Pardee Center Director in Germany for Media and Lecture Tour
Prof. Adil Najam, Director of the Boston University Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future just concluded a week long lecture and media meetings tour of Germany focusing on the results of the recently concluded Copenhagen climate negotiations and the research on global development issues being conducted at the Boston University Pardee Center.
The week-long tour was organized by the United States Embassy in Germany and took Prof. Najam to speaking and media engagements in Nurnberg, Munich, Stuttgard, Frankfurt, Mainz, Bonn, Berlin and Potsdam. Given the high interest in global climate change policy, there were also a large number of media engagements and interviews, and Prof. Najam was also able to introduce the work being done at the Boston University Pardee Center to leading German governmental, non-governmental and research institutions.
LECTURES: A key event during the visit was Prof. Najam’s featured lecture hosted by the the Minister-President of the German State of Rheinland-Pfalz, Mr. Kurt Beck at the RheinlandPfalz State House in Mainz, which was also attended by leading corporate executives and government officials, including the State Minister of Environment (see separate report here, and also here).
Another major public lecture was organized in Bonn by the German international media group Deutsche Welle and AmerikaHaus where Prof. Najam also appeared in multiple radio, press and television interviews. The event was attended by over 250 corporate leaders, media persons, researchers, policy-makers, and eminent citizens from the Bonn-Koln area (see more detailed report and pictures).
During the lecture Prof. Adil Najam emphasized the need to take a longer-range perspective on the challenges of climate change and, more importantly, on the need to look at climate change as a development issue. He emphasized that especially for developing countries the climate challenge is really an adaptation challenge and that, in real terms, means development. The lecture was followed by a detailed question and answers session, moderated by Dr. Irene Quaile-Kersken of Deutsche Welle.
In addition to these, Prof. Najam also spoke to students at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nurember in Nuremberg, at a public lecture at the AmerikaHaus in Munich, to high school students in Stuttgard, to policy-makers and researchers at the EcoLogic Institute in Berlin, and at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in Potsdam, and at the University of Potsdam.
MEDIA: While in Germany, Prof. Najam was interviewed by various media outlets, including newspapers, radio and television. These included a detailed interview with the Nurnberger Zeitung (read full interview here), and radio and television interviews with major German news outlets, including ZDF, ARD and Deutsche Welle.
While in Frankfurt, Prof. Najam participated in an hour-long round table discussion with leading journalists and editors at German media group ZDF where he discussed the future of global climate change and took questions from the assembled media. A similar media roundtable was organized in Bonn by Deutsche Welle where journalists, editors and media commentators questioned Prof. Najam on various aspects of the Copenhagen discussions and what these mean for future negotiations. In both places, Prof. Najam also introduced the work being done at the Boston University Pardee Center to the journalists present.