EU President Klaus Opens International Climate Skeptics Conference

New York - March 11th 2009 - The second annual International Conference on Climate Change(ICCC) opened Sunday with EU and Czech President Valac Klaus and Dr Richard S. Lindzen from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT) delivering keynote addresses to conference delegates. 

Their remarks support a growing climate skeptics' movement and highlighted the need for a more critical assessment of the current theories on man-made global warming, as well as a closer look at the economic and social ramifications of climate change policymaking. 

Hosted by The Heartland Institute and 57 other co-sponsoring organizations, the event hopes to present new information and answer key questions overlooked by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC).  

Attendees to this event heard presentations and panel discussions from an impressive list of guest speakers including American astronaut Dr. Jack Schmitt, Congressman Tom McClintock(CA), NASA’s Roy Spencer, Dr Willie Soon of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, author Stephen McIntyre, and former White House Chief of Staff Dr John Sununu.  

EU President Valac Klaus states, “The politicians sometimes look at the very condensed version of the IPCC’s Summaries for Policymakers but these documents do not represent science, but rather politics and environmental activism. They(politicians) did fully subscribe to the idea that the IPCC publications represent ‘the’ climate science. We know that is not true, and that there is no scientific discipline of climate science”. Klaus added, “I am looking forward to new ideas, arguments and data coming out of this conference.” 

Dr Richard Lindzen of MIT said, “Global warming alarm has always been a political movement, and opposing it has always been an up-hill battle”. Lindzen adds, “What can be done? The most obvious point here is to preserve and better understand the science and to emphasize logic- which ultimately trumps ‘authority’".

Organizers have seen attendance numbers double since last year's inaugural conference indicating the increasing professional and public awareness of climate skeptics' argument that the orthodoxy surrounding human-induced climate change is still open to scientific debate.

“The number of people registered for this event is nearly twice as many as attended the 2008 conference,” says Heartland Institute President Joseph Bast. “The presenters at this year’s conference are the elite in the world among climate scientists. We will be delighted to demonstrate once again the breadth and high quality of support that the skeptical perspective on climate change enjoys.”

ICCC panel speakers 

For more information on the 2009 International Conference on Climate Change, please visit: