Energy Cafe: Beyond the Tabula Project
Hosted by Claire Haigh
Climate breakdown has begun. The 10 hottest years in history have all occurred in the last decade. Seven out of nine planetary boundaries have been breached. However, at a very time that the world needs to step up its efforts to tackle the escalating climate and nature crises we are witnessing a global green backlash. In the UK the easy wins of decarbonising the power sector have happened. Little progress has been made in sectors where people need to make changes in their lives, and the once strong political consensus is fracturing. Net zero has become a political battleground with division stoked by misinformation funded by vested interests.
How can we approach climate policy differently? How can we prevent short-term thinking and political expediency from driving critical decision making?
In 2025 the Centre for Energy Ethics and Greener Vision partnered on an exhibition and roundtable discussion series sought to address these critical questions. The series built on insights from The Tabula Project a 30-year creative endeavour that started with the assumption that we won’t solve our most intractable problems with the same thinking that created them.
The Energy Café is an informal, open and inclusive space where people across our network, from undergraduates to Professors Emeriti, can come together for an hour to share ideas about the energy research they are working on. It is intended to encourage collaborations, expand research horizons, and inspire new ideas and questions about issues of energy.
Fostering collaboration and interdisciplinarity are at the heart of the Centre’s ethos and the motivation for the Café. By openly exchanging ideas with others and working across disciplines, the Energy Café offers a unique venue that celebrates the diversity of roles and contributions individuals make to energy research and research culture.