Williams Symposium to Look at Global Warming

The symposium will focus on the critical long-term issue facing millions in low- and middle-income countries around the world: how they will deal with global warming. In particular, the conference will address policies that governments in poor countries need to consider now, while there is still time to make realistic adjustments.

Nobel Laureate economist Thomas Schelling will deliver the keynote address. His lecture is titled "What is the Greenhouse Danger, and Can We Manage It?" The event will take place on Thursday, April 10, at 8 p.m., in the '62 Center on the Williams campus.

Schelling has dedicated his time in recent years to this theme, drawing on his earlier studies of how nations' approaches to strategic conflict can be applied to bargaining on the environment. He was one of the early voices pointing out that developing countries would bear the brunt of climate change.

Schelling is professor of foreign affairs, national security, nuclear strategy, and arms control at the School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, College Park. He was awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize in Economics (shared with Robert Aumann) for having enhanced our understanding of conflict and cooperation through game-theory analysis.

Friday, April 11, will be devoted to presentations and panel discussions, beginning at 9 a.m. with "Coping with Coastal Vulnerability: Sea-Level Rise," featuring James Neumann of Industrial Economics Inc. and David Wheeler of the Center for Global Development, who will speak to the impact of sea level rise in developing countries. Robert Nichols of Cambridge University, speaking on "Migration and Sea-Level Rise," will follow them. Ronadh Cox of the Williams department of geosciences will chair the discussion. The second discussion of the day, "Coping with Coastal Vulnerability: Natural Disaster Risk," begins at 10:45 a.m. with Mushfiq Mobarak of Yale University and Chris Goemans of Colorado State speaking on "The Medium Term Impact of Natural Disasters in Brazil." The two will be followed by Rodney Lester of The World Bank on "Disaster Risk and Hurricane Insurance: The Role of Insurance." The panel will be joined by discussant Jared Carbone of the University of Calgary and chaired by Lisa Gilbert of the Williams in Mystic Program.

At 1:45 p.m., attention will turn to "Water and Agriculture," featuring Robert Mendelsohn of Yale University speaking on "Climate Change and Agriculture in Developing Countries," and Kenneth Strzepek of the University of Colorado, speaking on "Water, Climate and Development in Africa." The panel will be joined by discussant Marc Conte of the University of California at Santa Barbara and Williams College.

The panel on financing sustainable development will begin at 3:15 p.m., featuring Joel Smith of Stratus Consulting, the lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); Vincent Perez, founder of Alterenergy Partners and former secretary of the Philippines' Department of Energy; and Mark Tercek of Goldman Sachs, co-editor of the IPCC Woodrow Clark of the University of California, Riverside. The panel will be chaired by Jerry Caprio, chair of the Center for Development Economics at Williams.

The last panel of the day, on policy options for developing countries, will feature Tariq Banuri, senior fellow and director of the Future Sustainability Program of the Stockholm Environmental Institute; Haroun Er-Rashid, director of the School of Environmental Science and Management at Independent University, Bangladesh; and Stephen Wainaina, planning secretary of Kenya. The panel will be chaired by Douglas Gollin, chair of the Center for Environmental Studies.

The symposium is supported by generous grants from the Mellon and Luce Foundations. It is sponsored by the Williams Department of Geosciences, Center for Environmental Studies, and The Center for Development Economics.

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