Program

Kofi Annan was the UN General Secretary from 1997 to 2006, and during that period Annan was a distinct and committed leader for one of the world’s most important organisations. Through his important work, Kofi Annan has helped set the climate on the agenda in international politics. Mr. Kofi Annan is a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.

”Climate change is the greatest humanitarian challenge facing mankind today”.

Jens Stoltenberg has a long history in Norwegian politics and has been the prime minister in a coalition government since 2005. In international climate politics, Stoltenberg has been central in financing global climate mitigations, and protection of forest.

“We are amongst the countries in the world with the most ambitious goals for our climate policies. We are now ready to increase our efforts.”

Bård Vegar Solhjell is the Norwegian environmental minister from the Socialist Left party (SV). He was responsible for the presentation of the Governments White Paper on Climate spring of 2012. He has previously been the parliamentary leader for SV and deputy in the committee for foreign and defense at the Norwegian parliament.

“I am a warm supporter of a global climate agreement for all countries, with a price on carbon, emission trading and a system where we reduce the carbon credits over time”

Will Steger is a prominent polar explorer with an enthusiastic engagement for the environment. Steger was co-founder of Center for Global Environmental Education (CGEE) in 1991. In 2006 Steger founded the Will Steger Foundation working on promoting international leadership and collaboration through environmental education and politics.

Will Steger joined Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Dr. Thor Heyerdahl and Neil Armstrong in receiving theLindbergh Award for "numerous polar expeditions, deep understanding of the environment and efforts to raise awareness of current envoronmental threats, especially climate change."

“Having traveled for 45 years in the Arctic, what I've seen the last 15 years is shocking. We need to finally face up that we have an issue here and we need to get back to solutions.”

David Blood is co-founder and Senior Partner of Generation Investment Management.  Previously, he spent 18 years at Goldman Sachs including serving as co-CEO and CEO of Goldman Sachs Asset Management from 1999-2003.  David received an M.B.A. from the Harvard Graduate School of Business.  He is on the Board of Harvest Power, New Forests, SHINE, Social Finance UK, Social Finance US, The Nature Conservancy, and on the Advisory Board of Bridges Ventures and the Harvard Business School Visiting Committee.

"We are once again facing one of those rare turning points in history when dangerous challenges and limitless opportunities cry out for clear, long-term thinking."

Tomas Kåberger

Tomas Kåberger has a PhD in Physical Resource Theory, and Docent in Environmental Science from Chalmers University, Sweden. He has served on board of Swedish and European Environmental Citizen’s organizations, several Swedish Government Committees developing energy and environmental legislation, and China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development as a member of a task force on Low-Carbon Industrialization Strategies. From 2008 until 2011 he was Director General of the National Swedish Energy Agency.

Currently he spends a quarter of his time in Japan as Executive Board Chairman of the Japan Renewable Energy Foundation.

“A higher pace in the consumption of oil and coal drives up the prices. Higher pace in electricity from sun and wind will give effective technology and will lower the costs.”