Chairman, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and Director-General, the Energy and Resources Institute*
Conference Participant
1990 and 1995: developing the work plans of the Asian Energy Institute, a network of research and educational institutions, and attending energy conferences
2007: serving as a keynote speaker at the Rockefeller Foundation Global Urban Summit
The global character of Bellagio not only brought us together in spirit and mind, but also removed us from narrow and parochial interests. At dinner during one visit, I sat next to a professor of English who is also a well-known poet. At the end of our conversation, I plucked up enough courage to confess that I was an amateur poet and had been writing verse since the age of eight. Our evening ended with her asking me to write something, possibly overnight, and show it to her the next morning. In turn, I asked her to write something and give it to me the next day.
Both of us kept our promise, and she, of course, typed out a beautiful poem, which I retain, and I gave her something that I feel was one of my better literary efforts, but certainly nothing near her class. In order to produce the poem, I had worked for quite some hours during the night, but in the end I was generally happy with what I had done. As it turns out, she was also quite appreciative of the quality of what I had written. This certainly served as a source of encouragement to me and I thought that I had obviously not been writing enough poetry, a situation I decided to repair.
Since then, I have been trying to do so, with results that I feel are certainly good for my own sanity and emotional balance. I believe it is important for people to foray outside their professions, into other areas for which they may have a penchant or interest. My brief encounter with a poet in Bellagio was an extremely productive and heartening experience.
*Title at time of Bellagio stay
