Adil Najam Speaks at Rheinland-Pfalz State House in Germany

Prof. Adil Najam, Director of the Boston University Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future was the featured speaker at a major public event hosted by the Minister-President of the German State of RheinlandPfalz, Mr. Kurt Beck.

Organized by the German State of RheinlandPfalz and the Initiative for the Future of Rheinland-Pfalz (ZIRP; Einladung der Zukunftsinitiative Rheinland-Pfalz), Prof. Najam’s keynote address focussed on the global future in light of the recent climate change negotiations held in Copenhagen, Denmark. The event was attended by over 200 leading business executives, government officials, policy-makers, diplomats and academics (more here and here).

The event began with welcome speeches by Ministerpräsident of Rheinland-Pfalz Kurt Beck, the U.S. Consul General in Frankfurt Edward M. Alford, and the State Minister for Environment Margit Conrad. These were followed by Prof. Adil Najam’s lecture in which he 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. Prof. Najam also highlighted some of the research happening at the Boston University Pardee Center on longer-range global development issues.

The event was the highlight of a week long lecture tour of Germany by Prof. Adil Najam during which he gave multiple talks and media interviews on global climate change and the Copenhagen negotiations – in Nurnberg, Munich, Stuttgard, Frankfurt, Mainz, Bonn, Berlin and Potsdam – and also introduced the research and programs of the Boston University Pardee Center to leading German governmental, non-governmental and research institutions (more details here).