Energy & Climate Change Law Institute 10th Anniversary Lecture 2025

When: Tuesday, February 11, 2025, 5:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Where: Clifford Chance, 10 Upper Bank Street, London, E14 5JJ

We heard from our keynote speaker, Lord Browne of Madingley on the topic: "Climate Change - a Clear and Present Danger".

The lecture was the first of a series of lectures that Lord Browne will give in 2025 to reset public policy on climate and energy.

2025 is an important year for both the Energy and Climate Change Law Institute and the Centre for Commercial Law Studies as we share two important anniversaries. The 10th anniversary for our Institute and the 45th anniversary of CCLS. Lord Browne delivered the first Annual Clifford Chance Lecture for the Institute over ten years ago and has been a constant supporter, establishing the Lord Browne Essay Prize to celebrate academic excellence and innovative thinking.

Professor Colin Bailey, President and Principal, Queen Mary, University of London opened the lecture. Afterwards, there was a question-and-answer session facilitated by Clare Burgess, Global Co-Head of the Energy & Natural Resources sector. Final closing remarks were made by Professor James Dallas, Executive Director of the Energy & Climate Change Law Institute.

Lord Browne is Chairman of BeyondNetZero, a climate growth equity fund established in partnership with General Atlantic. He served as Group Chief Executive of international energy company BP from 1995 to 2007, having joined the company in 1966 as a university apprentice. He led BP through a period of significant growth and transformation, including a merger with Amoco in 1998. His landmark speech at Stanford University in 1997 established BP as a global leader in the way it thought about and sought to address climate change. In 2007, Lord Browne joined Riverstone, where he was co-head of the world’s largest renewable energy private equity fund until 2015. He is Chairman of Windward, a global maritime predictive intelligence company and Chairman of Avathon, an artificial intelligence technology company.

Lord Browne is independent co-Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Council on Science and Technology, Chairman of the Francis Crick Institute, Chairman of the Courtauld Institute of Art, and a former Chairman of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering as well as a past President of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Lord Browne was educated St John's College, Cambridge, where he earned a BA degree in physics. In addition, he holds an MS degree in business from Stanford University, California.