The Centre for Climate Engagement plays a unique role in bringing leading academic research to a targeted audience of chairs and non-executive directors to accelerate climate leadership on boards in the private and public sectors.
The Centre is uniquely placed to develop insights drawing on academic expertise from across the University of Cambridge and the wider research community, together with independent expertise from the business sector.
The Centre supports new areas of research particularly relevant for board members with a specific focus on climate law, governance, and organisational change. Our research is carried out directly by postdoctoral researchers, and indirectly via partnerships and collaboration with relevant experts.
Our mission is to encourage academic excellence in climate law, governance and organisational change, and to translate and transfer this knowledge to corporate boards to accelerate the race to net zero emissions and climate resilience.
Our Story
The Centre was launched in 2018
The Centre was set up in 2018 as part of The Bridge initiative at Hughes Hall which leverages the College’s multi-disciplinary perspective, international nature and external focus to bring the research and expertise of its academic community to solve real world problems.
Founders of the Centre, Dr Ron Zimmern and Julie Baddeley, were particularly concerned that boardrooms of listed companies (with few exceptions) were not sufficiently engaged with the climate agenda. Many boards had not given it the priority that it deserves, and some had not discussed it at all.
The Centre was initially set up to provide general guidance and toolkits that might be of assistance to boards and non-executive directors, but explicitly not to provide consultancy services or direct educational activity. This has allowed for successful partnering and collaboration with academics, professional services firms and increasingly, law firms.
Chapter Zero was launched in 2019 and the Centre became the secretariat for the Climate Governance Initiative in 2020
Chapter Zero was launched in 2019 and became one of the first networks of chairs and non-executive directors supporting increased awareness and understanding of climate change. Working closely with the World Economic Forum, it helped to spur a global movement and in 2020 the Centre became the secretariat for the Climate Governance Initiative. The success of these growing communities has driven a need for expansion and continued focus on the role of the Centre to bridge between academia and the boardroom.
In 2021, Emily Farnworth joined the team to develop the research and knowledge brokering teams, help strengthen links with the University through Cambridge Zero and the Cambridge Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance in additional to supporting growing networks of critical importance to the overall mission of the Centre.
Our Team
Dr Ron Zimmern
Co-Founder of the Centre for Climate Engagement
Ron has a distinguished career in human genomics and is also Chair of the PHG Foundation, successor to the Public Health Genetics Unit, which he established in 1997.
Julie Baddeley
Co-Founder of the Centre for Climate Engagement and Chair of Chapter Zero
Julie has served on the boards of major organisations in the public and private sectors for more than 20 years. Julie has a background in change management and sees delivering a zero-carbon economy as the biggest change challenge for business in her lifetime.
Emily Farnworth
Director of the Centre for Climate Engagement
Emily has over 25 years of experience working with businesses, governments and non-profit organizations to support the transition to a low-carbon economy. Emily was previously the Head of Climate Initiatives at the World Economic Forum where she was involved in setting up the Climate Governance Initiative.
Rachel Allen
Content Lead
Rachel has a Natural Sciences degree from the University of Cambridge and is driven by a delight in communicating complex data to a broad audience. Rachel works across Centre projects, including the Climate Governance Initiative as well as Hughes Hall community engagement and outreach.
Sylvie Baird
Head of Operations – Climate Governance Initiative
Sylvie was the Secretariat’s first employee in September 2020 and now oversees its business operations, implementation of the Climate Governance Initiative strategy and its impact. Sylvie studied modern languages at Cambridge University and subsequently an MBA at the Open University Business School, whilst working at Save the Children.
Sophy Bristow
Senior Researcher
Sophy is a Senior Researcher, working within the Knowledge Brokering team to provide strategic insight and research to support content outputs for the CCE and Climate Governance Initiative. Sophy has nearly twenty years experience working across climate change and clean air policy for a range of academic, non-profit and international organisations.
Clare Chapman
Climate Governance Initiative Engagement Manager
With a background in corporate and community engagement, Clare brings 25 years of experience to this role. Recent projects have included working with a reforestation charity on their stakeholder engagement and operational effectiveness as well as a several years with BNP Paribas’s retail credit arm in the UK in Commercial Development. Clare aims to bring these diverse skills to bear on empowering a network which could be the tipping point for Climate Change action.
Jack Cooper
Climate Governance Initiative Branding and Communications Manager
Jack Cooper is the new Branding and Communications Manager for the Climate Governance Initiative. He has experience working with businesses, universities, industry associations, and international donor organisations on stakeholder engagement, marketing strategy, and campaign implementation
Barry Fuchs
Climate Governance Initiative Engagement Manager
Barry is an Engagement Manager with CGI, using his experience with membership organisations to support the global network of CGI chapters. He also works on the Digital Education Futures Initiative team, based alongside CGI at Hughes Hall, Cambridge. Barry holds a master’s degree in Integrated Marketing Communications.
Harriet Harthan
Head of Content
Harriet has over 15 years’ experience working in climate, energy and sustainable development in a policy and business context. Harriet collaborates with academic and industry experts to understand key areas of climate research and how these can be translated for non-executive directors to accelerate climate action.
Kirsten Lamb
Climate Governance Initiative Project Manager
Kirsten is a project manager for CCE, with a background in library and information management. They are focused on delivering the 2022 CGI Global Summit and developing a content communication strategy.
Dr Samuel Ruiz-Tagle
Research Associate
Samuel is a Research Associate at the Centre for Climate Engagement. He completed his PhD in the Faculty of Law at Oxford University. A public lawyer, he began his career as a legal advisor to the General Secretariat of the Presidency of Chile, where he is originally from. He also practised law for several years advising private and public companies in all aspects of public law, including planning and environmental law and natural resources law.
Nick Scott
Content Lead
Nick leads the Centre’s ‘Law for Climate Action’ programme, which engages academics, legal practitioners, and corporates to determine legal solutions to the climate crisis. This includes finding ways to leverage existing legislation to address climate change, and also investigating emerging climate law and policy measures, particularly those relevant to business. Nick has law degrees from the University of Cambridge and the University of California, Berkeley.
Jacquie Storey
Climate Governance Initiative Team Administrator
Jacquie is the Team Administrator for the Climate Governance Initiative Secretariat. She comes from a conference management and publishing background with extensive experience of supporting global teams to deliver high impact, high value programs and events with the minimum impact on the planet.
Angela Walters
Manager, Centre for Climate Engagement
Angela provides executive support to the Centre for Climate Engagement, working across the programmes to provide operational management of core functions as well as facilitating the engagement and communications activities.
Dr Daoping Wang
Hoffmann Fellow
Daoping is a Hoffmann Fellow at the Centre for Climate Engagement. He is interested in exploring application of AI technologies in climate risk assessment and adaptation. He is also working with CCE and the World Economic Forum to transfer knowledge about global climate governance to policymakers, stakeholders, and the general public. Before joining Cambridge, Daoping received a PhD in Economics from the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.
Join our team
Job opportunities will be listed below as they become available.
CCE Summer Internship Programme
The Centre for Climate Engagement (CCE) at Hughes Hall is pleased to announce its summer internship programme, which offers several exciting opportunities to engage with our programmes and activities.
The CCE summer Internship programme is open to undergraduate and postgraduate students (up to one-year post-completion of undergraduate degree). The programme will include up to seven internship positions, with a focus on conducting desk research in climate governance and law and climate change.
We are currently recruiting for applications to these positions. The internships will run for the equivalent up to four full-time weeks (up to 150 hours), which can be completed over June to September as applicable for the individual positions. The interns will be based at Hughes Hall but can work remotely.
To find out more and to apply for an intern position, please click below:
Law & Climate Change Research Intern
Legal research interns will be responsible for updating and expanding the Centre for Climate Engagement’s Law and Climate Atlas, which was launched at the end of 2022. The Law and Climate Atlas maps how climate change is relevant to various areas of law, giving legal practitioners, students and researchers an overview of how different legal fields are changing during the net zero transition. This internship will be focussed on the Law and Climate Atlas, with key outputs and tasks including:
- Reviewing existing sections to ensure that they remain accurate in light of any recent legal developments, and proposing new amendments or insertions to reflect key legal changes.
- Helping to research and draft new sections to expand the Atlas so that it covers more areas of law.
- Analysing how different areas of law covered in the Atlas might be relevant to contracts.
The job description includes links to download the application form and tutor permission form.
Climate Governance Initiative – Chapter Engagement Internship
The Chapter Engagement team is working to develop a scalable approach in support an ever-growing number of chapters from around the globe. The chapter engagement intern will contribute to this work through desk-based research and event coordination. The chapter engagement intern will conduct desk-based research, produce summary documents for the chapter engagement manager, and assist with preparations for an event being produced in association with the US chapter of the Initiative. This internship will be focussed on the chapter engagement, with projects and responsibilities such as:
- Assessing which corporations and organisations are represented based on the individuals sitting on Chapter boards and steering committees
- Supporting the team in preparation for a Climate Governance Initiative event in New York and a visit from the Brazilian Chapter to Cambridge
- Ad-hoc research needed to support the Chapter Engagement team activities over the summer
The job description includes links to download the application form and tutor permission form.
If you are interested in applying for one of the internship position, please complete the application form associated with the position you are interested in, along with the tutor permission if required, and submit to climate@hughes.cam.ac.uk by midday on 31 May 2023.
Junior Content Lead
Centre for Climate Engagement (CCE), Hughes Hall
We have an exciting opportunity to join the Hughes Hall Centre for Climate Engagement as a Junior Content Lead to translate and transfer academic insight in law and governance to drive climate action in the boardroom. The role will involve working with leading lawyers, law firms, academics and NGOs to analyse and promote the use of legal levers to address climate change. The Junior Content Lead will join a vibrant and growing content team and play an important role in developing the CCE’s Law for Climate Action programme, which engages the legal community to understand how to leverage laws and regulations to accelerate climate change mitigation and adaptation with a focus on board-level intervention.
Further information about this role can be found on the job description.
To apply for this vacancy, please complete the application form and include a covering letter outlining how you meet the job description and person specification. All documentation should be emailed to hr@hughes.cam.ac.uk .
The College welcomes expressions of interest and applications from candidates from all communities and a diversity of backgrounds. You are encouraged to complete the College’s Equality and Diversity form which should be emailed to hr@hughes.cam.ac.uk.
The closing date for applications is midday on 14th June 2023
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