Brown University News Bureau

The Brown University News Bureau

1998-1999 index

Distributed October 9, 1998
Contact: Tracie Sweeney

How Rhode Island saves the planet

Policy adviser on environment will speak about climate change Oct. 15

Rafe Pomerance, deputy assistant secretary of state for environment and development, will speak about Rhode Island's role in combating global climate change on Thursday, Oct. 15, at 4:30 p.m. in Starr Auditorium, MacMillan Hall.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Can Rhode Islanders make any difference in the effort to limit human-caused climate change? How can scientists and policymakers best address the array of global environmental concerns?

With a major international meeting on climate change just weeks away, Rafe Pomerance, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for environment and development, will address these questions and others during his talk, "How Rhode Island Saves the Planet: Climate Change in the Twenty-First Century," on Thursday, Oct. 15, at 4:30 p.m. in Starr Auditorium at Brown University's new MacMillan Hall, Thayer and George streets. Members of Rhode Island's congressional delegation have been invited to offer introductory and closing remarks.

Pomerance's appearance at Brown University is the first in a series of presentations on the science and policy of global environmental issues. The series considers how scientists and policymakers can work together to address most effectively the challenges presented by global environmental problems.

As a senior policy adviser on environmental and health issues, Pomerance played a key role in recent negotiations on an international climate change treaty. In early November, delegates from more than 160 countries will meet in Buenos Aires to decide on crucial aspects of an agreement adopted last year that called for industrialized countries such as the United States to reduce their emissions of gases thought to cause climate change.

Pomerance has been with the U.S. State Department since 1993, overseeing international environmental negotiations and advising the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs on such topics as climate change, biodiversity, pollution control and infectious diseases. He previously served for seven years at the World Resources Institute (WRI), where he focused on climate change and ozone depletion. He has played an active role in the processes leading to the signing of major international environmental treaties.

Pomerance's talk is sponsored by the C.V. Starr Foundation Lectureship Fund; the Watson Institute for International Studies' Research Program on Hunger, Health, Population, and the Environment; and Brown's Center for Environmental Studies.

For more information, contact the Watson Institute Events Office, 863-1035.

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