07.12.09 - Rt Hon Hilary Benn praises the work of SocEnv
As the Copenhagen Climate Conference progresses, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Hilary Benn, has spoken of the importance of the UK's environmental professionals in tackling the challenges that lie ahead.
Referring to the summit in Copenhagen as "without any doubt at all the most important meeting in human history", Benn said that tackling climate change was "fundamentally a political choice for the world".
Hilary Benn was speaking at a meeting of the Society for the Environment (SocEnv), where he presented former Chair of the Society John Brady with an Honorary Fellowship, in recognition of John's outstanding service to sustainability and to the Society.
"The reason I was so keen to come here today was to thank you and all of your members for the work that you do," Benn said. "Your work is part of showing people what the nature of the problem is, but most important of all it's what we can do about it."
"Your skills, your knowledge, your expertise is exactly what we need to succeed," he added.
The audience was drawn from members from across the Society's 23 constituent bodies, which represent many of the UK's major professional and learned institutions involved in managing the environment.
