Gabrielle Walker
Most corporate net zero commitments rest on carbon credit purchases that regulators, investors, and civil society are now actively interrogating. The question boards face is not whether to act on climate, but which actions will hold under scrutiny. Carbon removal sits at the centre of that tension – scientifically necessary, commercially immature, and poorly understood by the people being asked to fund it.
Understanding which carbon removal approaches are credible is now a board-level problem – Dr. Gabrielle Walker, Cambridge scientist and co-founder of CUR8 and Rethinking Removals, helps organisations make climate commitments that hold.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Gabrielle Walker
- Her perspective on carbon removal comes from inside the market. She co-built CUR8, which sources and vets removal credits for corporate buyers, and Rethinking Removals, which shapes standards alongside the UNFCCC – giving her direct sight of which approaches are credible, durable, and scalable, and which are not.
- She addresses the most contested part of any corporate net zero strategy: the removal of residual emissions that cannot be cut, and how to handle it without regulatory or reputational exposure.
- Where most climate speakers argue for urgency, she argues for precision – helping senior teams distinguish between carbon removal approaches that will survive investor and legal scrutiny and those that carry long-term risk.
- Her four books on climate science include The Hot Topic, co-authored with Sir David King, UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser, described by Al Gore on the TED.com platform as “a beacon of clarity” – a scientific credibility that goes beyond most ESG commentators.
- She has facilitated sessions at COP26 and COP27 in partnership with the UNFCCC, and delivered keynote addresses to organisations including AstraZeneca, BP, KPMG, and Lazard – giving her an uncommon understanding of where corporate intent meets policy reality.
Biography highlights
- PhD in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University; has taught at Cambridge and Princeton
- Co-founder of CUR8 (for-profit carbon removal market maker) and Rethinking Removals (non-profit in partnership with UNFCCC Climate Champions)
- TED speaker; main talk “What You Need to Know About Carbon Removal” (TED.com, 2022)
- Author of four books including The Hot Topic, co-authored with Sir David King, UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser
- Former Climate Change Editor at Nature; former Features Editor at New Scientist
- Contributor to The Economist, Wall Street Journal, and New York Times; BBC radio and television presenter
Biography
Every credible net zero pathway now requires carbon removal – not as an optional extra, but as a scientific necessity. Most corporate climate strategies have yet to reckon with what that means in practice. The gap between what the science requires and what organisations are actually building is where Gabrielle Walker works.
Walker has a PhD from Cambridge University. She spent more than a decade at the editorial centre of climate science – first as Climate Change Editor at Nature, then as Features Editor at New Scientist. Her four books – including The Hot Topic, co-authored with UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser Sir David King – have brought the science of climate to boardroom-level audiences. Her 2022 TED talk on carbon removal extended that reach to a mainstream global audience.
She co-founded two organisations that sit inside the carbon removal ecosystem rather than describing it from the outside. Rethinking Removals works in partnership with the UNFCCC Climate Champions to put carbon dioxide removal on the policy agenda. CUR8 helps corporations source vetted removal credits and build portfolios that are scientifically sound and commercially realistic. The combination – active policy work, scientific credibility, and commercial market-building in one practitioner – is unusual in this space.
At board level, the questions she addresses are precise: which removal approaches are durable enough to withstand regulatory scrutiny, which carry reputational risk, and how a corporate climate commitment should be structured to remain defensible over time. Her work is not about inspiring broad action on climate. It is about helping organisations close the gap between a pledge and a plan that will hold.
Key speaking topics
- Carbon removal and net zero strategy
- Corporate climate commitments and credibility
- ESG strategy and carbon markets
- Energy transition
- Climate risk and regulatory scrutiny
- Science communication for business leaders
Ideal for
- Chief Sustainability Officers and heads of ESG developing or defending net zero commitments
- CFOs and investment officers evaluating climate-related financial risk and carbon credit exposure
- Boards and executive leadership teams navigating regulatory change in corporate climate strategy
- Conference organisers seeking a credible moderator for high-level climate, energy, or sustainability debates
Audience outcomes
- A working understanding of what carbon removal is, why it is necessary for net zero, and which approaches are scientifically credible
- The ability to distinguish between carbon removal strategies that will hold investor and regulatory scrutiny and those that carry reputational risk
- A clearer framework for evaluating the strength of corporate climate commitments – their own and those of suppliers, partners, and competitors
- More precise questions to ask of climate advisers, carbon credit providers, and internal sustainability teams
- A more accurate view of where the carbon removal market stands today and what organisations need to do to stay ahead of it