Events & Programs

Climate change was on everyone¹s lips, if not in their minds, until late 2009 when the Copenhagen summit led to a combination of controversies on the science, unmet expectations and, ultimately, a drop in public support in many parts of the industrialized world.  This, even as certain countries see climate change related technology as the next leap forward for their GDP. That leaves us with the question:  What's next?  What will countries around the world do to address what many world leaders continue to believe is inevitable ­ that the world is, in fact, warming?

Dr. Natarajan Ishwaran, Director of the Division of Ecological and Earth Sciences at UNESCO, will chair a panel discussion on this timely topic scheduled to coincide with The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico taking up these exact issues.

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Dr. Natarajan Ishwaran is Director of the Division of Ecological and Earth Sciences at UNESCO. Born in Sri Lanka, he studied Ecology and Wildlife Biology and Management (Ph.D. from Michigan State University). He has over 30 years of experience in teaching, research and international co-operation in wildlife conservation and protected areas planning and management. Staff of UNESCO since 1986 he has been working for the World Heritage Convention as well as ecological sciences focused programmes such as the Man and the Biosphere (MAB). His work experience and achievements: negotiating technical and financial benefits, particularly for less developed countries, for biodiversity conservation, protected area management, sustainable development and related global agendas.

Panelists

Dr. Robert Kandel is retired senior scientist at the Laboratory of Dynamic Meteorology (Institut Pierre Simon Laplace, CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau). Born in New York, student and researcher in astrophysics (Harvard, Meudon, NASA GISS - New York, Boston), he switched to research in climate physics in 1978, specializing in measurement from space of the Earth's energy budget. Strongly committed to the popularization of science, Robert Kandel was awarded the Prix Roberval in 1990 and a Prize of Scientific and Technical Culture of the Ministry of Education, Research and Technology (France) in 1999. His books include Our Changing Climate (McGraw-Hill, 1992), Les Eaux du Ciel (Hachette-Littératures, 1998), Water from Heaven (Columbia University Press, 2006), Le Réchauffement Climatique ("Que sais-je?" series, P.U.F., 4th edition 2010), and Turning the Tide on Climate Change (CEFIC, 2009).

Albert de Haan is Managing Director of Carbon Rooster. Born in Groningen, he began his career as a trader in banknotes and bullions at ABN Bank. Former forward trader, he has many years of experience in the financial markets, trading and business development. He started the Fortis Energy desk in 2000 and became head of Fortis Carbon Banking in 2002. He co-founded in 2004 the European Climate Exchange (ECX) and in 2007 he started Carbon Rooster and Carbon Rooster Advisory Services to offer advisory services in the range of carbon project and invest in several sustainable energy projects. Albert de Haan has recently advised UNESCO MAB on forestry and eco diversity projects.