Nobel Peace Prize Winner Rajendra Pachauri To Address the International Transport
Forum
PARIS, April 16 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ --
The International Transport Forum, 28-30 May 2008 in Leipzig
'Transport and Energy: The Challenge of Climate Change'
Dr Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and
last year's Nobel Peace Prize winner is to address the International Transport Forum on "The
Challenge of Climate Change" to be held in Leipzig, Germany from 28-30 May 2008, announced
Jack Short, Secretary-General of the International Transport Forum on Tuesday in Paris. "The work
of the IPCC provides the scientific basis for linking human activities to global warming and is key for
future policy making, including in the field of transportation," explained Short. The IPCC was jointly
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 along with Al Gore, former Vice-President of the USA "in
recognition of their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate
change and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change."
The issue of transport was recently addressed in the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report. In its
executive summary the report stated, "Transport activity is expected to grow robustly over the next
several decades. Unless there is a major shift away from current patterns of energy use, world
transport energy use is projected to increase at the rate of about 2% per year, and total transport
energy use and carbon emissions is projected to be about 80% higher than current levels by 2030."
The report concluded: "The best choice of policy options will vary across regions. Not only levels of
economic development, but the nature of economic activity, geography, population density and
culture all influence the effectiveness and desirability of policies affecting modal choices,
infrastructure investments and transport demand management measures."
Headlining the Forum's opening session with Dr Pachauri will be German Federal Chancellor,
Angela Merkel. Also presenting a keynote address will be Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the
UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Other distinguished speakers include Thomas Enders, CEO of Airbus; Thierry Morin, CEO of
Valeo; Hartmut Mehdorn, CEO of Deutsche Bahn and Nobuo Tanaka, Executive Director of the
International Energy Agency among others.
Dr Pachauri, born in Nainital, India in 1940, is an economist and engineer of immense repute. He
completed his studies in North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA, where he obtained an MSc
in industrial engineering, a Ph.D. in industrial engineering and a Ph.D. in economics. He has taught
at various universities in India and the USA, including the School of Forestry and Environmental
Studies, Yale University. He was adviser to the Administrator of the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) in the fields of energy and sustainable management of natural resources from
1994 till 1999. He was appointed Chairman of the IPCC in 2002 and has also been head of TERI,
The Energy and Resources Institute in India, since its establishment 25 years ago.
forthcoming Forum, obtain registration information and regular updates. The "early bird rate" for
participants ends 15 April.
The online press accreditation is open now.
The International Transport Forum, part of the OECD family, is a global platform and meeting
place at the highest level for transport, logistics and mobility with more than 50 member countries
worldwide. Key figures from government and politics, business and industry, research and civil
society will meet at the annual conference in Leipzig, the "Transport Summit of the Year."
For more information, please contact:
Michael Zirpel,
Communications Director,
michael.zirpel@oecd.org
SOURCE: International Transport Forum
CONTACT: Michael Zirpel,
Communications Director,
michael.zirpel@oecd.org
Translations:
Chinese - Simplified (http://asianetnews.net/Download.asp?ID=93939)
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