Asia Society Hong Kong Hosts Nobel Laureates Dialogue on Sustainability and Climate Change

Asia Society Hong Kong hosted a three-day symposium on global sustainability on April 22-24, 2015. The 4th Nobel Laureate Symposium brought together seven Nobel Laureates, and featured a keynote address by Hong Kong’s Chief Executive C. Y. Leung as well as video messages from World Bank President Jim Young Kim and Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Speakers at the symposium addressed the challenges cities face in a world of rapid climate and socioeconomic change. Ronnie C. Chan, Global Board Co-Chair of Asia Society, opened the event, noting his pleasure that the event was being held for the first time in Asia where there are more megacities than anywhere else in the world. “The topics we are discussing [here] cannot be any more significant than they are in this part of the world,” he said.

Ahead of the event, Asia Society’s Asia Blog interviewed astrophysicist Brian Schmidt, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2011 for his work demonstrating the universe's accelerating expansion. Schmidt addressed the politics of climate change in Asia, the need to take greater action, and humanity's odds of conquering its biggest challenge ever.

In the interview, he commented: “I do not know if the world has the discipline to do what it needs to, to live sustainably with more than seven billion people on the planet. But I am an optimist in how I think about the problem; I know it is possible to do it, and there is no sense for planning for failure, so the only sensible way forward is to optimistically challenge the problem head-on, until it is solved.”

Co-organized by Asia Society Hong Kong and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research, the event aimed to move forward a constructive dialogue on this most pressing global issue. The event was covered by Forbes, the International Business Times, and the Sydney Morning Herald among others.