Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has visited Tsinghua University on March 24, 2009, and delivered a speech entitled “A Global Deal in Climate Change: the Role of Business and New Technologies” at the auditorium of Tsinghua SEM.

The former British Prime Minister mentioned current economic crisis at the beginning of his speech.

“The first thing people often say in today’s world is about economic crisis; so how can we talk about climate change?" Blair said his answer is “this is the very moment when we should make sure that the investment we are going to make in our economies in order to walk a way out of the economic crisis that a substantial part of the investment goes into the issue of clean technology and new technologies that allows us to grow sustainably and to combat the issue of climate change.”

“If governments are going to invest in their economies as a result of the financial crisis, isn’t it sensible to use this opportunity to invest in a way for the future that allows us to grow sustainably?” said Blair.

Blair also talked about the upcoming Climate Change Conference to be held in Copenhagen at the end of this year as well as the new global accord on climate change which will be a successor of the Kyoto treaty. “This is not going to be an easy negotiation”. Blair emphasized the importance of corporation among major powers in the world.

“Unless action is taken not just by America and Europe, but also by China and the developing world then we will not succeed in confronting the overcoming challenge of climate change”, said Blair.

Mr. Blair met with Professor Xie Weihe, Vice President of the University and Professor Qian Yingyi, Dean of Tsinghua SEM before his speech.

Mr. Blair’s last visit to Tsinghua was in 2003 for the inauguration of the Tsinghua-BP Clean Energy Research and Education Center.

Mr. Tony Blair served as British Prime Minister from May 1997 to June 2007. During his ten years as Prime Minister, Mr. Blair transformed Britain’s public services through a program of investment and reform in schools and hospitals, resulting in more children achieving better school results and more people receiving faster access to health care. Mr. Tony Blair has always been a strong advocate on the issues he cares about and of global importance such as climate change and global poverty, and launched the “Tony Blair Faith Foundation” in2008 inorder to promote understanding between the major faiths, and increase understanding of the role of faith in the modern world.