The Alaska World Affairs Council
Presents

Julian Braithwaite
Counselor for Global Issues at the British Embassy in Washington DC

Climate Change and Energy Policy after Kyoto

Friday, 4th May, 2007 - Hilton Hotel
Doors open at 11:30 a.m. - Program begins at 12:00 p.m.
For Reservations
RSVP by Wednesday, 2nd May to the Alaska World Affairs Council
by telephone at 276-8038 or by email
$20 for Members - $25 for Non-Members – $6 for Coffee Only

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has described climate change as the greatest long-term environmental challenge facing the planet. In the UK the British Government has put in place policies that have cut UK carbon emissions by 15% since 1990, while the British economy has grown by 35% and unemployment has fallen. Tony Blair made climate change one of the two priorities for the UK’s G8 Presidency in 2005 and has led efforts within the European Union to tackle climate change.

In this talk, Julian Braithwaite will set out why the British Government considers climate change to be so important, what they believe the world should be doing about it, and how they think an international agreement to take these actions might come about.

Julian Braithwaite is the Counselor for Global Issues at the British Embassy in Washington DC. A British diplomat, he heads up the Embassy’s Global Issues Group. This team covers US energy and environmental issues for the British Government, as well other business and economic matters. Mr Braithwaite also supervises the British Government’s network of science and innovation attaches in Boston, Atlanta, Houston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

Before joining the British Embassy in 2004, Mr Braithwaite worked for two years for the High Representative to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lord Paddy Ashdown, as his chief political and communications adviser. Prior to that he worked for four years in 10 Downing Street first as Foreign Affairs Press Secretary and then as Prime Minister Tony Blair’s speech writer. He was educated at Cambridge and Harvard Universities.