Stopping Climate Change: What did COP28 achieve, and what now?

Professor Paul Ekins is delighted to host this exciting panel event discussing the outcomes of COP28 and how effective policy change can be achieved, on Tuesday 9th January from 5:45pm.

The panel will run from 6-7:30pm including a Q&A, followed by a reception with drinks and nibbles kindly hosted by UCL until 9pm.

The event will be chaired by Sarah Chaytor, Director of Strategy and Policy at UCL and panellists will include:

• Professor Paul Ekins, Professor of Resources and Environmental Policy

• Lord Deben, former Chair of the Climate Change Committee

• Caroline Lucas MP, Green MP and Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Climate Change

There will also be an opportunity to purchase signed copies of Professor Ekins' new book: 'Stopping Climate Change - Policies for Real Zero'.

About the speakers

Professor Paul Ekins

Paul Ekins has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of London and is Professor of Resources and Environmental Policy at the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources at University College London. He was Deputy Director of the UK Energy Research Centre from 2014-2019. He was a Member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution from 2002-2008. He is currently a member of UNEP’s International Resource Panel, working on a report on critical minerals for the energy transition. He has extensive experience consulting for business, government and international organisations. Paul Ekins’ academic work, published in numerous books, articles and scientific papers, focuses on the conditions and policies for achieving an environmentally sustainable economy. His most recent book (co-edited with Jim Watson and Mike Bradshaw) was Global Energy: Issues, Potentials and Policy Implications (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2015). His new book, to be published in late 2023, is Stopping Climate Change: Policies for Real Zero (Routledge). In 1994 Paul Ekins received a Global 500 Award ‘for outstanding environmental achievement’ from the United Nations Environment Programme. In the UK New Year’s Honours List for 2015 he received an OBE for services to environmental policy.

Lord Deben

The Rt. Hon John Gummer, Lord Deben, is the founder and Chairman of Sancroft International, a consultancy that advises both businesses and investors on all areas of Sustainability and ESG. Between 2012 and 2023 he was Chairman of the UK’s Independent Climate Change Committee. Lord Deben was also the UK’s longest serving Secretary of State for the Environment (1993-97) having previously been Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food. His sixteen years of top-level ministerial experience also include Minister for London, Employment Minister, and Paymaster General in HM Treasury. Lord Deben is currently Chairman of Valpak Ltd and of PIMFA, the trade body representing financial advisers and wealth managers. Throughout his political, business, and personal life Lord Deben has consistently championed an accord between sustainability and business sense.

Caroline Lucas

As the Green Party’s first MP, Caroline has represented Brighton Pavilion since 2010. She was previously an MEP for 11 years, an Oxfordshire councillor and elected both as Party Leader and Co-Leader.

She’s Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Climate Change, Co-Chair of the APPGs on Limits to Growth and the Green New Deal, and active in the Refugee and Drug Reform APPGs, alongside serving on Parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee.

Caroline is one of the Environment Agency’s Top 100 Eco-Heroes of all time and in 2015 published Honourable Friends: Parliament and the fight for change.

Sarah Chaytor

Sarah Chaytor is Director of Strategy & Policy for UCL Research, Innovation & Global Engagement.

She was a co-founder and is currently co-Chair of UPEN, the Universities Policy Engagement Network; leads the £10 million Capabilities in Academic-Policy Engagement project; and is Principal Investigator and Strategic Engagement Director for the International Public Policy Observatory. She is also a Co-Director of the Research on Research Institute.

Sarah established and oversees UCL’s flagship academic-policy engagement initiative, UCL Public Policy, to connect UCL research to public policymaking. She works closely with the Vice-Provost (Research, Innovation and Global Engagement) on the strategic management of UCL’s research and innovation agenda and the coordination of activities across the portfolio.