Fall 2008 Climate Alert
Puebla and the Tickell Observatory [ PDF ]
In this Newsletter:
Tom Roper Honored for Pioneering Leadership in Climate Protection
On September 16, 2008, Board Members of the Climate Institute, Ambassador Denis Antoine of Grenada, Mark Lambrides of the Organization of American States, and other partners in the Global Sustainable Energy Islands Initiative (GSEII) gathered at a luncheon at Washington’s fabled Irongate Restaurant to recognize the pioneering work by Honorable Tom Roper over the past two decades. Sir Crispin Tickell, the Climate Institute’s Chairman Emeritus, presented Tom Roper a Climate Institute Award recognizing both his service over the past decade in directing the GSEII and his leadership in 1989 while Minister for Planning and Environment of the State of Victoria in Australia in spearheading the adoption of the first State level greenhouse gas reduction targets on this planet. Joining in the presentation were Ambassador Antoine, Mark Lambrides, Institute Chairman Bill Nitze, Nasir Khattak, Institute Director of Global Environmental Programs, who has worked closely for the past decade with Tom Roper to Implement GSEII, and Institute President John Topping. Topping noted that Roper’s service in climate protection has spanned several continents including Chairing the Coastal Panel of the 1989 Cairo World Climate Conference, Co-Chairing the 1990 International Workshop on a Framework Convention and Associated Protocols organized in Washington by the Climate Institute, and in 2000 Chairing the 2000 Seattle Summit on Protecting the World’s Climate.
John Topping, Nasir Khattak, Crispin Tickell, Tom Roper, Amb. Denis Antoine, Bill Nitze, Mark Lambrides
Later that week after receiving the Climate Institute Award Tom Roper participated in and served as Rapporteur for a US-China-Australia Dialogue on Energy Security and Climate Change held at Georgetown University and organized by Australia’s Global Foundation. Also participating were the principal climate negotiators for China, Australia and the US. Australia’s new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has moved the Australian national government, once a close ally of the Bush Administration in resisting binding greenhouse gas limitations, into an active position favoring strict greenhouse limits. Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Rudd seems determined to work with China to facilitate efforts for both countries, major coal users, to limit their greenhouse emissions. With both US major party Presidential nominees committed to some form of greenhouse cap and trade regulation, there is a real prospect that all three countries, once viewed as laggards in the climate protection effort may combine forces to develop a strong greenhouse control regime in future years.
Other Articles in this Newsletter:
Puebla and the Tickell Observatory: Moving a Nation to the Front in Climate Protection
Dr. Stephen Leatherman at the Forefront of Hurricane Research
Stephen Leatherman a la vanguardia de la respuesta a los huracanes
Climate Institute Awards [ Reconocimientos en Español ]