If you are interested in wine making and/or climate change, or you'd like to hear ex-UN secretary general and 2001 Nobel Peace Prize winner Kofi Annan speak about the latter, then you'll be interested to hear about the 3rd World Conference on Climate Change and Wine, which takes place in Marbella next week, on 13-14 April.
Annan will be the keynote speaker on 13 April, and will also preside over a charity dinner at Los Monteros Hotel. The full title of the conference is, in Spanish, "El Pacto Mundial: Un reto al mundo empresarial para que se conviertan en lideres del desarollo sostenible", which translates as "The Global Pact: Challenging business to become leaders in sustainable development." (I've changed the English from the ad, as it wasn't correct.)
Throughout his time at the UN, and since then via his foundation, Annan has championed the importance of economic, social and environmental sustainability. He says it's important to "bring people from all sectors together to find solutions to global challenges, like hunger and climate change. Humanity can overcome these problems," he says, " if we all put our efforts in, regardless of where live and what we do." However, we're already feeling the effects of climate change, he says, which "threatens to dash our hopes for a fair and sustainable world... It is already having a damaging impact on the lives of millions."
In terms of the effect on the wine industry, as Annan mentioned at another conference in Switzerland, last November, the effects are being felt in that "the gradual increase in temperature is producing an increase in seawater (which causes)... less frost, which is crucial for some grape varieties."
This conference is directed to the sizeable business international business community on the Costa del Sol - English, Spanish, but also other nationalities - and focuses on how to adapt to more sustainable measures in dealing with the problem of climate change. After Annan's speech on the subject, there will he a 30-minute question-and-answer session.
In the evening, Annan and his wife, along with the Mayoress of Marbella will preside over the official dinner.
The conference is organised by the Wine Academy of Spain, whose president Pancho Campo MW, recently appointed to the Advisory Council of Al Gore's Climate Project in Spain, will speak. Other speakers will include wine-makers such as Bodegas Torres and Nicolas Joly, and Californian company Fetzer, which uses solar power and biodiesel. Spain's newest Master of Wine, Pedro Ballesteros, will also address the conference.
You can register for the Third World Conference on Climate Change and Wine here.
