Link between energy and climate change focus of latest UN lecture

The link between energy and climate change was the focus of a discussion today by noted experts at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, the third in a series of talks hosted by Secretary-General Kofi Annan on issues outside the normal range of UN topics and on matters at the forefront of both the humanities and natural sciences.

The speakers were Professors Rajendra Pachauri, Director-General of Tata Energy Research Institute and Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and Professor Nebojsa Nakicenovic, Project Leader at International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis and Professor at the Technical University of Vienna.

In his introductory remarks, the Secretary-General noted that there is no time to lose "if we are to learn both to use energy differently, and to use different energy sources - and if we are to ensure that that knowledge comes to benefit the billions of people who today lack any access to modern energy at all."