Summary

Climate change is probably the biggest challenge facing our civilization today. The recent report of IPCC unequivocally affirms the warming of our climate system and links it directly to human activity. The International Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) will receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on December 10, 2007 launched on November 17 in Valencia the final summary of their 4th assessment report. More than 2500 scientific expert reviewers, 800 contributing authors and 450 lead authors from 130 countries have been working on the report for 6 years.

Dr. Dayyani started the talk by presenting the role of IT in the study and research of Global Environment and Climate based on his research with NASA and NOAA (National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration). Mr. Tveitdal then presented the latest findings from the IPCC on what is happening with the global climate just now. This included examples from the most vulnerable regions such as the Arctic, Sub Saharan Africa, mega deltas in Asia and the Small Iceland Development States . The lecture further discussed how much global emissions of greenhouse gases need to be reduced to avoid “dangerous” impact on future generations, and how mitigation and mitigation costs can be shared between rich and poor countries. The lecture also highlighted possible solutions such as carbon capture and storage (CCS) and investments in renewable technology and their related costs.

About Mr. Tveitdal

Mr. Tveitdal is the UN-Advisor on Environment and Climate and Former Director at the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). Mr. Tveitdal has a Master of Science, Norwegian University of Technology, Trondheim. He was the Managing Director of UNEP/GRID-Arendal, Norway and is now the Chairman of Stiftelsen Asplan Corporation. Mr. Tveitdal is currently a Board member of the following organizations: Agder University, Zero Environmental Foundation, Norfund Investment fund for risk capital in developing countries.

About Dr. Dayyani

Dr. Basel Dayyani , a Silicon Valley and NASA scientist with doctorate degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He worked in the US software engineering industry for over 20 years in the fields of Computer Aided Engineering, eBusiness Networks, BI, and Satellite altimetry. Dr. Dayyani has worked for NASA, the Colorado Center of Astrodynamics Research, Unisys, Parametric Technology, Viacore (IBM Company), Proclarity (Microsoft company), and Synopsys.