“Antarctica has been called the sleeping giant, but it is now being awoken by climate chaos,” UN Secretary General António Guterres warned ahead of COP28.

COP28 formally opens today and the World Meteorological Organization climate report confirms that 2023 has shattered all climate records and is set to be the warmest year on record, leaving a trail of devastation and despair.

OW Nigel Topping (1978-1984), CMG, has been recently appointed to the Climate Change Committee (CCC). The independent, expert statutory body tasked with advising Government is made up of world-leading scientists, engineers, academics and representatives of business, focusing on the transition to Net Zero.

In 2020, he was appointed by the UK Prime Minister as UN Climate Change High Level Champion for COP26. He mobilised the global private sector and local government to take bold action on climate change, launched the ‘Race To Zero’ and ‘Race To Resilience’ campaigns and, with Mark Carney, the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero.

Nigel is now a global advisor to governments, financial institutions and private companies on climate and industrial strategy. He is a non-executive director of the UK Infrastructure Bank, an Honorary Professor of Economics at Exeter University and was awarded the honour of CMG in Queen Elizabeth’s final honours list in 2022.

Nigel read Mathematics at St John's, Cambridge, and won two rugby blues in '86 and '87. Let’s not forget he was also 1^st XV Captain at RGS!