Delivering UN position on Climate Change - Department for Energy and Climate Change

When Bernard was asked to bring coherence to the UK Climate Change proposition for the 2009 Copenhagen summit, he faced a considerable challenge. Unifying the aspirations of the many workstreams,  governmental bodies and Departments into a deliverable programme of work would require an innovative way to build a project and programme management approach and an in depth knowledge of the political environment.

Initially setting out tangible intermediate milestones that served as markers on the road to the eventual summit position, Bernard brought together members of the senior teams to formulate in clear terms objectives upon which to build the programme. Critical to this was crystallising soft aspirations into objective, discrete and manageable goals that could be recognised by all parties.

This required the application of a like for like measurement mechanism with which to compare benefits proposed by the different stakeholders, and Bernard was responsible for devising and testing a solution that enabled progress to be agreed. Applying technical programme management to the policy cycle, Bernard had to draw together the various scientific, economic, technological and geo-political strands to prepare a coherent and implementable framework. He also had to create reporting mechanisms and contingency plans for the programme that could be easily put in place once sign off was achieved following the summit.

The result of this work further strengthened the UK’s  kudos among its European peers resulting in the British negotiators being  asked to lead positions on behalf of the EU. This was all achieved in a highly political environment and with diverging and loosely defined agendas.