Jeremy Leggett Profile Picture

Keynote SpeakerJeremy Leggett

Britain’s most respected Green Energy boss and winner of the Blue Planet 2025 Award, founder of Solarcentury and SolarAid, and former chairman of Carbon Tracker Initiative.

Jeremy Leggett is a social entrepreneur and author who is one of the most respected voices in climate change and the environment. His long and varied career as an academic, climate campaigner and solar energy leader led to him being awarded the Blue Planet Prize in 2025. He has been... Read more

Biography

Jeremy Leggett is a social entrepreneur and author who is one of the most respected voices in climate change and the environment. His long and varied career as an academic, climate campaigner and solar energy leader led to him being awarded the Blue Planet Prize in 2025. He has been described as Britain’s most respected green energy boss and was the first ever chairman of the Carbon Tracker Initiative think tank. Jeremy’s current project, Highlands Rewinding, uses small- and large-scale private investors to boost rural communities in Scotland and help prevent biodiversity collapse.

In 1998 Jeremy set up Solarcentury, which grew exponentially across four continents until its acquisition in 2020 by Norwegian energy giant Statkraft. The success of the business enabled Jeremy to set up the SolarAid charity using 5% of its parent company’s profits in order to provide solar energy for two million homes in Africa. SolarAid’s success in bringing social and economic benefits to the continent won it many honours, including a Google Global Impact Award and a BITC Unilever Global Development Award.

Jeremy has written five books on climate change: The Carbon War (2000), Half-Gone (2005), The Solar Century (2009) and The Energy of Nations: Risk Blindness and the Road to Renaissance (2013). His most recent work, The Winning of the Carbon War: Power and Politics on the Front Lines of Climate and Clean Energy, was published in 2019. He has contributed to the Financial Times and The Guardian.

Following a degree in Earth Sciences at Oxford University, Jeremy became an academic at Imperial University’s School of Mines, where he researched earth history as preserved in strata. He then joined Greenpeace International as a climate campaigner, winning the US Climate Institute’s Award for Advancing Understanding. Some of his many awards include the President’s Prize and the Lyell Fund from the Geological Society, UK Climate Week’s Most Inspirational Person, the Gothenburg Sustainability Award, and was the first non-Dutch winner of a Royal Dutch Honorary Sustainability Award. In 2009 he was named Inaugural Laureate of the Hillary Institute Awards.

Jeremy has given lectures on business, the environment and society at the University of St Gallen in Switzerland, as well as Cambridge and Oxford Universities.

"Britain’s most respected green energy boss.” Juliette Jowell, writing in The Observer
"Leggett's insider perspective offers unparalleled insights into the climate debate. ….(He) is one of the half-dozen experts most responsible for putting the climate change issue on the international agenda.” Mark Hertsgaard, writing in the Washington Post
"Leggett deserves the Blue Planet Prize this just for his indomitable perseverance….never mind the brilliance, grace, inspiration and ongoing action he has brought to so many critical tables over 30+ years.” Mark Prain, Founder, Hillary Institute for International Leadership
"As part of the Solarcentury team for 8 years, I can honestly say Jeremy Leggett was the heart and soul." Guy Atherton, solar engineer, on LinkedIn

Popular Talks by Jeremy Leggett

  • Communicating in the Post-Truth Era

    Talking about the need for global change in the face of populism and AI is difficult – your audience may not understand the science behind climate change, but mention systematic inequality, cost of living, affordable housing and breathable air and they will listen.

  • Why sustainability needs to build its own superbrands

    Scaling up environmental change is a massive job – and consumers are ready for it. But where are the Apples and Coca-Colas of the green world, firms that are a global name for excellence in their field? And, most importantly, are the world’s governments ready to invest at ground level...

  • Does Capitalism have a survival reflex?

    Millions of people invest in their future via pension funds. But what if food insecurity means there is no future to invest for? What the financial sector needs to learn from treehuggers – and fast.

  • From Rainbow Warrior to the Kremlin: 40 years of frontline campaigning for a liveable future

    2025 Blue Planet Prizewinner Jeremy Leggett has spent his life advocating for the future of the human race. His career as a campaigner for peace, security and nature recovery has allowed him to step through the doors of the world’s most secretive institutions. Nuclear Weapons laboratories, the UN, oil and...