Addressing Climate Change: Good Politics, Good Economics

February 13, 2007, 6:00pm – 7:00pm

About This Event

The British government has long been at the forefront of international action to address climate change and the Rt. Hon. David Miliband MP, “Labour’s Rising Star,” is now leading that effort as Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Late last year, Secretary Miliband introduced legislation in Parliament that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions 60% by 2050 with hard five-year benchmarks to ensure action is taken in the short and long-term. The recent release of the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, an influential report published by the British Treasury that examined for the first time the devastating impact climate change could have on global economic output, only underscore the importance of this and other efforts to address the causes of climate change.

Keynote Speaker:
The Rt. Hon. David Miliband, MP, UK Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Introduction by:
John D. Podesta, President and Chief Executive Officer, Center for American Progress

Location

Center for American Progress
1333 H St. NW, 10th Floor
Washington, DC 20005

Biographies

David Miliband was appointed as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on May 5, 2006. He has overall responsibility for all departmental issues; represents the UK at the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council and at the EU Environment Council; and leads for the UK in other international negotiations on sustainable development and climate change. Before this, he was Minister of Communities and Local Government - his first Cabinet job – at the then Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, from May 2005 to May 2006.

He was elected as MP for South Shields in June 2001 and his previous Ministerial jobs have been Minister for the Cabinet Office (2004-5) and Schools Minister (2002-4). Before that he headed up the Prime Minister's Policy Unit at Downing Street, after working as Head of Policy at the Office of the Leader of the Opposition. From 1989-1994 he worked as a Research Fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) and from 1992-4 was Secretary of the Commission on Social Justice.

He went on to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he got a first in Politics, Philosophy and Economics. After this he was Kennedy Scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he got an MA in Political Science. His wife, Louise, is a violinist with the London Symphony Orchestra and they have a son, Isaac.

John D. Podesta is the president and CEO of the Center for American Progress and visiting professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center. Podesta served as chief of staff to President William J. Clinton from October 1998 until January 2001, where he was responsible for directing, managing, and overseeing all policy development, daily operations, Congressional relations, and staff activities of the White House. He coordinated the work of cabinet agencies with a particular emphasis on the development of federal budget and tax policy, and served in the President's cabinet and as a principal on the National Security Council. Podesta has also held a number of positions on Capitol Hill including: counselor to Democratic Leader Senator Thomas A. Daschle; chief counsel for the Senate Agriculture Committee; chief minority counsel for the Senate Judiciary Subcommittees on Patents, Copyrights, and Trademarks; Security and Terrorism; and Regulatory Reform; and counsel on the Majority Staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Podesta is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and Knox College.

The Energy Future Coalition is a broad-based, nonpartisan alliance that seeks to bridge the differences among business, labor, and environmental groups and identify energy policy options with broad political support. The coalition aims to bring about changes in U.S. energy policy to address the economic, security and environmental challenges related to the production and use of fossil fuels with a compelling new vision of the economic opportunities that will be created by the transition to a new energy economy.

The Natural Resources Defense Council's purpose is to safeguard the Earth: its people, its plants and animals and the natural systems on which all life depends. We work to restore the integrity of the elements that sustain life -- air, land and water -- and to defend endangered natural places. We seek to establish sustainability and good stewardship of the Earth as central ethical imperatives of human society. Ultimately, NRDC strives to help create a new way of life for humankind, one that can be sustained indefinitely without fouling or depleting the resources that support all life on Earth.