19-21 September, Liverpool

The Foreign Policy Centre will be hosting a programme of five fringe events at this year's Liberal Democrat Party Conference in Liverpool, with speakers including: Rt Hon Malcolm Bruce MP, Rt Hon Michael Moore MP (tbc), Jo Swinson MP, Tim Farron MP and Andrew Duff MEP, amongst others. Please see the flyer below for more detailed information about speakers, themes and venues. The events are open to all and there is no need to pre-register.

Download FPC Fringe Programme - Liberal Democrat Party Conference (240 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

Date: Thursday 3 June, 4.30-6.00pm

Venue: Committee Room 3, House of Lords, London SW1A 0PW

(use Cromwell Green Visitors' entrance)

Speakers:

• Dr David Tickner, Head of Freshwater Programmes, WWF-UK
• Dan Smith, Secretary General, International Alert
• Claus Conzelmann, Vice President for Health, Safety and Environment, Nestlé S.A.
• Bernice Lee, Director of Research, Energy, Environment & Resource Governance, Chatham House

Chair: Mike Wooldridge, BBC World Affairs Correspondent

With opening remarks and a vote of thanks from Baroness Margaret Jay, FPC Co-President

This new FPC publication will be launched to mark World Environment Day (5 June). The pamphlet will aim to stimulate discussion and debate amongst a wide ranging audience in an effort to promote the centrality of water on today's foreign policy agenda, particularly in light of the increasing environmental shocks and stresses presented by climate change and global population growth. In an increasingly interconnected world, where cooperation is no longer an option but an imperative, how can foreign policy inform and provide a more effective response to improving the management of freshwater while ensuring reliable and sustainable access?

Contributors to the pamphlet include: Rt Hon William Hague MP, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs; Baroness Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy; Professor J.A. Tony Allan, King's College, London and School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS); Richard Black, BBC News; Belinda Calaguas, Director of Policy & Campaigns, ActionAid; Fiona Harvey, Environment Correspondent, The Financial Times, Dr Bruce Lankford, University of East Anglia; Bernice Lee, Research Director, Energy, Environment and Resource Governance, Chatham House; David Nussbaum, Chief Executive, WWF-UK; Dr Letitia A. Obeng, Chair, Global Water Partnership (GWP); Dan Smith, General Secretary, International Alert; Dr Martin R. Stuchtey, McKinsey & Company Inc.; Dr Camilla Toulmin, Director, International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED); and Stephen Twigg MP, former Director, Foreign Policy Centre.

For more information, or to register, please email: events@fpc.org.uk

Download Publication launch invite - Tackling the world water crisis (260 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

Date: Wednesday 25 June, 10.30-12.00

Speakers:

Malcolm Wicks MP, Minister of State for Energy

Lars G. Josefsson, President and Chief Executive, Vattenfall

Dr Emma Wilson, Senior Researcher, Business and Sustainable Development, International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)

Ed Crooks, Energy Editor, Financial Times

Chair: Rt Hon John Gummer MP, Former UK Secretary of State for the Environment (1993-1997)

The aim of this FPC and Vattenfall event was to critically explore the challenges and opportunities presented by improving energy productivity and securing environmental sustainability. The event critically explored the challenges faced by governments, business leaders, individual households and wider civil society in improving energy efficiency. The forum addressed how the world can accelerate its investments in the clean technologies necessary to reduce carbon emissions, thus making renewable energy much more affordable for the future. It also explored the best ways of undertaking the more costly tasks associated with taking immediate action to cut emissions today.

Lars Josefsson's presentation

Download Lars Josefsson's presentation (850 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

Dr Emma Wilson's presentation

Download Dr Emma Wilson's presentation (620 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

Date: Thursday, 28th February 2008

Speakers:

Gareth Thomas MP, DfID Parliamentary Under Secretary of State

Richard Black, BBC

Graham Wynne, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

Chair: Stephen Twigg, FPC

About this event:

At the FPC's recent inaugural Annual Lecture, the Secretary of State for International Development, Rt Hon Douglas Alexander MP announced that the UK Government would increase its climate change research to £100 million over the next five years (a tenfold increase).

Continuing with the theme of exploring the centrality of environmental sustainability and global social justice, the FPC in partnership with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds held a seminar on "Sustaining our Environment: Is Climate Change the Only Ill?".

This event was kindly supported by the RSPB.

Download Gareth Thomas's Speech (40 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

Richard Black's Presentation

Download Richard Black's presentation (660 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

Climate Change and Global Social Justice

6 February 2008

The International Development Secretary, Rt Hon Douglas Alexander MP, in a major speech to the Foreign Policy Centre has argued that the world needs to shift its economic development to a low-carbon model. He also announced a tenfold increase in climate change research funding to £100 million over the next five years.

Giving the inaugural Foreign Policy Centre annual lecture at the LSE, the Development Secretary outlined his proposals for a new post-Kyoto global framework to tackle emissions. Mr Alexander argued that while developed countries must take a lead, developing countries must share the responsibility of change by 'leapfrogging' over polluting technologies toward a cleaner economy as their societies develop.

He said:

"Climate change is a defining global social justice issue for our generation. If we do not take the necessary action, we risk condemning the world's poorest people to generations of poverty."

Read more…

Download the full speech (110 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

The Labour Party Conference in Manchester is set to run from Sunday 24th until Thursday 28th September. The FPC will be holding a number of events inside the secure zone of Labour Party Conference.

If you would like to know more, please contact us on 020 7729 7566 or email Diane Fisher on diane.fisher[at]fpc.org.uk.

To download the events programme, please click here:

Download FPC Fringe Events at Labour Conference 2006 (110 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

FPC & Business for New Europe

Finsbury Group, Tenter House, London

High oil prices, Europe's increasing dependency on a few external suppliers (mainly OPEC and Russia), new concerns relating to long-term availability of fossil fuels and the urgency of new greenhouse gas mitigation measures have restarted a debate on the need for a European Energy Policy.

The European Commission on 8 March 2006 issued a 'Green Paper' listing a number of options to achieve "sustainable, competitive and secure" energy supplies in the EU.

Malcolm Wicks MP, Minister for Energy, was the keynote speaker. Also speaking were Nick Mabey, founder member of E3G and a former member of the Prime Minister's strategy team, and Roger Carr (Chairman of Centrica plc). The event was chaired by Roland Rudd, Chairman of Business for New Europe (and Senior Partner at Finsbury International).

b> Russia, the EU and Gas

On New Year's Day, Vladimir Putin marked the beginning of Russia's presidency of the G8 group of leading industrialised nations by declaring a new "cold war". He briefly cut off natural gas supplies to Ukraine and therefore much of Europe, brandishing Russia's vast energy reserves as his Soviet predecessors once flaunted nuclear rockets. The Russian-Ukrainian gas dispute served as a wake-up call for the European Union, which obtains a quarter of its gas from Russia. (The EU is likely to import up to 75% of its natural gas requirements by 2020.) Russia is destined by virtue of its wealth of natural resources to become a pivotal player on the global energy chessboard in the coming decades. As world energy demand grows, particularly because of China's explosive rise as an economic force, Russia's wealth and potential power are certain to grow as well.

Launching a new FPC pamphlet, Coby van der Linde, head of the International Energy Programme at the Clingendael Institute in the Netherlands, and one of the world's leading gas experts, assessed the threat the EU's reliance on Russian gas will pose to its energy security and suggest that only Russia's transformation into a modern, technologically advanced and responsible producer of energy will safeguard European interests in the coming decades.

This event launched a new high-intensity and high-visibility project by the FPC and partner organisations, to change attitudes in the UK government, the private sector, and the community to bring about a more rapid shift to renewable energy sources.

The project is in its early stages and will seek to bring in key partners and constituencies as it proceeds. The culmination of the project will be the production of an Action Plan in June 2006. This launch event will involve three short presentations and comment from panel members before opening for a general discussion.

Co- Chairs: Stephen Twigg, Director, FPC; Stuart Fraser, Deputy Chairman of Policy and Resources Committee, Corporation of London

Speakers: Professor David Fisk, Imperial College; Dan Plesch, Senior Associate, FPC 'The New Urgency for Renewables'; Dr Shimon Awerbuch, University of Sussex: 'Harnessing the Oil-GDP Effect for Renewables'; Charlie McGrath, former Army counter-terrorism officer: 'The National Security Imperative'; Phil Bloomer, Oxfam: 'Renewables and International Development'

Transcript of Speeches

This transcript is a record of the Foreign Policy Centre debate at the Labour Party Conference 2004: "Should Environmentalists Learn to Love Nuclear?" Speakers Michael Meacher MP and Martin O'Neill MP discussed whether nuclear power is needed for meeting Britain's target of a 60% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050 to help tackle climate change.

Vuvu Msutwana-Qupe provided insight into how other countries deal with the same problems, with a presentation on South Africa's approach. In an original preface, Rod Liddle argues that we should overcome unfounded distaste for nuclear energy and recognise its overwhelming economic and environmental benefits.

Download the report (230 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

Transcript of Speeches

At the Labour Conference 2003, The Foreign Policy Centre hosted "Can We Wait for Renewables?", a debate between Brian Wilson MP, former Energy Minister, and Stephen Tindale, Director of Greenpeace UK. They discussed whether Britain will be able to meet its ambitious commitments to reduce carbon emissions through renewable power alone. Will the plans for massive off-shore wind farms be enough to meet the target of a 60% reduction in emissions by 2050, or will future governments have to consider a rebirth for nuclear power - a far more controversial source of carbon-free generation? Stephen Tindale and Brian Wilson both consider the policy choices involved, and suggest the lessons that Britain can learn from the rest of Europe.

Download the report (220 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)

The hard choices facing UK Governments on energy policy are well known. Nuclear generation, currently responsible for 23% of nuclear generation, will decline to 7-8% by 2020 unless new nuclear power stations are constructed. At the same time, it looks highly unlikely that Britain's renewable industry will be able to reach the target of providing 10% of renewable generation by 2010. Critics argue that, unless radical steps are taken, Britain will become increasingly reliant on fuels that will make it impossible to fulfil its emissions obligations. The recent Energy White Paper was accused by some of ducking these hard choices. The Foreign Policy Centre held a small high-level seminar to discuss whether mainland Europe holds lessons for the UK in moving towards a non-carbon fuel economy with experts from NGOs, politics and Business as well as government representatives from EU member states.

Key Issues discussed included:

• Is Britain spending too little on renewable research and development compared to other EU member states?
• Does the Government need to be more active in "picking winners" in the renewables market and more active in keeping the nuclear option open?
• Are Britain's planning laws stifling non-Carbon generation?
• Will public opinion make further nuclear build in the UK impossible or are the Government underestimating the public's pragmatism?

Speakers included:

• Dr Desmond Turner MP from the House of Commons Science Committee
• Nick Eyre from the Energy Saving Trust
• Malcolm Grimston, Imperial College Centre of Energy Policy & Technology.

Download the report (70 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)