date: Sun, 25 Nov 2001 18:05:59 +0000 from: Mike Hulme subject: Roy Soc meeting, 12-13 December to: andrew@ukace.org,paul.jefferiss@rspb.org.uk,ham@bnif.co.uk, steve.waller@ntlworld.com,robert.maynard@doh.gsi.gov.uk Dear Colleague, Forgive this impersonal communication, but I wished to make contact initially with you all at this stage with some information about the session at the RS meeting on climate change on Thursday 13th December you have kindly agreed to contribute to as a discussant. The session is called 'challenges for the UK' and follows an earlier session on 'challenges at the international level'. The first day of the meeting (Wednesday) will have reviewed and critiqued (I hope) the three working group reports of the IPCC TAR. Within the session I am co-ordinating there are three topics - reducing emissions (Tom Delay from the Carbon Trust speaking), risk - managing the dangers (Chris Newton from the E. Agency) and reaction - communicating climate change science (Roger Harrabin from the BBC). The overall purpose of the session is to identify in as constructive a way as possible what needs to be done to ensure that climate change is managed in the UK as best we can. The problem will not go away; we all have to accept that, through our own actions, we have created a rather different world than previous generations have lived through, a world in which climate will not just vary from season-to-season and from year-to-year as it has done for time immemorial and to which our society is, in some sense, adapted, but that there is now a directed trend in climate which we will all have to get used to. How large this will be we don't know, although we know we can influence the magnitude of the future trend through our actions. The session therefore has three themes - reduce the problem (mitigate), manage the risks (adapt) and provoke reaction (communication). The role of the discussants is to provide a brief (no more than 5 minutes PLEASE) perspective from your professional vantage point about what the salient problems are and the highest priority actions for the UK to take. In part, I hope you will also support or reject the perspectives provided by each of the three key speakers in turn (Delay, Newton and Harrabin) - the purpose is to stimulate discussion both in the Q&A time that will follow and around the fringes of the meeting. I hope to be able to send you, in about 10 days time, some notes on what the three speakers plan to say - but feel free to contact me before time if you would like clarification. I attach in the meantime my suggested drafting notes for the 3 speakers (they may well deviate of course, and I hope they do!!). All logistical information is handled by the Society, not me - speak with Marisa Goulden. Marisa Goulden Science Policy Officer (Environment & Energy) Science Advice Section The Royal Society 6 Carlton House Terrace London SW1Y 5AG Tel: +44 (0)20 7451 2590 Fax: +44 (0)20 7451 2692 e-mail marisa.goulden@royalsoc.ac.uk Many thanks, Mike Attachment Converted: "c:\eudora\attach\Notes for RS meeting session 7.doc" ***************************************************************************** Dr Mike Hulme Executive Director Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research School of Environmental Sciences University of East Anglia Norwich NR4 7TJ UK tel: +44 (0)1603 593162 (or 593900) fax: +44 (0)1603 593901 mobile: 07801 842 597 email: m.hulme@uea.ac.uk web site: www.tyndall.ac.uk ************************************************************************************ The Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research .... integrated research for sustainable responses .... The Tyndall Centre is a new research initiative funded by three UK Research Councils - NERC, ESRC, EPSRC - with support from the DTI. ************************************************************************************