Cambridge, 29 February
2008-The United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) and California State University,
Chico are pleased to announce the appointment
of Dr. Jeff Price as Senior Fellow for Climate
Change and Biodiversity at the UNEP World
Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge,
UK. Paul Zingg, President of CSU Chico,
said today "I am delighted with this
new relationship with UNEP-WCMC because
it will allow Jeff Price to inject an important
new international perspective to his teaching
and research".
Dr. Price, who was a
lead author for the Nobel Peace Prize-winning
Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change
(IPCC)'s Third and Fourth Assessment Reports,
will work with UNEP-WCMC during 2008 to
assist the Centre to assimilate the most
recent information and research on climate
change and its impacts on biodiversity,
so that it can be used to better inform
the development of international policy.
A central focus of the
Centre' work on climate change is the linkage
between policies and activities to reduce
the rate at which tropical forests are destroyed.
One aspect of this work is to address the
increasing pressure on crops, agriculture
and land to produce biofuels. Paradoxically,
by encouraging the growth of biofuels to
reduce greenhouse gases from fossil fuels,
the international community is in danger
of speeding up the rate of deforestation-which
itself accounts for at least 18% of all
greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere.
The Director of UNEP-WCMC,
Prof Jon Hutton, described the appointment
of Dr Price to the Centre's new Fellowship
in collaboration with CSU Chico as "just
the sort of partnership we need to raise
our game, bridge the divide between research
and policy and speed up the response to
human-induced climate change".
Jeff Price brings to
UNEP-WCMC 15 years of experience working
on these issues. He lectures on climate
change adaptation and was one of the lead
authors of the IPCC's Third and Fourth Assessment
Reports dealing with ecosystems, and the
IPCC's Technical Paper on Climate Change
and Biodiversity. He also contributed text
to one of the reports underlying the Stern
Review of the Economic Impacts of Climate
Change in the UK, and the National Assessment
on Climate Change Impacts on the United
States. He was co-author of the Nature article
"Fingerprints of global warming on
wild animals and plants" and produced
the popular 'Birdwatcher's Guide to Global
Warming'.
Notes to editors:
The UNEP World Conservation
Monitoring Centre is the biodiversity assessment
and policy support arm of the United Nations
Environment Programme, the world's foremost
intergovernmental environmental organization.
The Centre provides objective, scientifically
rigorous research and reports to help decision
makers recognize the value of biodiversity
and apply this knowledge to all that they
do.
For more information,
visit the UNEP-WCMC website: http://www.unep-wcmc.org/climate
California State University,
Chico is among the most highly ranked public
universities in the western U.S. The University
recognizes that the natural resources of
this planet are finite and integrates the
principles of sustainable development into
its academic programs, practices, and collaborations.
For more information,
visit the website of CSU Chico's College
of Natural Sciences: http://www.csuchico.edu/geos/
Nick Nuttall, UNEP Spokesperson
Anne-France White, Associate
Information Officer
