Speakers

Mark Pelling is Professor of Risk and Disaster Reduction at UCL’s Department for Risk and Disaster Reduction and Governance Theme Lead for UCL’s Grand Challenge for the Climate crisis. He has 30 years experience of collaborative research on decision-making, social justice and resilience building with civil society and government actors worldwide. He has served the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as a Coordinating Lead Author in four report cycles including the 5th and 6th Assessment Reports and the current Special Report on Cities and Climate Change and acts as the UK representative for the European Science and Technology Advisory Group for UNDRR. Over a 27 year career he has led 28 grants with a combined value of £56m, most recently acting as Science Director for the Tomorrow’s Cities programme. This transdisciplinary project has brought more than 20 partners across ten cities to facilitate a shift in thinking and practice from emergency response to an urban planning based management of disaster risk. He has 122 publications including nine books, two as sole author, with Adaptation to Climate Change under revision for a Second Edition.