31 October 2006

Climate change: the need for a global response

ITEAS Lecture Thursday November 23rd

Sir Crispin Tickell, long one of the foremost international voices on the environment, will deliver the urgent message that a global response is needed now to combat the effects of climate change when he delivers the prestigious Institute of Transatlantic, European and American Studies (ITEAS) annual lecture at the University of Dundee next month.

The Stern Review this week has renewed worldwide debate on the potential effects of climate change and what action needs to be taken as the world faces potential economic and social disaster.

Sir Crispin has been a leading voice on climate change for the past 30 years. His influential book, "Climate Change and World Affairs" was first published in 1977 and was one of the first books to highlight the dangers of human-induced global climate change.

Speaking ahead of his lecture in Dundee on November 23rd, he said:

"Last year the Government’s Chief Scientific Advisor said that climate change was the biggest challenge we faced, bigger than terrorism. Since then science has spelled out the nature of the threat in more detail, and next year we will have the Fourth Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change."

"As is now recognised, even in the United States, the threat is global, and can only be met globally."

"Some international mechanisms are already in place. The problem is mainly the politics: how jointly to devise and carry out policies which will not only mitigate the impact but will help human society adapt to the far reaching changes which are likely. We fail to act at our peril."

Sir Crispin is a former British Ambassador to Mexico (1981-1983) and Permanent Representative to the United Nations (1987-1990). He is currently director of the Policy Foresight Programme of the James Martin Institute for Science and Civilization at the University of Oxford and Chairman Emeritus of the Climate Institute, in Washington DC.

Sir Crispin’s lecture, titled "Climate Change: the need for a global response", takes place in the Bonar Hall in Dundee on Thursday November 23rd at 6 pm. Tickets for the event are free and are available from the University’s Tower building reception or by contacting events@dundee.ac.uk

NOTES TO EDITORS

Sir Crispin Tickell (born 1930), GCMG, KCVO, is a British diplomat, environmentalist and academic. He did his national service in the Coldstream Guards. As a diplomat he was Chef de Cabinet to the President of the European Commission (1977-1980), British Ambassador to Mexico (1981-1983), Permanent Secretary of the Official Development Assistance (now Department for International Development) (1984-1987), and British Ambassador to the United Nations and Permanent Representative on the UN Security Council (1987-1990).

Sir Crispin was President of the Royal Geographical Society from 1990 to 1993 and warden of Green College, Oxford between 1990 and 1997, where he appointed George Monbiot and Norman Myers as Visiting Fellows. From 1996 until August of 2006 he was chancellor of the University of Kent when Sir Robert Worcester took over the position.

He is currently director of the Policy Foresight Programme of the James Martin Institute for Science and Civilization at the University of Oxford (formerly the Green College Centre for Environmental Policy and Understanding) and Chairman Emeritus of the Climate Institute, in Washington DC. He has many interests, including climate change, population issues, conservation of biodiversity and the early history of the Earth.

He was knighted as a KCVO in 1983 on the Royal Yacht Britannia, to mark the conclusion of Queen Elizabeth's State Visit to Mexico. He was later appointed GCMG for his work at the UN.

His worldwide status as an authority on climate change is all the more surprising because he has no formal academic training in this area and has formed his opinion by self-teaching.

Tickell helped to write Margaret Thatcher's speech on global climate change (Margaret Thatcher, The Downing Street Years, p.640). He chaired John Major's Government Panel on Sustainable Development (1994-2000), and was a member of two government task forces under the Labour Party: one on Urban Regeneration, chaired by Sir Richard Rogers (1998-1999), and one on Potentially Hazardous Near-Earth Objects (2000).

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