Document Actions
IfW Press Release November 7, 2007
Long Term Challenges of Climate Change
Leading Thinkers in Global Economic Affairs
On November 21, 2007, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy will continue its Leading Thinkers Program with the topic “Long term challenges of climate change to the global economy.”
The Leading Thinkers Program was initiated by the Kiel Institute in 2005, and provides a forum for discussion and debate over fundamental policy problems facing the global economy. It aims to find solutions that promote social justice by improving incentives for economic activity based on individual initiative and responsibility. The Program consists of a Distinguished Lecture Series in which new policy ideas are presented, a Discussion Session, during which participants can deepen their understanding of and discuss policy alternatives, an Economic Circle, where a select group of politicians, business people and academics participate in a round-table discussion, and the Virtual Research Community, which is a web-based communication engine featuring virtual libraries.
This year, the focus shifts to the heavily debated issue of climate change. A new report, to be released this November by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), underlines once again the influence of human behavior over the global climate. The report warns that a continuation of current trends in greenhouse gas emissions could potentially result in dangerous climate change. Furthermore, the report emphasizes the obvious fact that climate change is a global phenomenon which can only be addressed through international collaboration and coordinated efforts.
The Kiel Institute is proud to present two outstanding economists for the Distinguished Lectures dealing with climate change: Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta, Ph.D. and Professor Scott Barrett, Ph.D. Prof. Dasgupta is the Frank Ramsey Professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge. His research interests have included welfare and development economics, environmental and resource economics, population, and the economics of under-nutrition. Most recently, Prof. Dasgupta was awarded the 2004 Kenneth E. Boulding Memorial Award of the International Society for Ecological Economics, and, in 2007, the John Kenneth Galbraith Award from the American Agricultural Economics Association. Prof. Barrett is Professor of Environmental Economics and International Political Economy, Director of the International Policy Program, and Director of the Global Health and Foreign Policy Initiative at SAIS, a division of the John Hopkins University. His research focuses on interactions between natural and social systems, especially at the global level, and on institutions that mediate between the two, for example, the Kyoto Protocol, and resolutions passed by the World Health Assembly aimed at eradicating polio. Prof. Barrett is perhaps best known for his work on international environmental agreements, for which he received the Erik Kempe Prize.
The Distinguished Lectures and discussion will take place on
Wednesday, November 21, 2007 from 9.00 a.m. to 12:30 a.m.
Kiel Institute for the World Economy
Düsternbrooker Weg 120, D-24105 Kiel
Distinguished Lecture:
"Discounting Climate Change"
Speaker: Prof. Sir Partha Dasgupta, Ph.D.
Distinguished Lecture:
"Negotiating a Post-Kyoto Regime"
Speaker: Prof. Scott Barrett Ph.D.
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Soltwedel
Phone +49 (0) 431-8814-339