James Martin Memorial lecture: 'Time To Look Up – in conversation with Rt Hon Sir Alok Sharma about the climate crisis'

Past Event

Date
 26 October 2023, 5:00pm - 6:00pm

Location
 The Sheldonian
Broad Street, Oxford, OX1 3AZ

Event Recording:

After a summer of extreme heatwaves, devastating wildfires and deadly flooding across the world, all made worse by climate change, the Rt Hon Sir Alok Sharma, President of COP26 in Glasgow 2021, will discuss the ongoing climate crisis with Director of the Oxford Martin School, Professor Sir Charles Godfray.

In the run up to COP28, Sir Alok will describe his hopes for the summit and his views on the future of the COP process, as well as the role of the UK in international climate policy. He will explore the importance of business in tackling climate change, and the challenges of financing the scale of climate action required. And climate action requires a facilitating political environment: how strong is the climate agenda and how much support does it have amongst citizens and in the private sector.

Sir Alok Sharma

Right Honourable Sir Alok Sharma KCMG MP

Elected as an MP in 2010, Sir Alok qualified as a chartered accountant and then worked for 16 years in investment banking, based out of London, Frankfurt and Stockholm.

He served in a range of UK government ministerial roles prior to entering the Cabinet as Secretary of State for International Development. He was appointed President Designate of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in 2020, alongside his role as Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

In 2021 he took on the COP26 role full-time, leading the UK’s work in bringing together the world to tackle climate change and getting almost 200 countries to sign-up to the historic Glasgow Climate Pact.

Sir Alok was knighted in His Majesty King Charles III’s 2023 New Year’s honours list for his services to tackling climate change.