PPRG Annual Lecture - 'Sustainable Public Procurement: The Next Global Revolution?'

On Tuesday 28 March 2023, the Public Procurement Group (PPRG) annual lecture welcomed distinguished guest, Steven Schooner, Nash & Cibinic Professor of Government Procurement Law where he delivered an in-person presentaton on 'Sustainable Public Procurement: Next Global Revolution?'. Professor Schooner addressed that there is a growing global concern on climate change. 

One of the main ways of addressing the devastating effects of climate change is through practicing sustainable public procurement.  This could be done through new mega construction projects taking place or it could be in major public transportation like railway line construction.  These are just but a few examples he gave as United States proposals for sustainable climate change practices.

Climate change raises two fundamental issues: 

a)   Adaptation:  this means that different actors devise different ways of dealing with devastating effects of climate change; and

b)   Mitigation:  this means different actors devising ways of slowing down the pace of the devastating effects of climate change.

Professor Schooner stressed that we are individually and collectively responsible for climate change mitigation.  In order to attain this goal, we all need sustainable public procurement practices.  Schooner proposed change of priorities and behaviours by everyone if we are to meet this target.

A reference was made to the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IGPCC) as a useful resource which prepares comprehensive Assessment Reports about the state of scientific, technical and socio-economic knowledge on climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for reducing the rate at which climate change is taking place.

He also proposed the reading of the book, Michael E. Mann, ‘The New Climate War:  The Fight to Take Back Our Planet,’ PublicAffairs, 2021.  In the book, Mann, an American Climatologist and Geophysicist, discusses the actions of the fossil fuel industry to delay action on climate change, the responses to climate change that he considers inadequate, and the responses he considers the best.

This event was chaired by Professor Annamaria La Chimia, director of the PPRG.