Tessa Khan is an international climate change and human rights lawyer, campaigner and strategist.

She is the founder and director of Uplift, a new organisation helping to move the UK towards a fossil fuel-free future. They strategically resource, connect, and elevate ideas and voices to set in motion a just transition away from fossil fuel production that is in proportion with the scale of the climate crisis. Before this role, she co-founded and is co-director of the Climate Litigation Network, a project of the Urgenda Foundation, which supports groundbreaking strategic climate litigation around the world. 

She has spent more than fifteen years supporting grassroots, regional and international movements for justice and has served as an expert advisor to UN human rights bodies and national governments, while working in Thailand, Egypt, India, the US, the Netherlands and Australia. Tessa is a trustee of Global Greengrants Fund UK and a member of the Steering Committee of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative. 

Her writing has been published in international media outlets and academic publications, and she has been invited to speak at the United Nations and events convened by The Economist, Wall Street Journal and TEDx. In 2019, Tessa was named by TIME magazine as one of fifteen women leading the fight against climate change. She is also an awardee of the Climate Breakthrough Project.

If you’re UK based, you should know that the government has spent 4 BILLION propping up the oil and gas industry since we signed the Pairs Agreement in 2016. At the end of October 2021, The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP2 6will be taking place in Glasgow, Scotland. Boris Johnson has referred to this as the turning point for humanity, yet our government is spending billions propping up the oil and gas industry, which is directly causing the overheating and destruction of our planet.

Actions and links for this episode

Learn more about the work of Uplift.

The Government are set to approve the climate-wrecking Cambo oil field later this year. If we want a liveable climate, we can’t allow any new oil and gas extraction. To learn more and take action please head to: stopcambo.org.uk/take-action

Write to your local MP to ask that they take action at COP26 and speak up against fossil fuels

Check out the PaidToPollute campaign

Check out podcast guest Daze Aghaji's campaign to sue the government for failing to tackle climate change: crowdjustice.com/case/carbon-budgets/

Find me: @venetialamanna

Find the show: @atstpodcast

This episode was co-produced by Venetia La Manna and Holly Falconer and edited by Nada Smiljanic. The music was composed by William Haxworth and the artwork was designed by Alex Sedano.

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