Governors from across the United States will meet at Yale on Thursday and Friday,
April 17 and 18, to review state-level programs to combat global climate change
and to develop a strategy for future action.
T H I S
The gathering will also mark the centennial of President Theodore Roosevelt’s
landmark 1908 Conference of Governors, which launched the modern conservation
movement, planted the seed for the National Parks System and inspired significant
state efforts to protect land. The participating governors will celebrate 100
years of state leadership on critical environmental issues, confront the present
climate challenge and set out a vision of a federal-state partnership for future
action.
“Roosevelt showed remarkable foresight a century ago in engaging the states’ chief
executive officers to preserve and protect the nation’s natural resources,” said
President Richard C. Levin. “Now, we face a new and critical challenge — global
climate change — and leadership in the United States is coming from visionary
state governors.”
Governors who plan to attend the conference include Jodi Rell of Connecticut,
Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, Jon Corzine of New Jersey and Kathleen Sebelius
of Kansas. Quebec Premier Jean Charest will also be present, and a dozen other
governors are exploring whether their schedules will permit participation.
The governors will meet privately for high-level discussions on climate change,
and will address the general public during a plenary session on April 18. In
addition to recognizing those governors who have demonstrated global leadership
in addressing climate change, this gathering will provide these leaders with
an opportunity to exchange ideas and chart a forward path on state, national
and international action. It is anticipated that, while at Yale, the governors
will sign a climate change declaration that addresses state and federal-level
policymaking — a document that is expected to be particularly timely, as
the United States prepares for fresh leadership at the federal level.
Nobel laureate R.K. Pachauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change, will address the gathering. Several former Environmental Protection Agency
administrators, including Christine Todd Whitman and Carol Browner, will also
be part of the dialogue. Schwarzenegger and Pachauri will deliver public addresses
at the conference on April 18. The event will also include a talk on April 17
by Theodore Roosevelt IV about the legacy of his great-grandfather. A complete
list of conference participants and other details will be distributed closer
to the event.
As home of one of the country’s leading environmental schools — the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental
Studies (F&ES), led by Dean Gus Speth — Yale has ties that make it
an apt site for the 100th gathering of the Conference of Governors. F&ES
was founded in 1900 by Gifford Pinchot, Roosevelt’s trusted adviser and
founder of the U.S. Forest Service. It was Pinchot who organized the 1908 Conference
of Governors.
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