Free Public Lecture - Rajendra K Pachauri

The Alfred Deakin Research Institute is hosting a free public lecture by Rajendra K Pachauri, the Chairperson of the Nobel Peace Prize (2007) winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Director General, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).

The title of the free lecture is: "The Role of Knowledge in Promoting Sustainable Development and Tackling Climate Change."

It was Albert Einstein who said that problems cannot be solved at the level of awareness that created them.

We now know that several human activities have in the past led to impacts such as the loss of biodiversity, pollution of our river systems and the air we breathe as well as an increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, leading to climate change.

Fortunately, scientific knowledge and technological possibilities now make it possible for us to deal with some of these problems effectively, in a matter that could lead human society to a sustainable pattern of development.

Institutions of higher learning have a special responsibility in developing and disseminating some of the solutions that we need.

The presentation will look at the issue of sustainable development and the challenge of climate change that new knowledge and its applications can deal with effectively within a reasonable window of time.

Professor David Lowe, the Director of ADRI, said Dr Pachauri’s visit and lecture was a great coup by the Institute and was the result of the University’s close relationship with TERI formalised two years ago.

“Depending on what media you read or follow, Dr Pachauri is either the world’s leading climate change scientist or an alarmist but he has argued that the issue of climate change requires sane and rational responses and we have decided that this year’s Fusion lecture will play a role in that,” he said.

“Dr Pachauri has said previously that the West needs to make major structural and policy changes in the way it goes about economic development – wealth needs to be shifted from the developed to the developing nations.

“His topic therefore looks at how scientific knowledge and technological possibilities now make it possible for us to deal with climate change and how they can help society adopt a more sustainable pattern of development.”

Professor Lowe said research at TERI sought to find solutions to problems related to living sustainably and addressing environmental degradation.

“As the director general of TERI which is a key knowledge generator in its own right, Dr Pachauri will make the argument that higher education institutions, have a role in developing and disseminating some of the solutions to climate change that we need,” he said.

“And here at Deakin University we are conscious of our role not only to assist in the finding of solutions and forms of adaptation, but also to communicate results in ways that enable people to change through the development and acceptance of effective policy.”

DATE: Thursday 21st February, 2013

VENUE: State Library of Victoria, 328 Swanston Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3000

TIME: 5.30pm for 6.00pm

To book, click here.

For further information, please contact Jo Collins on (03) 5227 1464 or jo.collins@deakin.edu.au