NYU will host some 50 university presidents and faculty experts who have been brought together under the auspices of the United Nations Secretary-General for a two-day Global Colloquium of University Presidents. The Global Colloquium begins tomorrow, November 28, 2007; United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will deliver opening remarks, and Professor Michael Oppenheimer of Princeton University, a renowned expert in climate change, will deliver the keynote address: “The Post-Kyoto Challenge: Can Policy Catch Up with Science?”
The keynote - which is free and open to the public - will take place at 5pm on Wednesday, November 28 in the Greenberg Lounge at the NYU School of Law’s Vanderbilt Hall, 40 Washington Square South
This is the third annual Global Colloquium. Each conference - which, other than the keynote, is closed to the public and media - explores two issues: universities and their role in society, and a specific public policy challenge. This year, the university presidents and their accompanying faculty experts will discuss “The Role of Universities in Relation to Climate Change” and “Setting the Post-Kyoto Agenda for Climate Policy.”
The Global Colloquium is a growing network of international university presidents who contribute through research and teaching and other activities to the solution of global public policy problems, in the hope of generating useful discussion and frank advice that will assist the Secretary-General and the United Nations. The colloquium is sponsored by the presidents of NYU, Columbia, Yale, Princeton, and the University of Pennsylvania, and the president emeritus of Harvard University. This year’s attendance includes over 50 university presidents and faculty experts representing 27 institutions from around the world.
Mr. Oppenheimer is the Albert G. Milbank Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs at Princeton University. He served as a lead author of the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and is also a lead author for the Fourth Assessment. He is also the Director of the Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy (STEP) at the Woodrow Wilson School, and Associated Faculty of the Princeton Environmental Institute and the Atmosphere and Ocean Sciences Program. He spent more than two decades with Environmental Defense, and continues to serve as an advisor. His interests include science and policy of the atmosphere, particularly climate change and its impacts. His research explores the potential impacts of global warming, including the effects of warming on ecosystems, ice sheets and sea level, in the context of defining “dangerous anthropogenic interference” with the climate system.
The Global Colloquium is a carbon-neutral event. FPL Energy has donated renewable wind energy certificates to offset all carbon emissions generated by the colloquium, including all attendee travel and hotel accommodations.
For more information please go to: www.nyu.edu/global.colloquium. To attend the session, please RSVP to 212-998-2424.