CMCC Lecture
16 December 2026, 12:00 CET | Online
To join the Lecture, register here

How can food systems reduce emissions without putting food security at risk? And how can governments and food systems drive the shift towards more sustainable solutions?
Join Elizabeth Robinson, professor at the London School of Economics, for a CMCC Lecture exploring how behavioural shifts, technological innovation, individual action and systemic change could help accelerate emissions reductions across the agri-food sector.

The agri-food sector is under increasing pressure. Although year on year the planet produces more calories per person, the global population is still growing, climate change is having a negative impact on food production and food security, and the sector as a whole needs to accelerate emissions reduction, which currently account for around 30% of global emissions.

Yet in most higher-income countries, governments seem reluctant to address one of the key drivers of the sector’s emissions, livestock, and unable to sufficiently address the other key driver, food loss and food waste. This despite the reality that both actions have the potential to lower food prices, reduce pressure on nature and biodiversity, and increase food security.

In this CMCC Lecture, drawing on insights from the behavioural sciences and the economics literatures, Elizabeth Robinson – professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science – will explore the extent to which behaviour change versus technological innovation, and individual versus systemic change, have the potential to accelerate emissions reduction in the agri-food sector.

Speaker: Elizabeth J. Z. Robinson, Professor of Environmental Economics and Director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science

Discussant: Caterina Guidi, CMCC

Moderator: Soheil Shayegh, CMCC

Elizabeth Robinson is Professor of Environmental Economics, and Director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, at the London School of Economics. Her research addresses the design of policies and institutions to reduce climate change emissions, protect the environment, and improve the livelihoods of resource-dependent communities. She particularly focuses on the health co-benefits of tackling climate change, including food security and undernutrition, and heat and worker rights. She was Chair of the Advisory Group on the Economics of Climate Risk and Adaptation for CCRA4 for the UK’s Climate Change Committee, 2024-26; she served on the UK Defra Economic Advisory Panel for five years; from 2004-09 she was coordinating lead author for the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development, sub-Saharan Africa; from 2016-2024 working group one lead for the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change; and Specialist Advisor to the UK House of Lords Select Committee on Food, Poverty, Health, and Environment, 2019-20. She is currently a Lead Author for the IPCC AR7 WGIII Chapter 4, sustainable development and mitigation. Elizabeth has previously worked at the University of Reading, the Boston Consulting Group, the World Bank, Rockefeller Foundation, Natural Resources Institute, and the University of Oxford as a Lecturer and Tutorial Fellow at St Hugh’s College. She has a first class degree in Engineering, Economics, and Management from Oxford University, and a PhD in Applied Economics from Stanford University.

The event is part of the CMCC Lectures webinar series, which presents frontier topics and solutions in climate sciences and action, through the insights of leading experts. The series provides a platform for prominent scientists to showcase their cutting-edge research and engage in dialogue with peers and stakeholders.