Kevin Anderson is professor of energy and climate change in the School of Mechanical, Aeronautical and Civil Engineering at the University of Manchester. He leads Tyndall Manchester’s energy and climate change research programme and is deputy director of the Tyndall Centre. With his colleague Alice Bows, Kevin’s research on carbon budgets reveals the widening gulf between political rhetoric on climate change and the reality of rapidly escalating emissions. His work makes clear that in the absence of an immediate paradigm shift in the economic framing of contemporary society, there is now little to no chance of maintaining the rise in global mean surface temperature at below 2°C, despite repeated high-level statements to the contrary. Moreover, Kevin’s research demonstrates how avoiding even a 4°C rise demands a significant reframing of the climate change agenda. Kevin has a decade’s industrial experience, principally in the petrochemical industry. He sits as commissioner on the Welsh Government’s climate change commission and is a director of Greenstone Carbon Management – a London-based company providing emission-related advice to private and public sector organisations. Kevin is a chartered engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.