Christiana Figueres
Christiana Figueres is an internationally recognized leader on climate change. She was Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change from 2010 to 2016, where she oversaw the delivery of the historic Paris Agreement. Today she is the co-founder of Global Optimism, co-host of the podcast “Outrage & Optimism” and is the co-author of the recently published book, “The Future We Choose.” She is a graduate of Swarthmore College and the London School of Economics and has been awarded multiple honorary doctorate degrees from academic institutions such as Yale, University of Massachusetts, Georgetown and University of Edinburgh.

Dave Goulson: Saving our insects
Dave Goulson is Professor of Biology at University of Sussex, UK. He has published more than 350 scientific articles on the ecology of insects. He is the author of Bumblebees (OUP 2010), and of several bestselling popular books including A Sting in the Tale (2013), A Buzz in the Meadow ( 2014), The Garden Jungle (2019) and Silent Earth (2021), collectively translated in 20 languages. Goulson founded the Bumblebee Conservation Trust in 2006, a charity that has grown to 12,000 members. Awards: Zoological Society of London’s Marsh Award for Conservation Biology (2013); elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2013); British Ecological Society Public Engagement Award (2014); Zoological Society of London’s Clarivate Award for Communicating Zoology (2020). In 2015 he was named number 8 in BBC Wildlife Magazine’s list of the most influential people in conservation. In the four years 2018-2021 he was named as a “Highly Cited Researcher” by Thompson ISI. He is President of Pesticide Free Scotland and an “Ambassador” for the UK Wildlife Trusts.

Clover Hogan
Clover Hogan is a climate activist, researcher on eco-anxiety, and the founding Executive Director of Force of Nature – a youth nonprofit mobilising mindsets for climate action. Clover works alongside the world’s leading authorities on sustainability, consults within the boardrooms of Fortune 50 companies, and supported students in over 50 countries to realise their power as change-makers. Clover is also director and host of the Force of Nature podcast. Season 2, We need to talk about eco-anxiety, explores the intersection of youth mental health and the climate crisis: from food, to fashion, and the role of media in driving climate doomism.

Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein is an award-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author. She is Senior Correspondent for The Intercept. In 2018 she was named the inaugural Gloria Steinem Endowed Chair at Rutgers University and is now Honorary Professor of Media and Climate at Rutgers. In September 2021 she joined the University of British Columbia as UBC Professor of Climate Justice (tenured) and co-director of the Centre for Climate Justice. Naomi’s has written many books including ‘On Fire’, ‘No Is Not Enough’ and ‘This Changes Everything’ which won the 2014 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. ‘The Shock Doctrine’ was published worldwide in 2007 and translated into over 25 languages.

Satish Kumar
Peace-pilgrim, life-long activist, and former monk, Satish Kumar has been inspiring global change for over 50 years. He undertook a pilgrimage for peace, walking for two years without money from India to America for the cause of nuclear disarmament. Now in his 80s, Satish has devoted his life to campaigning for ecological regeneration and social justice. He is a world-renown author and international speaker, founder of The Resurgence Trust and Editor Emeritus of Resurgence & Ecologist – a change-making magazine he edited for over 40 years.

David Lindo
David Lindo is The Urban Birder – broadcaster, writer, speaker, educator and bird tour leader. His mission is to engage city folk around the world with the environment through the medium of birds. He has written countless articles on urban birds, urban conservation and wildlife in general for websites, publications and magazines. He is a regular television and radio presenter and has been featured on the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 in the UK as well as other TV and radio channels around the world including CBS in the United States. He is the author of The Urban Birder (Bloomsbury) 2011, Tales From Concrete Jungles (Bloomsbury) 2015, #Urban Birding (Kosmos) 2018 and How To Be An Urban Birder (Princeton/WildGuides) 2018.

Bill McKibben
Bill McKibben is founder of Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 for action on climate and justice. He has written 20 books including The End of Nature (1989), and his work appears regularly in periodicals from the New Yorker to Rolling Stone. He serves as the Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College, as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he has won the Gandhi Peace Prize as well as honorary degrees from 20 colleges and universities. He was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in the Swedish Parliament. McKibben helped found 350.org, the first global grassroots climate campaign, which has organised protests on every continent, including Antarctica, for climate action.

Deborah Meaden
Deborah is a business leader, TV personality and writer and has been an Investor on Dragon’s Den since Series 3. Known for her environmental and ethical focus as well as being a shrewd and reasonable Dragon, she promotes fair practice in business and in life, believing that taking care of the environment is essential for our future security and wellbeing. Alongside her work in the business environment she is also a Trustee of Tusk Trust, Fellow of the WWF and The RSA and patron of numerous wildlife and welfare charities both in the UK and oversees. Keen to tackle the widening gap in understanding of what business is and should be doing to play their part in tackling climate change Deborah co-hosted the first series of The Big Green Money Show with Felicity Hannah.

Ed Miliband
Ed Miliband is MP for Doncaster North and Shadow Secretary of State for Climate Change and Net Zero. Ed has served as Minister for the Cabinet Office under Gordon Brown in 2007 and then as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change from 2008 to 2010. In this role, Ed oversaw the introduction of the Climate Change Act 2008. As well as his Parliamentary work, Ed is the co-host of popular current affairs podcast ‘Reasons to be Cheerful’ and has recently written a book, Go Big: How To Fix Our World.

Poppy Okotcha: Growing that gives back: regenerating our gardens, minds, communities and bodies with gardens
Poppy Okotcha is a trained horticulturist and regenerative grower, on a mission to inspire people to engage with and connect to the natural world. With her joyful Instagram content, Poppy teaches people how to grow and forage their own food, whilst living and eating consciously – for personal, community and planetary health. As a young Black woman, Poppy also advocates for those who are underrepresented and marginalised in the world of horticulture and environmentalism. Poppy has been featured on Gardeners’ World (BBC2), and is a regular contributor to the Royal Horticultural Society podcast. She recently relocated to Devon, where she has more growing space to work with, and more links to a landscape of established, sustainably run farms and community gardens.

Dominique Palmer
Dominique is a Youth Climate Justice Activist, public speaker, writer, model and undergraduate student in the U.K who mobilises people for climate action and uses creative means and the arts to unite people. She is an organiser in Fridays for Future and a lead coordinator in Climate Live – global youth-led concerts harnessing the power of music to engage, educate and empower.  
She is also a young leader in UN Women’s Feminist Action Coalition for Climate Justice with Fridays for Future MAPA, and contributor in the co-development of the Global Youth Recommendations: Youth, Gender, and Climate Change. Dominique has been named in Forbes 2020 ‘Leading UK Environmentalists’ list, and featured in DAZED, the Guardian weekend, Refinery29 and Stylist, and in British VOGUE for her work.

Naima Ritter
Naima is co-founder and Head of Community & Wellbeing for Conscious Coliving, a start-up that supports impact-driven shared living businesses and communities to embed social, environmental and financial value through research-based content, education and consulting. She is co-author of the award-winning Community Facilitation Handbook and is often asked to speak about the benefits of shared living. Naima regularly facilitates healing circles, dance medicine and transformational experiences for small groups and communities. She is also trained and qualified in Transformational Coaching.

 Tom Rivett-Carnac
Tom Rivett-Carnac is a political strategist, author and podcaster. He has spent more than 20 years working to address the climate and ecological crises. Tom co-founded Global Optimism with Christiana Figueres, an organisation that inspires individuals and builds transformative partnerships that tackle the climate crisis with the conviction, scale and speed that science demands. His responsibilities include strategic roles across the philanthropic, non-profit and private sectors. He is Strategy Adviser to the Earthshot Prize, a Fellow at the Bezos Earth Fund, a Senior Advisor to Macquarie Group, and a Fellow at Stanford Law School. Tom co-hosts the popular climate podcast Outrage + Optimism with Christiana Figueres and Paul Dickinson. He co-authored ‘The Future We Choose: The Stubborn Optimist's Guide to the Climate Crisis’ with Christiana Figueres. Tom spent two years serving as a Buddhist monk in Thailand and Myanmar.

Emma Smart
Emma Smart is a scientist and climate activist. A former Ecologist, she has dedicated the last three years to direct action for the climate and ecological crisis. Emma was one of nine scientists affiliated with Extinction Rebellion who were arrested at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. She went on hunger strike whilst in prison and stopped eating for 26 days, one day for every failed COP meeting since the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change was signed. “From glueing myself to tarmac, through custody and courtroom, to prison cell and starvation, I know this is how I must now use my body in nonviolent civil resistance for survival of our life systems.”

Nicholas Stern
Nicholas Stern is IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government, Chair, Grantham Research Institute, and co-director of the India Observatory at LSE. He has held posts at other UK & overseas universities, and as Chief Economist at both the EBRD and the World Bank. He was Head, UK Government Economic Service 2003-2007, and produced the Stern Review on the economics of climate change. He was President of the Royal Economic Society (2018-2019) and President of the British Academy (July 2013-2017). He was knighted for services to economics (2004), made a life peer (2007), and appointed Companion of Honour in 2017. Nicholas is the author of many books including How Lives Change: Palanpur, India and Development Economics (with Himanshu and Peter Lanjouw, OUP 2018) and Standing Up for a Sustainable World: Voices of Change, (Edward Elgar, 2020).

Samantha Walton
Samantha Walton is an author, editor and Reader in Modern Literature at Bath Spa University. She is the author of Everybody Needs Beauty: In Search of the Nature Cure (Bloomsbury) which explores the past and future of the 'nature cure', and asks how wellbeing intersects with demands for environmental and social justice. Samantha has held fellowships from the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Rachel Carson Center in Munich for her research into the connection between nature and mental health, and has appeared on the BBC and at festivals including Green Man, Wilderness, and New Networks for Nature to speak about her books. She tweets as @samlwalton.

Muhammad Yunus
Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus is the founder of Grameen Bank, pioneering the concepts of microcredit and social business, founding more than 50 Social Business companies in Bangladesh. At the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 Professor Yunus was conferred with the Olympic Laurel award for his extensive work in sports for development, bringing the concept of social business to the sports world. In 2006, Professor Yunus and Grameen Bank were jointly awarded Nobel Peace Prize. Professor Muhammad Yunus is the recipient of 63 honorary degrees from universities across 26 countries. He has received 143 awards from 33 countries. Professor Yunus proposes a ‘World of 3 Zeros’ – zero net carbon emission, zero wealth concentration for ending poverty once for all, and zero unemployment.

Ticket holders who cannot make the whole day or would like to listen to a talk again will be able to access the event online afterwards.

With thanks to our supporters of the Festival of Wellbeing: Earthsong, Network of Wellbeing, Weleda.