Chris Stark

Chris Stark is a British climate policy adviser and public official, who specialises in the interplay between climate change policy and business. In July 2024, he was announced as the head of a new Mission Control centre for clean energy. He is also an Honorary Professor at Glasgow University and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Stark is a former chief executive of the UK’s Climate Change Committee, where he became known for recommending a net zero target which has since been implemented into law – reportedly a first among major economies.

Career Early in his career, Stark held a number of roles at HM Treasury and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, as it was then known.

Stark has been an Honorary Professor at the University of Glasgow’s Centre for Public Policy since November 2023, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh since April 2024. He sits on the boards of the V&A Dundee and climate charity Murmur.

Accolades On leaving the Climate Change Committee, Stark was described by Professor Piers Forster as “a dedicated public servant.” The Guardian newspaper praised him for his management of the Committee at a time when the Conservative government was reportedly briefing against statutory watchdogs, and for "his steady insistence on telling the government truths it did not want to hear."

The then Energy Security Secretary Claire Coutinho credited his leadership of the Committee with many advances, including helping the UK become “the first major economy to put our net zero commitments into law, with the UK becoming the first country in the G20 to halve its carbon emissions.”

On his appointment as chief executive of Carbon Trust, Stark was described by Julia King, Baroness Brown of Cambridge, as “a leader in the climate action space, both within the UK and globally.”