Recordings from the Science Council Climate Conference
On 29 September, the Science Council held its first-ever policy conference, The Science Council Climate Conference - The UK Pathway to Net-Zero. The event brought together Science Council members, including the Royal Meteorological Society (RMetS) and other organisations from the science and engineering community to discuss how the UK can meet its emissions targets and reach net zero in the coming years.
The conference drew on the diverse expertise of Science Council member organisations, exploring in-depth topics such as the challenges and opportunities in the food system, achieving net zero in the steel industry and the role of hydrogen in balancing future supply and demand. RMetS were involved in the breakout session on “Next Generation Climate Models for Net-Zero and Climate Adaptation” Chief Executive Prof Liz Bentley was on the second plenary panel, “The role of the UK science and engineering community”.
Speaking at the conference, Sir Patrick Vallance, Government Chief Scientific Adviser and National Technology Adviser said:
“Every year, we’re losing Arctic sea ice, and CO2 levels have dramatically increased since the industrial revolution. There are clearly unarguable changes that are occurring. Science and technology are undoubtedly central to what we need to do. We need to be focused on technologies that we can already see, technologies that we have already invented, and ask how do we work out which of those we can implement and scale.”
The Science Council’s President, Professor Carole Mundell, closed the day by summarising six themes that became evident to her throughout the discussions. These were science, scale, society, supply chains, systems and solutions. Professor Mundell also thanked all the societies, partners, speakers and participants for making the day so inspiring, insightful and motivating.
The Science Council looks forward to building on the connections and conversations from the conference and will continue its convening role within and beyond its membership.
Videos of the live-streamed sessions can be found via YouTube at the links below:
Plenary Panel 1: The UK’s Net-Zero Challenge
Keynote Address by Sir Patrick Vallance
Plenary Panel 2: The Role of the UK Science and Engineering Community
The full programme of the conference is available on this PDF