The first two weeks of November 2021, all eyes and ears are set on Glasgow, as climate change becomes the center of discussion at COP26.

This year’s edition marks the first UN Climate Change Summit since the Paris Agreement, where the pledges of world leaders need to be revised. This sparks a question: Will the new and more ambitious pledges of countries be a sufficient driver for reaching the targets of the agreement?

Rud Pedersen Public Affairs Brussels Senior Advisors Peter Vis, Megan Richards and Chris Davies take you to the center of action in our first episode of the Glasgow Calling edition of Climate Talks, dedicated to COP26. They discuss their own experiences attending the COPs, why the summit is so important, what role the individual members, especially the EU, can play, and whether the annual summits can actually deliver the change needed to save our planet.

In the third episode of Europe’s Digital Frontrunners, our Senior Advisor Claudio Murri and Ilona Lundström, Director General of the Innovations and Enterprise Financing Department at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment of Finland, talk about the added value of the D9+ Group, AI and biometric surveillance, innovation, and digital skills.

In the second episode of Europe’s Digital Frontrunners, our Senior Advisor Claudio Murri and Krister Nilsson, State Secretary at Sweden’s Ministry for Foreign Trade and Nordic Affairs, discuss cloud policies, digital sovereignty, and how European business can remain digitally competitive in a fast-changing world.

We are lucky to have Brussels’ premier headhunter Ian Burns in the Rud Pedersen Brussels family through his leadership of RP People.

Listen to his thoughts on how the public affairs profession has evolved in Brussels since he first moved here, and what the future holds, in an interview with Partner Steffen Moller, for our Next Generation Public Affairs podcast.

In the first episode of Europe’s Digital Frontrunners, our Senior Advisor Claudio Murri and Estonia’s National Cyber Security Policy Director, Raul Rikk, discuss cybersecurity and privacy challenges for the EU. Topics addressed in the discussion include policy cooperation among EU Member States, critical infrastructure, cyberattacks and cybercrime, and citizens’ trust in the online environment.

In our fifth episode, Simon Taylor and Hendrik Hagemann discuss the CDU's strong performance and AfD's poor showing in the recent elections in Saxony-Anhalt, and whether this changes the outlook for the likely coalition after September's federal elections.

On 22-23 April, President Joe Biden held the US Climate Summit to show the commitment to the climate pledge and rally governments around the world to raise their climate targets. Looking from Brussels, did the Climate Summit make a difference? What’s next for the US? Join Peter Vis and Jill Duggan taking stock on the current status of climate diplomacy.

Peter Vis is a Senior Advisor at Rud Pedersen Brussels. As a Commission official, Peter has helped define the EU’s climate policy over the course of the last twenty-five years. His role included being the Head of Cabinet of the first Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard and he was a key figure in the Commission’s team that developed the EU’s Emissions Trading System (EU ETS).

Jill Duggan is the Executive Director of Environmental Defense Fund Europe, a NGO advocating for science based environmental solutions for climate issues.

This summer the EU Commission will present its plan for setting a levy on high carbon imports in order to protect its industries from the competition with countries with lax climate regulations. Will this really encourage other countries to speed up the pace of carbon standards? What will this mean for the current and future EU trade agreements? And what about some of the EU’s largest trade partners such as China? In this episode, Peter Vis and Jill Duggan will unpack the questions around the CBAM.

Peter Vis is a Senior Advisor at Rud Pedersen Brussels. As a Commission official, Peter has helped define the EU’s climate policy over the course of the last twenty-five years. His role included being the Head of Cabinet of the first Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard and he was a key figure in the Commission’s team that developed the EU’s Emissions Trading System (EU ETS).

Jill Duggan is the Executive Director of Environmental Defense Fund Europe, a NGO advocating for science based environmental solutions for climate issues.

In the first episode of Climate Talks, Peter Vis and Jill Duggan discuss the long-awaited UN’s Climate Change Conference COP26. Countries across the world gather at the COP to make pledges for climate. Meanwhile, the industry is already awaiting for the regulatory steps following these pledges. Should the focus of COP pay more attention to the implementation? What can we expect from the EU at COP? What will the US and China bring to the table? Join Peter and Jill to find out.

Peter Vis is a Senior Advisor at Rud Pedersen Brussels. As a Commission official, Peter has helped define the EU’s climate policy over the course of the last twenty-five years. His role included being the Head of Cabinet of the first Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard and he was a key figure in the Commission’s team that developed the EU’s Emissions Trading System (EU ETS).

Jill Duggan is the Executive Director of Environmental Defense Fund Europe, a NGO advocating for science based environmental solutions for climate issues.

Partner Steffen Moller talks to Founding Partner of Beekeeper Group, Mike Panetta, about advocacy in the digital age.