PUBLIC LECTURE: Energy, Climate and People

The talk: Energy, Climate and People - The world is running out of cheap oil and gas. If the past is any guide, energy demand is set to increase as the global population both increases and looks for higher living standards. There will be parallel but different pressures on water. The way forward depends critically not on whether the climate is changing, but on why and how it is changing. The one certainty is that this century will be very different from the last both in terms of infrastructure and life style. Life will surely be different but need not be worse. The most difficult part will be the transition. Recognising that fact and acting on it urgently should be our highest priority. Continuing exactly as before is not an option. The speaker: Lord Ron Oxburgh - Lord Oxburgh served as chairman of The Shell Transport and Trading Company until its unification with Royal Dutch Petroleum. He is a member of the House of Lords of the UK Parliament and a graduate of the Universities of Oxford and Princeton. He has taught geology and geophysics at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and was a visiting professor at Stanford University, the California Institute of Technology and Cornell University. From 1988 to 1993, Lord Oxburgh was Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Ministry of Defence and, from 1993 to 2001, Rector of Imperial College, London. He a member of the Advisory Committee on Science, Technology and Research for Singapore, a Fellow of the Royal Society, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and a Foreign Member of the Australian Academy of Science. He is currently Chairman of Falck Renewables, and an advisor on environment and energy to the Government of Singapore, Climate Change Capital and Deutschebank.

****All Welcome, Admission free, no RSPV required****