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Five Times Faster - Rethinking the Science, Economics, and Diplomacy of Climate Change

17 April 2023, 5:00 pm–6:30 pm

Five Times Faster - Rethinking the Science, Economics, and Diplomacy of Climate Change

Join us to hear Simon Sharpe, Director of Economics for the UN Climate Champions, and a Senior Fellow at the World Resources Institute, present his new bookÌý'Five Times Faster: Rethinking the Science, Economics, and Diplomacy of Climate Change'Ìýin conversation with IIPP Founding Director, Prof Mariana Mazzucato and UCL Professor of Climate Science, Chris Rapley.

This event is free.

Event Information

Open to

All

Availability

Yes

Cost

Free

Organiser

IIPP Comms

is an inside story from Simon Sharpe, who has spent ten years at the forefront of climate change policy and diplomacy. In our fight to avoid dangerous climate change, science is pulling its punches, diplomacy is picking the wrong battles, and economics has been fighting for the other side.

We need to act five times faster to avoid dangerous climate change. As Greenland melts, Australia burns, and greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, we think we know who the villains are: oil companies, consumerism, weak political leaders. But what if the real blocks to progress are the ideas and institutions that are supposed to be helping us?

Simon Shape’s provocative and engaging book sets out how we should rethink our strategies and reorganise our efforts in the fields of science, economics, and diplomacy, so that we can act fast enough to stay safe.

Join us at the book launch for a fascinating and insightful discussion!

Speakers
Limited spaces available for in person attendance at IIPP HQ (11 Montague Street, WC1B 5BP).

Read more about the IIPP Research Seminar Series 2022-23

About the Speakers

Simon Sharpe

Director of Economics at UN Climate Champions

Simon_Sharpe_Teaching
Simon SharpeÌýis Director of Economics for the UN Climate Champions, and a Senior Fellow at the World Resources Institute. He was previously Deputy Director of the UK government’s COP26 Unit, where he led international campaigns on energy, transport, land use, science and innovation.ÌýHis other roles in government included leading international climate change strategy, developing the approach to clean growth in the UK’s industrial strategy, and serving as head of private office to Ministers of State for Energy and Climate Change.Ìý

He also served on diplomatic postings to China and India. Simon has published academic papers on climate change science and economics, and policy reports on climate change risk assessment, economics, and diplomacy.

His current focus is on the Breakthrough Agenda – a process to strengthen international collaboration to accelerate transitions in each emitting sector of the global economy; and on projects to apply new economic thinking to climate change policy, including theÌýEconomics of Energy Innovation and System TransitionÌýproject, working with China, India and Brazil. More about Simon Sharpe

Professor Mariana Mazzucato

Founding Director and Professor in the Economics of Innovation & Public Value at UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP)

Mariana Mazzucato
(PhD) is Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London (UCL), where she is Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose (IIPP). She is winner of international prizes including the Grande Ufficiale Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana in 2021, Italy's highest civilian honour, the , the 2019 and 2018 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought. She was named as one of the '' by The New Republic, in 2020 by Fast Company, and of the 25 leaders shaping the future of capitalism by WIRED.ÌýÌý

She is the author of three highly-acclaimed books: (2013), The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy (2018) and most recently (2021). She advises policymakers around the world on innovation-led inclusive and sustainable growth. Her current roles include being Chair of the , Co-Chair of the , a member of the , the Scottish Government’s Council of Economic Advisors, the and the , among others.Ìý More about Professor Mariana Mazzucato

Professor Chris Rapley

Professor of Climate Science at University College London

Chris Rapley
Professor Chris Rapley CBE is Professor of Climate Science at University College London. He is a Fellow of UCL and of St Edmund's College Cambridge, a member of the Academia Europaea, Chair of the European Science Foundation’s European Space Sciences Committee, a member of the European Space Agency Director General’s High Level Advisory Group on Human and Robotic Space Exploration for Europe, Patron of the Surrey Climate Commission, a member of the Advisory Body of the UK Clean Growth Fund, a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Scientists Warning, and a member of the UK Parliamentary and Scientific Committee. He has an MA in Honours Physics from Oxford University, an MSc in Radio-Astronomy from the University of Manchester, a PhD in X-ray Astronomy from the University of London, Honorary DSc’s from the University of Bristol and the University of East Anglia, and Honorary Professorships from Imperial College London and the University of East Anglia.

His previous posts include Director of the Science Museum, Director of the British Antarctic Survey, Chairman of the London Climate Change Partnership, President of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, Executive Director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, and Distinguished Visiting Scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He spent the first 25 years of his career as a space scientist at Õ¬ÄÐÊÓƵ Mullard Space Science Laboratory developing instruments to study the soft X-ray cosmos, solar flares, and the Earth’s polar regions and land based-water bodies. He was founder and Head of Õ¬ÄÐÊÓƵ MSSL’s Earth Remote Sensing Group.ÌýHe was Chair of the International Planning Group for the International Polar Year 2007-2008.

More recently he has focused on the role of climate scientists in delivering value to society through creating the ‘agency to act’. He is Chair of the UCL Policy Commission on Communicating Climate Science, and Advisor to the UCL Climate Action Unit. More about Professor Chris Rapley