Andrew Adonis, making his first public speech since his promotion to Secretary of State for Transport, told delegates at the LowCVP Conference that climate change is an issue which defines this age. He said that “for the automotive industry this is both a challenge and an opportunity. A challenge, obviously, because it means change”. Lord Adonis and the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, made the keynote speeches at the Conference which was attended by 200 delegates and which was held alongside the What Car? Green Awards and the Revolve London to Brighton Eco-Rally.
In his introduction, Andrew Adonis said: “Low carbon transportation is a key element in modernising for the future, so it is entirely fitting that this should be my first speech as Secretary of State. I’m delighted that the speech is to the LowCVP, which has been a leader in the debate on low carbon transport and has a much bigger role to play for the future”.
Professor Kevin Anderson, Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, opened the conference with a presentation on the latest climate science. He said that emissions reductions on the scale implied by the science have never been achieved before, even when associated with severe economic recession or upheaval. To avoid the risk of dangerous climate change (ensuring average global temperatures rise no more than two degrees celsius) will require radical policy action to achieve emissions reductions that are unprecedented.
Professor Anderson’s presentation and those of other speakers – including Charles Stonehill of Better Place, David Ward of the FIA Foundation, Hugo Spowers of River Simple and Darran Messem of Shell – at the LowCVP conference are available on the ‘LowCVP Conference 2009′ resources page on the website (see associated link). A short video of the conference highlights is now accessible here, as is an unedited video of the speech by the LowCVP Chair, Professor Neville Jackson.
There are also links from here to the conference speech by Lord Adonis and press releases issued by the LowCVP and the Greater London Authority.
Feedback following the conference has been very positive. 98% of respondents said that they considered the event to be ‘very good’ or ‘good’. 70% said that they thought the conference was good or very good value for money.
Full details about the conference, including more comprehensive feedback are available from the LowCVP Secretariat.
The winners of the prize draws were Liz Gray of WhizzGo (Conference feedback survey) and Chris Green of Entec UK Ltd (Stakeholder survey).
