Decarbonising UK energy: effective technology and policy options for achieving a zero-carbon future

Iain Martin, Johnson Matthey, UK

Iain Martin is the Innovation and Technology Director for Efficient Natural Resources Sector of Johnson Matthey.  Iain is a chemical engineer whose career has focussed on the development, commercialisation and licensing of technologies within the petrochemical sector from both a technical and a commercial sense. Iain’s current role focusses on more significant growth opportunities, several of which are involved in the renewables and low carbon sectors.

Nick Winser CBE FREng, Chair, Energy Systems Catapult

Energy Systems Catapult Chair since 2015, Nick Winser was appointed Chair of the Advisory Board for the Energy Revolution ISCF programme in 2018 and served on the Advisory Panel for the Cost of Energy Review in 2017. He is also a member of a COP26 Advisory Group and the Net Zero Expert Group which advises the Secretary of State.

These appointments followed a 30-year career in the energy sector which included UK and European CEO of the Board of the National Grid, President of the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (2013-2015) and CIGRE UK Chair.

A member of the IET, serving as its President in 2017/18, Nick maintains a keen interest in the organisation’s work and sits on the Nominations & Succession Committee. 

Chair of the MS Society and a former member of the Board of the Kier Group, Nick also has a professional interest in both the charity and construction sector.

Professor Michael Kelly FREng FRS, University of Cambridge, UK

Michael Kelly is Emeritus Prince Philip Professor of Technology in the University of Cambridge since 2016, and an Emeritus Fellow at Trinity Hall.   He was born in New Zealand and completed studies to MSc level at Victoria University of Wellington (1971), and a PhD in solid state theory from Cambridge (1974), followed by postdoctoral research until 1981.  He was a member of the research staff of GEC Hirst research between 1981-1992, where he led the development of two new generations of microwave device that went into production.  Between 1992 and 2002 he was at the University of Surrey, including a term as head of the School of Electronics, Computing and Mathematics.  He returned to Cambridge in 2002 as the inaugural Prince Philp Professor of Technology.  He led the Cambridge end of the Cambridge-MIT Institute 2003-5, was Chief Scientific Advisor to the Department for Communities and Local Government 2006-9, and non-executive director of Laird plc 2006-15.  He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, the Royal Academy of Engineering, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand and a member of Academia Europaea.

Professor Phil Purnell, University of Leeds, UK

Phil Purnell is Professor of Materials and Structures in the School of Civil Engineering, University of Leeds (UoL). Prof. Purnell is the current Director of the UoL "Cities" research theme, leading research to ensure that infrastructure systems can adapt to changes in how we use them and the social and physical environment in which they are financed, created, managed and used. He has managed projects and networks at the intersections between Engineering; Materials; Social, Environmental and Medical Sciences; Art; and Music and is currently PI on both the £4.2m EPSRC “Grand Challenge” project investigating the role of robots in city infrastructure maintenance and the £1.4m NERC/ESRC CVORR project, looking at revaluing wastes and the processes that produce them. He co-ordinates the Leeds WPs for the EPSRC/ESRC £4m iBUILD Infrastructure Business Models Centre, and is Convener for the £7M NERC Resource Recovery from Waste Programme Coordination Team. Prof. Purnell's background is in concrete technology but his current publication portfolio also spans composite durability, biomaterials, critical materials, infrastructure transitions, carbon footprints for construction materials, 3D printing and non-destructive testing.

Michael Priestnall, Innovate UK

Michael Priestnall is Innovation Lead in Energy for Innovate UK where he is responsible for the Energy Catalyst competition – this programme has, to-date, competitively grant-funded around 250 UK energy innovation projects with a budget ~£90m. Michael is an energy and materials chemist and has co-founded three technology companies in fuel cells, photovoltaics and carbon capture. Previously, Michael led Energy Consulting at Sagentia in Cambridge, and development of advanced ceramics for fuel cells and superconductors for Cookson Group in Oxford. Michael held an EPSRC Energy Research Fellowship at University of Cambridge and was a British Gas Research Scholar in ceramic fuel cells at Imperial College.

Professor James Durrant FRS, Imperial College London, Swansea University

James Durrant is Professor of Photochemistry in the Department of Chemistry, Imperial College London and Sêr Cymru Solar Professor, College of Engineering University of Swansea. His research addresses the photochemistry of new materials for solar energy conversion – targeting both solar cells (photovoltaics) and solar to fuel (ie: artificial photosynthesis). It is based around employing transient optical and optoelectronic techniques to address materials function, and thereby elucidate design principles which can help guide technological development. His research is currently addressing the development and functional characterisation of organic and perovskite solar cells, and photoelectrodes and photocatalysts for solar driven fuel synthesis. In addition to his core research activities, Professor Durrant leads Imperial’s Centre for Plastic Electronics and the Welsh Government funded Sêr Cymru Solar initiative. He also founded the UK’s Solar Fuels Network, and was founding Deputy Director of Imperial’s Energy Futures Laboratory. His awards include both the Environment (2009) and Tilden (2012) Prizes of the RSC. He was elected a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales in 2016.

Dr Rene Banares-Alcantara, University of Oxford, UK

Dr Rene Banares-Alcantara is a Reader in Engineering Science at the University of Oxford. He has an I.Q. degree from the Facultad de Quimica, UNAM (Mexico) and an MSc and PhD from Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, USA), all of his degrees are in the field of Chemical Engineering.

His research interests are in the area of Process Systems Engineering (mainly process design, synthesis and simulation, but also diagnosis and control) and the development of decision support tools. For the last three years he has been involved in projects related to long-term (chemical) storage of renewable energy and the production of ‘green’ ammonia.

He has (co-)authored 60 journal papers and around 100 other refereed publications of various kinds.

Jo Coleman, ETI, UK

Jo is responsible for the ETI’s Strategic Analysis team, which has recently transferred to the Energy Systems Catapult. The team uses their suite of ‘whole system’ energy models and tools to explore energy transition pathways and the opportunities and challenges around delivering them, as well as defining innovation opportunities that can help deliver an affordable and secure low carbon future energy system. Prior to joining the ETI, Jo worked in Shell for over 20 years in various technical and managerial roles spanning engineering design and construction, oil and gas field development, national energy planning, economics and business development. She has worked in the Netherlands, Brunei, Oman, UAE and Malaysia. Jo has a Master’s degree in Engineering Science, an MBA in International Management and is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

Professor Stuart Haszeldine, University of Edinburgh, UK

Stuart Haszeldine trained as a geologist. The first half of his career was extracting hydrocarbons from the ground, and increasing greenhouse gases. The second half of his career is trying to capture greenhouse gases from human activities - and replace these into geological and biological storage, with a focus on geology beneath the North Sea. Haszeldine served on the Oxburgh Parliamentary Advisory Group review of Carbon Capture and Storage in 2016, in 2012 was appointed OBE for services to climate change technologies, and in 2011 was awarded the Geological Society William Smith Medal for applied geology. Haszeldine occasionally advises both UK and Scottish governments, when facts and logic are fashionable.

Professor Peter Bruce FRS

Wolfson Chair in Materials, University of Oxford, and Physical Secretary and Vice-President, The Royal Society

Peter Bruce is Wolfson Professor of Materials at the University of Oxford. His research interests embrace materials chemistry and electrochemistry, with a particular emphasis on energy storage. Recent efforts have focused on the synthesis and understanding of new cathode materials for lithium and sodium ion batteries, understanding processes in all solid-state batteries and the challenges of the lithium-air battery. His pioneering work has provided many advances.

Peter has received numerous awards, including the Tilden Prize of the RSC, the Carl Wagner Award of the ECS, the Liversidge Award of the RSC and the Hughes Medal of the RS. He has also been recognised as a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics each year since 2015.

Peter is a founder and Chief Scientist of the Faraday Institution, the UK centre for research on electrochemical energy storage. Peter took up the position of Physical Secretary and Vice President of the Royal Society in 2018.

Dame Sue Ion GBE FREng FRS

Chair of the Royal Society Science, Industry and Translation Committee

Dame Sue Ion GBE FRS FREng is Hon President of the National Skills Academy for Nuclear. She was previously Chairman of the UK Nuclear Innovation Research Advisory Board (NIRAB). She represents the UK on a number of international review and oversight committees for the nuclear sector including the Euratom Science and Technology Committee which she chaired until late 2018. She was the only non-US member of the US Department of Energy’s Nuclear Energy Advisory Committee on which she has served from 2005-2020.She currently serves as a member of the Office of Nuclear Regulation Independent Advisory Panel.

Sue spent 27 years with British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) rising to the position of Chief Technology Officer in 1992, a post she held until 2006 when she assumed a number of mainly voluntary roles in Science and Engineering, including membership of the UK Council for Science and Technology and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). She was Vice President of the Royal Academy of Engineering 2002-2008 and chaired its MacRobert Committee 2013-2019. Sue was Deputy Chair of the Board of the University of Manchester until September 2018 and currently serves on the Board of the University of Central Lancashire.

Her core expertise is in materials science and engineering associated with the nuclear sector. Sue is a member of the Chief Scientific Advisor for Wales’s Science and Innovation Advisory Council. She has been a Visiting Professor in the Department of Materials at Imperial College since 2006, holds an Honorary Professorship at the University of Manchester and is now Chair of the Royal Society Science, Industry and Translation Committee.

Professor Cameron Hepburn, University of Oxford & London School of Economics, UK

Cameron Hepburn is the Director of the Economics of Sustainability Programme, based at the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School. He is also Professor of Environmental Economics at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, a Fellow at New College, Oxford, and a Professorial Research Fellow at the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics. 

He has published widely on energy, resources and environmental challenges across a range of disciplines, including engineering, biology, philosophy, economics, public policy and law, drawing on his degrees in law, engineering and doctorate in economics.  He is on the editorial board of Environmental Research Letters and is the managing editor of the Oxford Review of Economic Policy. Cameron’s research is often referred to in the printed press, and he has been interviewed on television and radio in various countries.

Cameron provides advice on energy and climate policy to government ministers (e.g. China, India, UK and Australia) and international institutions (e.g. OECD, UN organisations) around the world.  Cameron began his professional life with McKinsey, and has since had an entrepreneurial career, co-founding three successful businesses – Aurora Energy Research, Climate Bridge and Vivid Economics – and investing in several other social enterprises, such as Purpose and Apolitical.  He also serves as a trustee for Schola Cantorum of Oxford. 

Professor Jim Skea CBE OBE

Imperial College London and Co-chair IPCC Working Group III, UK

Jim Skea is Professor of Sustainable Energy at Imperial College London with research interests in energy, climate change and technological innovation. He is currently Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group III for the 6th assessment cycle. He was Research Director of the UK Energy Research Centre 2004-12 and Director of the Policy Studies Institute 1998-2004. He has operated at the interface between research, policy-making and business throughout his career. He was a member of the UK Committee on Climate Change from its inception in 2008 until 2018. From 2018 to 2021 he chaired the first phase of the Scottish Just Transition Commission which made recommendations on how to make a fair and equitable transition to net zero greenhouse gas emissions in Scotland. He was re-appointed as Chair for the second phase in 2021. Until June 2017, he was President of the UK Energy Institute. He was awarded a CBE for services to sustainable energy in 2013 and an OBE for services to sustainable transport in 2004.

Professor Sam Fankhauser, Grantham Research Institute, LSE, UK

Professor Sam Fankhauser is Co-Director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and Deputy Director of the ESRC-funded Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy, both at the London School of Economics. He is also an Associate Director at economics consultancy Vivid Economics and a Non-Executive Director of CDC Group, the UK’s development finance institution. Previously, Sam worked at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility. From 2008 to 2016 he was a member of the UK Committee on Climate Change.

Professor George Smith, University of Oxford, UK

Professor George Smith, FRS, FIMMM, FInstP, FRSC, CEng, is a materials scientist with special interest in the study of the materials at the atomic level, particularly materials for energy systems.  From 2000 - 2005 he was Head of the Department of Materials at Oxford University.  He was a member of the MatUK Energy Materials Working Group, and led the writing of their report for the DTI on Nuclear Energy Materials.  He has particular interests in the long-term safety and stability of the materials used in current-generation nuclear reactors, and those planned for use in future fusion energy systems.  He retired from his academic post in Oxford in 2010, but continues to be active in research as an Emeritus Professor of Materials, and as an external consultant to a fusion energy company.

Professor Nick Pidgeon, Cardiff University, UK

Professor Nick Pidgeon is Professor of environmental risk at Cardiff University and directs the interdisciplinary Understanding Risk group based there. He researches public acceptability and governance of environmental and technological risks. He has extensive expertise in evaluating and researching deliberative processes, risk evaluation and governance for science and technology applications. A Fellow of the Society for Risk Analysis and of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, in 2014 he was awarded an MBE for services to UK climate change and energy security policy.

Rebecca Willis, Lancaster University/Green Alliance, UK

Rebecca Willis is an independent researcher with twenty years’ experience in environment and sustainability research, policy and practice. In 2009 Rebecca founded Green Alliance’s Climate Leadership Programme, an initiative to support Members of the UK Parliament. With Lancaster University, she is conducting research into political responses to climate change. She advises the Lake District National Park, where she helped to establish the UK’s first local carbon budget; and has a particular interest in local and distributed energy solutions. Rebecca is a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of RCUK’s Energy Programme and advises the iGov initiative at the University of Exeter. She is a Fellow of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP) and a Trustee of the New Economics Foundation. From 2011-15 she was a Council Member of the Natural Environment Research Council, and from 2004-11 was Vice-Chair of the UK Sustainable Development Commission, advising the Prime Minister and First Ministers of the devolved administrations. Further information about Rebecca can be found at www.rebeccawillis.co.uk.

Juliet Davenport OBE, Good Energy, UK

Juliet Davenport is the founder and CEO of Good Energy, one of the UK’s first entirely renewable electricity supplier and generator companies. Good Energy was conceived as a business which could profitably empower consumers and businesses to address their environmental concerns. It has become a catalyst for entrepreneurship among dozens of renewable power generators in England, Wales and Scotland. Juliet was appointed to the Natural Environment Research Council in 2015, awarded a Harmony Professorship of Practice at the University of Wales in 2016, and was offered an honorary doctorate from the University of Bristol in 2017. She sits on the Industry Panel for HM Treasury’s Review on Patient Capital and is a member of the Corporate Advisory Group for the British Academy’s Future of the Corporation project. In 2017 Juliet was invited to become a member of the joint Advisory Board on Climate Change and Environmental Research at Imperial College London and the London School of Economics and Political Science. In 2013, she was awarded an OBE for services to renewables.

Professor Paul Ekins OBE, UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources, UK

Paul Ekins has a PhD in Economics from the University of London and is Professor of Resources and Environmental Policy and Director of the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources at University College London. He is also Deputy Director of the UK Energy Research Centre. He was a Member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution from 2002–2008. He is currently a member of UNEP’s International Resource Panel. He has extensive experience consulting for business, government and international organisations. Paul Ekins’ academic work, published in numerous books, articles and scientific papers, focuses on the conditions and policies for achieving an environmentally sustainable economy. His most recent book (co-edited with Jim Watson and Mike Bradshaw) was Global Energy: Issues, Potentials and Policy Implications (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2015). In 1994 Paul Ekins received a Global 500 Award ‘for outstanding environmental achievement’ from the United Nations Environment Programme. In the UK New Year’s Honours List for 2015 he received an OBE for services to environmental policy.

Matthew Bell, Frontier Economics, UK

Matthew Bell is a Director running Frontier Economics’ Public Policy Practice. He oversees work on climate change, as well as in a wide number of other areas including policy relating to industry, technology, innovation and healthcare. Prior to his current post Matthew was Chief Executive Officer of the UK Committee on Climate Change in which capacity he oversaw the approval of the UK’s “fifth carbon budget” that sets the emissions reduction target for 2028 to 2030 and the UK’s climate change risk assessment that sets out the risks to the UK from climate change; amongst many other activities. He has also worked on climate and other issues around the world, including across Europe, Asia, the Americas and Africa.

Professor Richard (Ric) Parker CBE FREng

Recently retired, Ric is a Special Advisor working in the areas of technology strategy and technology transfer. He works with BP, Rolls-Royce, A*Star Singapore and others. He is Chairman of the EU Clean Sky Joint Undertaking, a €4Bn aviation research programme. Ric is a Distinguished Visitor at the National Physical Laboratory, UK. He is a Visiting Professor in Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College, a Visiting Professor in Aeronautical Engineering at Loughborough University and an Honorary Professor in Materials Engineering at Birmingham University. Ric was Director of Research & Technology, Rolls-Royce Group from January 2001 to March 2016. He joined Rolls-Royce as a Chief Research Scientist in 1978, and has held a variety of engineering leadership and general management posts. Ric has been instrumental in influencing the aviation research strategies for the UK and EU. He has also been an active promoter of industry/university collaboration, supporting and extending Rolls-Royce’s University Technology Centres world-wide. Ric was voted European CTO of the Year in 2014. He was made Commander of the Order of British Empire (CBE) in 2013 for 'Services to Engineering'. In 2016 he received the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Gold Medal.

Professor John Shepherd CBE FRS, University of Southampton, UK

John Shepherd is a Professorial Research Fellow in Earth System Science in the National Oceanography Centre at the University of Southampton. He has worked on a wide range of environmental issues, including the transport and deposition of atmospheric sulphur dioxide, the dispersion of tracers in the deep ocean, the assessment and control of radioactive waste disposal in the sea, the assessment and management of marine fish stocks, and the ocean’s role in climate change.  He was the first Director of the Southampton Oceanography Centre from 1994-1999, and from 2001-10 was a Deputy Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1999 and awarded a CBE in 2010. He was a member of the DEFRA Science Advisory Council for seven years and chaired the DECC Science Advisory Group from 2009 to 2013. He has been involved as a member or reviewer in several of the Society’s science policy studies and chaired the study on Geoengineering the Climate in 2009. More recently he has been involved in preparing several public documents on climate science including the Royal Society Summary of the Science and the recent joint RS/NAS briefing document.

Sir Chris Llewellyn Smith FRS, University of Oxford, UK

Chris Llewellyn Smith is Director of Energy Research, Oxford University. He is interested in energy systems (supply and demand), including particularly the challenge of accommodating large contributions from intermittent sources of electricity. He served as: President of the Council of SESAME (Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East), Chair of the Council of the world fusion energy project ITER, Director of the UK's fusion programme, Provost and President of University College London, and Director General of CERN (1994-1998, when the Large Hadron Collider was approved and construction started).  He has written and spoken widely on science funding, international scientific collaboration and energy issues, and served on many advisory bodies nationally and internationally, including the UK Prime Minister’s Advisory Council on Science and Technology (1989-92). His scientific contributions and leadership have been recognised by awards and honours world-wide, including most recently the Royal Society’s Medal in 2015.

Jo Coleman, ETI, UK

Jo is responsible for the ETI’s Strategic Analysis team, which has recently transferred to the Energy Systems Catapult. The team uses their suite of ‘whole system’ energy models and tools to explore energy transition pathways and the opportunities and challenges around delivering them, as well as defining innovation opportunities that can help deliver an affordable and secure low carbon future energy system. Prior to joining the ETI, Jo worked in Shell for over 20 years in various technical and managerial roles spanning engineering design and construction, oil and gas field development, national energy planning, economics and business development. She has worked in the Netherlands, Brunei, Oman, UAE and Malaysia. Jo has a Master’s degree in Engineering Science, an MBA in International Management and is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

Mike Thompson, Committee on Climate Change, UK

Mike Thompson is Head of Carbon Budgets and Acting Chief Economist at the UK’s Committee on Climate Change (CCC), the independent statutory adviser to the UK Government on its climate targets and carbon policy. Mike has been with the CCC since it was first set up in 2007 and leads the Committee's work on the level and scope of carbon budgets and on the progress and policy changes required to deliver the budgets. The fifth carbon budget requires a 57% cut in UK emissions by 2030 on 1990 levels, continuing the trend that has seen emissions fall by 42% from 1990 to 2016. Mike was formerly Head of Indirect Tax Forecasting at HMRC, having studied Economics at St. John’s College, Cambridge and University College London.

Lord Ron Oxburgh KBE HonFREng FRS, House of Lords, UK

Ron Oxburgh (Lord Oxburgh of Liverpool) trained as a geologist/geophysicist (Oxford & Princeton). He subsequently taught, researched and built instrumentation in those disciplines at Oxford, Cambridge, Stanford and Caltech. At different times he has been Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Ministry of Defence, Rector of Imperial College London, Chairman of Shell Transport & Trading, President of Queens’ College, Cambridge, Chairman of the House of Lords’ Select Committee on Science and Technology and President of the Carbon Capture and Storage Association. He is Chairman of GEO and an adviser to the Government of Singapore on energy, environment, research and higher education. He chaired the UK inquiry into the future of carbon capture and storage that reported in September 2016. He is a member of various UK and overseas academies.