Electricity, women and the climate crisis

Urgent action is required if we are to have a chance of delivering the goals of the Paris Agreement, according to crossbench peer Dame Julia King, Chair of both the Climate Change Adaptation Committee and the Carbon Trust and a leading advocate for women in industry and engineering.

Delivering a keynote address on 12 November at the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s (IET) flagship London venue, Savoy Place, Dame Julia will explain how underpinning the decarbonisation of our economy is electrification – involving dramatic changes to our use of energy, decarbonising the electricity system and doubling its current size in the next 25 years. She will look at the growing impacts of climate change, underlining the need for urgent action, and examine the implications of electrification for the UK’s path to Net Zero by 2050.

The Julia King lecture is a highlight of Electric Dreams, a festival marking the centenary of the Electrical Association for Women (EAW) and celebrating women in energy – past, present and future – and their work in the transition to Net Zero.

The EAW set out to educate all women in the new science of electricity, to relieve them from domestic drudgery, and to liberate them to pursue careers outside the home. The EAW flourished for 60 years, spearheading a social revolution, and left a superb legacy of womanpower for today’s innovators to build on. Two panel sessions will look at the history of the EAW and how it transformed the national conversation around electricity in the home.

Speakers include IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year Titi Oliyide, Lesley Rudd, the Chief Executive of Electrical Safety First, and Yasmin Ali, who develops and manages renewable energy projects.