Camaren Peter was educated and trained as a pure scientist, and journeyed through studies in physics and astrophysics until he eventually became interested in the challenge of modeling and simulating complex human-driven systems.  This interest eventually led him to the question of the sustainability of human and natural systems i.e. the complex interdependencies between them. This then became the core focus of his work at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for much of this decade and the research conducted in his PhD.  Before that, and since then he has been involved in strategy-making and implementation for sustainability at various decision-making scales, especially in Southern Africa.

Themes: (1) sustainability, (2) global and climate change effects, (3) complexity theory and (4) transdisciplinarity.

Topics:

• What is sustainability and why is it important?
• What is complexity and transdisciplinarity?
• Global and climate change projections, envisaged effects, and mitigation and adaptation strategies for a changing world.
• Green economy: strategies and technologies.
• Urban sustainability: greening strategies and technologies.
• How to think out of the box: diversity as strategic advantage in negotiating complex challenges.
• Strategies for cross-sector resilience to global and local scale changes in economy and environment.

For over a decade Camaren has worked across disciplines in research efforts that were focussed on complex, real-world problems and have therefore gained useful insights into the multiple perspectives that exist, and the multiple positions that researchers and decision-makers adopt in relation to the challenges they face. He is uniquely positioned within a network of researchers, civil society organisations and decision-makers  dealing with sustainability related challenges and can therefore guide an audience through the various issues concerning sustainability as it relates to different contexts and interests. For example, one week he can be speaking to philosophers and linguists, and the next to businessmen, industrialists, farmers, architects and government decision-makers as he has, through experience, learnt how to share his ideas and research with different audiences in a way most appropriate to their needs.

The area of sustainability is an emerging area of research and Camaren is fortunate enough to be at the cutting edge of its theories, networks and key actors right now, especially in Southern Africa.  Camaren has an interactive speaking style which usually involves; unpacking a complex set of issues, and then engaging with the audience in a manner so as to encourage them to discover their own position on them.

At current rates of population growth, and in an era of faster and more discontinuous changes in the global economy and polity, and the global climate, the issue of sustainability will prove core to the survival of the modern economy  - and the society it supports - as we know it. Being prepared for a future where water and energy price fluctuations create havoc in food price regimes, and where climate and changes in the weather increasingly dominate the success or failure of developmental programmes at regional, national, provincial or local scales of implementation will prove key to negotiating the future.  With the introduction of the global carbon economy the next major technological revolution will be the green technology sector. Business, civil society and government alike are the target audiences of these topics, as they have the power to change future trajectories and put them on more sustainable development paths.

The speeches will address the key challenges facing mankind, and especially developing regions in the 21^st Century.  Moreover, it will deal with the different ways of thinking about these challenges and outline the various frameworks that exist and are emerging as tools for strategizing about sustainable futures.

Participants will learn about the notion of sustainability and how it affects them and the world they live in.  They will also learn how to engage with the complexity of the challenges they face in navigating more rapidly changing environments.

The audience will take home a new understanding of how and why the world will change because of the need to be more sustainable, and provide ways for the audience to understand their role and responsibility in ensuring that sustainable development occurs.

The individual will benefit from having expert knowledge presented in an understandable manner, and will be able to formulate their own strategic positions on the basis of the knowledge that is shared. One discussion can cover a wide variety of aspects, drawn together from books, publications, research reports, interviews and expert opinion.

The organisation will benefit from understanding how its institutional role will change in the 21^st Century, and will become familiar with different frameworks for formulating strategy and taking actions towards their own sustainability in a changing world economy and polity.