The Earth Debates (2012)

The Earth Debates were a series of dialogues exploring issues of environment and sustainability in the lead-up to the Rio+20 international conference on sustainable development. The programme was developed in partnership with the British Council and Stakeholder Forum for a Sustainable Forum. The events, hosted at the NHM, were webcast-live around the world, linking to groups as far afield as Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and Sao Paulo in Brazil. The debates, with experts in front of a high-level studio audiences looked at the issues of science, society and policy. The on-line streams were open to all with members of the public engaging live and direct via e-mails and twitter with the panel. Earth debates archive.

The Global business of biodiversity symposium (2010-11)

Bob championed the Global Business of Biodiversity Symposia in 2010 and 2011 within the project director John Brown. The 2010 event, hosted at ExCeL in London’s Docklands, bought together more than 750 delegates from across business sector. The 2011 conference in Westminster focused on biodiversity and particularly sustainable forestry as part of the International Year of Forest. The Global Business of Biodiversity Symposium was endorsed by the Department of Business Innovation and Skill and by Defra and was the largest private sector gathering discussing business responses to biodiversity issues.

The International Student Summits (2006-2010)

The International Student Summit and Accord programme was a series of events hosted on London over 2006-2011 working in partnership with the British Council. Young adults in the final school years come together from more than 22 countries from around the world, with students from London and wider across the UK. The young adults met with leading experts from UK and Europe exploring key issues of science in society with a programme over the years covering Climate Change, Greening Cities, Evolution and environment and biodiversity loss. The environment was open and engaging and students were invited to vote on a series of motions an the issues the results of which were subsequently edited in the summit accords – to be shared with their school and the education departments in their home countries.

Delegates from the 2006 International Student Summit on Climate Change summit a copy of the delegates accord to 10 Downing Street.