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UCLEI Public Lecture Series 2010-11

Sir Michael Pitt / Prof. Steve Hopper / Mr Bill Dunster / Prof. Corinne Le Quere

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Sir Michael Pitt Chair, Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC)

"National Infrastructure Planning: Identifying the Public Interest"

Held on 14th October 2010

Click here to download the presentation slides.

Mike graduated from University College London with a first class honours degree in Engineering. During the first half of his career he was involved in the planning, design and construction of transport and other infrastructure in this country and abroad, working for the private and public sectors. He has held senior posts in a variety of local authorities, including Director of Property and Director of Technical Services at Humberside. From 1990 to 2005, he was Chief Executive of Cheshire and Kent County Councils.

More recently, he has worked on a wide range of consultancy assignments, including a year long appointment as independent Chair of the Government’s review of the 2007 floods. He has been Chair of a number of other organisations including NHS South West, the General Medical Council’s National Revalidation Programme Board, two companies and a charity.

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Professor Steve Hopper, Director, Kew Gardens

"Plant diversity at the turning point"

Held on 16th November 2010

Click here to download the presentation slides.
Plant diversity underpins human lives and livelihoods, from the air we breathe, the food we eat, the medicines we use, to sheer wonderment – yet the world continues to destroy wild plants at an alarming rate. We are at a turning point for plant diversity, of unprecedented importance to people in a rapidly changing world. We face a steep learning curve. Targeted plant diversity science, in botanic gardens and elsewhere, offers solutions to global problems and an important message of hope. We can feed the world and provide clean air and water through sustainable use of biodiversity – but will we?


Background

Professor Stephen Hopper is the 14th Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He holds Visiting Professorships at the University of Reading, The University of Western Australia and at Kings Park and Botanic Garden, Perth. He was awarded a Commonwealth Centenary Medal for service to the community in 2003. He was honoured to become a Fellow of the Linnean Society and a Corresponding Member of the Botanical Society of America in 2007, and received the Nancy T. Burbidge Memorial Medal from the Australian Systematic Botany Society in 2008.

For more information please see the Kew Gardens website.

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Mr Bill Dunster, Principal, Zedfactory Ltd

"The ingredients of a zero carbon - zero waste city - Evolving a ZEDquarter with examples from the ZEDfactory"


Held on 20th January 2011

Beddington Zero Energy Development is the UK’s largest mixed use sustainable community. It was designed to create a thriving community in which ordinary people could enjoy a high quality of life, while living within their fair share of the Earth’s resources.

BedZED was designed by ZEDfactory, and developed by the Peabody Trust. It was completed and occupied in 2002. The community comprises 50% housing for sale, 25% key worker shared ownership and 25% social housing for rent.

Prior to forming ZEDfactory, Bill was an associate architect for Michael Hopkins and Partners working on the award winning Nottingham University Campus. He also developed the environmental strategy and façade design for Portcullis House, this followed 4 years of research collaborating with the leading environmental consultants in Europe, including Arups, CSTB Nantes, Christian Bartenbach and Conphoebus.

Bill has also taught at the Architectural Association and Kingston University and regularly speaks at a range of seminars and conferences all over the world.

In 1995 Bill built his own house, Hope House which is a prototype low energy live/work unit in which he and his family now live.

For more information please click here.

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Professor Corrine Le Quéré, Environmental Sciences, UEA

"The Global Carbon Project: anticipating the evolution of CO2 trends"


Held on 22nd March 2011

In spite of growing recognition of the role of CO2 for global warming, CO2 emissions from fossil fuel burning have accelerated in the past 10 years.
The Global Carbon Project seeks to provide latest figures on the emissions and sinks of CO2, and to anticipate the trends for the coming years.
Economic drivers and the shift towards coal as a fuel source are key to the recent growth in CO2 emissions, but the first signs of impacts from regional and international policies to limit CO2 emissions are beginning to appear.

The presentation below reviews the efforts to provide latest information on the emissions and sinks of CO2 by the scientific community through the Global Carbon Project.
Click here to download the presentation slides.