On 16 February, James Smith, Chairman of Shell UK, came to the University to give a lecture as part of the Distinguished Lecture Series. The lecture is now available for you to watch, and we'd love to hear your comments.

Energy improves lives and lifts people out of poverty. But energy needs to be produced more cleanly. One of global society’s biggest challenges over the coming decades is to produce a lot more energy and a lot less carbon dioxide.

There are just two big levers to pull – vastly improving energy efficiency and significantly decarbonising energy production. The pace of change will need to accelerate. But tantalisingly, the technologies to get the job done exist.

In the lecture, James discusses the future of Shell and energy production in the UK as a whole, focusing on ideas for renewing energy systems, in turn, cutting Carbon Dioxide emissions.

James Smith was appointed Chairman of Shell UK in 2004, having joined Shell in 1983. Much of his early career was in upstream oil and gas. He lived for 4 1/2 years in Malaysia and Brunei and worked on Shell business in a number of Middle Eastern countries and in the US. He was head of technology in Shell Chemicals.

James is President of the Energy Institute and chairs the Advisory Board of the Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership. He is on the boards of Opportunity Now and Race for Opportunity, the employer groups supporting gender and racial diversity in the workplace.