Conversation with Ambassadors - Extraordinary Human Effects on the Lives and Histories of Earth

High Commissioner of New Zealand to Singapore Jo Tyndall will share her views about the world’s throw-away culture, with aspirations for economic growth defined very narrowly in GDP terms – and the dawning realization that this was a fool’s paradise. We will learn how we have to treat our planet differently and work out how we – as societies and individuals – can do that. Each country has its own unique challenges: Her Excellency will share how New Zealand manages her food production, which also accounts for the biggest share of New Zealand’s export-driven economy.

Ms Tyndall was most recently New Zealand’s Climate Change Ambassador. From 2016 to December 2018, she also cochaired the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) Ad Hoc Working Group on the Paris Agreement (APA). As Climate Change Ambassador, she was head of delegation to the United Nations climate negotiations with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade from July 2010 to March 2016. From 2014 -2015, she held a Vice President position on the Bureau of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, representing the regional grouping of Western European and Other States.
 

High Commissioner of The Republic of South Africa to Singapore Modise Casalis Mokitlane’s presentation will highlight and focus on the kind of political and consumption values that may be undergirding our human practices of land use, the complex but unequal benefits of attempts to minimize or scale back the consumption of Earth depending on the country, region or community and finally, the problem and effects of history in forging global solution to the violence against Earth.

Prior to his appointment as High Commissioner to Singapore, Mr Mokitlane served as a Member of the National Assembly of South Africa from 1994 to 1995. He subsequently served as a Member of the Executive Council holding various portfolios in South Africa’s Free State Province from 1999 to 2009. Mr Mokitlane also held the position of Chief Whip of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) in the Free State Provincial Legislature. In 2009, Mr Mokitlane became the Leader of the Official Opposition in the Free State Provincial Legislature before re-joining the ANC in 2014.