Dr. David Martin, of The Arlington Institute, on the current economic picture

Top scientist: don't trust politicians on climate change

Politicians were willfully ignoring and misunderstanding the science of global warming, a government adviser said today.

John Ashton, who is the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's special representative on climate change, warned scientists that they could not trust in the honesty of politicians. Speaking at the start of the climate change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, Mr Ashton said that the truth could be lost to political expediency or mischief and urged scientists to couch their conclusions in terms that could not be misunderstood or go unheard.

Delegates at the conference will again meet in the city later this year in an attempt to reach an international deal on how to combat global warming. Mr Ashton, who trained as a physicist before becoming a diplomat, said that researchers had been tremendously successful in analysing climate science but had yet to succeed in making political leaders understand the importance of their discoveries. More >>>

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 >>>