Alok Sharma among the latest wave of headline speakers confirmed for this month's Net Zero Festival, including Sir David King, Raymond Blanc, and Rain Newton-Smith
COP26 President Designate Alok Sharma has joined the line-up for this month's Net Zero Festival, as part of a growing band of high profile headline acts who are confirmed to speak at the world's leading net zero summit.
BusinessGreen today announced the latest wave of speakers for the second annual Net Zero Festival, which will take place online from September 29th to October 1st, including former chief scientist and co-founder of the Climate Crisis Advisory Group Sir David King, CBI chief economist Rain Newton-Smith, and President of the Sustainable Restaurant Association Raymond Blanc, as well as the incoming President for the crucial COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow.
Sharma will deliver the keynote address to the virtual summit on the morning of Thursday 30th of September, providing an update on preparations for the COP26 Summit a little over a month before it kicks off in Glasgow this November. He will also offer an overview of how the business community can support the international climate meeting and help to accelerate the global transition to net zero emissions.
The former Business Secretary forms part of a stellar line up of expert speakers from right across the global green economy, including renowned climate scientist Michael Mann, NatWest chief executive Alison Rose, Solar Impulse founder Bertrand Piccard, and former Energy and Climate Change Secretary Amber Rudd, to name but a few.
The latest wave of confirmed speakers also includes Julie Hirigoyen, CEO of the Green Building Council; Nigel Topping, the UK's High-Level Climate Action Champion; Andrew Plepler, global head of Environmental, Social, and Governance at Bank of America; Rishi Madlani, head of climate and sustainable finance at NatWest Group; Charles Brand, president for Europe and Central Asia region at Tetra Pak; and John Perkins, director and senior corporate counsel for sustainability, policy and process at Salesforce.
Delegates can now sign up for a free pass to the virtual event, which will be broadcast over three days from studios at The Shard in central London.
Thanks to the support of the Net Zero Festival's commercial partners - Atkins, BCG, Schroders, Bank of America, Derwent London, Drax, Energy Saving Trust, Engie, Facebook, GSK, Hitachi, Tetra Pak, The Climate Pledge, Volvo, and Kingspan - passes are available for free for this year's event.
"The line-up for this year's Net Zero Festival covers the full breadth of the net zero transition and promises to explore the myriad opportunities and challenges that the green industrial revolution will present," said BusinessGreen editor-in-chief James Murray. "We're delighted to welcome Alok Sharma in the run up to the COP26 Summit to provide an overview of how central the net zero agenda has become to global diplomatic efforts.
"He joins a line-up that promises to provide both invaluable practical guidance on how to navigate the economic and technological shifts that are already underway and an exploration of how to accelerate decarbonisation strategies."
