Speakers

Paul van Heyningen
Defra

Paul is a team leader in the Climate Change Strategy and Delivery team at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). His focus is on the implementation of the Climate Change Act, including setting legally-binding five-year UK carbon budgets in response to the advice of the Committee on Climate Change, and developing the Government’s proposals and policies to meet those budgets. He is also responsible for developing the system for carbon accounting to determine compliance with budgets.

Previously, he held posts covering a wide range of environmental and rural affairs policy briefs, including the 2001 foot and mouth disease crisis, agricultural biotechnology and genetic modification, environmental industries, and local Government and climate change. As well as working in Defra and DECC, he has taken secondments in the Office of Science and Technology, and at the European Commission in Brussels.

Before joining the Civil Service in 2001, Paul studied Natural Sciences and did a PhD in Developmental Neurobiology at University College London.