taking place;

- Explore a number of climate-related challenges facing cities such as drought, rising sea levels, and deforestation;

- Examine trends in rapid urbanization, migration and political violence in cities around the world; and

- Review key design principles that can help build cities that both mitigate and adapt to the gravest challenges of our era

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Deploying New Technologies and Scaling Green Finance Can Avert Climate and Nature Catastrophe in the Amazon

The Amazon is one of the world's key bulwarks against rising global temperatures and extreme weather events. Yet deforestation and degradation due to cattle ranching, large-scale farming, and host of illicit activities are pushing the Amazon rainforest to a dangerous and irreversible tipping point. Spanning over 6 million km2 and 8 countries, the world's largest tropical forest is on the brink. The effects of die-back would have implications not just for the roughly 40 million people living in the Amazon, but for global climate and biodiversity targets.

Yet there are signs of a green economy spreading across the Amazon. Nature-based solutions - from bioeconomy and carbon credits to afforestation and agroforestry - are increasingly widespread. New remote sensing and AI-enabled technologies are adding extraordinary capabilities to identify new species, expand harvesting of non-timber forest products, and monitor large-scale interventions. The total annual revenues of a fully implemented bioeconomy could be over $284 billion by 2050.

In this session, we'll explore the multiple global, regional and national threats facing the Amazon region as well as the emerging opportunities to mitigate and reduce them. We'll examine the suite of game-changing spatial and machine-learning platforms and tools that are being leveraged to de-risk territories and scale-up nature-based solutions. At the end of the session, you will:

- Apprehend the multiple threats and risks confronting the Amazon Basin, from deforestation and degradation to environment crime and human rights violations;

- Learn about satellite, drone and AI-enabled innovations that are being applied by governments, businesses and civil society to address challenges and scale-up green economies;

- Reflect on innovative new approaches to climate finance and opportunities to engage in promising nature-based solutions in the Amazon as well as support to communities on the front-line of the climate emergency.

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Preparing for a Large-Scale Climate Mobility in a Warming World

Record-breaking heat waves, wildfires, floods, and rising sea levels are pushing the issue of “climate mobility” to the forefront, including across Latin America and the Caribbean.Globally, there could be as many as 240-1.3 billion people forced to relocate due to climate shocks and stresses by 2050. The World Bank estimates that at least 17 million “internal climate migrants” could emerge in Mexico and Central America alone.

With climate shocks and stresses set to increase in frequency and intensity, governments, businesses and civil societies need to monitor displacement, migration, and relocation. Especially in the global south, they would do well to work with international agencies and development banks to improve forecasting and early warning systems and design legislation and policies to protect and prepare expulsion and reception communities before, during, and after people relocate (as well as those who are ""trapped"" and unable or unwilling to move).

In this session we will focus on the global dynamics of climate mobility, with a focus on the Americas. We examine the scope and scale of climate-related displacement and migration focusing on the drivers of population movement, the political, social and economic impacts of relocation and resettlement, and international, regional and national responses to foster adaptation and resilience. We will also challenge myths about the relationships between climate change and human mobility. At the conclusion of the session you will:

- Understand the global and regional dynamics of climate mobility, including geographic ""hot spots"" and demographic groups most at risk;

- Review the international strategies to address climate mobility, both in terms of climate and migration policy, as well as practical interventions in affected areas; and

- Discuss methodologies to forecast climate mobility, including innovations in machine learning to correlate climate threats, socio-economic vulnerabilities, and displacement and migration outcomes.

Dr. Robert Muggah

Expert Bio

Sessions

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