Mary Robinson Interviewed by Nick Higham

Former President of Ireland and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson makes a powerful case for justice on climate change and finds that many grassroots campaigners for climate justice are mothers and grandmothers like herself.

This event was originally scheduled for 6pm but has been changed to 10am. Tickets bought before the change remain valid. If you bought a ticket for 6pm and can no longer make the new time, email tickets@oxfordliteraryfestival.org to request a refund.

Robinson is president of the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice, a centre for thought leadership, education and advocacy on global justice for those vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. She describes how the issue became deeply personal for her when she held her first grandchild in her arms in 2003 and contemplated the uncertain world he had been born into. Her mission on climate justice has led her across the world to meet grassroots campaigners including a Mississippi matriarch whose campaign led her to speak at the United Nations and a small farmer who transformed her rural community in Uganda.

Robinson is an Irish independent politician who was the seventh President of Ireland between 1990 and 1997 and the first woman to hold the office. She has served in two capacities as the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Climate Change.

Here she talks to BBC journalist Nick Higham, who was the BBC’s first ever media correspondent and, until recently, presenter of Meet the Author on the BBC news channel.

This event is part of the festival’s Irish programme.