6pm - 8pm GMT
Wednesday 5 November 2025
Roland Clift Lecture 2025: Delivering an Equitable Low Carbon and Clean Air Future
Save the date for the next lecture in the series.
We are delighted to confirm our keynote speaker, Alastair Lewis, Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry at the University of York.
Free
University of Surrey
Guildford
Surrey
GU2 7XH
You will be navigated to our Eventbrite page to register for your free tickets.
Keynote Speaker
Alastair Lewis
Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry
Biography
Alastair Lewis is professor of atmospheric chemistry at the University of York. He is an experimental scientist who has studied the composition of the atmosphere from polar regions to megacities, open oceans to tropical forests. He has received the Royal Society of Chemistry Silver Medal for analytical science, John Jeyes Award for environment, energy and sustainability and the Lord Lewis biannual prize for science policy. He is currently Chair of the Defra Air Quality Expert Group and the Department for Transport Science Advisory Council and a member of the Environmental Sustainability Panel of the Civil Aviation Authority. He has been a contributor to >300 scientific publications on topics spanning analytical chemistry, air pollution science, and public health impacts, and is an advisor to government on issues related to net zero, health inequalities and future regulation and environmental targets. He currently holds a Royal Society Industrial Fellowship working with the chemicals manufacturer Givaudan SA to help consumer products industries reduce the impact of solvents on indoor air quality.
About the lecture
Society faces multiple critical environmental challenges, including climate change, pollution, biodiversity and waste. Science and policy can both be intensely focused on a single challenge with interventions and solutions often implemented to deliver individual regulatory or legal objectives, for example net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Fixes to one environmental domain can sometimes create problems somewhere else - for example using biomass for energy and heat can help with decarbonisation goals, but creates additional particulate air pollution. There are however many opportunities for alignment of objectives, where carefully choosing certain technical pathways can help create multiple benefits. This lecture will explore how science, technology and policies for decarbonising the UK economy can be optimised to deliver cleaner air and improved public health. Who decarbonises first, and where, influences who in society sees the greatest air quality and health benefits. The potential for EVs, heat pumps, hydrogen, and sustainable aviation fuel to change the socioeconomic distribution of air pollution will be discussed, and how getting cleaner air as a byproduct of from net zero can change the narrative and economics of climate change action.
This event is being hosted by the Institute for Sustainability and the Centre for Environment and Sustainability (CES).
