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August 1, 2010 in Blog
The 2010 European Business Summit was 30 June - 1 July and included the Presidents' Debate, a high-level energy panel, and a gala dinner.Read more
Business of Sustainability
Programme: After Copenhagen, the next steps
February 1, 2010 in COP15
The issue: The COP15 conference was widely seen as a setback for the EU. The agreement that was reached fell short of the global deal to replace the Kyoto protocol that the EU had sought.
What lessons should the EU draw from Copenhagen? Can the EU still be a driving force in global climate politics? Should the EU continue to push for a global agreement, or should it consider other options, such as bilateral agreements? Should it even take unilateral action, as advocated by some European stakeholders, and increase its emissions reduction target from 20% to 30% without waiting for the US and China to follow? Is a global deal still possible, and when might it be reached?
These are just some of the questions that Comment:Visions invites you to debate with a panel of senior EU decision-makers and stakeholders.
Discussion: After COP 15, who or what will drive the push towards developing clean energy?Related Content:
Programme: Managing the atmosphere
January 1, 2010 in Business of Sustainability
The Earth’s atmosphere is the result of billions of years of geological activity and interaction with living organisms. Until recently, the stability of its composition has been something we have taken for granted.
The climate change conference in Copenhagen ended without a binding global agreement on curbing greenhouse gas emissions.
So, if governments cannot agree on measures to mitigate climate change, who then will provide the incentives and initiatives and perhaps more importantly the finances, that are needed? A growing number of leaders are beginning to look to the private sector to provide solutions. With regard to climate change, is it business to the rescue?
Discussion: Are commercial partnerships between science and industry the best way to reduce GHG emissions?Related Content:
Programme: Visions of Future Energy
December 1, 2009 in Progress towards Sustainability
As nations gather to seek an agreement on solving climate change, many are working behind the scenes to create the innovations and protocols that will form the foundation of a new, emission-free society. The fossil fuels that are greatest source of greenhouse gas emissions also provide the majority of the energy that we rely on. Is it possible to create new clean sources of energy and a business environment that will help transform our planet without compromising our way of life?
At the beginning of the year, Euronews began a journey, travelling throughout Europe, seeking out scientists, engineers, researchers and entrepreneurs for their opinions. At the same time, European Voice held regular debates inviting delegates from politics, industry, government and science to take part in finding answers to the burning questions that confront us. Visions of Future Energy is a selection of the opinions expressed in the television programmes.
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Programme: Risk, the future and climate change
November 1, 2009 in Progress towards Sustainability
The emission of greenhouse gases has been the heart of the matter in environmental discourse throughout its growth and development. For as long as the science has told us that the levels of greenhouse gases in the earth atmosphere are damaging the planet, political attempts to reach agreement on a reduction of emissions have been ongoing.
In this month’s Comment Visions we travel to Norway to talk to a man whose career has involved studying the changing nature of our planet. Dr Pal Prestud is an ecologist and serves as the Director of the Centre for Climate and Environmental Research in Oslo. His work has focused on the Polar Regions, which have acted as an early warning system for the sort of climatic changes greenhouse gases are driving.
Discussion: How must society adapt to rapid climate change to minimise severe upheaval?Related Content:
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Programme: Sustainability in a Changing World
July 1, 2009 in Progress towards Sustainability
For twenty five years, as economies have grown, technology has developed and resources dwindled, Professor Enzo Tiezzi has been a consistent voice of criticism of the prevailing industrial and economic models.
In this month’s Comment Visions we travel to Italy to meet with Professor Tiezzi and get his views on the energy debate within the wider context of his work – the study of sustainability. A champion of the idea of sustainability across different fields and disciplines, Professor Tiezzi has seen his work shift from under-regarded research on the margins of the debate to a central theme in our search for solutions to a global issue.
In this fascinating interview Professor Tiezzi talks about the need for an economic model that pays more heed to the laws of nature and explains the difference between development and growth and the significance of this difference as regards sustainability.
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Programme: The road to global energy security
April 1, 2009 in Energy Security
The philosophical and political quest for peace between nations states dates back as far as Immanuel Kant’s hugely influential 1795 essay Perpetual Peace. However, over the last two centuries dramatically destructive wars have again and again undermined the Kantian ideal.
Dr Stein Tonnesson is Director of the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo, Norway. A historian whose PhD research focused on the causes of the 1945 Vietnamese revolution, he sees the increasing scarcity of fossil fuels as a potential catalyst of insecurity in the global arena. Warning that nations pursuing narrow national solutions to the crisis based on their own self interest will ‘envenomate the international climate’ he is nevertheless hopeful that co-operation at a global level is possible.
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Live Debate - Mutual dependence: securing Europe’s energy supply
Programme: Nine Visions of the Future
December 1, 2008 in Progress towards Sustainability
This month’s Comment Visions looks forward by looking back, reviewing the Comment Visions interviews of the past year to put the individual episodes in context. A journey that began by travelling to Oslo, Norway to speak to Dr. Olav Orheim, a world expert on climate change, also saw us talking to pioneering scientists who suggested ways in which developments in robotics, space exploration and biotechnology could open up new frontiers in our approach to the energy crisis, as well as talking to business leaders about the need for responsive action.
From harnessing photosynthesis to colonising Titan, from solar-powered air conditioning to energy-saving robots, this month’s Comment Visions brings together the series of disparate, brilliant and inspiring interviews about the future of our planet.
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Programme: Forecasting the Future
September 1, 2008 in Progress towards Sustainability
Predicting the future of the planet is usually the domain of Hollywood science fiction movies. This month’s Comment Visions takes the debate over the future of planet out of the hands of screenwriters and into the realm of scientific fact by interviewing Didier Sornette, a French scientist who researches complex systems, modelling how they evolve and develop to predict the future.
Didier Sornette talks about how he thinks people will respond to these challenges, how the search for solutions will be forced upon humans by the scarcity of resources and the likely ways in which life on earth will look. By 2050 an increased population will encounter fuel and water shortages. Professor Sornette looks at three possible scenarios for the global response to these problems and predicts that future scientific research could create solutions we cannot yet imagine.
Discussion: Are the challenges posed by carbon emissions and diminishing fuel supplies in reality opportunities in disguise?Related Content:
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Programme: Sustainable Development – is it a Realistic Solution?
April 19, 2008 in Business of Sustainability
Sustainable Development and its possibilities, challenges and demands, has been on the agenda of the international business community for the past two decades. Since 1995, the World Business Council on Sustainable Development – a 200-member coalition of major businesses – has taken the lead in putting the business case for sustainable development.
This month’s Comment Visions talks to the Council’s President, Bjorn Stigson. Formerly a business executive in his native Sweden, Bjorn has spent the last decade based in Geneva bringing CEO’s of some of the world’s leading companies together to formulate and advocate the business response to the challenges of sustainable development.
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