Webinar: The Impact of Climate Change on the Commonwealth

Professor Tim Benton leads the Energy, Environment and Resources programme at Chatham House and from 2011-2016 was the “champion” of the UK’s Global Food Security programme. He is an author of the IPCC’s Special Report on Food, Land and Climate (2019), and the UK’s Climate Change Risk Assessment. Tim will speak on food security associated with climate change.

Jeff Ardron is an Adviser on Ocean Governance at the Commonwealth Secretariat, London. He was the main architect of the Commonwealth Blue Charter, an agreement adopted by the Commonwealth Heads of Government in 2018, and is the Blue Charter project lead. He has more than 25 years’ experience in marine governance, planning, and conservation. Jeff will discuss the impact of climate change on the oceans and specifically the Blue Charter.

The discussion will be moderated by Michael McKay, an independent communications and public affairs consultant who is well known across the British/Swiss international business community with clients in a wide range of sectors including finance and trade. Michael can be heard three times a week hosting popular current affairs programme ‘The McKay Interview’ on World Radio Switzerland (www.worldradio.ch). Michael has been a member of ROSL for more than 20 years.

We are delighted to announce that a third speaker will join the Panel. He is Dr Daniel Wilde, an economic adviser at the Commonwealth Secretariat and leads their programme on Sovereign Wealth Funds. This programme works with Commonwealth governments to help ensure their funds contribute to stabilisation, long-term savings and invest to achieve the Paris Agreement, which  deals with greenhouse-gas-emissions mitigation, adaptation, and finance, signed in 2016.