Robert C. Orr, Assistant Secretary-General for Strategic Planning at the United Nations, and Ambassador Kamal. What are the prospects for achieving an agreement on climate change that can adequately address the reality of global warming? And can the UN help states manage the large-scale changes that scientists say are needed to mitigate, if not prevent, catastrophic climate change? Dr. Orr, a high-level official in the UN Secretariat, will show how the Secretary-General’s office seeks to bring countries towards agreements around divisive global problems, what resources they can bring to the table, and what constraints they face when dealing with the variety of actors in the UN system. Ambassador Kamal will offer his views about the causes of climate change and its importance in relation to other pressing global issues. After the video-conferencing part of the discussion is over, there will be time for the audience to debrief and debate the views expressed during the session.
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Robert C. Orr
Dr. Orr has served as Assistant Secretary-General in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General since 2004 and is the principal advisor and leader of the Secretary-General’s initiatives on climate change, energy, global health, food security and public-private partnerships.
Dr. Orr joined the United Nations from Harvard University where he served as the Executive Director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government. Prior to this, he served as Director of the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C., Deputy to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and Director of Global and Multilateral Affairs at the National Security Council in the White House. Dr. Orr received his Ph.D. and M.P.A. in International Relations from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, and his bachelor’s degree from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). He speaks Spanish and Mandarin.
Ahmad Kamal
Ambassador Kamal served as a professional diplomat in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan for close to forty years until his retirement in 1999. During this period he held diplomatic postings in India, Belgium, France, the Soviet Union, Saudi Arabia, the Republic of Korea, and with the United Nations both in Geneva and in New York. He continues to be a Senior Fellow of the United Nations Institute of Training and Research, and is a Visiting Professor at six universities in the United States. He is also the Founding President and CEO of The Ambassador’s Club at the United Nations.
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Registration is only required for groups larger than five.
To register contact Elaine Linn (email: eel58@pitt.edu)
Click here to go to the Climate Change Dialogues mainpage.
Fundamental Sources:
United Nations, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon -- Big Idea 2014: The Year for Climate Action
Vandana Shiva – Climate Justice Requires a New Paradigm
Jackie Smith – Counter-hegemonic Networks and the Transformation of Global Climate Politics
Supplemental Sources:
A very popular movement is Bill McKibben’s 350.org and his related campaign to have students pressure their universities to divest their endowments from any fossil fuel company.
Click here to go to the Climate Change Dialogues mainpage.