Tea and Talk with the RSE Royal Society of Edinburgh

To close Series 5 of Tea and Talk with the RSE, we chat to Professor Jim Skea and Professor Camilla Toulmin about the road to a Just Transition to net-zero.
Jim is Professor of Sustainable Energy at Imperial College London, co-chair of Working Group III (Mitigation) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a former member of the UK Committee on Climate Change and chaired Scotland’s Just Transition Commission.
Camilla is Senior Associate, Climate Change, International Institute for Environment and Development and Professor in Practice at the University of Lancaster. She is a Senior Fellow at the Africa-Europe Foundation, with responsibility for Sustainable Energy and Agri-food systems, an Associate at the Institute for New Economic Thinking and has spent 40 years’ work at the interface between environment and development, spanning local and global scales.

We speak to RSE Fellows Professor Maggie Gill and Professor Colin Campbell about land use and climate change.
Maggie is Emeritus Professor in the School of Biology at the University of Aberdeen. She is a former Chief Scientific Advisor, chairs the Scottish Science Advisory Council, which provides independent advice to the Scottish government and has a particular interest in the research/policy interface.
Colin is a guest Professor at the Swedish Agricultural Sciences University in Uppala, sits on the Scottish Government’s Forum for Natural Capital and has a long-standing interest in sustainable development.

In episode three of the Tea and Talk Podcast, we speak to RSE Fellows Professor Gordon Masterton and Professor Iain Docherty about transport, mobility and what net-zero means in practice. 


Gordon is Chair of Future Infrastructure at the University of Edinburgh and has a wealth of experience advising on transport and infrastructure projects including Crossrail and HS2.


Iain is Dean of the Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of Stirling, a leading researcher of transport and mobility and a former non-Executive Director of ScotRail.

We chat with members of the RSE Young Academy of Scotland, Dr Sandro Carnicelli and Dr Leslie Mabon about the impacts of climate change on tourism.
Sandro Carnicelli is a Senior Lecturer at the University of the West of Scotland where he leads work and conducts research on Marketing, Events and Tourism.
Leslie Mabon is a lecturer in Environmental Systems at the Open University looking at the governance of complex environmental issues and how you balance scientific knowledge with social and cultural considerations.

With COP26 being held in Glasgow, we chat to Professor James Curran MBE FRSE and Professor Duncan Maclennan CBE FRSE about the impact of climate change on Scottish cities, and the policy and lifestyle changes needed in order to make cities more environmentally friendly.
James Curran MBE is a former Chief Executive of the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency, serves on the board of the Green Purposes Company, and is Chair of Climate Ready Clyde.
Duncan Maclennan CBE is Professor of Public Policy at the University of Glasgow, Professorial Research Fellow in Urban Economics at University of New South Wales, and has worked for many years in the areas of housing, infrastructure and neighbourhoods.

“Good integration is not camps, it’s not aid. It’s people living in flourishing communities where everyone can contribute.”
In S03E05 of the RSE Tea and Talk Podcast, Dr Rebekah Widdowfield discusses the issues asylum seekers and refugees face in a post-Brexit Britain with RSE Fellow, Professor Alison Phipps, Professor of Languages and Intercultural Studies at the University of Glasgow and UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts.