Sir David King

Sir David King is an emeritus professor of physical chemistry at the University of Cambridge. He is the chair of the Climate Crisis Advisory Group (CCAG), founder of the Centre for Climate Repair at Cambridge (CCRC), and an affiliate partner of SYSTEMIQ Limited.

He has an impressive track record of advocating for climate action worldwide. As the UK government chief scientific adviser from 2000-2007 and the foreign secretary’s special representative on climate change from 2013-2017, he travelled extensively to persuade all countries to act on climate change. Sir Dave initiated an in-depth risk analysis approach to climate change, working closely with the Governments of China and India in particular. He also spearheaded a collaborative program called Mission Innovation, which involved 25 countries and the EU to create a publicly funded £23bn pa research and development international exercise aimed at delivering all technologies needed to complete the transition into a fossil-fuel-free world economy.

As the government chief scientific adviser, Sir Dave raised the need for governments to act on climate change and played a key role in creating the British £1 billion Energy Technologies Institute. He is a fellow of the Royal Society since 1991 and a foreign fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2002. Sir Dave was knighted in 2003 and made “Officier dans l’ordre national de la Légion d’Honneur” in 2009. Recently, he was also named The American Association for the Advancement of Science 2022 Hamburg Awardee for Science Diplomacy.