Military leaders and climate experts from around the world will convene next week in Paris, France for "The Importance of Military Organizations in Protecting the Climate: 2008," on 3-5 November 2008.
This workshop intends to provide a forum for leadership announcements and updates; apply lessons from ozone layer protection to climate protection; highlight challenges and progress made by developed and developing countries; summarize emerging and available climate protection technologies suitable for military and civilian applications; and present case studies of military and commercial leadership to protect the climate.
"Military organizations have been instrumental in our fight to protect the ozone layer over the past 20 years," said Durwood Zaelke, Director of the International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement. "With climate change threatening to disrupt many aspects of society in the near future, including national security, it is imperative we enlist their help to overcome this global problem." Mr. Zaelke will be speaking on "Anticipating & Responding to the Growing Risk of Abrupt Climate Changes."
Other speakers include Marco Gonzalez, Executive Director of the Montreal Protocol; Rear Admiral Niels C. Wang, Kongelige Danske Marine (Royal Danish Navy); Marta Bonifert, Director, Environment and Security Initiative (ENVSEC); Major General Rajeev Datt, Director General, Land Works and Environment, Indian Army; Dr. Guus Velders, Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency; K. Madhava Sarma, former Executive Secretary of the Montreal Protocol; and Dr. Stephen O. Andersen, Director of Strategic Climate Projects at U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
"Military cooperation to protect climate and stratospheric ozone layer is a centerpiece of environmental security," said Dr. Stephen O. Andersen, also Co-Chair of the Montreal Protocol Technology and Economic Assessment Panel and EPA liaison to the Department of Defense on Climate Change.
This conference is being sponsored by the EU Member States Defense Environmental Network, U.S. Department of Defense, United Nations Environment Programme, Institute for Environmental Security, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Institute for Defense Analysis, and Environment and Security Initiative (ENVSEC). It is the fifth in an international series that began in 1991.
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