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Location: Kembinski Hotel, 50 Landmark Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing
Tel: 010-82689999
Attire: Business

Conference Schedule

Saturday, September 5, 2009

13:00-14:00    Registration
14:00-14:30    Opening Remark:
Leon Chen, founder of Sustainable China Enterprise (Suchen)
Michael Naylor, Director and Founder, Forrester Partners, Advisor Prince's Rainforest Project
14:30-15:30    Session I: Climate Change: Global Challenge
15:30-15:45    Table Discussion/Q&A
15:45-16:00    Coffee Break
16:00-17:00    Session II: Climate Change: Global Solution
17:00-17:15    Table Discussion/Q&A
17:15-17:30    Coffee Break
17:30-18:30    Session III: Climate Change: Global Opportunity
18:30-18:45    Table Discussion/Q&A
18:45-19:00    Free Time
19:00-21:00    Closing Remarks and Dinner

Details on SESSIONS

Session I: Climate Change: Global Challenge

Topics:

- Recent research results and their forecast on the climate change issue;
- How climate change will impact the living environment of human beings and the business models of corporations;
- The role environment issues play in global geographical politics and international relations;

Keynote Speakers:

- John Dennis Liu, Director, EEMPC, Horizon Research Group (18min)
- Topic: Earth's Hope: The Loess Plateau case study and Ecosystem regeneration
- Sir John Houghton, former co-chair, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) scientific assessment working group. (15min)
- TED talk (TBD)


Session II: Climate Change: Global Solution

Topics:

- The role of social enterprise with support of the government to create sustainable and practical solutions
- The models and financing behind local and national initiatives involving citizen empowerment
- The responses of various governments and international corporations to the climate change;
- What policies and strategies can help organizations and companies better position themselves under such a backdrop?
- Technologies developed to tackle the climate change and their practical uses and contributions;

Keynote Speakers:

- Andrea Krause, Director, FYSE (Foundation of Youth Social Entrepreneurship)
- Andrew Jones, Director, Sustainability Institute (18min)

Topic: The responses of various governments and international corporations to the climate change

- Rebecca Nadin, Director, Climate Change &Science Programme, British Council (15min)

Topic: Young Environmental Ambassador-how young people can make a change in fighting climate change.

- TED talk (TBD)


Session III Climate Change: Global Opportunity

Topics:

- Business opportunities available and how companies can identify and utilize them;
- Potentials and challenges for technology commercialization;
- The Future of Survival: Renewable Energy

Keynote Speakers:

- TED talk (TBD)
- John Milligan-Whyte, Chairman, Center For America-China Partnership

Topic: The Era of New School: US-China cooperation on clean energy and climate change

- Michael Naylor, Director and Founder, Forrester Partners, Advisor Prince's Rainforest Project

Topic: If we do not win the war against deforestation we cannot win the war against climate change

Bio of speakers;

Martin Bloom

Martin Bloom, a former corporate strategist at Unilever and with 25 years experience in strategic partnering, technology commercialisation and business strategy, is an active and successful private venture capitalist investing in technology and life sciences companies in both the UK and the US. Martin is Chairman of ReneSola, the Chinese solar wafer manufacturer based in Zhejiang Province.He is  Special Advisor for Asia and a Board Member international telecom and media convergence venture capital fund, Argopolo Capital Partners. Martin is UK-Chairman of the UK-China Venture Capital Joint Working Group, established by the British and Chinese Governments in January 2005 to foster collaboration between the venture capital and private equity industries in both countries, and launched by Gordon Brown, the UK's Finance Minister, during his official visit to Beijing in February 2005. He is also the member the Advisory Board of a UK and Chinese government-funded collaborative programme that brings together a number of UK and Chinese universities for joint research projects. Martin has a B.Sc. (Soc.Sc.) Honours in Economics from the University of Southampton and an M.Sc. in the History of Science jointly from Imperial College and University College, London.

 

Talks Summary

 

•John Dennis Liu
Topic: Earth's Hope: The Loess Plateau case study and Ecosystem regeneration

主题：地球的希望：黄土高原案例研究与生态系统的再生

John Liu

I was looking at China’s Loess Plateau. - The birthplace of the Chinese (the mother river). Han tribe dominates. Its name was because of the soil type. Of the south-west of the plateau, there’s a fully functionally ecosystem. North-east: fully functional grassland.  But when we got there in 1995, the area is fundementally destroyed ecologically. Civilisation buliding destroys the ecosystem. It was very hard to believe that the largest population in the world – Chinese, came from here. Trees were cut down. Plantations were destroyed. Poverty was passed on generations by generations. This is typical of not simply the Loess Plateau. They were eroding away the functionality. Sediments rise in air – sand storms. Global implications of this kind of degradation. This kind of poverty only goes to one place. This is what causes civilisation to fail ultimately.

We were send there to document the rehabilitation. The Chin govt began to map the entire Plateau. Any investment will be reflected from the management chain. They engaged the local people in to the discussion of what is happening. The Chin Govt decided to make some econometric evaluations. The value of ecosystem function is higher than productivity. “They want us to plant tress, everywhere, even the good lands. But the next generation can’t eat trees!” They have engaged the whole community. They are going to own the outcome of the field, learn the new ecological way of farming. But it’s approx the size of Belgium – ecosystem function that’s we are talking about. Trees are part of functional ecosystems. But them alone are not. It’s all integrated. It’s about transforming the people and the way they think. When you go back 10 years later, it’s a different situation – it’s possible to rehabilitate large-scale destroyed ecosystems. Everything is completely dynamic. If you consider this on a planetary scale... We know no other planets that can sustain life in this way. Human beings emerge here. Eventually we became the dominant species. We became good at hunting that we drove some species to extinction. When we began agriculture, we began to change the face of the Earth. This reduces biodiversity, ends up with serious degeradation. Floods followed by droughts, it’s a continuous trend. every civilisation that follows this trajectory ultimately collapsed. We are affecting the global system.

Direct the rainfall by putting straws into sand – examples of things we can do to rehabilitate large-scale damaged ecosystems.

要点：
中华民族的发源地——黄河，如今已变得满目荒凉与贫瘠。所谓文明的建设摧毁了当地的生态系统，最终只给当地居民带来了贫穷。
我们那次行动的目的是对当地生态系统改造的考察。政府给与高度关注，引入大量投资并进行全民动员。“我们被要求种树，他们（政府）希望我们在处处种树，甚至是在可耕种的土地上。可是树不能用来吃啊。”一位村民说。而种树只是改变生态环境的一小部分，重要的是要改变人们的思维模式。而一旦改变，十年后这里又会生机勃勃。

•Sir John Houghton（tedtalk）

Session II: Climate Change: Global Solution
Andrew Jones
John Liu’s pictures of the valley – transition, restoration, creating the world that we really want to see.
We build simulation models on climate change for climate negotiation. Three years ago we created this model but everybody ignored it. But now the US are using the model. At Tsinghua university a group of students are learning about the model. In November, President Obama is coming here and hopefully something can come together. In December, at COP 15, hopefully the  countries can work together to combat  climate change. Something is emerging in the climate deal: the negotiators need to know that we want a great deal. Secondly we need a scientific based story of what needs/is going to happen.

50% of the world population is really getting the change happening.
The Doom and Gloom story: the world despite the problem and continues to grow.
30% of the world: most vulnerable to climate change.
20% of the world population: US, Canada, EU etc. The MDCs. Per capita emission = 5 X the others.
950ppm – Doom and Gloom (graph)
350ppm – our aim.
C-Roads – “what if”…given different conditions, the graphs are rapidly updated. First step…things get better. Then…( Graphs)  Different countries have different aims to cut CO2 by 2050. Things are changing and improving really fast now. 740ppm – the global deal today.
2weeks ago – China announced that it will not continue growing without limit on CO2 emission. What if there’s a cap on 2035? It’s getting better as we get stronger commitment around the world. What if there’s an earlier cap? And reduce deforestation too? 600ppm!
At this point, there’s going to be another step. The MDCs need to reduce their own emission, but also reduce the emission of the rest of the world: technology transfer, financing etc.. If we do that, we will get 370ppm! Who wins? Life on earth. Everybody on Earth. A problem that takes everybody to solve.
I am not saying that it’s going to look exactly like this. I am not saying that it will be easy for leaders to make negotiations like this. But let’s hold on to the hope and possibilities.  Let’s hold on to the story and believe in it. We can pull this off if we work together. Imagine 20years in the future, what will those people say about what we’ve done?
要点：
中国与美国应合作以应对气候变化。


•Andrea Krause,
Topic:Are young people in Asia making a difference on climate change?
主题：亚洲青少年在影响着气候变化吗？

I’m from Germany. Our speakers today are all talking about  what can be done in Asia, what development can be done etc. We do not have any Asian speaker, nor young speaker today. But what’s the voice of the young people? Generation Xbox: this generation grew up with the Internet, all well-educated. No other generations had the chance before, in that big scale. This generation often says that I want to make a difference, but I just don’t know how.
100 young entrepreneurs are selected in the Asian area.
They go on conferences, care about climate change, but Why young people do not go out there and risk something?
1.    Scale. Climate change is so big. How can I make a big impact? That’s a big challenge. You have to think big. Better Place – ShaiAgassi.  Isreal, US, Denmark, Japan, Australia. He had a lot of experience, very well connections etc. that’s not what young people have normally. This year we have Denise Matias, from Philippines, working on waste management. She started to think about how to recycle paper and design bookmarks to sell.
2.    Self-interest: we are used to the comfort and luxury. But we have to change, to restrict ourselves. A lot of young people in Indonesia, Pakistan, Nepal etc, see so much poverty that climate change is probably not the most immediate need. They focus on other issues, such as education.  
3.    Entrepreneurial environment: teach children about climate change as an opportunity rather than a pure threat. 54% of Chinese young people want to become an entrepreneur, according to a recent research, but  only a few want to start straight away. Most of them want to get a job first and gain experience & finance first.
Call for action:
Entrepreneurial environment: not everyone wants to start something/become an entrepreneur. Two things are really important:
1.    Awareness raising – climate change. A lot of young people don’t know about it. Lots need to be done on this.
2.    Inspiration – Green Action Heros. Role modeling is important. Green Idol (India) campaigning should be done more.
Actions across different genders, ages, and nationalities.

Should not only consider changing light bulbs. Think about changing something bigger. If you want to learn more about  young entrepreneurs in China, check up YakAroundtheWorld. They sell Yak products around the world and make a contribution to the local community.
要点：
当代青少年总是说他们要为气候变化做一些事情，可是又不知道具体做些什么。原因有以下三个方面：
1．    范围：气候变化的议题是如此之大，而我们个人的力量又是如此之小。这个问题向青少年们提出了挑战：从小事做起。
2．    自身利益：气候变化看似不是当务之急。
3．    企业环境：应当教育孩子气候变化是威胁但更是机遇。

呼吁采取行动：
1．    提高青少年的意识
2．    树立环保楷模激励青少年。


Maurice Strong
All of the people here have a commitment to the issue that is being discussed now – climate change. If there’s anything that I’ve learnt in my life, that’s the early interest of mine in nature and my study at MIT on climate change. Scientists have now made it clear that climate change is the single most urgent security issue that the human race is facing now. We are faced by the fundamental problem of survival, in a much broader scale. At the same time we are experiencing an unprecedenting economic crisis. It is quite clear that the environment crisis and the financial crisis have roots in the same source. It is the weakness of the economic system that gave rise to both problems. You can’t fix one without the other. Individual projects are important, but they alone will not do the job. More broadly, we must be prepared to make radical changes in political and economic environments. If there’s anything that I have learnt in my career, it is to stay on track no matter how many disappointments come. I grew up during the great Depression, and I have decided to spend my life to make a better world. Let your message be clear (and let yourself be flexible). If you stay on track and you are clear, continues to be confident, then you can be infinitely flexible.
要点：
气候变化与经济危机一样，称为当今世界的一大难题。而这两个问题本质上是一样的。是脆弱的经济体制导致了它们。个人的努力固然重要，但仅靠个人努力无法达到目的。我们必须依靠政治与经济上的改革。我在我的职业生涯中学到了：无论失望多大，都要前进，。




Q&A session
Maurice and Brad
1.    There must have been many challenges that you and your team were facing in 1972 in Stokolm on issues of human environment. Please tell us more about it.

Political barriers, cold war etc. Many countries were not part of the UN. I took the view that eventually all nations must participate because it is an universal issue. It was the first UN conference that China has participated. I worked closely with them. That established continuing relationships with China in the environment field.
Well now what has changed is that nations realize that this is an important issue. The developing countries believe that the problem was created primarily by the developed countries so there’s been major tension regarding who’s responsible for  solving the problem. Not everyone has the same position. This will be solved in Copenhagen in December this year.

In terms of educating and sustainable development etc. this must be an important event.

What’s been happening is not sufficient. We have realized that it is possible to make changes but the major barriers are political. I hope for Copenhagen is the agreement ot have a continuing process and some steps towards it , but I don’t think there’s going to be radical changes. I think the best we can hope for is that we can’t get a final agreement, but get some steps towards it at least.
世界各国必须联合起来，即使不能完全达成一致，也可向前迈一大步。

Will this fundamental change come from the private sector? Govt? NGO?
All of the above I should say.  There’re sacrifices associated though. Change in attitude (examples of smoking, food etc). Changes don’t come easily but they are not impossible.

Is there a future conference planned?  What role does it play?
The conferences are useful. You can’t solve the problem straight away but you can bring it into a political agenda. Govt got into the habit of making great commitments without actually doing them. The trouble is that we are at a different stage now – it is the threat to survival of the whole human species. We have to understand the difference (conferences help us to understand that).

Where do you see the biggest sustainability challenge China faces in the next decade?
Deng Xiaoping, and the economic growth – heavy environmental cost. But in the environmental field, eg vehicle regulations, China is tougher than the US. Pollution of the air etc are very important, Chinese are tackling them but has got a long way to go. But the problem is that they won’t always implement the policies. I prefer the term – harmonious development. China has a huge challenge – it cannot sustain its progress without considering the environment, and they are realizing it. Now it is a significant player in the global stage. The kind of meeting we are having here, ensures the exchange of ideas and mutual understanding, is vital.  It is the mutual learning process that’s important (not necessarily only advising the Chinese).

We have a lot of young people presented in the audience today. What advices do you have for the young people who wishes to make a change?
If your objectives are fairly clear, Stay on track. Form your objectives in your own life and stay with them, be infinitely flexible in how you apply them.
I have graduated from high school at 14. I am a continuing lifetime student.

Session III Climate Change: Global Opportunity

John Milligan-Whyte
要点：
1中美关系
2人类灭绝的挑战
3哲学，基因学与物理学。

Michael Naylor

I have always been interested in tropical rainforests. I was fortunate enough to be able to experience various rainforests (Brazil?). My career with in the financial sector was rather successful, but it was the endangered rainforests that is always haunting me.
(Video)
What you saw in the film was the stored carbon in the forests. We will be talking about dead carbon today. (rather unpleasant). It leads to billions of tones of CO2 as a result of deforestation. I used to go to a lot of renewable energy conferences. But this issue of deforestation has not been talked about often. About 18% of CO2 emission comes from deforestation. World Future Energy Summit 2009, Crown Prince of the Netherlands – When the Roman Empire eventually collapsed, most of the Europe area is deforested. They did not think about the future generation. They collapsed due to the unsustainable use of primary energy sources.
Tony Blair – deforestation provides more CO2 than entire global transportation sector.
The fundamental issue I am stressing here is that we have to live within limits. We are moving into the Post-carbon modern age. We have degraded the natural world that we all depend. My friend lives deep in the Brazilian rainforest. It takes a long way to get there. They have solar panels in the village, and have got internet. No phones/TV, but have internet. We’ve destroyed about 50% of the global rainforests within the past 50 years. These ecosystems create volatile water compounds where the rainfall comes from. The tropics act as the engine room for the world. If we keep taking the forests down, this is like a utility bill.lf you don’t pay it, it will be cut off. It is another fierce urgency. 100 tonnes of carbon released from 100tonnes of forests laid down – that work would be invane unless we also attack the problem of deforestation. Buying the ecosystem service – put a value on it: a tree is worth far more alive than dead. Value the forests is important. Philanthropy – too small; Govt – too slow. People need investment and finance. Saving forests is not the ultimate solution but it is buying time. The service of the rainforest is valuable – so we need to pay for them otherwise they’ll be cut off. To end, “respect, be grateful, act now,” and save the forests. We have the world in our hand.

要点：乱砍滥伐造成热带雨林的锐减，而产生大量的二氧化碳。

Martin Bloom
要点：关于中国的新能源的开发与利用。