Join us on 29th November at Queen's University Belfast for the Centre for Sustainability, Equality and Climate Action's (SECA) Annual Sustainability Lecture and the launch of the new Socio-Ecological Justice Lecture Series with Green politician, economist and long-time activist, Molly Scott Cato.

'The word daunting does not begin to cover the challenges facing us which are literally existential, at least for our species. How can we act with sufficient speed and commitment and how does this relate to issues of ownership and equity? Molly will share some good news about the speed of energy transition but will also cover the territory of political economy, and will bring to bear her experience as the European Parliament’s rapporteur on sustainable finance to discuss the role of finance in achieving sustainability. She hopes you will excuse her if she also indulges her shamanic side for a while in considering how ownership and vested rights for non-human beings might play a part in protecting our beautiful planet.'

Molly is an influential green economist, an educator, an activist and a former Green Member of the European Parliament. She is well known for her work in the fields of co-operative studies and sustainable finance, and has authored many books on these themes and more. 

Molly's work on the green economy addresses the question of how we might design and organise an economy that fits comfortably within planetary limits and achieves social justice. To this end she undertakes a critique of the monocultural global economy and proposes instead a system of self-reliant local economies, within the over-arching framework of a bioregional approach to provisioning. Her second main area of work explores the sustainable finance policy agenda. Building on her work as an MEP, she is exploring how mandatory disclosure and sustainability indexes can help to shift finance to supporting the sustainability transition. Her third area of work involves critiquing the existing monetary system and suggesting sustainable and stable alternatives. The link between the growth imperative that drives the environmental crisis and the debt-based nature of the existing money system is a central tenet of green economics.