Pardee Center Director Speaks at South Asian Conference

Prof. Adil Najam, the Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Story of the Longer-Range Future was one of the featured speakers at a regional conference on Global Climate Change in South Asia organized by the Ministry of Environment, Government of Pakistan and the World Conservation Union-IUCN. The conference was held in Islamabad, Pakistan, on January 13-14, 2009.

The conference was opened by Syed Yusuf Raza Gillani, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, and was also addressed by Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, the Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Dr. Adil Najam was one of the long-standing lead author of the IPCC reports.

The 2-day conference brought together experts from across South Asia to discuss various aspects of how global climate change might effect this region. In his presentation, Prof. Najam highlighted the importance of taking a development and human security approach to global climate change. He stressed that “unless we make climate change discussion poverty-focussed rather than carbon-focussed, we will not be able to solve the coming challenges in developing countries such as those in South Asia.”

Prof. Adil Najam also chaired two sessions at the conference. One on country perspectives and the concluding discussion sessions on regional cooperation which included participation from the Pakistan Minister for Environment, Mr. Hameedullah Jan Afridi.