Nicholas Stern – Keynote Speaker

Nicholas Stern (Lord Stern) is a globally recognised economist, and one the world’s leading authorities on climate change, international development and global economic growth.

Lord Stern is IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government at London School of Economics, and Head of the India Observatory and Chairman of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. He is President of the British Academy (from July 2013), and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society (June 2014).

From 2000-03 he was Chief Economist at the World Bank, and Senior Vice President for Development Economics. From 1994-99 he was Chief Economist and Special Counsellor to the President at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

From 2005-07 he was adviser to the UK Government on the Economics of Climate Change and Development, reporting to the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. In this role he headed the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change. He was also Head of the Government Economic Service from 2003-07; and was also Director of Policy and Research for the Prime Minister’s Commission for Africa. In 2009 he was President of the European Economic Association.

Lord Stern’s work in academic life has included teaching and research positions at many of the most prestigious institutions in the world, including the London School of Economics, the University of Oxford, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Ecole Polytechnique and the Collège de France in Paris, the Indian Statistical Institute in Bangalore and Delhi, and the People’s University of China in Beijing.

His research and publications have focused on the economics of climate change, economic development and growth, economic theory, tax reform, public policy and the role of the state and economies in transition. His first books were on tea in Kenya and the Green Revolution in India (where he lived for 8 months in a village in Northern India in 1974/75).

Lord Stern has written books on crime, criminal statistics in the UK, public finance and development. “Growth & Empowerment: Making Development Happen” was published in April 2005. The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change was published in January 2007 by Cambridge University Press. He has published more than 15 books and 100 articles. “A Blueprint for a Safer Planet” was published in April 2009.

Awards for Nicholas Stern include:

• International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) Global Environment Award, 2010
• Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought, Tufts University, 2010
• Fundación Ideas (Madrid) 2010 Award for work on sustainability and climate change (December)
• The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award 2011, BBVA Foundation