Press Release

The Road to Copenhagen: Perspectives on Brazil, China and India

A panel discussion hosted by The Brazil Institute, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Environmental Defense Fund and Ronald Reagan International Trade Center

Posted: 19-Oct-2009

Monday, October 26th – 3:30 to 5:30 PM
Ronald Reagan International Convention Center
Pavilion Room, 2nd floor

RSVP to amanda.earley@wilsoncenter.org
Simultaneous translation will be provided

Speakers: Marina Silva, Senator for the Brazilian Amazon state of Acre; Kenneth G. Lieberthal, Director, John L. Thornton China Center, Brookings Institute; Raymond E. Vickery Jr., Senior Vice-President, Albright Stonebridge Group.
Moderators: Paulo Sotero, Director, Brazil Institute, Woodrow Wilson Center; Stephan Schwartzman, Director for Tropical Forest Policy, Environmental Defense Fund.

As we approach the December 2009 United Nations Frame Convention on Climate Change conference in Copenhagen, the newly industrializing countries of Brazil, China and India debate internally what efforts they are prepared to make to curb the increase of their carbon emissions. Home of the world's largest forest, Brazil resists internationally-established mandatory emissions cuts but is open to the adoption of credible alternative mechanisms and has committed to drastically reduce deforestation, its principal source of carbon emissions. Hungry for energy to fuel its expanding economy, China, the largest carbon emitting country, has recently emerged as a leader in technologies for a lower carbon economy, including cleaner-burning coal. And India, whose emissions are still among the lowest in the world, but with a fast expanding economy and the desire to bring energy to its growing population, works to position itself as a "deal maker, not a deal breaker" in Copenhagen. The evolving domestic debates and international posture of these three emerging powers on climate change will be the subject a conference jointly sponsored by the Brazil Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Environmental Defense Fund, and the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center.

Marina Silva, a leader of the Brazilian environmental movement and former Minister of Environment of Brazil, recently left the Workers Party and is seen as a potential Green Party candidate for the Brazilian presidential elections of 2010. Kenneth G. Lieberthal, preeminent China scholar, served as Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and senior director for Asia on the National Security Council from August 1998 to October 2000. Raymond E. Vickery Jr. is widely known for his work promoting U.S.-India economic cooperation and served as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Trade Development, where he launched the U.S.-India Commercial Alliance. He is a former Wilson Center Public Policy Scholar.

If taking metro
Go to Federal Triangle on the Orange/Blue line. Walk straight ahead once exiting the station. Go up the escalators to the Ronald Reagan Plaza. You will see Aria Restaurant to your right. Walk straight ahead through the Plaza and on the other side you see a building entrance. Enter the building there; clear security. Walk down the hall make a right then proceed down the hall to the business office on your left. There is a sign on the corner that indicates where the elevator is to your left. Take it to 2nd floor.