One of the world’s leaders in climate change abatement and development, former president of the Republic of Guyana, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, will be featured on an environmental issues panel organized by the Trent Centre for Biomaterials Research on Monday, June 3, 2013, in Toronto, Ontario.

The Carbon Conversations: Charting a Sustainable Future discussion series, now in its second year, addresses the core of our planet’s crisis – carbon and the world’s dependence on carbon byproducts. The Trent Centre for Biomaterials Research engages a broad spectrum of thinkers in carbon conversations – from students and scientists to philosophers and consumers – to generate discourse about carbon-related sustainability issues and the future of our world. The panel will be focusing on the question: “Environmental Sustainability and Avoided Climate Change: Mutually Exclusive to Development and For-Profit Commercialization?”

Joining Dr. Jagdeo on the distinguished carbon conversations panel are: David Patterson, a Trent University alumnus and current chair and CEO of Northwater Capital, a company that has invested significantly in green and clean energy technologies; and Annette Verschuren, a member of the Order of Canada, former president of Home Depot Canada and Asia, and chair of the Clean Energy Task Force for Ontario. Ms. Verschuren’s company NRStor is focused on storage of clean and green energy.

“Our planet’s dependence on carbon is interwoven into literally all aspects of our lives: energy, materials, culture, security, geo-politics, trade, development, and ultimately, our existence. How we manage it is therefore not a question that must be answered by a few isolated facets of our society, but frames a discussion for all hierarchies of society,” said Dr. Suresh Narine, director of the Trent Centre for Biomaterials and moderator of the carbon conversations panel. “This panel is particularly exciting because it brings together a Third World leader who has emerged as a global leader advocating that avoided deforestation can and should be linked to economic development, along with two captains of industry whose for-profit companies have found growth opportunities in reduced carbon and cleaner energy technologies.”

His Excellency Bharrat Jagdeo was named president of Guyana in 1999, taking on the role as one of the youngest heads of state in the world. He was re-elected twice, serving the maximum number of terms. During his presidency, Dr. Jagdeo led Guyana as the country embarked on one of the world’s most ambitious low carbon development strategies. While maintaining 99.5 per cent of its rainforest, Guyana is on track to become the world’s number one user of clean energy by 2017. Recognized as a global champion of the environment, TIME magazine named Dr. Jagdeo a “Hero of the Environment” in 2008. In 2010, he was a recipient of the United Nations Champion of the Earth Award, and was asked to serve on the UN Secretary General’s High Level Advisory Group on Climate Finance. From 2005 to 2006, Mr. Jagdeo was chairman of the Board of Governors of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. In 2012, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature appointed him high level envoy for Sustainable Development in Forest Countries and a Patron of Nature. Currently, Dr. Jagdeo is president of the Global Green Growth Institute.

Hosted by the Trent Centre for Biomaterials Research, carbon conversations is a recurring discussion about climate change, environmental stewardship, economic development, culture, ideology and the consumption of resources.