Jane Burston

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Jane Burston
Jane Burston at World Economic Forum.jpg
Burston addressing the 2019 World Economic Forum
Alma mater University of Cambridge
EmployerClean Air Fund

Jane Burston (born 1981) is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of the Clean Air Fund, a philanthropic foundation tackling global air pollution [1] that was launched at the UN Secretary General's Climate Summit in New York with $50m from 6 core funders. [2] Previously, Jane was the Head of Energy and the Environment at the National Physical Laboratory.

Contents

Early life and education

Burston has strong ethical and environmental principles. She gave up meat when she was eleven, and as a student fought to eliminate plastic in her college canteen. [3] Burston studied philosophy at the University of Cambridge, graduating with a first class degree in 2002. [4]

Career to date

After graduating, Burston worked for a strategy consultancy for 4 years, before spending a year in Zambia running an NGO recycling computers and training teachers in IT. [5] On returning to the UK she worked on climate policy for Transport for London and the Mayor of London's office.

In 2008, Burston founded Carbon Retirement, a social enterprise that reformed emissions trading and carbon offsetting. [6] Carbon Retirement put pressure on countries and companies to embrace clean technology, by allowing them to buy and use up credits. [7] Carbon Retirement partnered with the New York Stock Exchange in September 2011. [6]

Burston joined the National Physical Laboratory in 2012, where she led a team of 150 scientists and engineers. At NPL, she founded the Centre for Carbon Measurement, looking at carbon markets, low carbon technologies and climate data. [8] In 2015 she gave evidence at the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. [9] In August 2017 Burston was seconded to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy as Deputy Director of Science for Climate and Energy. In June 2019, Burston founded and became Chief Executive Officer of the Clean Air Fund. [2]

Jane Burston became a Trustee of Parkinson's UK in 2019. [10]

Awards and public engagement

In 2009 Burston was selected as a Climate Change Ambassador for the British Council. [11] In 2011 Burston was named as one of Management Today's High Flying Women Under 35 and the Square Mile Social Entrepreneur of the Year. [12] [13]

In 2012 Burston was selected as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. [14] [15] [16] She won the 2012 Management Today Future Leaders Award. [17] [4] In 2015, she was named as one of the Top 20 Young People Globally by the International Chamber of Commerce and a Friends of Europe European Young Leader: 40 under 40. [18] In 2021, she was nominated by Christina Figueres as a WIRED changemaker of tomorrow. [19]

Burston was a member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council for the Future of Real Estate and Urbanization, [20] a member of the Global Future Council for Energy and she currently co-chairs the Global Future Council for Clean Air. [21] She was instrumental in launching the first global corporate Alliance for Clean Air. [22]

Jane Burston has a strong track record of public engagement. In 2013, she appeared on BBC Radio 4 talking about 'Putting profit in its place'. [23] She gave a TED talk in 2015 at the London School of Economics. [24] [25] That year she also spoke at X. [26] She has spoken at the 2016, 2017 and 2018 and 2021 United Nations Climate Change conferences. [27] [28] Burston delivered a lecture at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment in 2018. [29] In 2021, Burston performed a ‘Letter to the 21st Century’ on BBC Radio 4. [30] She has contributed to HuffPost, Carbon Brief and the World Economic Forum's Agenda. [31] [32] [33]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carbon tax</span> Tax on carbon emissions

A carbon tax is a tax levied on the carbon emissions required to produce goods and services. Carbon taxes are intended to make visible the "hidden" social costs of carbon emissions, which are otherwise felt only in indirect ways like more severe weather events. In this way, they are designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by increasing prices of the fossil fuels that emit them when burned. This both decreases demand for goods and services that produce high emissions and incentivizes making them less carbon-intensive. In its simplest form, a carbon tax covers only CO2 emissions; however, it could also cover other greenhouse gases, such as methane or nitrous oxide, by taxing such emissions based on their CO2-equivalent global warming potential. When a hydrocarbon fuel such as coal, petroleum, or natural gas is burned, most or all of its carbon is converted to CO2. Greenhouse gas emissions cause climate change, which damages the environment and human health. This negative externality can be reduced by taxing carbon content at any point in the product cycle. Carbon taxes are thus a type of Pigovian tax.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">World Economic Forum</span> Swiss nonprofit foundation

The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental organization for public - private sector collaboration based in Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer Klaus Schwab. The foundation, which is mostly funded by its 1,000 member companies – typically global enterprises with more than US$5 billion in turnover – as well as public subsidies, views its own mission as "improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional, and industry agendas".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Serco</span> British company

Serco Group plc is a British multinational defence, justice & immigration, transport, health, and citizen services company. It is headquartered in Hook, Hart, England. The company operates in Continental Europe, the Middle East, the Asia Pacific region, including Australia and Hong Kong, and North America. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Physical Laboratory (United Kingdom)</span> National Measurement Institution of the United Kingdom

The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) is the national measurement standards laboratory of the United Kingdom. It sets and maintains physical standards for British industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Refrigerant</span> Substance in a refrigeration cycle

A refrigerant is a working fluid used in the refrigeration cycle of air conditioning systems and heat pumps where in most cases they undergo a repeated phase transition from a liquid to a gas and back again. Refrigerants are heavily regulated due to their toxicity, flammability and the contribution of CFC and HCFC refrigerants to ozone depletion and that of HFC refrigerants to climate change.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Climate change mitigation</span> Actions to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions to limit climate change

Climate change mitigation is action to limit climate change. This action either reduces emissions of greenhouse gases or removes those gases from the atmosphere. The recent rise in global temperature is mostly due to emissions from burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas. There are various ways that mitigation can reduce emissions. These are transitioning to sustainable energy sources, conserving energy, and increasing efficiency. It is possible to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This can be done by enlarging forests, restoring wetlands and using other natural and technical processes. The name for these processes is carbon sequestration. Governments and companies have pledged to reduce emissions to prevent dangerous climate change. These pledges are in line with international negotiations to limit warming.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Business action on climate change</span> Range of activities by businesses relating to climate change

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Economic analysis of climate change</span>

The economic analysis of climate change explains how economic thinking, tools and techniques are applied to calculate the magnitude and distribution of damage caused by climate change. It also informs the policies and approaches for mitigation and adaptation to climate change from global to household scales. This topic is also inclusive of alternative economic approaches, including ecological economics and degrowth. In a cost–benefit analysis, the trade offs between climate change impacts, adaptation, and mitigation are made explicit. Cost–benefit analyses of climate change are produced using integrated assessment models (IAMs), which incorporate aspects of the natural, social, and economic sciences. The total economic impacts from climate change are difficult to estimate, but increase for higher temperature changes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Low-carbon economy</span> Economy based on energy sources with low levels of greenhouse gas emissions

A low-carbon economy (LCE) or decarbonised economy is an economy based on energy sources that produce low levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. GHG emissions due to human activity are the dominant cause of observed climate change since the mid-20th century. Continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause long-lasting changes around the world, increasing the likelihood of severe, pervasive, and irreversible effects for people and ecosystems. Shifting to a low-carbon economy on a global scale could bring substantial benefits both for developed and developing countries. Many countries around the world are designing and implementing low-emission development strategies (LEDS). These strategies seek to achieve social, economic, and environmental development goals while reducing long-term greenhouse gas emissions and increasing resilience to the effects of climate change.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greenhouse gas emissions by the United States</span> Climate changing gases from the North American country

The United States produced 5.2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2020, the second largest in the world after greenhouse gas emissions by China and among the countries with the highest greenhouse gas emissions per person. In 2019 China is estimated to have emitted 27% of world GHG, followed by the United States with 11%, then India with 6.6%. In total the United States has emitted a quarter of world GHG, more than any other country. Annual emissions are over 15 tons per person and, amongst the top eight emitters, is the highest country by greenhouse gas emissions per person. However, the IEA estimates that the richest decile in the US emits over 55 tonnes of CO2 per capita each year. Because coal-fired power stations are gradually shutting down, in the 2010s emissions from electricity generation fell to second place behind transportation which is now the largest single source. In 2020, 27% of the GHG emissions of the United States were from transportation, 25% from electricity, 24% from industry, 13% from commercial and residential buildings and 11% from agriculture. In 2021, the electric power sector was the second largest source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for 25% of the U.S. total. These greenhouse gas emissions are contributing to climate change in the United States, as well as worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Climate change in China</span> Emissions, impacts and responses of China related to climate change

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate Change</span>

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