Pardee Center Director Presents in China on Climate and Urbanization

Prof. Adil NajamDr. Adil Najam, the Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future and a Professor of International Relations and of Geography and the Environment at Boston University, chaired a session and presented to the plenary of an international conference on Trade, Environment and Urbanization held at Peking University, Beijing, China. The conference served as the Second International Human Development Forum and the 5th Future Environmental Trends Conference.

Apart from Prof. Adil Najam, other featured speakers at the conference included Prof. Amartya Sen (Nobel winning economist), Mr. Peng Sen (Vice Chairman, NDRC, China), Pierre Marc Johnson (Former Prime Minister of Quebec, Canada), Dr. Harvey Fineberg (President, National Institute of Medicine, USA), Mr. Shi Yonghai (Chairman, China Association of International Trade), and Ms. Laurence Tubiana (Director IDDRI, France).

Prof. Najam chaired a session that focussed on the question of measuring human progress, with a particular emphasis on human development approaches. Later, he spoke at the closing plenary on international cooperation for environment and development.

The three day conference was based on the premise that we are living in an era of rapid economic globalization, combined with a growing urbanized population and a tense situation of the global environment. The complexity of development issues comes from the numerous implications at stake. Achieving sustainable development is a major challenge which involves creating wealth, reducing poverty and fighting against inequality, and protecting the environmental resources at the same time. Trade and urbanization are key components of this process and they can no longer be studied in separation from their respective impacts on the environment. The conference was co-organized by the Economics School of Peking University, the Center for Human and Economic Development Studies, Peking University and the Veolia Environnement Institute (France).