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

30 October 2023

Portrait of Professor Sir Charles Godfray

with Professor Sir Charles Godfray
 Director, Oxford Martin School

Professor Charles Godfray was appointed Director of the Oxford Martin School on 1 February 2018. He is a population biologist with broad interests in the environmental sciences and has published in fundamental and applied areas of ecology, evolution...

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.


James Martin founded the Oxford Martin School in 2005 with the largest benefaction to the University of Oxford in its more than 900-year history.. His vision was that the School should be unique in bringing together teams of researchers from across disciplines to innovate and find solutions to the most pressing global challenges and opportunities of the 21st century.