10 Quickfire Questions for 10 Leading Women in Energy – EMMA PINCHBECK
To mark our 10th anniversary, we are asking 10 leading women in the UK energy sector 10 quickfire questions about their lives, their likes and what advice they would give to their 10-year-old self.
The challenge was described by one participant as intimidating but also fun and we have enjoyed the answers from these inspiring female role models. Read on!
Emma Pinchbeck, Chief Executive of Energy UK
“I share the childcare with my husband, but cooking and bedtime stories are my thing; he does the nappy wash!”
- Describe yourself in three words.
Funnier on Twitter.
- What gets you up and into work in the morning?
My two small children who might sleep past 7am one day, but not yet. But I leave them to come to work because I enjoy leading the team at Energy UK, working on the solutions to climate change, and learning new things about the energy transition – it feels important to be doing my bit to change how we make and use energy, given the state of the world.
- What has been your greatest challenge so far?
I found out that I was pregnant with my second child at around the same time as my then Deputy, Audrey, found out that her cancer had returned and was terminal, and the energy crisis started. She died a few months before my son was born and worked for us all the way through. I am not sure how Energy UK made it through that period, particularly the colleagues who knew her best. We were doing loads of media and were extremely visible – I even did Question Time – and we were working on the government ‘s design of the Universal Support scheme for bills and on helping th sector adjust to security of supply concerns after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. I eventually went into labour the same night that I stopped working; I think I was just holding onto so much at work it was hard to admit I was having a baby. I got to have some time with my son and the organisation has come back stronger, largely thanks to the efforts of the team – but we still miss the late Audrey Gallacher OBE.
- What change would you like to see happen within the next 10 years?
It is possible that emissions will peak and start declining by 2030. So I would like to see enough renewables displacing fossil fuels (particularly coal in Asia) to come online in the next 5 years to make that possible, and enough action on government policies across the world that the decline after 2030 is rapid enough for below 2 degrees of warming. In the UK, this means rapid electrification and a lot more clean power.
- How do you relax and unwind after a long day?
In my pre-motherhood life, I used to exercise. I’m trying to find space for that again now (so in about 10 years?), but right now at the end of my working day I’m normally trying to dash home to cook, and then to read the children a book before they sleep, which is relaxing in its way as I can’t be on my phone or doing emails. I share the childcare with my husband, but cooking and bedtime stories are my thing; he does the nappy wash!
- How do you support and promote sustainability in your daily life?
When I was at WWF, we launched the personal carbon footprint calculator. I was an early guinea pig, so: we are mostly vegetarian and get most of our weekly shop from Riverford in a veg box (got six artichokes this week, if anyone has any good ideas for how to cook them?!); we haven’t flown for personal reasons since 2018; we have an EV but we try to cycle and use public transport; and we are just going through the survey for a heat pump for our new house. I’m also a massive advocate for second hand – clothes, the kids’ clothes, home furnishings.
- What would your superpower be?
Time travel. There are not enough hours in the day for me. We could also do with someone going back to the last energy crisis in the 1970s and telling them that they were really onto something with the switch to early solar PV and energy efficiency, too.
- What’s your best way to find inspiration when you’re feeling stuck or unmotivated?
Phone Dhara Vyas [Deputy CEO of Energy UK ] and ask her what she thinks.
- If you could have dinner with any historical figure, who would it be and why?
Mary Wollstonecraft, author of ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’ (1792) in which she argued (shocker) that women weren’t intellectually less able than men, simply less educated than men. She also had children with two different men, insisted on a marriage of equals, and then had the audacity to write about it in a Memoir which “ruined” her reputation in her own lifetime. She was fearless: I suspect she would have been terrifying in real life, but I mean that as a compliment.
- What advice would you give now to your 10-year-old self?
You don’t have to be so afraid of things going wrong. They will, and you can’t always fix them (sometimes you can, and you can at least say sorry for big mistakes). But often unexpected breaks in the journey are where you will discover the real joys of your life, so you don’t need to be so frightened of life not going in a straight line.
Emma’s book and podcast recommendations:
My friend Sophie Yeo has written the beautiful environmental book, called ‘Nature’s Ghosts.’ I have also learned so much from ‘Matrescence’ by Lucy Jones, about the science of motherhood, and ‘Climate Capitalism’ by Akshat Rathi.
Christiana Figueres’ ‘Outrage and Optimism’ poedcast is a climate classic, but Amy Mount is doing a great series with women in climate policy and the energy industry, called ‘Political Heat’. I also enjoy ‘Electoral Dysfunction’, a political podcast actually fronted by women, and I am a loyal BBC Newscaster.