In June, the Cambridge Zero Policy Forum met for the first of four reading group sessions, on Five Times Faster: Rethinking the Science, Economics, and Diplomacy of Climate Change, by Senior Fellow at the World Resources Institute, Simon Sharpe.

Dr Eoin O'Sullivan, Centre for Science, Technology & Innovation Policy chaired a discussion with Dr Molly Morgan Jones, the British Academy, and Dan Shah, UKRI. The session focussed on how societal challenges feature in the UKRI and BA strategies, as well as the importance of working with other countries to tackle global challenges.

This year's Dr Seng Tee Lee Public Policy Lecture was delivered by social anthropologist and geographer Professor Melissa Leach. The lecture brought forth the concept of ‘naturekind’, directly challenging the conventional separation between human and non-human nature.

Emily Farnworth, Director of the Centre for Climate Engagement, University of Cambridge chaired a discussion between Richard Bruce, Director of Transport Decarbonisation, Department for Transport; Professor David Cebon, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, University of Cambridge; and Dr Jane Dennett-Thorpe, Deputy Director Net Zero Strategy, Ofgem. The session focused on the UK's strategy for decarbonising ground transportation on its path to net zero.

As part of CSaP’s Annual Conference, Sarah Chaytor, Director of Research and Strategy, UCL, chaired a discussion with Dr Louise Kempton, Director of Insights North East (INE) and Dr Peter O’Brien, Executive Director of Yorkshire Universities, that focussed on processes for academic engagement with regional governmental structures.

CSaP's Annual Conference 2023 concluded by unveiling key strategies to bridge the gap between public engagement and policy implementation on climate and resilience. The discussion also focused on how to revolutionise climate action in the UK.

A discussion at our Annual Conference focused on how government and academia could improve the way they frame policy questions or position research to make it more accessible to one another other.

Marie-Anne Coninsx, the first EU Ambassador for the Artic and Honorary Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge, met with the Cambridge Zero Policy Forum, to discuss the geopolitics of climate change in the Arctic.

CSaP’s Horn Fellows met in Jesus College, Cambridge to listen to Dr Harriet Lyon, Lecturer in History and J. H. Plumb College Lecturer at Christ’s College, Cambridge, gave a talk entitled ‘Remembering the Dissolution of the Monasteries: Memory, History, Nostalgia’.

The opening session at our Annual Conference last month focused on the role of investment in relation to UK productivity.