John Hirst, CEO, The Met Office, and Professor Ottmar Edenhofer, Co-Chair, International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

Thursday 14 April 2011, Xfi Lecture Theatre

John Hirst, CEO, Met Office

John Hirst was appointed Chief Executive of the Met Office in September 2007. As part of this role, he is the UK's permanent representative to the WMO and a member of the UK Space Board.

Prior to this John was CEO of Premier Farnell until 2005. Here he worked to reshape the Group through one of the deepest and most protracted downturns in the electronics industry, establishing a pattern of market share growth across Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific.

Before his time at Premier Farnell, Mr Hirst spent 19 years with ICI Plc, during which he was Chief Executive of two of ICI's Global businesses, ICI Performance Chemicals and ICI Autocolor, and was Group Treasurer.

Mr Hirst holds a degree in Economics from Leeds University.  He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, a Member of the Association of Corporate Treasurers and a companion of the Chartered British Institute of Management.

John will be speaking on separating science from politics:

“Science is science until its conclusions have an impact on peoples lives and livelihoods.  At this point there are important political and economic judgements and decisions to be made.  All science should be challenged and any political debate on its implications should be lively but when politics stray into the examination and delivery of scientific evidence either in its support or undermining, there are dangers.  This lecture will consider the implications for climate science of the political and economic arguments that surround it.” 

Professor Ottmar Edenhofer, Co-Chair, International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

Prof. Ottmar Edenhofer is Professor of the Economics of Climate Change at the Technical University Berlin and Co-Chair of the Working Group III of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which won the Nobel Peace Price in 2007. He is Deputy-Director and Chief Economist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and is currently leading Research Domain III - Sustainable Solutions - that focuses on research in the field of the Economics of Atmospheric Stabilisation.

Prof. Ottmar Edenhofer's research explores the impact of induced technological change on mitigation costs and mitigation strategies, as well as the design of instruments for climate and energy policy. He specializes in the Economics of Atmospheric Stabilization, Social Cost-Benefit Analysis, Sustainability Theory, Economic Growth Theory, Environmental Economics, Welfare Theory and General Intertemporal Equilibrium Theory.

Professor Edenhofer will be speaking on the IPCC, climate policy and the value of scientific knowledge:

“The IPCC has been heavily criticized for errors and an alleged policy bias in its 4^th Assessment Report (AR4). While several inquiries have confirmed the limited scope of errors and the balanced character of the assessment, the high policy relevance of IPCC reports calls for careful reflection of the proper model of the science-policy interface. It will be argued that iterative science-policy interaction is required to enable transparent exploration of costs, benefits and risks of different mitigation and adaptation options. Key challenges for AR5 include improving knowledge about mitigation and damage costs in 2^nd best worlds and assessing the opportunities for cooperation at all levels, including the challenges pertaining geo-engineering.”

The lectures will commence at 6.15 pm in the Xfi Lecture Theatre followed by a drinks reception at 8.30 pm.

Please see our flyer for further details.