We're very excited to invite you to the launch of TEDxExeter Countdown, when we'll share TED talks from Al Gore, Christiana Figueres, Elif Shafak, David Lammy and many more, joined by our special guest Karime Hassan, Chief Executive and Growth Director, Exeter City Council.

Countdown is a global initiative to champion and accelerate solutions to the climate crisis, turning ideas into action. The goal? To build a better future, by cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 in the race to a zero-carbon world – a world that is safer, cleaner and fairer for everyone.

Countdown is a year-long focus on climate change led by TED and a coalition of leaders, activists, scientists and businesses around the world. Countdown will launch on 10 October and culminate in a climate summit in Edinburgh in October 2021 amplified though local TEDx events around the world - including us, here in Exeter - leading to COP 26 in October 2021.

To make progress on climate action we need to collaborate on a global scale with local impact, and our TEDxExeter community has an important role to play.

So we’d like to invite you to join us on 13 October 2020, to share global thinking from TED to help inform and encourage local action towards Exeter’s own net zero plan. Exeter has launched an ambitious roadmap to becoming a carbon neutral city by 2030, and we're delighted that Karime Hassan, Chief Executive and Growth Director, Exeter City Council, will join us at our launch to explore how we citizens can play our part to make that vision a reality.

Then in 2021 we'll deepen the conversation in a series of events to inspire action around Countdown's main themes: energy, transport, materials, food and nature.

In this online event, we’ll launch our TEDxExeter Countdown focus with TED talks from leading thinkers and doers about what a healthy, abundant, zero-emission future can look like. They’ll share stirring examples of real progress underway and powerful reasons why this moment is the time to act.

TEDxExeter has always been about sharing powerful ideas, fostering meaningful connections and inspiring positive action, and we need all of that more than ever now. Please join us on 13 October - you can register for the event here. We look forward to seeing you.