Dr Carolina Maciel and Dr Anthony Alexander at London Climate Action Week 2025

London Climate Action Week (LCAW) is a major international conference fostering discussions on the politics and practicalities of climate action. The 2025 gathering, which took place 21-29 June, brought together some 45,000 attendees, with strong involvement from the Government of Brazil who will host the UN climate conference, COP30, later this year. Dr Anthony Alexander, Associate Professor of Operations Management in the Department of Management at the Business School, and Dr Carolina Maciel, research fellow at the UK Trade Policy Observatory based at the School, took part in a series of LCAW roundtables and discussions with business, policy and NGO stakeholders.

Dr Anthony Alexander, of the Business School’s Department of Management was part of Crisis as Catalyst: Rewiring Food and Climate Action, and Resilient Landscapes for Resilient Supply Chains. The first, on Wednesday 25 June was a solutions-focused roundtable from Clim-Eat, the University of Leeds and the UK Government Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), discussing structural bottlenecks and identifying future agents of change to transform food systems. The second, on Friday 27 June, run by the Accountability Framework Initiative, ISEAL Alliance and Proforest discussed landscape approaches to achieving sustainable development through agricultural supply chains.

Meanwhile, Dr Carolina Maciel, research fellow at the UK Trade Policy Observatory (UKTPO) was invited by the Brazilian delegation to join the Climate Innovation Forum and the Brazilian Agritech Briefing, on Wednesday 25 June. This brought together business leaders, policymakers, investors, academics and civil society representatives to explore ways of bridging the gap between sustainability initiatives and finance to scale up the transition to a green economy.

Their participation reflects the University’s growing role in generating and disseminating knowledge to support a sustainable future and reinforces the strong alignment between Sussex’s interdisciplinary research agenda and the key themes explored at LCAW — including supply chain decarbonisation, the harmonisation of standards and reporting, regenerative agricultural practices, and international trade and collaboration.