SUFFICIENCY AS A GUIDE FOR MITIGATION AND ADAPTATION CARE Annual Conference 2026

Date

Table of contents

REGISTRATION (external link)

Bringing together scientific, policy and practitioner perspectives, the day will examine how sufficiency reshapes debates on energy systems, social justice and structural transformation.

From the role of expertise in decision-making to the tensions at the science-policy interface, discussions will engage openly with the political and ethical dimensions of climate action.

The afternoon's Tribunal for the Yet to Come will extend these conversations into a forward-looking exercise, inviting participants to confront questions of accountability and imagine pathways toward more just and sustainable futures.  

Keynote

10:00 -10:45

Short Poetic Interlude & Break

10:45 - 11:15

PSIA student Aleksandra Majowka will share a selection of poems inspired by CARE-related themes.  

Round Table Discussion: Science and Policy Making: Between Evidence and Power

11:15 - 12:30

This round table confronts the uneasy reality of how science and policy interact: not as a smooth transfer of knowledge, but as a contested space where evidence, interests, and ideology collide. Far from the ideal of "evidence‑based policy," we are witnessing "policy‑based evidence", where research is selectively mobilized to justify pre‑determined agendas.

The round table will be a frank and uncompromising debate among researchers, policymakers, and practitioners about instrumentalization of science, the politics of expertise, the conflicts of legitimacy and reclaiming the science-policy interface. Participants will question assumptions, expose tensions, and confront the uncomfortable truths of the science‑policy nexus.

The objective of the round table is to move beyond polite consensus and open a space where the contradictions, manipulations, and missed opportunities of science‑informed policy-making are laid bare and to imagine how the relationship could be (re) balanced in favor of democratic accountability and genuine metamorphosis.  

Tribunal for the Yet to Come

14:30 - 16:00

The CARE-WSL Tribunal for the Yet to Come is a bold, student-led initiative tackling the climate crisis through intergenerational equity and global climate justice. Blending law, science and advocacy, students will investigate real-world climate inaction, build evidence-based cases, and deliver public verdicts with policy recommendations. Grounded in cutting-edge research and the Zero Carbon Tool, the Tribunal amplifies youth voices and calls for fair, ambitious climate action- holding today's decisions accountable to the generations who will live with their consequences.