Nobel Laureates and big business unite against climate change

Reposted from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/5378857/Nobel-Laureates-and-big-business-unite-against-climate-change.html#

Nobel Laureates and big business will say billions of pounds need to be invested in combating climate change in a move likely to expose the challenges faced in securing a successor to the Kyoto protocol.

By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent

Last Updated: 10:55PM BST 24 May 2009

In a meeting in London hosted by the Prince of Wales, the world's greatest minds will discuss the "urgency" of doing more to curb global warming.

At the same time a summit in Copenhagen attended by some of the most powerful corporations in the world will also debate the need to cut carbon emissions.

Both groups are set to urge world leaders to replace the Kyoto Protocol with a comprehensive new agreement at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen at the end of this year.

The Nobel laureate Symposium will bring together 60 leading scientists from various disciplines, including more than 20 Nobel Laureates at the beginning of this week. At the end of the three-day event in London the group will come up with an unprecedented "memorandum" on climate change. It is likely to call on world governments to commit to ambitious targets to cut emissions by sharing information on new technology, switching to renewables and creating a "low carbon economy".

Nobel Prize Laureate Professor Steven Chu, who advices President Obama on energy policy, has already said he believes something must be done – although he fears ambitious plans to develop renewable energy already faces fierce political opposition in the US.

At the same time a summit attended by some of the most powerful corporations in the world in Copenhagen will also make recommendations for world leaders to cut carbon emissions and commit funds to helping poorer countries adapt to the problems caused by climate change such as flooding.

Al Gore and Ban Ki-Moon will attend the Copenhagen Climate Change Council of around 1,000 business leaders. Companies attending include Saatchi & Saatchi, Unilever, BP, Royal Mail and Marks and Spencer.

Jeremy Hobbs, Executive Director of Oxfam, said both meetings will "embarrass" world governments into taking actions against climate change.

"These are make-or-break issues," he said. "The outcome could not matter more to millions of poor people around the world who are already suffering first and worst from the impacts of climate change."