In these weekly talks, hosted by the Gund Institute for Environment, scholars and leaders exchange ("xChange") new research and solutions for people and planet.

This week, Caren Grown with the Brookings Institution will discuss the inextricable link between the global care crisis and the climate crisis, both of which constitute compounding, interlocking emergencies.

Climate change increases the needs for caregiving, both paid and unpaid. Investments in climate resilient care services can build long-term resilience by protecting health, reducing social vulnerabilities, and strengthening communities’ capacity to prepare, face and recover from climate hazards.  In short, well-functioning formal care services infrastructure can be viewed as a climate adaptation strategy.  Aligning public finance and climate adaptation finance can help strengthen this infrastructure.  This seminar will discuss the linkages between care and climate change and suggest an approach to estimate the costs of incorporating comprehensive care services infrastructure in climate adaptation planning and finance.

Caren Grown is a Senior Fellow in the Center for Sustainable Development at the Brookings Institution where she leads a policy research program focusing on the intersection of public finance, climate change, and care. From 2014-2021, she served as Global Director for Gender at the World Bank Group and then as Senior Technical Advisor in the Macroeconomics, Trade, and Investment Global Practice, where she developed a workstream on taxation and gender equality.  Prior to the World Bank, she was economist-in-residence and co-director of the Program on Gender Analysis in Economics at American University. During her career, Grown held senior positions at USAID, the Levy Economics Institute at Bard College, and the International Center for Research on Women.  She developed and co-led several large research projects, including the UNU-WIDER program on aid effectiveness and gender equality, the three-country Gender Asset Gap Project (based at the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore, India), and the seven-country Taxation and Gender Equality Project (American University & University of KwaZulu Natal).  She has published widely on fiscal policy, development, climate change, gender data, and health.

For the best experience we recommend attending this event in person, however a Zoom link is available: https://uvm-edu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_htCo-2f6Tmi3BTDHS753FA