Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway, has agreed to open Beyond Kyoto – a major international conference on the environment and climate at the University of Aarhus on 5–7 March 2009.

Prior to becoming Norway’s first female Prime Minister, Gro Harlem Brundtland was Minister of the Environment, a post she held for almost 10 years altogether.

In 1983, Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, Secretary General of the United Nations, appointed her to set up and lead the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), also called the Brundtland Commission. In 1987, the Brundtland Commission published the ground-breaking report Our Common Future , which had an unrivalled impact on the environment and development area, and was a central focal point for the United Nations world summit meeting in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, at which the Climate Convention was adopted.

Among her numerous international tasks, Gro Harlem Brundtland took office as Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1998. In 2007, she was also appointed by Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, as United Nations Special Envoy on Climate Change.

Among the many other prominent international speakers at the conference are Professor Sir David King, former advisor to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Professor Steven Chu, Nobel Laureate in Physics, Professor Robert N. Stavins, Kim Carstensen, Director, WWF Global Climate Deal Programme, and Jørgen Mads Clausen, CEO, Danfoss.

The conference is being organised and led by the newly established Climate Secretariat at the University of Aarhus in collaboration with the university’s climate panel, the Municipality of Aarhus and the Central Denmark Region. In a recently conducted international survey, the University of Aarhus was designated one of the top 100 universities in the world, and it also wants to stand out as a climate university.

Approximately 1,000 guests are expected to attend the conference, with researchers from large parts of the international community, the business community and political circles. The theme of the conference is climate and energy, with local anchoring seen in a global perspective, and with a focus on the consequences of climate change.

• Read more about Beyond Kyoto at: http://klima.au.dk/dk/forside/konferencebeyondkyotoconferen/
• Read more about the University of Aarhus climate initiative at: http://www.klima.au.dk/en/home/

More information:

Professor Ellen Margrethe Basse, dr.jur. , Head of the University of Aarhus Climate Secretariat, tel. +458942 1970, and Jakob Bek-Thomsen, Communication and Outreach, tel. +458942 1966, mobile +45 2899 2479.