“Net Zero: Critical, but not Enough” – Presentation – Baroness Brown of Cambridge

On the 12 September 2023, in Ely Cathedral Julia King, The Baroness Brown of Cambridge DBE FREng FRS FMedSci, gave a presentation on “Net Zero: Critical, but not Enough” This is now recorded and can be accessed from the link at the bottom of this article.

Climate change impacts depend on the level of greenhouse gas emissions in the global atmosphere. It is these emissions that drive the changes in the climate and the hazards they cause such as flooding and wildfires, also therefore driving the local exposure and vulnerability of people, nature, places and infrastructure to those hazards.

Reducing greenhouse gases is climate change mitigation, but additionally we need to adapt, making ourselves more resilient to the changes that will inevitably come by addressing exposure and vulnerability. Both are essential, even if we are on a global path to Net Zero by 2050.

Baroness Brown is an engineer and Crossbench Member of the House of Lords. A career at Cambridge University and Rolls-Royce plc led to ten years as Vice-Chancellor of Aston University in Birmingham, before joining the House of Lords as a Crossbench Peer in 2016. She was Vice Chair of the UK Climate Change Committee 2008 – 2021, currently chairs the CCC Adaptation Committee, and chaired the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Independent Climate Commission.