Professor Sir David King is uniquely qualified to give an authoritative insight into the threat of climate change and what governments and their citizens need do to deal with it.

Sir David was Tony Blair and Gordon Brown’s chief scientific adviser. At that time, he was outspoken on the subject of climate change, saying “I see climate change as the greatest challenge facing Britain and the world in the 21st century” and “climate change is the most severe problem we are facing today – more serious even than the threat of terrorism”.

He then served as the permanent Special Representative for Climate Change under David Cameron and Theresa May, including for Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, playing an active part in framing and securing the Paris agreement.

Sir David was clear that all nations must draw up a plan to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change. But they have failed to do so and today, while governments are promising to invest a total of over a trillion dollars to counter the effects of the Covid19 pandemic, there are estimates that they will need to spend a hundred times as much over the next thirty years merely to replace all fossil fuel power stations with clean generation.

Today governments are at war against Covid19, while the real threat to the future of civilization remains largely unchallenged. Hear what Sir David had to say on this crucial issue when he delivered Coventry Lord Mayor’s Peace Lecture 2020.

The event was introduced by Councillor Ann Lucas, The Right Worshipful the Lord Mayor of the City of Coventry and Chaired by Philip Brown, Chair of Coventry Lord Mayor’s Committee for Peace and Reconciliation which organised the event.

Closing remarks were made by the Very Reverend John Witcombe, Dean of Coventry Cathedral.