Sunday, March 1, 2009

Why Copenhagen is important for the future of human civilization


February 16, 2009 - My Institute TERI held the 9th Delhi Sustainable Development Summit (DSDS 2009) in New Delhi during the period February 5-7, 2009.

This has become an amazing event with enhanced participation and an increasingly influential set of speakers each year drawn from all over the world. Additionally, the attention that this event is receiving from the media and globally influential leaders of public opinion is also growing year after year. In this year’s Summit not only were there a number of world leaders who spoke and participated, but three Nobel laureates also delivered keynote addresses including Mr. Kofi Annan, Prof. Sir James Mirrlees and Prof. Mario J Molina.

There were 30 ministers from all over the world who spoke and participated in the event and a number of corporate CEOs who took part both in this and the preceding event called the World CEO Forum which was held on February 4, 2009. A particular feature of this year’s Summit was a special session on Africa, wherein the Under Secretary General of the UN responsible for the Economic Commission in Africa, Mr. Abdoulie Janneh and a number of ministers from African nations participated and discussed the special challenge that Africa faces with the growing impacts of climate change.

The overall theme of the Summit this year was "Towards Copenhagen: an equitable and ethical approach" because as Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary General of the UN, who also addressed the Summit, has stated clearly, 2009 would be the year of climate change. More >>>