Chris Anderson, the founder of Bath-based media group Future and curator of the global TED conferences, has used a visit to the city to launch an ambitious worldwide climate emergency project.
Chris, pictured, was joined at the launch of Countdown by Bath-based UN climate change adviser Tom Rivett-Carnac.
It sets an ambition and a challenge for humanity – to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions to zero.
They told the event, hosted by Creative Bath, that there was an urgency to act now to address the climate crisis and that words had to be turned into action.
Chris, who also received an honorary degree from the University of Bath during his visit, pictured below, said: “We must cut net greenhouse emissions from the current 55 gigatons per year, to zero. To get this done, we have to engage EVERYONE.
“I was really pleased to unveil this initiative at Creative Bath in Bath – a city full of inventive, creative thinkers and a place which means so much to me.
“Creativity is humanity’s superpower and optimism is a strategy to drive change.”
Countdown, which is being run as a TED initiative with Tom’s Global Optimism organisation, has four key elements:
First: to eradicate the combustion engine by 2030
Second: to plant a trillion trees by 2050
Third: a major event at Bergen, Norway, between October 6 and 9 next year with prominent public figures, story tellers, YouTubers, creatives, techs, politicians, business people coming together on climate change
Fourth: Climate’s Day of Destiny on October 10 next year – a global series of events in cities, companies, schools and communities around the globe. 
Attendees at the sold-out Creative Bath launch of Countdown included former Future employees who have gone on to start their own successful Bath-based creative businesses, including event sponsor Play Sports Network, as well as Lovehoney, Anthem Publishing, Prezola, Network N, Dialect and MediaClash.
Chris launched Future Publishing in 1985 with a £25,000 bank loan after seeing the potential of publishing computing magazines while working as editor of two early UK titles – Personal Computer Games and Zzap!64.
After selling Future to media giant Pearson in 1994, Chris moved to the US and developed successful US publishing business Imagine Media. In 1998 he merged Imagine into Future as part of a management buyout and floated the business on the London Stock Exchange the following year.
At its peak, Future published 150 magazines and websites and employed around 2,000 people. It has undergone a major restructuring over recent years under a new management team to transform it into a major digital media group.
Chris Anderson went on launch the globally successful TED Conferences as a non-profit concept aimed at sharing valuable ideas, primarily through the medium of TED Talks available free online. The talks are viewed on average over 1.5m times every day.
TED has spawned TEDx events in hundreds of locations worldwide, locally including Bath, Bradford on Avon and Bristol. There have been more than 8,000 TEDx events and 60,000 talks.
Chris has also launched The Audacious Project, a collaborative funding initiative that is unlocking social impact on a grand scale. Each year it selects and nurtures a group of big, bold solutions to the world’s most urgent challenges, with an inspiring group of donors and supporters coming together to get them launched.
Chris created a private non-profit organisation the Sapling Foundation, aiming to find new ways to tackle tough global issues through media, technology, entrepreneurship and, most of all, ideas.
Chris, who was educated just outside Bath at Monkton Combe School, received his honorary degree as Doctor of Education from the University of Bath.
Prof Richard Joiner, from the university’s Department of Psychology – who proposed the award – said: “Chris was educated and worked for many years in Bath, turning Future into a major local employer.
“His work in turning TED into a provider of freely available expert knowledge on a huge range of topics shows that he is an outstanding individual, a master communicator and an educator. He thoroughly deserves the recognition of this Honorary Degree.”
Chris added: “Many of the highlights of my life — both my school years and building a media company — have been spent in Bath, so it's both a treat and an honour to return to the city.
“It’s a place I will forever associate with charm, beauty, learning and creativity.”
