Dieter Helm and David Stainforth Stephen Law

Experts Professors David Stainforth and Sir Dieter Helm discuss how economics can be used to protect our climate’s future.

By 2030 the effects of the climate crisis may be irreversible. And in the last few years we have all begun to witness these terrifying effects – from the staggering 40-degree heatwave in the UK, to the 2022 floods in Pakistan that killed 1,739 people. It is undeniable that the climate crisis is one of the most pressing issues across the world today. How do we stop this climate crisis before it’s too late?

Helm is professor of energy policy at the University of Oxford and an advisor to the UK government. He has a regular podcast, where he discusses energy and climate issues. Helm has also authored numerous award-winning books including Net Zero and The Carbon Crunch. His latestbook, Legacy: How to Build the Sustainable Economy, theorises a new approach to tackling climate change by using the toolkit of economics to record natural resources as assets for future generations.

Stainforth is a professorial research fellow at the London School of Economics. His research focuses on using climate science useful to political policies industry, and wider society, through the use of climate modelling experiments. Stainforth has written numerous papers on climate science, and his book, Predicting our Climate Future: What We Know, What We Don’t Know, And What We Can’t Know, was published in 2023.

Discussions are chaired by Dr Stephen Law, a philosopher and academic, author of bestselling introductions to philosophy for adults and children, editor of the Royal Institute of Philosophy Journal Think, and the festival’s major projects director.