Celebrating 10 years of UCL ISR

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To end our 10 weeks of content highlighting the achievements of the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources over the last decade, UCL ISR will be livestreaming a panel event focussing on the some of the major resource challenges and opportunities facing the world today and seeing where the Institute will fit into the future of these issues. 

The panel will be chaired by the Dean of The Bartlett, Professor Christoph Linder.

Panellists will include:

• Sandrine Dixson-Declève, Co-President of the Club of Rome
• Professor Paul Ekins, Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources
• Angela Francis, Chief Advisor, Economics and Economic Development at WWF-UK
• Simon Sharpe, Deputy Director, Policy Campaigns at COP26 Unit, UK Cabinet Office

About the panellists

Sandrine Dixson-Declève has 30+ years of European and international policy, business leadership and strategy experience with a particular focus on EU and international climate change, sustainable development, green growth, conventional and sustainable energy solutions and sustainable finance. She is currently the Co-President of the Club of Rome and divides her time between lecturing, facilitating difficult conversations and advisory work. She holds several advisory positions for the European Commission: Chair, Expert Group on Economic and Societal Impact of Research & Innovation (ESIR); Member, Assembly on Research & Innovation (DGR&I); TEG Sustainable Finance Taxonomy, Chair, Manufacturing & Outreach (DGFISMA). She sits on several Advisory Boards for Climate KIC, the European Aluminium and the IEEP and is a Senior Associate and faculty member of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) and a Senior Associate for E3G. In addition, she is an Ambassador, for the Energy Transition Commission (ETC) and a Senior Advisor to Interel and Xynteo. In 2017 Sandrine co-founded the Women Enablers Change Agent Network (WECAN).

Paul Ekins is Professor of Resources and Environmental Policy at UCL and was the founding director of the Institute for Sustianable Resources. From 2004-2014 he was a Co-Director of the UK Energy Research Centre, and from 2014-19 its Deputy Director, leading on its Energy Resources theme, with research publications on low-carbon futures, fossil fuels and hydrogen. From 2015-18 he was a member of the European Commission's High-Level Panel on the European Decarbonisation Pathways Initiative. From 2017-19 he was Co-Chair of UN Environment's sixth edition of the Global Environmental Outlook (GEO-6), following the publication of which he has been Co-Chair of UNEP's GEO-for-Business initiative. He is also Co-Chair of the Green Growth Knowledge Platform (GGKP)'s Research Committee on Natural Capital. In 1994 Paul Ekins received a Global 500 Award ‘for outstanding environmental achievement’ from the United Nations Environment Programme. In 2015 he was awarded an OBE in the UK's New Year's Honours List for services to environmental policy.

Angela Francis is Chief Advisor, Economics and Economic Development at WWF where she provides economic advice across the climate, food and biodiversity programmes as well as leading on trade and industrial policy for a green transition. She started as an accountant in the energy industry before moving into economic development where she has spent the last 18 years. She led on economics and strategy for the East of England Development Agency and worked on productivity, innovation, and low carbon growth in the UK and Europe for SQW. She was Regional Economist and Climate Attaché for the FCO in the Caribbean and returned to the UK to be Chief Economist for Green Alliance where she led on industrial strategy, tech and the economic case for a low carbon and circular economy. She is also a member of the IPPR’s Environmental Justice Commission and the BEIS/DfE Green Jobs Taskforce.

Simon Sharpe is Deputy Director for Policy Campaigns in the COP26 Unit of the UK Government Cabinet Office.  Before this, he was head of international climate change strategy at the department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.  He previously served in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, with postings in China and India, and led on climate change strategy in the run-up to the Paris Agreement.  He has also served as head of private office to Ministers of State for Energy and Climate Change, and led the work on clean growth in the UK's Industrial Strategy.  He recently produced a report on 'Accelerating the Low Carbon Transition: the case for stronger, more targeted and coordinated international action' together with the academics David Victor and Frank Geels, supported by the Energy Transitions Commission.  Simon has published academic papers on climate change science and economics, and is an honorary lecturer at the Institute of Innovation and Public Purpose at University College London.