The first 2008 International Transport Forum on Transport and Energy: the Challenge of Climate Change was held in Leipzig last week. Almost 900 participants from all 51 International Transport Forum Member Countries, Observers and India came to Leipzig for the Forum. More than 100 journalists from 12 countries covered the event.

Keynote addresses were delivered by German Federal Chancellor, Angela Merkel, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and last year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner; Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and Pekka Himanen, Universities of Helsinki and Oxford.

Other distinguished speakers included Thomas Enders, CEO of Airbus; Thierry Morin, CEO of Valeo; Hartmut Mehdorn, CEO of Deutsche Bahn; Scott Price CEO of DHL Express Europe; André Navarri, Président of Bombardier Transportation; Nobuo Tanaka, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency and Professor Julia King, Aston University, among others.

A Research and Stakeholder day on 28 May attracted many distinguished researchers and Industry representatives from around the globe.

Ministers of Transport of the Forum Member Countries also met and issued a set of Key Messages on Transport and Climate Change.

A great deal of material from the event is now available or will be shortly on the International Transport Forum website including:

– The Key Messages agreed by Ministers;

– Video presentations of the Industry-Ministerial panels, Workshops and Stakeholder day;

– Papers and slide presentations submitted by Research experts;

– Summaries of Research findings over the last year;

– Information on Award Winners;

– A large number of photographs.