“Reframing the Climate Change Debate:
Jobs, Trade, Security and a Revised Research Agenda”

Sponsored by
The Center for Advancing Research and Solutions for Society and
The Frederick A. and Barbara M. Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise
of the School of Natural Resources & Environment and the Ross School of Business


Location:
Executive Education Center
Stephen M. Ross School of Business
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109
June 2-4, 2005

The University of Michigan is pleased to host a high-level exchange of views on climate change policy among senior representatives of national environmental organizations, labor unions, trade groups, corporate executives and leading scholars.

In the wake of the re-election of George W. Bush and recent criticisms of the environmental movement this unique meeting will explore ways to view the climate change issue from new perspectives. The University of Michigan will host a unique discussion that will bring together a set of participants whose perspectives challenge us to move beyond climate change as an environmental issue and also consider it as an issue of global trade, jobs and labor, and national/energy security. Our goal is to broaden the debate in an effort to bridge what at times appear to be highly divergent interests. At this moment in our history, building such bridges offers hope for movement forward.

Further, this meeting will bring practitioners together with leading scholars for further refinement of the issues at play, both as a means for broadening dialogue and as a means for launching new research at the intersection of policy, science, behavior and economics. Unfortunately, the issue of climate change has become highly politicized; we hope to take a step forward in bringing more reasoned analysis to this controversial and divisive issue.

In the end, we offer the opportunity for all sides to gain a broader understanding of the diverse perspectives shaping climate policy in the United States. As the Kyoto Treaty enters into force in 2005, bills move through the U.S. government in search of support, and similar bills emerge at the level of individual states, there is great interest and concern over how the United States should address climate change.