Chris Turner

Speaking topics

Presentations listed below include in-person and virtual keynotes, as well as workshops, fireside chats, and other presentation formats.

• How to Be a Climate Optimist

  The global economy is undergoing the greatest transformation since the dawn of the industrial age as it shifts from an energy regime built on fossil fuels to one run by clean, renewable power.

  Award-winning author and strategist Chris Turner has been documenting the global energy transition for almost 20 years. This presentation, drawing on his most recent book as well as his previous bestsellers on energy and sustainability, distills those years of field research and analysis into a concise case for real optimism about the better world emerging from the global pursuit of climate solutions.

  Turner explains where the energy transition leads, what our energy future looks like, and what it means for the strategic decisions businesses and organizations need to make to find a place to thrive in this new economy.

• Tracking the Global Energy Transition Before and After the Pandemic

  Drawing on 15 years of reporting on the challenge of climate change and the global wave of innovation that has emerged to solve it, Chris Turner will provide an overview of the transition to low-carbon energy worldwide, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and economic lockdown on the pace of this transition, and the prospects for an accelerating transition into the next decade.

  This presentation can be adapted to add particular emphasis on the role of clean energy, the role of the built environment and energy efficiency, the opportunities for Canadian business, the political landscape at home and abroad for climate and energy policy, and/or the most effective ways to communicate about the transition and inspire behaviour change.

• Making the Leap

  The next industrial age, powered by renewable energy and characterized by radical energy efficiency, is already underway.

  In “Making the Leap”, Chris Turner provides a guided tour of this world of renewed prosperity and reinvigorated community. His boundlessly optimistic overview of the state of the art in sustainability shows how radical shifts to clean systems of energy production and efficient use, next-generation architecture and urban design, and reinvigorated political engagement and community development, will enable individuals and businesses alike not only to survive but to thrive in the twenty-first century economy.

• The Urban Leap

  We are living in the first truly urban century, and the way we build cities today will determine whether we survive and thrive in the sustainable economy.

  “The Urban Leap” shows how the Copenhagen model of livable urban design can help us build our brightest possible future and how “tactical urbanism” provides the quick and inexpensive toolkit to get started.

  This keynote surveys the state of the art in urban sustainability from Melbourne to Montreal and Dallas to Dawson City.

• The Leap for Democracy

  Combining his deep personal experience as the co-founder of a citizen engagement group and a federal election candidate with the latest in the science of behavioural economics and the art of community development, Chris Turner shows how the tools of sustainability can build not just a greener future but a much more democratic one.

• The War on Science and the Defining Issue of the 21st Century

  Drawing on his experience in the political arena and the award-winning bestseller The War on Science, Chris Turner examines how the Canadian government has turned its back on science and expertise at the moment they are most needed to guide the country through the climate change crisis.

• Planet Simpson

  The Simpsons was the defining pop cultural institution of its era and the foremost pop document of its time. Using the show’s incomparable humour and biting satire as a lens, Chris Turner explains the predominant cultural, social, and political trends of the twentieth century’s ridiculous final act. This cromulent topic embiggins us all!