I was lucky enough to meet Professor David MacKay back in 2008, at a dinner for Cambridge Festival of Ideas speakers and their partners (I was not a speaker!). He was one of those rare people who changes the way people choose to live, and view the world.

David had been speaking about his new book, Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air. The title was a give-away: what he had to say about energy and climate change was so easy to understand. His demeanour was one of kindness, alertness, with a complete absence of airs and graces. At the time I was a South Cambs District Councillor on the Climate Change Working Group. David mentioned gleefully that his book was available free on-line, and that he would arrange to send me a hard copy, too. A few days later I wrote asking him if he would consider giving a Supper Club talk to the South Cambs Lib Dems. He replied, ‘That sounds like fun, yes please!’

This was arranged for 24 April 2009 at Foxton Village Hall. David arrived from London by train and bicycle, and had everything he needed in his Mary Poppins-type bicycle bag: out came his laptop, projector, and other kit for the evening. There was a whole table of teenagers and David sat with them. We ran out of food and had to plunder the village shop for provisions. It was the worst meal of any Lib Dem Supper Club ever served, but no one seemed to care, because the packed audience was spellbound by what David had to say.

I’ve since read David’s quote, ‘I love renewables! But I believe in arithmetic.’ He demonstrated to our gathering that covering the entire UK with wind turbines and covering all buildings with solar panels would not come anywhere near providing the energy supply our hungry society demands. He set out a futuristic vision of solar farms across North Africa, with energy exported to Europe. The missing element for the UK, he concluded, was nuclear energy. Without it, the numbers didn’t add up. It was a practical calculation based on the arithmetic of energy and climate change.

He then turned to the role every individual can play in helping the arithmetic add up. He didn’t set out intimidating goals, but rather explained how an individual could begin by taking significant but achievable steps one at a time, and how they would all add up. The environmental cost of eating meat, for example, should be understood – and perhaps hamburger lovers could introduce more vegetarian days to their week, and build up to making meat a treat rather than a daily necessity. Turn down your thermostat a couple of degrees and wear a thicker jumper. Walk and cycle more – so many journeys don’t need to be in a car.

Arriving on a bicycle from London made an impression too, and after the talk he smiled broadly and said, ‘I don’t own a car!’

Afterwards, lots of us made changes to our daily lives. My family adopted more of vegetarian days in the week. I made cycling and rail my main mode of transport. Our roof now holds solar panels. When I was elected to the County Council a couple of months later, I decided to make sustainable transport campaigning my emphasis.

Since David’s talk, our Supper Club always makes a big vegetarian option and we always make sure not to run out of food.

It was nice to hear from David that he had once been a Lib Dem member. But his mission was to transcend partisan politics, and convey the climate change arithmetic to politicians of every colour. National political borders, he seemed to say, serve no constructive purpose: the energy and climate change crisis requires a international approach. It was not surprising to hear, not long thereafter, that David had been appointed Chief Scientific Advisor to the Department of Energy and Climate Change – we were just lucky to have caught him while he still had time to pop in to Foxton Village Hall.

In September 2012, I sailed from Harwich to Brighton to attend the Lib Dem annual conference, a voyage which featured much navigation around off-shore windfarms (deliberately out of sight from landlubbers?), and which reminded me of David’s arithmetic and conclusion that nuclear energy was missing from the mix.

The last time I saw him was at the junction of Gresham Road and Glisson Road, Cambridge, on the cycle-rail commuter path. I was heading into Cambridge, and he was on his way out. I shouted out that I’d bought a folding bike for rail commuting. He gave a big smile and wave, which seemed to be his temperament. For someone committed to such a serious and worrying subject, it was inspiring that he also lived with a sense of fun. On his amazing blog about his cancer diagnosis, Everything is Connected, I couldn’t help noticing how often he referred to having fun, and that it was part of his arithmetic of living a good life. ‘It was a good day. Had fun, did good work.’

What a huge loss to everyone, and especially his wife and young children. Thank you, David MacKay, for making such a difference.

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