Press release issued:
12 March 2015
Extreme weather events are predicted to become more common, warns a recent Nature study(1) but how much progress, if any, has been made by governments in controlling the advance of global warming? Lord Anthony Giddens, a world-renowned sociologist, will address the political issues posed by climate change at a free public lecture on Tuesday 17 March at the University of Bristol.
During his talk he will discuss how government leaders from 196 countries, who are due to meet at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, might reach a long-term global agreement on tackling greenhouse gas emissions.
Lord Giddens, the former advisor to Tony Blair and one of the UK’s leading climate change commentators, said: “Imagine living in a world with typhoons that are up to three times as intense as they are now. It’s hard to see how we could possibly cope. Climate change poses huge risks for the future of our civilisation yet very little action is being taken to confront them.
“Crucial United Nations meetings held in Paris in December will try to reach binding agreements among the nations of the word to reduce carbon emissions. Al Gore has called for a billion people to take part in the Live Earth events planned in the run-up period. Could 2015 be the year humanity charts a new course so far as our attempts to preserve a habitable planet are concerned?”
Questions for Lord Giddens can be submitted in advance by using the Twitter hashtag #askgiddens which will also be in use during the event.
The Policy & Politics Annual Lecture 2015 ‘The Politics of Climate Change’ takes place on Tuesday 17 March. Please note the event is fully booked, however a web link to a film of the lecture and the edited transcript will be available on request by emailing Sarah Brown.
The lecture has been organised by the international journal Policy & Politics as part of its annual lecture series. The journal is published by Policy Press in partnership with the School for Policy Studies at the University of Bristol.
Sarah Brown, Policy & Politics Journal Manager and event co-ordinator, added: “We are honoured to host this talk from one of the country’s most eminent speakers on climate change.”
Further information
About Professor Lord Anthony Giddens
Professor Lord Anthony Giddens is the most widely cited sociologist in the world today, he is also a Labour peer and author or editor of 40 books translated into 40 languages worldwide. As adviser to Tony Blair, it was Giddens’ “third way” political approach that was adopted as the Party’s guiding political idea.
Professor Lord Anthony Giddens was educated at the University of Hull and the London School of Economics [LSE]. At the LSE, he wrote a dissertation on 'Sport and Society in Contemporary Britain'. He has taught at the University of Leicester and subsequently at Cambridge, where he was Professor of Sociology. From 1997 to 2003 he was Director of the LSE. He is currently a Life Fellow of King's College, Cambridge. He was made a Life Peer in May 2004. He has honorary degrees from 15 universities. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Science and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He was the BBC Reith Lecturer in 1999. His books have been translated into some forty languages. He has sat on the board of various public organisations, including the Institute of Public Policy Research.
Lord Giddens's impact upon politics has been profound. His advice has been sought by political leaders from Asia, Latin America and Australia, as well as from the US and Europe. He has had a major impact upon the evolution of New Labour in the UK. He took part in the original Blair-Clinton dialogues from 1997 onwards.
About Policy & Politics
Policy & Politics is a leading international journal in the field of public and social policy. It spans the boundaries between theory and practice and links macro-scale debates with micro-scale issues. It seeks to analyse new trends and advance knowledge by publishing research at the forefront of academic debates. It’s published by Policy Press at the University of Bristol.
