Just before recess I was at a WWF event in Parliament on environmental issues, with rather a large panel of speakers – all male, all white and, with one exception, all middle-aged. I’ve now received an invite to another ‘green’ event, from the Aldersgate Group: a ‘Dragon’s Den’ type event on 11th September with the hashtag is #climatesummit. The pitches will answer: “What bold pledge from the Climate Summit would most effectively close the emissions gap and help you deliver a low carbon economy?”
Here are the names of those making the pitches and the names of the green ‘dragons’. There will be some occasions when all-male panels are OK – in a very specialist field, for example – but this is a pretty broad issue. Surely we can do better?
Business Leaders
– Paul Kelly, ASDA, Vice President, Corporate Affairs
– Jonathon Counsell, British Airways, Head of Environment
– Richard Folland, JP Morgan, European Energy and Environment Advisor
– Steven Heath, Knauf Insulation, Director – Public Affairs and Strategy
– Mike Barry, M&S, Director of Sustainable Business
– Andre Fourie, SAB Miller, Senior Manager – Environmental Value
Dragon Panel
– Sir David King, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Special Representative for Climate Change
– David Nussbaum, WWF, Chief Executive
– Nick Robins, UNEP, Co-Director, Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System
– Andrew Raingold, Aldersgate Group, Executive Director (Chair)
I hope that with Labour conference coming up people will have taken note of the criticisms raised last year, and we’ll won’t see much of this going on there. At the moment I only know about the panels I’m on – and they’re obviously not all-male!