Sustainable Places: Preparing for the COP28 Climate Summit

Priti Parikh is a Professor in Infrastructure Engineering and International Development at The Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction at UCL. She is founding Director of UCL’s Engineering for International Development Centre which focusses on locally acceptable water-sanitation-energy solutions in low-middle income countries.   

She has over 15 years of engineering industry experience in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and the UK. She was awarded the prestigious BBOXX/Royal Academy of Engineering Senior Research fellowship that focuses on energy access in sub-Sahara Africa through smart solar solutions.  

Priti was recently named as one of the 100 most influential academics in the UK Government for her work in climate and sustainability and top 50 women in engineering in UK. She is a Council member at the Institution of Civil Engineers and sits on the board of Engineers Against Poverty, Happold Foundation and Sanitation and Human Rights in India. 

Dr Simon Chin-Yee is a Lecturer in Development Studies in UCL’s School of Public Policy. He has many years of experience in international cooperation and policy through multiple research roles within academia, as well as work with UNESCO. His research is focused on the intersectionality of climate policy, human security and economic growth. His current research project looks at the decarbonisation of the maritime sector in Eastern and Southern Africa. This project supports countries as they consider how to achieve GHG emissions reductions, including the co-development of concrete action plans, political buy-in for implementation of these actions as well as capacity development within country. 

Mark Maslin FRGS, FRSA is a Professor of Earth System Science at UCL and the Natural History Museum of Denmark. He is a founding Director of Rezatec Limited, a member of the Cheltenham Science Festival Advisory Board, a CSR Board member of Sopra-Steria, NetZeroNow and Sheep Included Ltd and a member of the Climate Crisis Advisory Group.  

Mark is a leading scientist with particular interest in understanding climate change and the major challenges facing humanity in the 21st century.  He has published over 185 papers in journals such as Science, Nature, and The Lancet and has written 10 books and over 60 popular articles and regularly appears on radio and television, including BBC One David Attenborough’s ‘Climate Change: the facts’. His books include ‘Climate Change: A Very Short Introduction’ (2021), ‘The Cradle of Humanity’ (2019), ‘The Human Planet’ with Simon Lewis (2018/2022) and his latest book is ‘How to save our planet: the facts’ (2021).