Energy Seminar – Week 2: Reconciling land uses on a crowded island to achieve Net Zero and more
Thomas Oliver, Environmental Manager, DESNZ
- Start Tuesday 22 Oct 2024 5:00pm
- Finish Tuesday 22 Oct 2024 6:30pm
- Venue Dyson Perrins Building
- Postcode OX1 3AN
- Register for event
THIS IS AN IN PERSON AND ONLINE EVENT
Summary: Pragmatic and strategic land use is crucial for addressing many of today’s pressing challenges, including achieving net zero, restoring biodiversity, and ensuring sustainable food, transportation, and housing for a growing population. Yet, current land use for energy production is somewhat ad hoc and often conflicts with these other land uses. This seminar will explore the potential of a land use framework (LUF) to prioritise and reconcile different land uses in the UK and discuss how an LUF could ensure that land used for energy production supports broader objectives, going beyond just achieving net zero.
Speaker: Thomas currently serves as the Environmental Manager at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). He is responsible for assessing the environmental impacts of energy infrastructure projects and national policies in the United Kingdom and providing advice to the Secretary of State and senior ministers. Prior to joining the Civil Service, Thomas held roles as an environmental planner in Oxfordshire. He developed environmental policy at both local and regional levels, as well as contributed to major initiatives, including the drafting of the Oxfordshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy and frameworks for the then emerging Biodiversity Net Gain mechanism. Thomas has also held research roles in universities and international NGOs.
Thomas also conducts research primarily focused on the intersection between ecology and the built environment, particularly in the context of infrastructure design and development, in association with the University of Cambridge. He also holds voluntary positions with the British Trust for Ornithology as an Ambassador and the British Ecological Society as a member of the English Policy Group.
Thomas was selected as a Young Leader by the BTO and as a Young Voice for Nature by the RSPB, WWF-UK, and National Trust in 2023.
He holds an MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management, which he read as a King Henry VIII Endowed Scholar at Christ Church, University of Oxford.”