Climate change is a real and urgent global threat. This international LEAD event, taking place just 3 weeks before a global climate deal is discussed in Copenhagen, will gather together more than 150 emerging leaders from diverse sectors and countries to explore the leadership challenges and opportunities presented by climate change.

Participants will gain knowledge, leadership skills, and self-awareness to enhance their capacity as change-makers.

They will also learn from and be inspired by each other, sharing their experiences from around the world, building valuable personal and professional networks, and identifying future opportunities for collaboration.

Using China as an example, we will explore the complex web of activity needed to tackle climate change in a rapidly developing country with a massive urbanising population, high rural poverty, and the largest carbon emissions in the world. China is also one of countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

How can society adapt to the impacts of climate change? What innovations are required to develop new technologies, policies and approaches, and to scale-up existing solutions? How can countries and sectors better work together to use growing interdependence as a basis for collective global action? What lessons can be learned from South-North and East-West experiences?

The 2009 LEAD International Session will address these and other questions by bringing together leaders from around the world to examine the roles that  governance, business and societal action play in relation to climate change, and the challenges that climate change poses to human development and quality of life.

This site is a gateway to more information on the 2009 event, LEAD, and leadership for a sustainable future. Welcome!