UK Govt appoints Emily Shuckburgh as Chief Scientific Adviser to DESNZ

The CSA delivers independent and impartial science and engineering advice to UK ministers and policymakers across the DESNZ policy and delivery portfolio and Clean Energy Superpower Mission. The CSA is also responsible for ensuring the department has robust systems in place to access science and engineering expertise, including as departmental Head of the Government Science and Engineering Profession.

“It’s a great honour to join the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero as Chief Scientific Adviser at a time when scientific evidence is so crucial to informing the UK’s response to the twin challenges of climate change and energy security,” Emily said.

Emily will make a phased transition from her role as Director of Cambridge Zero, the University of Cambridge’s major climate change initiative, while retaining her academic research activities. She will begin her DESNZ role by working one day a week from 3 November before moving to three days from January and four days from Summer 2026. The secondment will be for three years. 

“I warmly congratulate Professor Shuckburgh on her appointment as Chief Scientific Adviser to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. It is an appointment that recognises not only her outstanding academic leadership in tackling the climate and biodiversity crises, but also the vital role that Cambridge plays in shaping Britain’s future,” University of Cambridge Vice-Chancellor Deborah Prentice said. 

Emily was awarded a CBE in the 2025 Birthday Honours for HM King Charles III for the Public Communication of Climate Science and appointed alongside two other Cambridge academics to the DESNZ Science and Technology Advisory Council (STAC) in July. She has acted as an adviser on climate to the UK Government in various capacities, including as a Friend of COP26. Before founding Cambridge Zero in 2019, Emily worked for more than a decade at the British Antarctic Survey where her work included leading a UK national research programme on the Southern Ocean and its role in climate.  

“The role of the CSA is so critical to our work and our Mission, therefore I’m delighted that Professor Shuckburgh is joining the Department. She brings incredible experience as a world leading climate scientist, and I know she’ll add considerable value to the work of our Department,” DESNZ Permanent Secretary Jeremy Pocklington said. 

Emily was awarded an OBE in 2016 and is co-author with HM King Charles III and British environmentalist Tony Juniper of A Ladybird Book on Climate Change. She is a mathematician and climate scientist, a Fellow of Darwin College and an alumna of Trinity College, Cambridge. She is President-elect of the Royal Meteorological Society, a Fellow of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), a Fellow of the British Antarctic Survey, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and an Honorary Fellow of the Energy Institute.

At Cambridge, Emily is Professor of Environmental Data Science at the Department of Computer Science and Technology (CST), Academic Director of the Institute of Computing for Climate Science (ICCS), and co-Director of the Centre for Landscape Regeneration (CLR) and also of the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training on the Application of AI to the study of Environmental Risks (AI4ER).