February 10, 2010

Bert Metz, former co-chair IPCC Working Group on Mitigation of Climate Change, author of "Controlling Climate Change", and advisor to the European Climate Foundation.

Bert Metz discusses his new book, Controlling Climate Change, which provides an unbiased and comprehensive overview, based on the latest findings of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). Using no jargon, it looks at tackling and adapting to man-made climate change, and works through the often confusing potential solutions. He provides a cutting edge assessment of issues at the top of the political agenda, covering scenarios to limit the consequences of warming to manageable proportions, transitions to a low carbon and climate resilient economy, the most important measures in the various economic sectors and their potential costs. The implications of the poor results of the 2009 Copenhagen Summit will also be discussed.



Bert Metz – Former Co-chair of the Working Group on Mitigation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Bert Metz has vast experience in the field of climate change policy. He served as the co-ordinator of climate policy at the Netherlands Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and Environment and chief negotiator for the Netherlands and the European Union in the international climate change negotiations from 1992-1998. He was elected co-chairman of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) working group on climate change mitigation for the IPCC Third Assessment Report (1997-2002) and re-elected for the Fourth Assessment Report (2002-2008; in which period the IPCC received the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize). At the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency from 1998-2005, he led the group on climate change and global sustainability, publishing a large series of national and international policy analyses on climate change and sustainability. Early 2008 he spent 3 months as a visiting scholar at Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment. Since retiring, he is serving as advisor to the European Climate Foundation and other organisations. In 2009 he received the European Practitioner Achievement Award in applying environmental economics from the European Association for Environmental and Resource Economists.



Source: energyseminar.stanford.edu/node/197

1. Global Climate Architectural Policy
2. Demystifying and De-Jargoning the Smart Grid
3. U.S. Shale Gas: From Resources and Reserves to Carbon Isotope Anomalies
4. Extending the Grid: Transmission Siting Issues and How to Resolve Them
5. Integrating More Than 50% Wind on the Grid: A Case Study
6. Controlling Climate Change after Copenhagen
7. The Energy Challenge and the Case for Fusion
8. COP15 and the Stanford Student Experience
9. China's Growing Global Influence: A Solar Energy Perspective

The Energy Seminar is produced by the Woods Institute and the Precourt Institute for Energy (PIE) at Stanford University. and is comprised of an interdisciplinary series of talks primarily by Stanford experts on a broad range of energy topics.







The Precourt Institute for Energy (PIE) has been established as a new independent institute at Stanford that engages in a broad-ranging, interdisciplinary program of research and education on energy - applying fundamental research to the problem of supplying energy in environmentally and economically acceptable ways, using it efficiently, and facing the behavioral, social, and policy challenges of creating new energy systems for the U.S. and the world.