Coal: The elephant in the room - public lecture by John Ashton at ANU September 09

Description: In June 2006 John Ashton was appointed as the UK Foreign Secretarys Special Representative for Climate Change with the aim of supporting Ministers in delivering a step-change in the international response to climate change. He has the personal title of Ambassador, reporting directly to the Foreign Secretary. John has played a key role in designing the United Kingdoms Foreign and Commonwealth Offices climate change network and strategy. John has spent most of his career in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He founded and led its Environment Policy Department, before moving outside government in 2002 and establishing E3G in 2004. John has been continuously active in climate diplomacy in various capacities since 1997. He was involved in negotiating the EU package on climate change in spring 2007 and December 2008 including funding for Carbon Capture and Storage across Europe. He helped negotiate the agreement in 2005 between the EU and China to demonstrate zero emission coal technology in China, and was closely involved in the EUs engagement with Russia over the Kyoto Protocol. John played a key role in the first UN security debate on climate change in April 2007. He was a senior member of the UK negotiating team in the UN climate negotiations from 1998-2002. This video was recorded at ANU on September 10, 2009. It was presented by the ANU Climate Change Institute.