“Developing Countries Will Save the World” Says Adil Najam at Global Media Conference

Speaking at a opening plenary discussion on global media and climate change in Bonn, Germany, Pardee Center Director Adil Najam said that if the world is going to be saved from the threat of global climate change it is the developing countries of the South, including large ones like China and India, who will save the world and play a big role in doing so.

Prof. Adil Najam, argued that the notion that climate was not a developing country “priority” is also a misnomer – he argued that while “carbon” is not a Southern priority, development clearly is and what we need to start seeing climate as a development issue. He said that his faith in the actions from the developing countries comes not only from the fact that there are so many more developing countries and so many more people in the South, but because developing countries are beginning to redefine climate in terms of their own developmental interests. Therefore they will do the “right thing” not because of climate, but because of their own development needs. The rise of emerging economies also provides us the opportunity for a greater role for developing countries in dealing with global climate change.

Prof. Najam, who is also a Professor of International Relations, Geography and Environment at Boston University, was speaking at the opening plenary of the Global Media Forum organized by German media conglomerate Deutche Welle on the theme “The Heat is on: Climate Change and the Media” which has attracted more than 1400 journalists, activists and experts from all across the world.

Earlier the conference was opened by the head of Deutche Welle and the Foreign Minister of Germany. In addition to Prof. Adil Najam, the opening plenary panel included Frank Appel, the Chairman of the Board of Deutsche Post DHL, Dr. Renate Schubert of the Institute for Environmental Decisions at ETH Zurich, Laurie Goering of the Thomson-Reuters AlertNet, and Friedrich Barth from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The panel was moderated by Ranga Yogeshwar, Science Editor of German WDR TV and one of Germany’s leading science journalists.

Prof. Najam’s profile and description in relation to the conference can be found here and here.