The Climate Futures We Dare To Imagine

What is next for climate action? Scientific consensus about climate change and its impacts, and the urgency for necessary changes, is clear. Yet some political leaders and groups that are opposed to climate action are increasingly vocal.  Is the way we talk about the science of climate change encouraging understanding, or widening the gaps? How can science help us imagine a better, safer future, and can it support a hopeful message that crosses the political spectrum?

With a keynote address from Professor Hannah Cloke OBE, floods and extreme weather scientist, join an expert panel for a lively debate about the next chapter in public and political narratives around climate change. When people already have enough to worry about, this event will show how you can use the power of human imagination to visualise a more positive future.

Keynote
Regius Professor Hannah Cloke OBE has been newly appointed Regius Professor in Meteorology and Climate Science at the University of Reading. Regius Professor Hannah Cloke has been honoured with the title for her internationally recognised work in hydrology and meteorology, specialising in floods, climate extremes, and disaster risk reduction. Alongside her internationally recognised research, Regius Professor Hannah Cloke is a leading public voice on climate, flooding, and environmental risk. She regularly provides expert commentary for national and international broadcasters and publications, helping audiences understand the links between extreme weather, flooding, and climate change.

Panellists 

Professor Kathryn Brown OBE
Kathryn joined UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology as Director of Science in 2026. She has over 20 years’ experience in a range of evidence, climate change and nature roles for both the UK Government and third sector. She worked as Director of Climate Change and Evidence at The Wildlife Trusts between 2021-2026, overseeing the federation's evidence programmes and their approach to addressing climate change, including through landscape scale nature-based solutions. Her previous roles include Head of Adaptation at the Climate Change Committee, where she was part of the CCC's senior team and led the development of the UK Climate Change Risk Assessment. Prior to 2012 Kathryn held a range of domestic and international climate roles at Defra, including as a lead negotiator for the European Union and as the department's scientific lead on climate risk. She was awarded an OBE for services to climate change research in 2022, and is currently a Visiting Professor at the University of Reading. 

Dr Jolene Cook OBE
Jolene Cook is a climate scientist and UK civil servant working internationally at the science–policy interface. She completed her PhD and post-doctoral research in climate science at the University of Reading before moving into the civil service, where she provides climate science advice to policymakers. Jolene serves as the UK's Focal Point to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). She is a UK negotiator on science-related matters under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and was head of science during the UK's COP26 Presidency. In recognition of her contributions to international climate science, she was awarded an OBE in 2025.

Laura Tobin
Laura Tobin has had a varied career in meteorology since graduating from the University of Reading with a BSc in Physics & Meteorology in 2003.   She has forecast for the RAF at Brize Norton, presented at the BBC & has been at ITV as their main weather presenter since 2012. Laura loves to keep viewers informed about everyday weather, severe weather, plus any interesting weather from around the UK and World and adding a little science along the way. Laura is very passionate about communicating climate change to the viewers and has presented many items on climate and space including from Svalbard & Houston Texas at Nasa.

Professor Keith Shine FRS Outgoing Regius Professor of Meteorology, University of Reading.
Keith Shine is a climate scientist whose main focus is understanding how human activity initiates climate change, especially the role of so-called "greenhouse gases", such as carbon dioxide, methane and halocarbons; these are major drivers of climate change. Keith has been heavily involved in United Nations’ assessments of climate change and stratospheric ozone depletion, and in Royal Society climate change reports aimed at broad audiences. His undergraduate degree was in Physics at Imperial College and his PhD was in Meteorology at the University of Edinburgh. After spells as a university research scientist at Liverpool and Oxford he moved to the University of Reading in 1988.  Keith was Regius Professor of Meteorology and Climate Science at the University from 2013-2026, and was the first holder of this post, which was awarded to the University by Her Majesty The Queen to mark the Diamond Jubilee. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, the UK's science academy, in 2009, and a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union since 2021.