Mark Carney to deliver the Natural History Museum’s Annual Science Lecture for 2021

In the speech, he will discuss how, by realigning values and value, we can develop the solutions that rebuild nature, enhance biodiversity and restore the delicate balance of our planetary systems.

Mark Carney says: “I am honoured to deliver this year’s Science Lecture for the Natural History Museum, an institution revered as a world authority on the natural world - whose scientific research is helping solve some of the biggest challenges facing people and planet.

“We have been trading off the planet against profit for far too long, living for today and leaving it to others to pay tomorrow. This has depleted our natural capital, had a devastating effect on the planet's biodiversity and is causing unprecedented changes to our climate. But there is a way out and I look forward to outlining what can – and needs – to be done.”

This keynote speech will be followed by an expert panel discussion chaired by the Museum’s Executive Director for Science, Dr Tim Littlewood, and involving socio-ecological economist Kate Raworth and environmental economist Professor Ian Bateman OBE and the Museum’s world-leading biodiversity data researcher Professor Andy Purvis. The event is part of the Museum’s year-long season of activity focussing on human impact on the planet, Our Broken Planet: How We Got Here and Ways to Fix It.

Director of the Natural History Museum, Dr Doug Gurr says: “We are delighted to host this thought-provoking and timely lecture from Mark Carney. Exploring the radical shifts we might need to make in thought and action if we are to halt biodiversity loss and climate change, his speech is no doubt likely to provoke lively debate and analysis from our expert panel and audience watching.”

Kate Raworth is Senior Research Associate at Oxford University's Environmental Change Institute and author of Doughnut Economics: Seven ways to think like a 21st Century Economist – a widely influential framework for sustainable development. Professor Ian Bateman is Director of the Land, Environment, Economics and Policy Institute (LEEP) at the University of Exeter Business School. Professor Andy Purvis has founded and leads the Museum’s PREDICTS project which has produced the biggest global database of how local ecological communities have been affected by human impacts. His research has been hugely influential in contributing to global policy on biodiversity – he was Coordinating Lead Author of the IPBES Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services and has submitted evidence to major reports from the State of Nature to the recent Dasgupta Review on the Economics of Biodiversity.

The audience will be encouraged to join the debate and submit questions to the panellists as they discuss the ideas Mark Carney presented from how to achieve net zero carbon emissions to who should be responsible for making change happen – governments, industry, individuals?

Previous presenters of the Museum’s Annual Science Lecture include Sir David Attenborough, ethologist Richard Dawkins, medical doctor and fertility scientist Professor Robert Winston, marine biologist Dr Sylvia Earle and renowned space scientist Professor Monica Grady.

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Natural History Media contact: Tel: +44 (0)20 7942 5654/ (0)779 969 0151 Email: press@nhm.ac.uk

About the Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum is both a world-leading science research centre and the most-visited natural history museum in Europe. With a vision of a future in which both people and the planet thrive, it is uniquely positioned to be a powerful champion for balancing humanity’s needs with those of the natural world.

It is custodian of one of the world’s most important scientific collections comprising over 80 million specimens. The scale of this collection enables researchers from all over the world to document how species have and continue to respond to environmental changes - which is vital in helping predict what might happen in the future and informing future policies and plans to help the planet.

The Museum’s 300 scientists continue to represent one of the largest groups in the world studying and enabling research into every aspect of the natural world. Their science is contributing critical data to help the global fight to save the future of the planet from the major threats of climate change and biodiversity loss through to finding solutions such as the sustainable extraction of natural resources.

The Museum uses its enormous global reach and influence to meet its mission to create advocates for the planet - to inform, inspire and empower everyone to make a difference for nature. We welcome over five million visitors each year; our digital output reaches hundreds of thousands of people in over 200 countries each month and our touring exhibitions have been seen by around 30 million people in the last 10 years.