Rt Hon John Gummer MP
John Gummer was Margaret Thatcher’s Chairman of the Conservative Party and for 16 years a minister, becoming Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, and then Secretary of State for the Environment. His experience as an international negotiator has earned him worldwide respect both in the business community and among environmentalists.
Previous to his ministerial career he was a successful businessman and Chairman of a medium sized plc. In consecutive years, the BBC unprecedentedly awarded him the title ‘Parliamentarian who did most for the Environment Internationally’, while the NGO community called him ‘the best Environment Secretary we have ever had’.
Since leaving office he has held the positions of Chairman of the International Commission on Sustainable Consumption, Chairman of the Marine Stewardship Council and Non-Executive Director of Kidde Plc. He is currently Chairman of The Sancroft Group, Chairman of Valpak Ltd., Chairman of the Association of Independent Financial Advisors, and Chairman of Veolia UK Ltd. In December 2005 David Cameron appointed him Chairman of the Quality of Life Commission.
Rt Hon Michael Meacher MP
Michael Meacher was Minister for the Environment in the Blair Government 1997-2003. Before 1997 he was a Minister in the Wilson-Callaghan Governments 1974-79 and then a member of the Shadow Cabinet 1983-97. He has thus had 11 years of experience in Government, and has been continually on the Front Bench in Parliament for 29 years.
Throughout his parliamentary career he has held seven portfolios either in Opposition or in Government. Since 2003 he has been very active on a number of domestic and international issues, especially the background to the Iraq War and its consequences, GM crops and climate change.
Dr Clare Goodess, Climate Research Unit, University of East Anglia
Dr Clare Goodess is a Senior Research Associate and Research Manager with over 25 years experience of contract research in the CRU. Her main current research interest is in the development of projections of regional climate change over the coming century and working with users and decision makers to ensure that these are used effectively in climate change impacts and adaptation studies. She has a particular interest in past and future changes in the occurrence of extreme weather events.
Clare has co-ordinated and worked on many major UK and European climate change projects and also has active links with research groups in Canada, India and the USA. She coordinated the Framework 5 European Union funded STARDEX project on scenarios of extremes. In Framework 6 she is the co-coordinator of work on the production of probabilistic regional climate scenarios in the ENSEMBLES integrated project and co-ordinator of integrating case-studies within the CIRCE project on impacts of climate change in the Mediterranean.
You can download Clare's Powerpoint presentation here (13MB)