Bristol’s leading reputation as a green city will take centre stage this June when it hosts the UK’s first world class festival of sustainable development.
Confirmed speakers include: Grand Designs’ Kevin McCloud, (UK TV presenter and WWF “ambassador”), US activist and author Bill McKibben, IPCC chair Rajendra Pachauri, chief executive of the Eden Project Tim Smit, the National Trust’s Fiona Reynolds, Green Party leader Caroline Lucas, and author and activist Tony Juniper, (former CEO, Friends of the Earth UK.)
Presumably Pachauri and McKibben will then have to hot-foot it to Rio to take part in Rio+20, where they will tell the world to cut down on air travel and live a simpler, more sustainable life style.
Peter Madden, Chief Executive of Forum for the Future, who helped develop BIG Green Week said:
“Bristol’s BIG Green Week is a celebration of green ideas and action which aims to challenge and motivate people to engage with the sustainability issues we face.
From 2002 to 2005, Madden was Head of Policy at the UK Environment Agency, on issues such as climate change, green economics and sustainable communities. Prior to that, he was Ministerial Adviser at Defra and DETR, where he advised Ministers and the Prime Minister on environmental issues. Before that, he was Director of the Green Alliance and previous to that, Head of Policy at Christian Aid.
Jonathan Porrit, (and here), former Director of Friends of the Earth, Green Party stalwart, chairman of Tony Blair’s Sustainable Development Commission and advisor to Prince Charles, is a founder-director of Forum for the Future:
There are now roughly 70 of us, based in London, Bristol, Cheltenham and New York.
“Campaigning against things”, great if you can get paid large sums of money at the same time. No doubt he will be at Rio as well, he gets around, carbon footprints are for the rest of us:
For the last couple of years, I’ve been acting as a Special Advisor on the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan, which was launched in Nov 2010. I meet regularly with Unilever’s Chief Executive Officer, Paul Polman, and other members of the Unilever Executive Team. My key contacts are Gavin Neath (Senior Vice President Sustainability) and Karen Hamilton (Vice President Sustainability). My work with Unilever takes me around the world, from India, to Brazil and the USA.
Yep, all these taxes, rules and regulations are just for us “little” people.
A change is coming and those pushing this won’t like it one bit…if they survive.
I thought Mr Pauchauri had died?
I hadn’t heard so, but I think any such reports have been greatly exaggerated.