FULLY BOOKED THIRD PARTY EVENT Broken filter: Is our journalism up to the debate over energy and climate change?

 

Organised by the Greenpeace Energydesk

With the UK’s Energy bill on the verge of coming before parliament and world leaders preparing for the latest climate summit, this time in Doha; some are worrying about the ability of a struggling media to play an effective role in the debate on energy and the climate.

As the press struggles to recover from a collapse in advertising during the recession and the damage done by the phone hacking scandal and subsequent inquiry the discussion will examine the challenges facing journalists reporting on an area of great scientific and economic complexity. The event will ask what impact those challenges have on the wider policy debate over energy and climate change and what – if anything – should be done to improve the discussion on this crucial area.

Chaired by editor of the Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, an expert panel will be exploring whether our journalism is up to the debate over energy and climate change.

With:

Angus McCrone, chief editor of Bloomberg New Energy Finance. He works closely with BNEF’s 120-strong team of analysts and researchers covering sectors such as wind, solar, biofuels, carbon and energy-smart technologies, also writes and presents on a wide range of topics including overall clean energy investment, project finance, public markets and policy-making.

Ben Webster, media editor of The Times since July 2011. He joined The Times in 1998, working on the newsdesk from 1998-2000 as night news editor and then assistant news editor. He was Transport Correspondent from 2000 to 2009 and Environment Editor from 2009 to 2011.

David Kennedy, the chief executive of the Committee on Climate Change. Previously he worked on energy strategy at the World Bank, and design of infrastructure investment projects at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. He has a PhD in economics from the London School of Economics.

Dr Alice Bell, senior teaching fellow at Imperial College London and writer interested in science in society. She has taught science communication at Imperial College London and UCL and is currently based at the former, running a course on energy and climate change.

Tom Burke CBE, environmental campaigner and founder of E3G (Third Generation Environmentalism). He is environmental policy adviser to Rio Tinto and visiting professor at Imperial College London and University Colleges, London.  He is a Senior Business Advisor to the Foreign Secretary’s Special Representative on Climate Change. He has recently been appointed to the External Review Committee of Shell. He is formerly the executive director of Friends of the Earth and an advisor to three Secretaries of State for the Environment.