Episode 11: In Conversation with Professor Tim Benton: Research Director Environment & Society, Chatham House

In this episode of Sustainability Talks, ETF Managing Partner, Rob Genieser sits down with Professor Tim G. Benton who leads the Environment and Society Programme at Chatham House.

Chatham House needs little introduction. It is one of the world’s most storied and highest-ranked think tanks. As well known for producing world-class research and hosting world-leaders as for the eponymous Chatham House rule. A rule which has helped facilitate countless debates and free-flowing discussions on the issues that shape our world. The Environment and Society Programme, which Tim leads, focuses on how environmental risks affect societies, and strategies to mitigate, adapt and build resilience to these risks.

Rob and Tim discuss where climate sits relative to the other geopolitical issues the world is facing, how rising inflation and interest rates are affecting environmental investing, the future of food security and how changing political administrations will (or won’t) affect different nations environmental foreign policies.

About Professor Tim Benton

Tim joined Chatham House in 2016 as a distinguished visiting fellow, at which time he was also dean of strategic research initiatives at the University of Leeds. From 2011-2016 he was the ‘champion’ of the UK’s Global Food Security programme which was a multi-agency partnership of the UK’s public bodies (government departments, devolved governments and research councils) with an interest in the challenges around food.

He has worked with UK governments, the EU and G20. He has been a global agenda steward of the World Economic Forum, and is an author of the IPCC’s Special Report on Food, Land and Climate (2019), and the UK’s Climate Change Risk Assessment (2017, 2022). He has published more than 150 academic papers, many tackling how systems respond to environmental change. His work on sustainability leadership has been recognized with an honorary fellowship of the UK’s Society for the Environment, and a doctorate honoris causa from the Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium.

Listen to this episode of Sustainability Talks on your favourite podcast platform HERE.