Events on Day 2: Theme - Purpose to Action - Sustainable Development

The first speaker for the opening Plenary session of Convention was Professor Peter M Cox, who was born in 1964 in London, and has 15 years experience in modelling climate change. 

He started at Exeter University as the "Met Office Chair in Climate System Dynamics" on 1 September 2006, having previously been the Science Director for Climate Change at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH). Prior to joing CEH he worked from 1990 to December 2004 at the Hadley Centre for Climate Predication and Research.

His educational background is in Physics and Theoretical Physics, but he spent his years at the Hadley Centre thinking about interactions between ecosystems, atmospheric composition, and the physical climate system.  Professor Cox led the team which carried out the first climate projection to include vegetation and the carbon cycle as dynamic interactive elements. He has published about fifty papers in peer-reviewed journals and is a lead-author on the 4th Assessment report of the Intergovernmental panel on Climate Change.

 
The Report from the Federation of the Americas by President Teresita Choa followed Professor Cox's presentation

Mary Renfrew is Professor of Mother and Infant Health in the University of York, where she is also Director of the multidisciplinary Mother and Infant Research Unit, and Director of the national Collaborating Centre for Maternal and Child Nutrition (funded by NICE).

She has ongoing research and development work in infant feeding, inequalities in health, the organisation of maternity care, and ways of avoiding interventions in childbirth.  She has been involved in research and education in midwifery and maternity care for over 25 years, in Scotland, England and Canada.

In addition to academic journal publications, she has written widely about maternity care, and is author or editor of seven bookks.  She has worked closely with service users and consumer groups for many years, especially in the involvement of service users in research.  She is co-author, with Chloe Fisher and Suzanne Arms, of 'Breastfeeding; getting breastfeeding right for you".

She has been Chair of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Strategic Committee for Maternal and Newborn Health, and has advised the WHO, UNICEF and the International Confederation of Midwives on aspects of maternal and child health, and research.

The Report from the Federation of Europe by President Monique Riviere and Immediate Past President Heidrun Konrad followed Proffessor Renfrew's presentation