How radical should Birmingham’s response be to climate change will be the theme of tonight’s Lunar Society debate at the Town Hall. Professor Deirdre Kelly reports.
The original Lunarmen – including Erasmus Darwin, Matthew Boulton, James Watt, Joseph Priestley and Josiah Wedgwood – were the intellectual powerhouse of the first Industrial Revolution. Two hundred years on, we are facing the environmental consequences of rising production and consumption.
Back in 2006, our annual lecture was given by the Chairman of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, Sir John Lawton. In the same year, Environment Secretary David Miliband backed plans for Birmingham to be carbon neutral by 2030 in his speech at The Lunar Society Annual Dinner. Since then, we have facilitated events to encourage the city region to meet the challenges of climate change.
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As Birmingham was the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, it is fitting that the city and region should provide equally innovative answers to its environmental impact. As a start, the city’s strategic partnership, Be Birmingham, has already set challenging targets to cut CO2 emissions by 60 per cent by 2026.
Ten days ago, Gordon Brown created a new Cabinet level department responsible for Energy and Climate Change headed by David’s brother, Ed Miliband. Last week, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) advised the new minister to adopt a target of reducing the 海角视频’s greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80 per cent by 2050.
Are such targets feasible – or even necessary? On the precipice of a global economic recession, is there still an appetite for radical change in public policy and individual behaviour?
Tonight’s event will be an opportunity to broaden the debate and hear from some of the most respected thinkers on all sides. Pressed by Lunar Members and hundreds of fellow guests, they will attempt to answer the question of the night: just how radical should be Birmingham’s response to climate change?
We have assembled a stellar line up which covers just about every perspective there is on climate change.
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Dr Kevin Anderson is a Professor at the University of Manchester and Research Director at the Tyndall Centre’s Energy and Climate Change research programme. Dr Anderson is known to be ambivalent about whether nuclear power remains a major source of electricity generation within the 海角视频 and is critical of the focus of government policy on energy supply rather than demand and efficiency.
Former Chief Economist at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) David Henderson is a prominent critic of the strength of the evidence for man-made global warming. He has spoken against the process of review and inquiry from which prevailing scientific opinion and political consensus has emerged, in particular the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change.
Lord (Nigel) Lawson is a former Chancellor of the Exchequer and Secretary of State for Energy. In his recent book An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming he concludes that the conventional wisdom on the subject is suspect on a number of grounds; that global warming is not the devastating threat to the planet it is widely alleged to be and that the remedy currently being proposed, which he argues is politically unattainable, would be worse than the threat it is supposed to avert.
Michael Meacher MP was Tony Blair’s first Environment Minister and now a prominent campaigner on environmental and climate change issues. He has called for a shift from old-fashioned power stations to decentralised energy systems; investment in large-scale offshore wind farms; a reduction of emissions from the airline industry; incentives for local food production and giving each family a carbon allocation which has to be reduced each year.
Jacqueline McGlade is Executive Director of the European Environment Agency which has argued adaptation strategies need to be accelerated if the increased risk of floods and droughts, losses of biodiversity, threats to human health and economic damage are to be addressed properly.
Earlier this year she said: “Our current consumption and production patterns may well lie behind our material wealth but they are also responsible for many negative impacts on the environment. These impacts are rising and could lead to significant consequences for our planet and humankind.” Renowned climate change skeptic Julian Morris is Director of the International Policy Network think tank, which published a report for the International Civil Society Coalition for Climate Change.
He is in favour of free market solutions when it comes to the issue of “fixing” global warming.
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“Public discussion,” he has said, “of climate change is dominated by individuals and groups who assert that humanity must reduce emissions of greenhouse gases in order to avert catastrophe. But such a cure may well be worse than the disease.”
Tonight’s public event at the Town Hall starting at 7pm promises to be a lively one – fitting for a venue that has witnessed some of the great political debates. In Lunar Society tradition, though, we hope to generate more light than heat on the subject. Lunarman Sir Michael Lyons, who is in the chair for the debate, should see to that.
I am grateful to our sponsors – Martineau, Anglian Water, Birmingham City Council, Birmingham International Airport and Midland Heart – for helping us to stage this unique event in the beautiful surroundings of Birmingham’s restored Town Hall.
Tickets for tonight’s event are £5 or £3.50 and available through Town Hall box office and website www.thsh.co.uk/page/town-hall-birmingham.
* Professor Deirdre Kelly is Chair of the Lunar Society. She is Professor of Paediatric Hepatology and Director of Research and Development at Birmingham Children’s Hospital; a Commissioner on the Shadow Care Quality Commission; a Commissioner on the Healthcare Commission and President of the European Society of Paediatric Gastroenterology.