One of the world’s leading authorities on climate change, Lord Nicholas Stern, is in New Zealand next week and you can catch one of his lectures thanks to a live video link from Auckland at Victoria University.

Lord Stern, author of the UK government’s Stern Review into the economics of climate change, and former chief economist of the World Bank, is delivering three lectures at the University of Auckland in early September.

The lectures at 7pm on Wednesday 8, Thursday 9 and Friday 10 September will be screened live by video link at Victoria University’s Rutherford House.

Over the lecture series, Lord Stern will outline what he considers as the two defining challenges of this century—managing climate change and overcoming world poverty.

"If we fail on one, we fail on the other. The risks of unmanaged climate change are immense: it could transform our planet and force billions to move, create prolonged and severe conflict and reverse development for us all, rich and poor.

"An attempt to manage climate change which appears to impede development will not command the agreement necessary for global action. But good policies and international collaboration can and must tackle these two challenges together."

Last year, Lord Stern published A Blueprint for a Safer Planet, which outlines some of his ideas. For him, action is vital.

"The challenge to the world community is to show the rationality, foresight and ability to collaborate which are necessary to take the key decisions. The opportunities from prompt and decisive action are great; the dangers of delay are grave."

Lord Stern is I G Patel Professor of Economics and Government and Chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science.



Sir Douglas Robb Lectures—Lord Nicholas Stern
Live video link in Wellington from the University of Auckland
Pipitea Campus, Victoria University
Lecture Theatre 1 (RHLT1), Ground floor, Rutherford House, 23 Lambton Quay, Wellington.

Numbers are limited—if you would like to attend, register at http://www.artsfaculty.auckland.ac.nz/special/robb/.