Conservatism and the Climate Crisis

The climate crisis poses new challenges to all parties and traditions, and will require the intellectual resources of both right and left to meet it effectively. This event explores what Conservatism can contribute to the climate debate, exploring its record in government, the place of the environment in the Conservative tradition, and the challenges facing Conservative environmentalists at a time of growing political polarisation.

This live event brings together the Director of the Conservative Environment Network, a leading environmental journalist, a researcher and director of ClimateGuide, and a historian of Conservatism. Join our panel on 28 May to explore Conservative thinking on the environment, and to assess the party’s past, present and future direction on the most important policy question of our time.

This event will start at 6.30pm in the Colette Bowe Room in the Queens' Building which is number 19 on Queen Mary's Mile End campus. Doors will open at 6.10pm.

Panel:

Sam Hall is Director of the Conservative Environment Network, which brings together more than 150 MPs and peers and 500 councillors in support of net zero, nature restoration, and resource security. He was previously a Policy Advisor to Michael Gove at the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and led the work of the conservative think tank Bright Blue on energy and the environment.

Pilita Clark is Associate Editor at the Financial Times, where she was previously Environment Correspondent for many years. She has written extensively about environmental issues and climate policy, and in 2019 was named Environment Journalist of the Year at the British Press Awards – the third consecutive year in which she had won that accolade.

Rachel Coxcoon is Founder and Director of ClimateGuide, which supports local government in the transition to a zero-carbon future. She is researching a PhD at Lancaster University exploring how socio-economic differences and political outlooks affect how people engage with the net-zero transition, with a special interest in rural voters.

Chair: Robert Saunders is Reader in British History at Queen Mary University of London and Co-Director of the Mile End Institute. He has written extensively on Conservative history and Thatcherism, and has a particular interest in the history of Conservative environmental policy.