The Sustainability Agenda

In this in-depth, and spirited interview, we discuss the pros and cons of a market based approach to  our environmental problems-and climate change in particular. Paula DiPerna discusses her new book, Pricing the Priceless: The Financial Transformation to Value the Planet, Solve the Climate Crisis, and Protect Our Most Precious Assets, arguing for a market-based approach to dealing with our environmental challenges, advocating for the integration of environmental considerations into financial and economic systems. DiPerna explores the concept of carbon markets, highlighting the European Union emissions trading scheme as an example of a functioning carbon market. She also discusses the idea of attributing a financial value to nature, suggesting that the work nature does should be financially recognized. DiPerna also argues for the necessity of new kinds of authorities to manage these complex issues, suggesting that global regulation is needed to ensure the preservation of our natural resources. Recognising the massive scale of the environmental challenges we are facing, DiPerna maintains an optimistic view, expressing her belief in the human ability to appreciate beauty and understand the mysteries of life.

Paula DiPerna is Special Advisor to CDP North America, the international non-profit that helps companies, cities, states, regions and public authorities disclose their environmental impact. Paula is a leader in strategic global environmental and philanthropic policy,  and served formerly as President of the international division of the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX). Prior to these positions, she served as writer and Vice President for International Affairs for the Cousteau Society, whose President was explorer and filmmaker, Jacques-Yves Cousteau. DiPerna has also served as a consultant to numerous national and international organizations, such as the World Bank and LEAD-International, and was awarded an Eisenhower Fellowship. Paula has published numerous books, her latest is Pricing the Priceless: The Financial Transformation to Value the Planet, Solve the Climate Crisis, and Protect Our Most Precious Assets.

In this interview, British novelist, journalist and screenwriter Ned Beauman discusses his latest novel Venomous Lumpsucker-a brilliant, darkly satirical and terrifying  novel  about endlings (the last of a species), the manipulation of extinction credit markets... the elusive Hermit Kingdom: described by The Times Literary Supplement as “a tale of capitalism, penance and species extinction.”  Fascinating, broad ranging discussion on extinction, literary fiction and the climate crisis, environmental satire, and the commodification of nature. First aired in September 2022.

Ned Beauman is a British novelist, journalist and screenwriter, the author of five novels; he was selected as one of the Best of Young British Novelists by Granta magazine in 2013.  His latest is Venomous Lumpsucker, “a darkly funny and incisive zoological thriller about environmental devastation and one very ugly little fish.”

In this revealing interview, Mike Davis CEO of pioneering campaigning NGO Global Witness provides an in-depth look at the work of the organization which is committed to uncovering and addressing human rights and environmental violations across the globe. Mike highlights the organization's intricate investigative strategies used to reveal the interplay of corruption, misuse of power, and industrial practices in sectors such as oil, gas, and mining. He highlights Global Witnesses commitment to independence and agility-which he sees as essential to be able to swiftly respond to global challenges. Mike also provides a glimpse into the future of Global Witness with discussions about their newer campaigns focused on equitable use of critical minerals for green technology and their initiatives to expose the undue influence of oil and gas companies on politics and economies. Fascinating insights into the work a highly effective campaigning NGO.
 

Mike Davis is CEO of Global Witness, a pioneering campaigning NGO that has worked for some thirty years to expose the environmental and human rights abuses by some of the world’s biggest companies and most powerful political figures. It has campaigned against the exploitation of the earth’s natural resources, the destruction of indigenous peoples, and corruption that has siphoned billions of dollars from the poorest countries - working to break the links between natural resource exploitation, conflict, poverty, corruption, and human rights abuses worldwide. It has offices in London and Washington,

In this episode, Dr Samantha Montana, an expert in disaster policy, discusses the U.S.'s approach to emergency management, specifically in the context of climate change. She highlights the complexity of disaster policy, which often necessitates a balance between immediate and long-term action. She explains that the U.S. has traditionally taken a reactive approach to disasters, and is only now shifting to proactive measures, with a heavy emphasis on the role of state governments. Additionally, the guest discusses the complicated relationship between the economy and politics in disaster policy.

The discussions also delves into the different approaches to emergency management in other countries and the reasons why these can't always be applied to the U.S., due to significant differences in culture, politics, and the scale of disasters. The interview wraps up with discussions on the political aspects of disaster management, the necessity for a lobbying group in emergency management, and the disproportionate impact of disasters on disadvantaged communities.

Dr Montano is an assistant professor of emergency management at Massachusetts Maritime Academy. She teaches courses on disaster preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation, vulnerable populations in disaster amongst other topics. Her research interests cut across areas of interest to emergency management. She primarily studies nonprofits, volunteerism, and informal aid efforts in disaster. She is a co-founder of Disaster Researchers for Justice and the Center for Climate Adaptation Research. She is the author of Disasterology: Dispatches from The Frontlines of The Climate Crisispublished in 2021 by Park Row. 

In this deep dive on resilience, Professor Daniel Aldrich gives a fascinating overview of different ways of thinking about resilience—focussing in particular on the kind of resilience that allows communities to recover from disasters in a way that brings together resources — and allows the communities to rebuild themselves so they’re not as vulnerable as they were before the shock—so they can collaborate, communicate, and work together in a more effective way. Daniel discusses his research which has identified the critical importance of social bonds as a key factor determining how communities deal with disasters—too often neglected due to an overemphasis on infrastructural resilience. A fascinating interview from October 2021, packed with rich insights and research findings-providing a multidimensional perspective on resilience.

Daniel Aldrich is professor of political science and Director of the Security and Resilience Studies Program at Northeastern University. A main body of his research focussed on recovery after natural disasters. His most recent book, Building Resilience: Social Capital in Post-Disaster Recovery, highlights how relationships among people in a disaster zone are a critical engine for recovery after a disaster. Daniel has held posts as a Fulbright Research Fellow and an Abe Fellow at Tokyo University and as an AAAS Science and Technology Fellow with USAID.  He is a contributor to the New York Times, CNN, The Conversation, and the Asahi Shinbun, among other media. 

In-depth, frank, and fascinating exploration of contemporary literature's response to current environmental crises, with Scottish writer Martin MacInnes, author of the recently acclaimed novel, In Ascension. Martin believes literature is profoundly implicated in the crises, and that it has a responsibility to challenge certain assumptions regarding the human and the non-human; he shares his interest in exploring how the novel might do this. He suggests literature should not be limited to traditional forms and structures but should explore new ways of storytelling, for example by using non-linear narratives or multiple perspectives to explore environmental themes, creating compelling stories that challenge readers' assumptions and encourages them to think critically about their relationship with the living world.

Martin MacInnes is a writer of experimental and science fiction novels. He won the Somerset Maugham Award for his debut novel, Infinite Ground (2016. His second novel, Gathering Evidence, was published in 2020 and earned him a place on the Guardian/British Council’s list of ten writers shaping the UK’s future. His latest novel, In Ascension, which came out recently, is a exploration of some of the deep philosophical questions of our time, delving into the secrets of the ocean and the cosmos, and our relationship with the living world.

In this eye-opening interview, Professor Neta Crawford discusses the research in her new book The Pentagon, Climate Change, and War focussing on the huge carbon footprint of the Pentagon -- the world’s largest single greenhouse gas emitter. She tracks the interconnect long-term cycles of economic growth, and fossil fuel use-and growth of the US military. Crawford believes the most effective way to cut military emissions is to rethink U.S. grand strategy, which would enable the United States to reduce the size and operations of the military.

In this fascinating interview, first aired April 13th 2021, Dr. Jeffrey Kiehl brings to bear two very different ways of thinking about climate change: the scientific and the psychological—and his journey as an experienced climate scientist to bring these different perspectives together. Jeffrey explains the essential features of a depth psychological perspective, why he believes this is essential today, helping us understand why we have failed to take action on climate change--and the roots of climate denial. Jeffrey identifies the shortcomings of taking a purely rational approach to climate change, why it is important to understand ways of thinking that are not purely rational, that are imagistic—based on a deeper understanding of the unconscious. He also talks about the emerging field of eco-psychology, an interdisciplinary field that focuses on the synthesis of ecology and psychology. 

Dr. Jeffrey Kiehl is a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in the United States, and an adjunct professor at UC Santa Cruz, and he has carried out research on climate change for some 40 years. Jeffrey is also a Jungian analyst and his main interests today are in the areas of eco-psychology, a field that focuses on the synthesis of ecology and psychology and the promotion of sustainability. Jeffrey is the author of the book Facing climate change: an integrative path to the future, which provides a Jungian perspective on climate change.

In this fascinating interview, first aired in June 2020, renowned climate scientist Will Steffen discusses Earth System science, and his research on so-called “tipping cascades,” when one tipping point kicks off a series of others, posing a growing threat of abrupt and irreversible climate changes. Will draws parallels between -19 and climate change, in that it’s important to understand science and not just what intervention needs to take place but to plan for the amount of time it takes for it to take effect. A great interview with a pioneering climate researcher who died on January 29th, 2023.

Will Steffen had a long history in international global change research, serving from 1998 to 2004 as Executive Director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), based in Stockholm, Sweden, and before that as Executive Officer of IGBP’s Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems project. He was the Inaugural Director of the ANU Climate Change Institute, from 2008-2012. Prior to that, he was Director of the ANU Fenner School of Environment and Society. From 2004 to 2011, Will served as science adviser to the Australian Government Department of Climate Change; from 2011 to 2013 was a Climate Commissioner on the Australian Government’s Climate Commission; Chair of the Antarctic Science Advisory Committee, Co-Director of the Canberra Urban and Regional Futures (CURF) initiative and Member of the ACT Climate Change Council. Steffen’s interests spanned a broad range within the fields of sustainability and Earth System science, with an emphasis on the science of climate change, approaches to climate change adaptation in land systems, incorporation of human processes in Earth System modelling and analysis; and the history and future of the relationship between humans and the rest of nature.

Peter Sutoris believes that the Anthropocene challenges the very definition of education and, indeed, its key goals. He argues that educators must look outside conventional models and ways of education for inspiration --if education is to live up to its responsibilities at this critical time.  In this revealing interview, Peter shares the results of his inspiring research into grassroots environmental activism and education--and provides an array of practical ideas on teaching and community based action for the Anthropocene.

Peter Sutoris is an environmental anthropologist, Lecturer in Education at the University of York, and Honorary Senior Research Associate at University College London.  His work bridges anthropology with education, development studies and environmental studies -as he explores the cultural and political aspects of the environmental crisis, the limitations of technological solutions to environmental decay, and degrowth. He is the author of two books, most recently, Educating for the Anthropocene: Schooling and Activism in the Face of Slow Violence. 

In this hard-hitting, no-holds barred interview, Stephen Corry, who has been working as 

indigenous rights activist for some 50 years, gives his assessment of the outcome of COP15. Stephen brings an on-the-ground, hands-on perspective, and provides an analysis of the key policies and commitments that have been come out of COP15. In particular, Stephen provides a coruscating analysis of the way protected areas have actually been executed, how indigenous peoples have been systematically kicked off their lands—and sees the 30x30 conservation goal –30% of the planet in protected territories, without any humans—as a deeply cynical endeavour…driven by powerful underlying financial motives. 

Stephen Corry has been working now for more than 50 years in the area of indigenous peoples’ rights. He is the former CEO of Survival International, a London based charity that campaigns for the rights of uncontacted peoples indigenous and tribal peoples, and was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 1989.

In this fascinating interview, first aired in June 2021, Professor Daniela Gabor discusses the eye-opening sums of money needed to achieve a transition to a low carbon economy – $1 trillion-$2 trillion a year to achieve net zero emissions by mid-century, according to some estimates– and how this can be funded. She explores the evolving relationship between the public sector and private finance – a renewed partnership—and how to assure that any new flows of private capital go into genuine green investments, rather than greenwashing. At the heart of this discussion: Daniela’s recent research on investors’ plans to to “escort and derisk” private capital investments in the global south. 

Daniela Gabor is associate professor in economics at the University of the West of England, Bristol. She holds a PhD in banking and finance from the University of Stirling (2009). Her main interests are in macro-finance, monetary theory and central banking and she has published on central banking in crisis, on the governance of global banks and the IMF, and on shadow banking and repo market. She has a special interest in the way finance is being restructured to deliver on current environmental goals.

In this hard-hitting interview, Corporate Europe Observatory’s Pascoe Sabido reflects on the outcome of COP27. While celebrating the success of the loss and damage agreement, he worries about the follow through on the Loss and Damage provisions-and the likely ways in which this finance is structured, with the reliance on debt and provide finance. Pascoe is a has spent many years researching the power of the fossil fuel industry—in particular its lobbying within the EU-and he explains in detail how the fossil fuel lobby operates and impacts policy in Europe. A powerful critique of the role of the fossil fuel industry-shot through with optimism -and hope--that change is coming, that people have had enough of our competition market-based economic system…that there is growing momentum for change, for a new economic approach, with more solidarity, and social justice, based on people’s needs.

Pascoe Sabido is a Researcher and Campaigner at a Brussels based non-profit research and campaign group whose aim is to "expose any effects of corporate lobbying on EU policy making". Pascoe’s research is focused on exposing the power of the oil and gas industry in the European Union and at the level of the United Nations.

In this wide-ranging and hard-hitting interview, first aired in January 2022, pioneering American writer, activist, and Marxist environmentalist, Mike Davis speaks out about the dangers of this moment, politically, which he sees as similar to the late 1930s, and the relentless environmental destruction of the planet, and growing nuclear threats. Disappointed by the loss of momentum for street politics and protests in the US, following the inspiration of Black Lives Matter, Mike worries that protests have become predominantly a franchise of the far right, at a time of existential threats where young people need to take action and speak out. Mike is harshly critical of the way in which Western governments have dealt with Covid, drawing parallels with multilateral approaches to dealing with the climate crisis, particularly the prevailing ideology that finance capitalism is the only force that can save the world environmentally. 

Mike Davis was a pioneering American writer, political activist, urban theorist, and historian, best known for his seminal analysis of power and social class in his native Southern California. Over many decades, Davis created a powerful body of work investigating a wide range of issues from urban development and globalisation to the impact of extreme weather systems, the growth of slums, pandemics, and the environment—all underpinned by a profound critique of capitalist social relations and a deep concern for the environment and all kinds of injustice. He was a 1996–1997 Getty Scholar at the Getty Research Institute and received a MacArthur Fellowship Award in 1998. He was the author of some two dozen works of fiction and non-fiction and won the Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction in 2007.

In this timely interview on the eve of COP27, Harjeet Singh shares his expectations for this COP and explains why 'Loss and Damage' compensation is the centrepiece of COP27 -and what he believes needs to happen over the next five days. Harjeet Singh is head of Global Political Strategy at Climate Action Network International, a network of over 1500 Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in more than 130 countries, working to promote government and individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels. Until recently, he has led ActionAid International’s climate change work globally. He is a member of the United Nations’ Technical Expert Group on Comprehensive Risk Management (TEG-CRM) under Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage. Harjeet has served as a board member of Climate Action Network International (CAN-I) and the Global Network of Civil Society Organisations for Disaster Reduction (GNDR). He is  Global Engagement Director for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative and co-founder of Satat Sampada, a social entreprise that promotes environmental solutions such as organic food and farming.

In this episode, first aired on December 23, 2020 , Zen teacher David Loy shares his thinking about EcoDharma: combining the teachings of Buddhism with ecology . In this fascinating discussion, David explore the ecological implications of Buddhist teachings with insights into how to embody that understanding in the kind of eco-activism that is needed in the world today. David explains that in Buddhism, while there aren’t prescriptive steps or writings from the Buddha on how to solve modern problems, we can follow the spiritual path of Buddhism to deal with our grief over climate change and move past it to feel empowered and grounded, part of the larger community of sentient, living beings. He outlines the Ecosattva Path, a path of liberation and salvation for all beings and the world itself. 

David Loy is a professor, writer, and Zen teacher in the Sanbo Zen tradition of Japanese Zen Buddhism. He is a prolific author, with his most recent books including Ecodharma, Buddhist Teachings for the Ecological Crisis. He has also published in major journals such as Tikkun and Buddhist Magazines, and a variety of scholarly journals. In his lectures and teaching he focuses on comparative philosophy and the encounter between Buddhism and modernity. He is one of the founding members of the new Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center, near Boulder, Colorado. 

Nuclear scholar and social thinker Professor Elaine Scarry shares her views on today’s growing nuclear threats –the underlying problems with the nuclear architecture and governance, based on her groundbreaking book Thermonuclear Monarchy, lessons on how to deal with our global climate challenges, and discusses key ideasa in her book Thinking in an Emergency, on how citizens and communities can prepare for emergency situations in order to preserve themselves and their autonomy.

Elaine Scarry is the Walter M. CaboT Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value at Harvard University.  She is the author of numerous seminal books including Thermonuclear Monarchy, where 'explores the political consequences of limiting the control of nuclear weapons to a select few, and the authority to launch them to even fewer. Her book Thinking in An Emergency  Explores how in the face of governments that augment their authority in emergencies at the expense of democracy, citizens and communities, can prepare for emergency situations in order to preserve themselves and their autonomy.

In this wide-ranging, hard hitting discussion, Vijay Prashad explores the environmental crises we are facing today through a Marxist lens. At the heart of this discussion, Vijay highlights the failings of capitalism, with a particular focus on environmental externalities, and also critiques capitalism’s impact on the development of the global south. Vijay believes a continuing colonial mindset is undermining the commitment to the “common but differentiated responsibilities” embedded in the Rio conference –-- and the subsequent stalling of the Green Climate Fund. Vijay takes inspiration from peoples’ environmental summits such as the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth (2010), the People’s World Conference on Climate Change and the Defence of Life (2015), and the People’s Nature Forum (2020). As an activist, Vijay is inspired by the growing number of movements who are standing up for environmental and human rights –in South Africa, Chile, Columbia, in India—struggles that he hopes can be replicated in other parts of the world.

Vijay Prashad is an Indian Marxist historian and commentator. He's an executive director of the Tri Continental Institute for Social Research, the chief editor of Left World Books, and a senior non-resident Fellow at Chongyang, Institute for financial studies in China. He has written more than 20 books, including "The Darker Nations" and "The Poorer Nations."

In this interview British novelist, journalist and screenwriter Ned Beauman discusses his latest novel Venomous Lumpsucker-a brilliant, darkly satirical and terrifying  novel  about endlings (the last of a species), the manipulation of extinction credit markets... the elusive Hermit Kingdom: described by The Times Literary Supplement as “a tale of capitalism, penance and species extinction.”  Fascinating, broad ranging discussion on extinction, literary fiction and the climate crisis, environmental satire, and the commodification of nature.

Ned Beauman is a British novelist, journalist and screenwriter, the author of five novels; he was selected as one of the Best of Young British Novelists by Granta magazine in 2013.  His latest is Venomous Lumpsucker, “a darkly funny and incisive zoological thriller about environmental devastation and one very ugly little fish.”

Eye-opening discussion with Guy Standing on the deteriorating conditions in our oceans…  the destruction of fragile ocean ecosystems, marine pollution, habitat destruction and destruction of coastal communities, driven by overfishing, corporate exploitation, lax regulatory enforcement, increasing extraction-- and growing sea commodification. His analysis is a powerful indictment of contemporary oceanic governance—and an impassioned call for new forms of ocean governance centred around the commons.

Guy Standing is a Professorial Research Associate at SOAS University of London and a founding member and honorary co-president of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), a non-governmental organisation that promotes a basic income for all. He was a programme director in the UN's International Labour Organisation and has advised many international bodies and governments on social and economic policies. 

Guy has written widely in the areas of labour economics, labour market policy, unemployment, labour market flexibility, structural adjustment policies and social protection. He created the term precariat to describe an emerging class of workers who are harmed by low wages and poor job security as a consequence of globalisation.

Guy’s latest book is Blue Commons Transforming the Economy of the Sea.

As questions surrounding Scope 3 emissions are rising on the business agenda, understanding why and how companies need to decarbonize their supply chains has become increasingly important. In this interview, McKinsey’s Peter Spiller shares his perspective on key questions around how to tackle Scope 3 emissions. Peter explains why Scope 3 is so important and highlights some of the key challenges companies face decarbonizing their supply chains. He identifies some of the key success factors dealing with Scope 3 emissions and also identifies major mistakes companies are making. A deep dive on Scope 3 emissions. This is an edited version of an interview with Peter Spiller for the Scope 3 Agenda podcast.

Peter Spiller is Partner and Head of the EMEA Sustainability in Operations Practice at McKinsey. Based in the Frankfurt office, Peter primarily advises clients across industries including telecoms, high-tech, automotive, and consumer goods on operations transformation, supply chain, and procurement topics. He co-leads McKinsey's efforts in environmentally-sustainable operations and is a leader of McKinsey’s work in product development and procurement in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region. Working across geographies, Peter focuses on environmental sustainability as he advises business leaders on ESG strategy, carbon accounting and tracking, supplier sustainability transformations, and supply chain decarbonization.

American theologian, philosopher, and environmentalist John B. Cobb talks about his half-century long commitment to the environment, and environmental ethics, his life long work as a theologian and philosopher. He talks about the recent popularity of his ideas in China and why, at 97, he has cofounded the Living Earth Movement to inspire global cooperation for the sake of all life on our planet--with a particular focus on the geopolitical relationship between the United States and China-a topic of burning importance following  the diplomatic fallout of Nancy Pelosi's recent visit to Taiwan--and China's decision to withdraw from vital climate talks.

John B. Cobb an American theologian, philosopher, and environmentalist and the author of more than fifty books. A key idea at the heart of Cobb's work is his emphasis on ecological interdependence—the idea that every part of the ecosystem is reliant on all the other parts. In 1971, he wrote one of the first books in environmental ethics, Is It Too Late? A Theology of Ecology. He is co-founder of the Living Earth Movement whose mission is to inspire global cooperation for the sake of all life on our planet, beginning with the United States and China. 

Deep dive on the philosophy of Gross National Happiness (GNH) as developed in Bhutan. Karma Ura explores the origins of this radically different way to think about a nation’s priorities based on measures of individual and collective happiness and well-being of the population, relationship with the environment--and Buddhist values. Karma Ura talks about the development of GNH in Bhutan and explains how the results of five yearly GNH surveys is incorporated into government policy—and also impacts the success of various Bhutanese environmental policies (Bhutan is the only country to have extended forest coverage over the last century.) 

Dasha Karma Ura is president of the Center for Bhutan studies and gross national happiness research, he a researcher, scholar, artists and historian. Karma Ura is a key figure in the development of the concept of gross national happiness and Bhutan, formulating the nine domains of gross national happiness and has led various Gross National Happiness surveys. He holds various international roles, including Executive Committee Member of the School of Well-being, Chulalongkorn University, and San Nagarprada Foundation, Thailand, and 2010 Member of the Reflection Group on Global Development Perspectives, Global Policy Forum, Germany. He is also a Member of the Chief Economist’s Advisory Panel, World Bank, representing the South Asia Region

A wide-ranging discussion with Hans Ulrich Obrist on ecology and contemporary art. Hans discusses his work as at the Serpentine Gallery in London which has made an important commitment to ecology. He highlights the  Gallery’s ongoing exploration of an idea of communion with the environment through is exhibitions and activities—and how he has been inspired by the work of artist and political activist Gustav Metzger. Hans also explores the potential fo climate and environmental art --and the role of the avante garde-- within an increasingly financialised global art market.

Hans Ulrich Obrist is a Swiss art curator, critic and historian of art. He is artistic director at the Serpentine Galleries, London, which has embedded environmental and ecological concerns across its programmes and activities-- and research around ecology and climate change. He is the author of The Interview Project, an extensive ongoing project of interviews: so far, some 2000 hours of interviews have been recorded. He is also co-editor of the Cahiers d'Art review. He recently edited the book 140 Artists' Ideas for Planet Earth.

Fascinating interview exploring the interwoven geopolitical, economic, and political history of Western democratic societies since the early 20th century, revealing the way in which the battles for energy and for resources has shaped  politics, the fault lines ultimately leading to many recent crises. Helen shares her perspective on the evolving relationship between the US and China—the underlying dynamics, emphasising how the Chinese leadership thinks in strategic terms about green energy –unlike the US. Helen also highlights the scale of the challenge of the energy transition which, she argues, is often underestimated, pointing out how energy transitions in the age of fossil fuels has largely been about more energy sources, not directly replacing one energy source with another.

Helen Thompson is Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge and a fellow and Director of Studies at Clare College, Cambridge. Her current research concentrates on the political economy of energy and the long history of the democratic, economic, and geopolitical disruptions of the twenty-first century. She is the author of Oil and the Western Economic Crisis (2017), China and the Mortgaging of America (2010), and Might, Right, Prosperity and Consent: Representative Democracy and the International Economy (2008). Helen is a contributing writer to the New Statesman and has written articles for the London Review of Books, the New York Times, and the Financial Times. Her new book Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st century was published in February. 

A focussed, and spirited, discussion with Lord Adair Turner on the work of the Energy Transitions Commission and the recent Energy Transitions Commission’s report on the role of Carbon Dioxide Removals (CDR) in meeting global climate objectives… a report which argues that CDR, alongside rapid and deep global decarbonisation, can give the world a 50% chance of limiting global warming to 1.5°C. This is a fascinating broad ranging discussion exploring different approaches to CDR, the role and varying structure of carbon offsets, validation mechanisms the role of carbon markets, the article 6 rulebook, and related questions. The discussion also touches on the ongoing role that financial institutions are playing supporting the fossil fuel industry.

Lord Adair Turner chairs the Energy Transitions Commission, a global coalition of major power and industrial companies, investors, environmental NGOs and experts working out achievable pathways to limit global warming to well below 2˚C by 2040 while stimulating economic development and social progress. He was chairman of the Institute for New Economic Thinking until January 2019, where he remains a Senior Fellow. He is Chairman of Chubb Europe and on the Advisory Board of Envision Energy, a Shanghai-based group focussed on renewable energy, batteries and digital systems. Amongst many other roles he has played, Adair was the first chairman of the Climate Change Committee (2008-2012) an independent body to advise the UK Government on tackling climate change.

A deep dive with Timothée Parrique on degrowth thinking. In this fascinating interview, Timothee Parrique gives an overview of the latest research on degrowth economics, the compelling underlying logic-- and confronts some of the misunderstandings about degrowth, undermining some of the arguments used against degrowing the economy. Timothée highlights the growing adoption of degrowth ideas in the world of economics, and more importantly, by the IPCC itself—and he discusses the growing evidence that decoupling is not, and has not, taken place, notwithstanding the hopes that many have for green growth. “The new numbers we have tell us that that the decoupling we would need to see in order to make further economic growth in high income nations green…it just has not been delivered.”

Timothée Parrique is a researcher at the School of Economics in Lund University, Sweden. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Clermont Auvergne and Stockholm University. Titled “The political economy of degrowth” (2019), his dissertation explores the economic implications of degrowth. Tim is also the lead author of “Decoupling debunked – Evidence and arguments against green growth” (2019), a report published by the European Environmental Bureau (EEB). He blogs at https://timotheeparrique.com and tweets at @timparrique.

Professor Robert Eccles, one of the world’s leading authorities on ESG, discusses the growing importance of ESG factors in investment, with reflections on the corporate and investor response to the war in Ukraine. He shares his views on the importance of establishing effective corporate sustainability standards--which he recognises as a challenging, inevitably slow, sometimes polarising, but vitally important effort to reach consensus: “Standard setting has always been a contentious, fractious process. There are technical issues, there are ideological issues. It's never done… the debate continues.” Professor Eccles discusses the role  corporations play with respect to the SDGs--and how, and when, corporations can do good given pressures to grow and maximise profits. He also discusses the impact of investors’ changing attitudes to sustainability. A fascinating discussion focussed on some of the most important questions today in the world of corporate sustainability.

Professor Robert Eccles is a leading authority on corporate purpose and the integration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors in resource allocation decisions by companies and investors. He is Visiting Professor of Management Practice at Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford was previously a tenured professor at Harvard Business School. He is the Founding Chairman of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and one of the founders of the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC).

Sunrise co-founder William Lawrence looks back on his days at Sunrise and explores some of the lessons and insights from the organisation’s growth development—and makes the connection with wider trends in left politics in the United States. This interview explores key elements of Sunrise’s strategy, as well the organisation’s methods of organizing. William highlights some of the organisations key successes -- raising the importance of climate in American political discourse, making it a leading priority for the Democratic Party, as well as some of the work that remains to be done. A fascinating insight into the development, growth, and challenges faced by one of the most successful and inspiring youth driven climate change organisations in the world.

William Lawrence is an organizer and social movement strategist. He was a co-founder of Sunrise Movement, where he helped shape and popularize the Green New Deal. He currently works as a strategic advisor for Dream Defenders, a social change organisation fighting for a world without prisons, policing, surveillance and punishment--and he is developing a new popular organization in his hometown of Lansing, Michigan. William’s detailed analysis in Convergence magazine https://bit.ly/3vSYlCz and https://bit.ly/3FuJn9c -- what he calls an exercise in “practice of learning in public.”

Professor Kevin Gallagher and Richard Kozul-Wright discuss their new book The Case for a New Bretton Woods. They highlight the unmet promises for reforms to promote stability, social inclusion, and sustainability in the aftermath of the 2008–9 global financial crisis—and argue that in the wake of Covid there is now an opportunity to reform the financial system and deal with the inequality, volatility, and climate breakdown. Kevin and Richard outline a series of fundamental reforms to bring the Bretton Woods institutions, reforming international finance, aligning trade and investment rules with climate and development goals.

Kevin T Gallagher is Professor of Global Development Policy and Director of the Global Development Policy Center at Boston University, whose mission is to advance policy-relevant research for financial stability, human wellbeing, and the environment on a global scale. Richard Kozul-Wright is Director of the Division on Globalization and Development Strategies at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) He has worked at the UN in both New York and Geneva and published widely on economic issues.

Wide-ranging interview with the economist Ann Pettifor on the impact of an unstable financial system on the prospects of dealing with the climate crisis, the role and impact of private finance-- which she believes is ultimately designed to serve the interests of the 1%. Ann argues, however, that the real power of private finance is overstated, pointing to the various ways in which financial institutions consistently rely on public institutions to bail them out: how we are not actually living in time of free market capitalism. Rather than focus exclusively on the cost of decarbonization, Ann suggests that we think about a different kind of economy: living more simply, living with less carbon, living in an economy which is not based on fossil fuels.

Ann Pettifor is a British economist who advises governments and organisations. Her work focuses on the global financial system, sovereign debt restructuring, international finance and sustainable development. She was one of the leaders of the Jubilee 2000 debt cancellation campaign and is a member of the Green New Deal Group of economists, environmentalists and entrepreneurs actively working to shift the world away from fossil fuels. Her latest book is The Case for the Green New Deal.

Deep dive with Professor Ruth DeFries on her recent book What would Nature Do exploring how strategies from the natural world can help humanity weather many of the environmental crises we are now facing. DeFries explains how a small number of key strategies—investments in diversity, redundancy over efficiency, self-correcting feedbacks, and decisions based on bottom-up knowledge—enable life to persist through unpredictable, sudden shocks-and various ways in which we can apply these strategies to deal with current environmental challenges we are facing.

Ruth DeFries is a professor of ecology and sustainable development at Columbia University in New York co-founding dean of the Columbia Climate School and is a recipient of the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship and many other academic awards she is an author of over a 100 scientific papers related to how people are manipulating the planet and its consequences for humanity. Her most recent book is What would Nature do where she outlines a set of strategies from the natural world that she believes can help humanity deal with many of the environmental crises the world is facing.

Carbon Tracker Initiative’s Mark Campanale provides fresh insights into the dangerous phenomenon of stranded assets –according to the IEA: “ investments which have already been made but which, at some time prior to the end of their economic life, are no longer able to earn an economic return.” Mark explains why it is taking so long for capital markets to reflect the real value of fossil fuel companies—and what’s at stake here-- how we are funding climate chaos through our pension schemes and banking system.  Mark discusses the economics of investment in fossil fuel compared to renewables, the power and influence of the fossil fuel industry, and his latest work focus, including important work on the Fossil fuel Non Proliferation Treaty. 

Mark Campanale is the Founder of the Carbon Tracker Initiative, a non-profit think-tank launched to pin-point with clarity how global capital markets have failed to deal with climate risk. Mark developed the ‘unburnable carbon’ capital markets thesis – the idea that there are substantial fossil fuel energy sources which cannot be burnt if the world is to adhere to the necessary carbon budgets to limit global warming. Campanale also  co-founded Planet Tracker, another think tank, which provides in-depth financial analysis around natural ecological barriers to growth faced by financial markets. His work seeks to raise awareness of ‘value-at-risk’ to the financial community, and engages institutional investors and analysts to unlock and redirect the transformative power of capital markets to deliver on sustainable development objectives.

Wide ranging discussion on ESG ratings and how MSCI approaches identifying risks and opportunities arising from material Climate and ESG issues. Linda-Eling Lee is Global Head of ESG and Climate Research at MSCI the largest provider of ESG Ratings and analytics to global institutional investors. Linda-Elong leads one of the largest teams in the world dedicated to identifying risks and opportunities arising from material Climate and ESG issues.  She oversees all ESG- and Climate-related content and methodology and is also a member of MSCI’s Executive Committee.

Hard-hitting interview with outspoken Kenyan ecologist and conservation writer Dr Mordecai Ogada. Deep dive on key trends in Kenyan conservation. Mordecai criticizes of impact of large sums of money coming into conservation Kenya, from abroad, which he sees having an overtly commercial impact on conservation in Kenya. One impact: substantial growth in “protected areas”—which Mordecai sees as being “rooted in violence and eviction and disenfranchisement.” Mordecai calls for the philosophy behind protected areas has to be looked at afresh. “Humans have always used landscapes have always used natural resources. The key is finding sustainable and more resilient ways of using these natural resources.” 

Dr Ogada is a carnivore ecologist and conservation writer who has been involved in conservation policy and practice for the last 18 years in Kenya and other parts of Africa, mainly focusing on human wildlife conflict mitigation, and carnivore and community-based conservation Wildlife Policy and wetlands ecology. He is currently the Executive Director of Conservation Solutions Africa, and natural resource management consultancy. He is the co-author of The Big Conservation Lie.

In this wide-ranging and hard-hitting interview, pioneering American writer, activist, and Marxist environmentalist, Mike Davis speaks out about the dangers of this moment, politically, which he sees as similar to the late 1930s, and the relentless environmental destruction of the planet, and growing nuclear threats. Disappointed by the loss of momentum for street politics and protests in the US, following the inspiration of Black Lives Matter, Mike worries that protests have become predominantly a franchise of the far right, at a time of existential threats where young people need to take action and speak out. Mike is harshly critical of the way in which Western governments have dealt with Covid, drawing parallels with multilateral approaches to dealing with the climate crisis, particularly the prevailing ideology that finance capitalism is the only force that can save the world environmentally. 

Mike Davis is a pioneering American writer, political activist, urban theorist, and historian, best known for his seminal analysis of power and social class in his native Southern California. Over many decades, Davis has created a powerful body of work investigating a wide range of issues from urban development and globalisation to the impact of extreme weather systems, the growth of slums, pandemics, and the environment—all underpinned by a profound critique of capitalist social relations and a deep concern for the environment and all kinds of injustice. He was a 1996–1997 Getty Scholar at the Getty Research Institute and received a MacArthur Fellowship Award in 1998. He is the author of some two dozen works of fiction and non-fiction and won the Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction in 2007.

A fascinating deep dive on impact investment with Sir Ronald Cohen, "the father of social investment." This is a spirited discussion about Sir Ronald’s book, Impact, exploring his vision of how impact investing is reshaping capitalism to deliver a form of capitalism that can deal with the profound social and environmental challenges we are facing—issues which he is passionate about. Sir Ronald believes financial institutions are changing profoundly -and is hugely optimistic about the work being done today on measuring impact, notably the Harvard Business School IWA impact weighted accounts project—making the connection between market value and pollution explicit. This in turn brings Ronnie’s vision closer:  a world where investors can measure companies impact and “help change the behaviour of companies so that they bring solutions rather than creating or aggravating environmental and social problems.”

Sir Ronald Cohen is Chairman of The Portland Trust and Bridges Ventures, amongst other roles, as a philanthropist, venture capitalist, private equity investor and social innovator over many decades. Sir Ronald was a founder of Apax Ventures, has been described as "the father of British venture capital" and "the father of social investment," his latest book, Impact, Reshaping capitalism to drive real change, explores his vision of how impact investing is reshaping capitalism.

Katharina Pistor, Professor of Comparative Law and director of the Center on Global Legal Transformation at Columbia Law School, discusses her most recent book The Code of Capital: How the Law Creates Wealth and Inequality. In this fascinating discussion, she highlights the various ways that debt, complex financial products, and other assets are selectively coded to protect and reproduce private wealth—and the malleability of the legal system, that can be redesigned, and repurposed--by well paid lawyers. Katharina discusses the recent trend to create environmental financial assets-and highlights what she sees as a crucial, perennial, question: who will bear any financial losses (associated with climate change investments). Katharina also shares some ideas on we might create a financial system that would be more socially, environmentally and financially equitable.

Katharina Pistor is the Edwin B. Parker Professor of Comparative Law and director of the Center on Global Legal Transformation at Columbia Law School. A leading scholar and writer on corporate governance, money and finance, property rights, and comparative law and legal institutions, Pistor’s most recent book, The Code of Capital: How the Law Creates Wealth and Inequality, examines how assets such as land, private debt, business organizations, or knowledge are transformed into capital through contract law, property rights, collateral law, and trust, corporate, and bankruptcy law. The Code of Capital was named one of the best books of 2019 by the Financial Times and Business Insider. 

In this fascinating discussion on the COP, Professor Stefan Aykut, a German scholar working on global climate governance, on the role and expectations around COP26. Stefan shares a more positive assessment of COP26 than some others interviewed on this podcast: ultimately, he points out, the outcome is in the hands of national governments. Stefan argues that one of the main reasons climate problems have not received the necessary attention is that they have been treated as uniquely climate problems . But he sees signs that is changing. Stefan worries that the lack of solidarity in the way the Global North has dealt with COVID crisis does not augur well for dealing with climate problems in the future. Notwithstanding its urgency, Stefan also worries about the dangers of framing global warming as an emergency: emergencies, he says, are associated with concentration of political power. 

Stefan Aykut is Junior professor of Sociology, Director at Center for Sustainable Society Research (CSS) Hamburg, Germany.  He is a sociologist, political scientist and Science and technology scholar working on global climate governance and sustainability transformations with a particular focus on contemporary approaches to aligning economic activities and social practices with global ecological limits.

COP26 debrief with Rupert Read. In the immediate aftermath of COP26, Rupert Read shares his profound disappointment with the outcome of COP26, shares his views for possible ways forward with the COPs, how they might evolve--and talks about the vital importance of adaptation-another area where he feels COP26 failed to deliver. Unvarnished and candid reflections on COP26 and worries about general progress on the scale of environmental challenges the world is facing: in particular global warming and the environmental catastrophes the oceans are undergoing. 

Rupert Read is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia, an author, a blogger, and a climate and environmental campaigner, including his work as a spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion. He has written over a dozen books, most recently Parents for A Future. Deep Adaptation: Navigating the Realities of Climate Chaos which he edited with Jem Bendell came out this summer. Rupert has also been national parliamentary candidate, European parliamentary candidate and councillor for the Green Party of England and Wales and chaired the ecological think tank Green House. He is a strong advocate for positive, radical change to address the climate emergency, and has argued for the environment extensively in the media, including writings in the Guardian, The Independent and The Ecologist and frequent guest appearances on the radio.

In this hugely inspiring interview, James Thornton, CEO of legal powerhouse ClientEarth, talks about how the firm uses the law to confront nature loss and climate change. At a time when market solutions are in vogue to deal with climate change, this is a powerful testimony to the power of law to build effective regulatory frameworks to drive climate mitigation – and hold companies and governments to account. James discusses how ClientEarth works, highlighting a few of the many influential legal cases that the environmental legal charity has fought -in David vs Goliath style-and won. This is an eye-opening account of ClientEarth’s work which provides inspiring insights into the vital role (and potential) of law to deal with some the greatest challenges we face as a civilisation. James also shares how his perspective as a Zen Buddhist priest informs his life and work.

James Thornton is the founding CEO of ClientEarth, a path-breaking law firm which uses advocacy, litigation and research to address the greatest challenges of our time – including nature loss and climate change. ClientEearth has an extra-ordinary record of success built on solid law and science - and has brought about fundamental change in the way environmental protections are made and enforced across Europe. The New Statesman has named James as one of 10 people who could change the world. James has twice won Leader of the Year at the Business Green Awards. The Financial Times awarded him its Special Achievement accolade at the FT Innovative Lawyers Awards. James is an ordained Zen Buddhist priest.

A fascinating discussion with 3 passionate youth activists from the UK, India and Bangladesh, on 7th November 2021, about their expectations for COP26, their experience on the ground, and their concerns about the environmental challenges we are facing. Although COP26 is not yet over, and we don’t know the final outcome, these activists express profound disappointment with what they see as a “business as usual” approach-- and call out governments around the world for avoiding taking vital climate action –and the pervasive corporate greenwash. They identify the kinds of changes they would like to see to deal with global warming, and related environmental challenges, highlighting the failure to provide capital transition capital to countries in the global south—and calling for more inclusion for youth and indigenous voices in the COPs themselves. They also discuss the ongoing emotional stress dealing with climate and feelings as young activists-the sense of exhaustion and burnout.

Sohanur Rahman is a Journalist & Social Worker from Barisal in Bangladesh. He is founder of Founder of the YouthNet for Climate Justice (YN4CJ) – a voluntary youth organization network for raising awareness and taking actions to tackle the adverse effects of Climate Change. Lucy Jordan is an English climate activist, member of UK Youth Climate Coalition‏ whose mission is to mobilise and empower young people to take positive action for global climate justice—she organises its COP Working Group. John Paul Jose is a young environmental and climate activist from the coastal state of Kerala in India. He is one of the youth leaders of #FridaysForFuture in India and collaborates with many other environmental groups including UN Major Group for Children and Youth (UNMGCY), the United Nations Convention on Combatting Desertification (UNCCD).

In this thought provoking interview, Frédéric Hache, co-founder of the Green Finance Observatory, asks some hard-hitting questions about carbon-offsets and related market solutions to climate change and the biodiversity crises-and financialisation of nature more generally. Frederic discusses the evolution of market-based solutions to climate. “It is interesting that the conversation now is about how to incentivize economically, corporations, as if governments no longer had the power to compel and regulate.” Frédéric highlights what he sees as a key trend: outsourcing dealing with climate change to developing countries by buying land, planting trees and opening a new market for global investors in the process.

Frédéric is a co-founder, and executive director, of the Green Finance Observatory an independent NGO that analyses the new market mechanisms and sustainable finance frameworks in order to determine how likely they are to meet their stated environmental, economic and social objectives. Earlier in his career, Frederic spent 12 years working in investment banking, designing and selling currency derivatives before joining NGO Finance Watch at its creation, where he managed the policy analysis team and analyzed European prudential regulation of banks and capital markets. 

Fascinating interview with Professor Mike Hulme on his expectations for COP26, the role and importance of the COPs, and the dangers of an overly scientific approach to climate change-- a reductionist framing of the problem in terms of numbers and deadlines. He shares what he sees as some of the biggest dangers of framing climate change as an emergency—drawing lessons from government responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. Professor Hulme also discusses his new book, Climate Change, where he introduces a number of “more than science approaches,” lenses, for coming to terms with the idea of climate change: post-colonial justice and resistance; the arts and humanities; and the lenses of various world religions.

Dr Mike Hulme is professor of Human Geography in the Department of Geography at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Pembroke College.  His work explores the idea of climate change from a range of perspectives-- historical, cultural, scientific-- revealing various ideological, political and ethical dimensions to the way climate change is deployed in public and political conversations.  Author of numerous books on climate, his latest book is Climate Change, where he argues that the full power of the idea of climate change can only be grasped from a vantage point that embraces the social sciences, humanities, and natural sciences.

In this fascinating interview, Dr Genevieve Guenther does a deep dive on the powerful ongoing ways in which the fossil fuel industry influences communication about climate change-- preventing us from not only seeing the true problem of climate change, but also preventing us from envisioning and desiring and implementing solutions. She analyses the various ways in which the fossil fuel industry try and divert attention from their activities—emphasizing, for example, individual carbon footprints, and their spending on renewables (in reality a tiny percentage of their overall budgets). She also highlights the emotional impact—undermining individuals’ confidence in their ability to do anything about climate change. Genevieve also discusses the important work done by a charity she has set up, End Climate Silence, and her work to stop the New York Times taking money from fossil fuel industry.
 
 Genevieve is an author and activist. Her work focusses on the role of language in climate change drawing on sociology, psychology, philosophy, and literary theory to critique current forms of climate communication. She is affiliate faculty at The New School, where she sits on the advisory board of the Tishman Environment and Design Center.  Genevieve is also the founder and director of End Climate Silence, an volunteer organisation that pushes the news media to cover the climate crisis with the urgency it deserves. Genevieve’s book The Language of Climate Politics, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press.

In this deep dive on resilience, Professor Daniel Aldrich gives a fascinating overview of different ways of thinking about resilience—focussing in particular on the kind of resilience that allows communities to recover from disasters in a way that brings together resources -- and allows the communities to rebuild themselves so they're not as vulnerable as they were before the shock—so they can collaborate, communicate, and work together in a more effective way. Daniel discusses his research which has identified the critical importance of social bonds as a key factor determining how communities deal with disasters—too often neglected due to an overemphasis on infrastructural resilience. A fascinating interview, packed with rich insights and research findings-providing a multidimensional perspective on resilience.

Daniel Aldrich is professor of political science and Director of the Security and Resilience Studies Program at Northeastern University. A main body of his research focussed on recovery after natural disasters. His most recent book, Building Resilience: Social Capital in Post-Disaster Recovery, highlights how relationships among people in a disaster zone are a critical engine for recovery after a disaster. Daniel has held posts as a Fulbright Research Fellow and an Abe Fellow at Tokyo University and as an AAAS Science and Technology Fellow with USAID.  He is a contributor to the New York Times, CNN, The Conversation, and the Asahi Shinbun, among other media. 

In this interview, Professor Katharine Hayhoe, one of climate change’s most effective communicators, provides inspired guidance on how to navigate all sides of the conversation on a topic that is currently one of the most politicised and divisive. Katharine discusses her new book Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World, illustrated her arguments with stories from her personal experiences. Katharine argues we need to go beyond facts and statistics and begin essential climate conversations with shared values, connect the issue to our individual identities, and help inspire collective action. For Katharine,  urgency of action is paramount: “The key conclusion of the IPCC is simply this. Every year counts, every action matters, every choice can make a difference.”

Katharine Hayhoe is an atmospheric scientist—and a professor of political science at Texas Tech University, where she is co-director of the Climate Science Center. She has served as lead author on the Second, Third, and Fourth National Climate Assessments. Katharine also hosts and produces the PBS Digital Series, Global Weirding, and serves on advisory committees for a broad range of organizations including the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, the Earth Science Women’s Network, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She has recently become Chief Scientist, at the Nature Conservancy, the world's largest conservation organization- her new book Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World has just been published.

In this fascinating interview,  leading anthropologist Professor Philippe Descola discusses his latest book Beyond Nature and Culture—exploring the different ways mankind relate to nature. In this book, Professor Descola identifies four key ways in which different societies have thought about nature over time-animism, totemism, analogism, and our current relationship: naturalism, a strict separation between the cultural worlds of human beings, on the one hand, and the non-human things of nature, on the other. Professor Descola discusses how we can, and must today, learn from other ways of connecting to nature, how they can inspire us as a society. Notwithstanding what he sees as a deeply challenging time, Professor Descola finds inspiration in the activism of young people-and emerging approaches embodied in the Zones a Defendre (ZADS) in France. 

Philippe Descola is a French anthropologist with a reputation as one of the most important anthropologists working today. He held the chair of Anthropology of Nature at the Collège de France between 2000-2019 and is a fellow of the British Academy and a foreign member of the American Academy of Arts. His most recent book Beyond Nature and Culture has been hugely influential, exploring the ways in which different societies have thought about our relationship with nature over time.

Professor Stephen Macekura explores how ideas of economic growth came into being across the 20th century world --and the types of politics and political conflicts that they have engendered across the world. He explores the work of those thinkers who have criticized and doubted the virtues of the notion of limitless growth, and in particular, those who have criticized the ways in which growth was measured and conventional accounting techniques, and proposed alternative ways of measuring and thus valuing the world over time. Deep insights into a road not taken--and a potent critique of current approaches to dealing with the environmental crises we are now facing.

Stephen Macekura is a scholar of U.S. and international history, with a particular focus on political economy, international development, U.S. foreign relations, and environmentalism. Associate Professor of Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, Stephen’s first book is “Of Limits and Growth: The Rise of Global ‘Sustainable Development’ in the Twentieth Century,” was published by Cambridge University Press. His latest book The Mismeasure of Progress: Economic Growth and its Critics, explores various critiques of economic growth across the twentieth-century, how reformers have challenged and sought to rethink the ways in which the concept of “growth” has been defined, assessed, and measured.

In an interview done earlier this year, long time climate activist James Cameron provides a fascinating insider’s perspective the on the COP— highlighting the highs and lows of various COPs over the last thirty years or so—and the COP’s greatest achievements—against a background of slow but growing momentum in the private and public sphere to deal with climate change. James also discusses the vital and growing role of the legal system in dealing with global warming. He talks about the work that he has done over this time supporting the various COPs -and COP23 in particular. James also discusses the prospects for COP26 and shares his optimism on the prospects for businesses pursuing Net Zero strategies. Fascinating and first-hand insights into international and multilateral approaches to responding to climate change. 

James Cameron is an influential figure within the international climate change community. He has been engaged with environmental and climate change policy for some 30 years, working variously as a barrister, financier, social entrepreneur, and as a trusted advisor to myriad climate change and environmental organisations. He has been involved in many of the COPs over recent decades, most notably COP X in Fiji. James is called “a Friend of COP26,” advising the UK government on the upcoming COP in Glasgow in November. He is also a member of HM Treasury's Infrastructure UK Advisory Council, GE's ecomagination advisory board, is an advisor to the Climate Bonds Initiative, and a trustee member of the UK Green Building Council.

As the relationship between the US and China grows more tense, we discuss the geopolitics of climate change. What impact does geopolitics have on national responses to climate change? How is the relationship between China and the US evolving? Gerald Butts believes that geopolitics is definitional when it comes to climate change. He discusses the ways in which the international political arena around climate has become yet another theater for strategic, largely economic competition. He argues that the core objectives of nation states are becoming aligned with the core objectives of climate policy--leading to an energy transition that will proceed faster than it might otherwise have. At the same time, he believes that it is likely to be a messy transition with a lot of turbulence.

Gerald Butts is a Canadian political consultant who served as the Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau from 2015 -2019. He is currently vice chairman and a senior advisor at Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy, and leads New Climate Group, a consultancy that advises global financial firms, educational institutions, and philanthropists on strategic investments in climate mitigation and resilience, and artificial intelligence.

In this deep dive on sustainability within the food industry, Toby identifies three key trends –resilience, disclosure and consumer awareness – driving changes within the food industry generally. He discusses Innovation Forum’s recent detailed study on smallholder farmers, responsible for a very large amount of the world's food supply. The report highlights the ongoing challenges facilitating access to better markets, the need to develop resilient smallholder farming communities, and the importance of developing alternative income streams for smallholders, now and in the future. Toby also explores unfolding agriculture developments, touching on new “forest positive” strategies, as well as the possibilities of carbon sequestration as a ‘product’ which smallholder farmers can sell to international markets. And he discusses the impact climate change and sustainability is having on the wine industry--and the work he is doing with the new cross industry Sustainable Wine Roundtable.

Toby Webb is the founder of Innovation Forum a UK based purpose driven company that works in the areas of food, agriculture, land use, plastics, apparel and textiles and Scope III GHG emission. Innovation Forum brings together business executives with civil society groups, governments, academics and other experts, to find solutions to difficult supply chain challenges. He is also the founder of Sustainable Wine Ltd. and the Sustainable Wine Roundtable.

In this fascinating interview, Nigel Topping, the UK's High-Level Climate Action Champion discusses the prospects for the upcoming COP26 in November in Glasgow. Against a background of growing momentum for change, Nigel reflects on the goals and expectations for COP26 -- and identifies some of the outstanding issues to be addressed over the coming months. Nigel discusses the growth and development of the carbon offset market, Net Zero, and the growing corporate commitments of Race to Zero, a global campaign Led by the High-Level Climate Champions for Climate Action. Nigel also disucsses the vital importance of resilience -and the Race to Resilience campaign that aims to catalyse a step-change in global ambition and action for climate resilience, not only withstanding climate shocks but flourishing in spite of them.

Nigel Topping is the UK's High-Level Climate Action Champion, appointed by the UK Prime Minister in January 2020.  The role of the high-level champions is to strengthen collaboration and drive action from businesses, investors, organisations, cities, and regions on climate change, and coordinate this work with governments and parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Nigel was most recently CEO of We Mean Business, a coalition of businesses working to accelerate the transition to a zero carbon economy. Prior to that he was Executive Director of the Carbon Disclosure Project, following an 18 year career in the private sector, having worked across the world in emerging markets and manufacturing.

In this wide-ranging interview, Jeremy Lent discusses his fascinating new book Web of Meaning which combines findings in cognitive science, systems theory and traditional Chinese and Buddhist thought, to develop a framework that integrates both science and meaning in a coherent whole. Jeremy discusses what he sees as an essential problem at the heart of our current worldview: how man is separated from nature which is seen purely as a resource. He highlights a very different perspective, common to many indigenous peoples, how we are interrelated, not just all humans related to each other, but seeing all of the living earth around us all of life as being our relations. Jeremy also shares his long standing criticisms on the structure of the modern corporation and its role in society, in light of the recent Shell climate litigation, and the election of new directors to the board of Exxon, instigated by a small activist investor-which has been called the oil industry’s “Black Wednesday.” 

Jeremy is an award winning author and founder of the nonprofit Liology Institute, dedicated to fostering a worldview that could enable humanity to thrive sustainably on the earth. His writings investigate the underlying causes and the patterns of thought that have led our civilization to its current sustainability crisis. The Patterning Instinct is a cultural history of humanity’s search for meaning, traces the deepest dark of foundations of our modern worldview. His most recent book is Web of Meaning: integrating science and traditional wisdom to find our place in the universe. It has recently been published in the UK and is published in the US in July. Born in London, England, Lent received a BA in English Literature from Cambridge University, an MBA from the University of Chicago, and was a former internet company CEO. He lives with his partner in Berkeley, California.

In this fascinating interview, Daniela discusses the eye-opening sums of money needed to achieve a transition to a low carbon economy - $1 trillion-$2 trillion a year to achieve net zero emissions by mid-century, according to some estimates-- and how this can be funded. She explores the evolving relationship between the public sector and private finance - a renewed partnership—and how to assure that any new flows of private capital go into genuine green investments, rather than greenwashing. At the heart of this discussion: Daniela’s recent research on investors' plans to to “escort and derisk” private capital investments in the global south. 

Daniela Gabor is associate professor in economics at the University of the West of England, Bristol. She holds a PhD in banking and finance from the University of Stirling (2009). Her main interests are in macro-finance, monetary theory and central banking and she has published on central banking in crisis, on the governance of global banks and the IMF, and on shadow banking and repo market. She has a special interest in the way  finance is being restructured to deliver on current environmental goals.

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In this wide-ranging interview, economic anthropologist Jason Hickel discusses his most recent book Less is more: how degrowth will save the world --charting out an economic vision to a sustainable future. This is a deep dive into to the world of degrowth – a powerful critique of one of the most deeply held ideas at the heart of economics—endless economic growth. Jason argues that green economic growth is an illusion and that we need to abandon GDP growth as an economic goal—one that is even situated at the heart of the SDGs. He calls for a focused reduction of (economic) growth in areas are less socially useful and environmentally harmful—while recognising the economic growth needs of countries in the global south. Jason returns repeated to the question of environmental justice-arguing that we also need to address significant underlying social inequities if we are to undertake radical climate policy. A fascinating and thought-provoking interview.

Dr Jason Hickel is an economic anthropologist, author, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of arts. He is a visiting senior fellow at the International inequalities Institute at the London School of Economics and senior lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London. His most recent books are The Divide, and Less is more: how degrowth will save the world.

In this fascinating interview, Professor Wendy Brown analyses the impact of neoliberal ideas on our current political economic moment, revealing how deeply entrenched neoliberalism is in our lives, that neoliberalism has not, as many believe, gone away. Wendy’s analysis of neoliberalism extends beyond the economics of privatisation and deregulation-arguing that we have all become in some sense “homo economicus.” Wendy shows how this logic extends to the ways in which we conceptualise and try to solve our environmental problems, highlighting some of the arguments at the heart of the recent Dasgupta report: The Economics of Biodiversity.

Wendy Brown is an American political theorist. She’s Class of 1936 First professor of Political Science and a core faculty member in the Program for critical theory at The University of California at Berkeley. Wendy lectures around the world and has held numerous visiting and honorary positions, including at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, the Goethe University in Frankfurt. Her work has been translated into more than twenty languages and has received many awards.  Wendy's recent work focuses on neoliberalism and she is the author of numerous books including most recently Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s Stealth Revolution and In the Ruins of Neoliberalism: The Rise of AntiDemocratic politics in the West.

In this episode, we welcome veteran investor Kevin Starr to the podcast to discuss the work of the Mulago Foundation, which funds high-impact organizations working on alleviating poverty. Kevin explains how Mulago’s focus has inevitably extended over time to take into account climate and the environment--the focus of Mulago's Henry Arnhold Fellows Program. Kevin’s main focus at Mulago is on lasting change at scale and he explains how he thinks about scaling-- and the importance of structuring investments to make sure that profit and impact are aligned.  In this wide ranging, Kevin shares his perspective on the state of social entrepreneurship today, the reality of impact investment, and his evolving thoughts on measuring impact. 

Kevin is the founder of the Mulago Foundation, which funds early stage social entrepreneurs devoted to maximum impact at scale in developing countries. Kevin set up the Reiner Arnhold Fellows Program in 2003 to apply Mulago’s principles and tools to help social entrepreneurs turn good ideas into lasting change at scale-- and in 2016, the Henry Arnhold Fellows Program to add a focus on environmental solutions.  Kevin was the primary instigator of Big Bang Philanthropy, a group of funders that work together to direct more money to those best at fighting poverty. This is an edited version of an interview from the Inspiring Social Entrepreneurs podcast.

In this interview, Joanna Pocock talks about her recent book Surrender, a compelling, moving, and eye-opening exploration of the outsider eco-cultures blossoming in the new American West in an era of increasing climatic disruption, rising sea levels, animal extinctions, melting glaciers, and catastrophic wildfires. Joanna talks about the wide range of vibrant environmental movements that have taken root in response to the climate crisis – scavenger, rewilding, ecosexual--and explores the roots of these myriad cultures-in what is also a deeply moving and personal testimony to a rapidly changing world with an uncertain future.

Joanna Pocock is an Irish-Canadian writer currently living in London. Her work of creative non-fiction, Surrender, exploring the changing landscape of the American West, won the Fitzcarraldo Editions Essay Prize in 2018 and the Arts Foundation environmental writing award in 2020. Her writing has notably appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Nation and on the Dark Mountain blog.

In this fascinating interview, Dr. Jeffrey Kiehl brings to bear two very different ways of thinking about climate change: the scientific and the psychological—and his journey as an experienced climate scientist to bring these different perspectives together. Jeffrey explains the essential features of a depth psychological perspective, why he believes this is essential today, helping us understand why we have failed to take action on climate change--and the roots of climate denial. Jeffrey identifies the shortcomings of taking a purely rational approach to climate change, why it is important to understand ways of thinking that are not purely rational, that are imagistic—based on a deeper understanding of the unconscious. He also talks about the emerging field of eco-psychology, an interdisciplinary field that focuses on the synthesis of ecology and psychology. 

Dr. Jeffrey Kiehl is a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in the United States, and an adjunct professor at UC Santa Cruz, and he has carried out research on climate change for some 40 years. Jeffrey is also a Jungian analyst and his main interests today are in the areas of eco-psychology, a field that focuses on the synthesis of ecology and psychology and the promotion of sustainability. Jeffrey is the author of the book Facing climate change: an integrative path to the future, which provides a Jungian perspective on climate change.

In this thought provoking and spirited interview, Rupert Read shares lessons and insights from his decades long experience as an activist.  Rupert believes that as a society we are facing a  “long emergency” with our entire civilisation at risk—and that nothing less than a complete transformation of our way of life will be necessary to deal with our environmental predicament. He discusses the vital role that Extinction Rebellion is playing in helping to create awareness and change and the importance of citizens assemblies and other bottom up approaches to change. At the heart of his passionate new book, Parents for a Future, Rupert argues that by caring for our own children, we are committed to caring for the whole of human future, and in turn, caring for the future of the natural world. A fascinating interview—and a strongly argued plea for dramatic action and change.

Rupert Read is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia, an author, a blogger, and a climate and environmental campaigner, including his work as a spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion. He has written over a dozen books, most recently Parents for A Future. He has also been national parliamentary candidate, European parliamentary candidate and councillor for the Green Party of England and Wales and chaired the ecological think tank Green House. He is a strong advocate for positive, radical change to address the climate emergency, and has argued for the environment extensively in the media, including writings in the Guardian, The Independent and The Ecologist and frequent guest appearances on the radio.

Dale discusses his recent thinking on the metaphysical challenges of climate change --the way a rapidly changing world unmoored from the traditional sources of meaning in our lives. He also explores the way that climate change interacts with our political institutions, with their inherent short-termism--and distinguishes between what he sees as the broad values of capitalism, when he was growing up, and what he calls today’s crony capitalism. At the heart of this discussion, Dale highlights the fundamental challenges that any person faces in life today, wherever they live, are: how should I live? How do I how do I go forward?

In this in-depth interview, Johan Frijns discusses the vital work that BankTrack does on banks and the activities they finance, tracking the involvement of banks in financing business activities with a negative impact on people and planet, so as to make information on this finance widely available in the public domain. Johan discusses some of the powerful techniques that BankTrack uses to bring about ambitious and effective sustainability commitments from banks, highlighting some recent success stories.

Johan believes that there has been tremendous change in how banks think about the impact of their business on the environment in the last twenty years —but believes there is so much more to do, such as urgently stopping banks from financing the coal, oil and gas companies that are fuelling the climate crisis. Bank investment policies and climate commitments are rapidly evolving, but banks continue to pour hundreds of billions per year into the fossil fuel industry. A fascinating insight into the vital work that this small organisation is doing in a crucial but often overlooked area of finance.

John Clark is Professor Emeritus at Loyola University, and director of La Terre Institute for Community and Ecology, and author. his latest book is Between Earth and Empire: From the Necrocene to the Beloved Community. In this wide-ranging and hard-hitting discussion, John analyses the roots of the environmental plight we are facing— what he calls the Necrocene- a period of mass extinction and reversal. He explores the roots of the problems through Murray Bookchin’s Social Ecology, and he considers the revitalising potential of communities to fuel creativity and regeneration-a recurring theme throughout this discussion -as he calls out for a  revolutionary communitarian approach to the problems we are facing. John also discusses what we can learn from Buddhist teachings on impermanence, and also highlights some lessons from indigenous communities in how we relate to nature. 

Tim Lenton is Professor of Climate Change and Earth System Science at the University of Exeter.  He has had a lifelong interest in the Gaia Hypothesis and much of his recent work has been building on the work of James Lovelock, highlighting mechanisms by which the Earth system has been stabilised by negative feedbacks throughout Earth history.  In this interview, Tim discusses his work with Bruno Latour, exploring how humans could add some level of self-awareness to Earth's self-regulation.

The Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) works on the ecological restoration and conservation of land and water resources in ecologically fragile, degraded regions of India, primarily through the collective efforts of village communities.  FES is currently working with more than 20,000 village communities on more than 6 s million acres of common lands across 10 states of India. 

Jagdeesh has overseen the growth of FES over 20 years--his work has been widely recognized and he has received the Times of India Social Impact award, the Nobel Laureate Elinor Ostrom Award on Commons, UN’s Land for Life award, and the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. 

In this inspiring episode, Jagdeesh discusses FES' vital ecological restoration and conservation work in land and water resources in ecologically fragile, degraded regions of India, highlighting the distinctive way FES works with local communities, and its philosophy and approach to restoration. He also looks forward to his new role as Curator of the Promise of Commons Initiative in India. This is interview was undertaken jointly with Inspiring Social Entrepreneurs podcast.

In this episode, Zen teacher David Loy shares his thinking about EcoDharma: combining the teachings of Buddhism with ecology or ecological concerns. In this fascinating discussion, David explore the ecological implications of Buddhist teachings with insights into how to  embody that understanding in the eco-activism that is needed in the world today. David explains that in Buddhism, while there aren’t prescriptive steps or writings from the Buddha on how to solve modern problems, we can follow the spiritual path of Buddhism to deal with our grief over climate change and move past it to feel empowered and grounded, part of the larger community of sentient, living beings. He outlines the Ecosattva Path, a path of liberation and salvation for all beings and the world itself.

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David Loy is a professor, writer, and Zen teacher in the Sanbo Zen tradition of Japanese Zen Buddhism. He is a prolific author, with his most recent books including Ecodharma, Buddhist Teachings for the Ecological Crisis. He has also published in major journals such as Tikkun and Buddhist Magazines, and a variety of scholarly journals. In his lectures and teaching he focuses on comparative philosophy and the encounter between Buddhism and modernity. He is one of the founding members of the new Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center, near Boulder, Colorado. 

In this episode, we talk with Professor Harriet Bulkely about the effectiveness of different approaches to climate governance and the possibility of a green recovery. Climate governance is particularly complex because of the need for urgency, yet as with any governance, it needs buy-in. She contrasts climate action at the city level vs. national and multi-national efforts and talks about top-down vs. bottom-up approaches, and in particular on the power of cities and communities adopting climate initiatives of their own choosing and solving in ways that fit with the local needs. 

Professor Harriet Bulkely holds joint appointments as Professor in the Department of Geography at Durham University and at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development Utrecht University. Her research focuses on environmental governance and the politics of climate change, energy and emerging urban management approaches to climate change. She's published 8 books and more than 60 research papers.

In this episode, we discuss the social and ecological impact of so-called renewable energy, and how to actually think about the impact of its development, with Dr. Alexander Dunlap. 

Dr. Dunlap says a more accurate term for industrial-scale renewable energy is Fossil Fuel+, because of the intense hydrocarbon extraction and mineral extraction required, and the complex and large supply webs required to make the large technological apparatuses involved in these projects.

He identifies and discusses five key elements we should think about to get a more complete picture of particular renewable energy projects, what Alexander calls Fossil Fuel+ development: 1) Raw material extraction; 2) Land contracting; 3) Social and economic and ecological costs; 4) What is the energy going to be used for; 5) What is the waste generated when it's decommissioned.

Alexander focuses on the many facets of the extraction process, as well as the exploitative nature of the big companies coming in with big renewable energy plans and having large local impacts on indigenous peoples that were underprepared and uninformed of the consequences.

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Alexander is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Development and Environment at the University of Oslo. He holds a PhD in Social Anthropology, his PhD thesis examining the social ecological impact of wind energy development on the indigenous people of Oaxaca, Mexico. His work has critically examined police military transformations, market-based conservation, wind energy development and other extractive projects.

Photo: UiO

In today's interview with writer Andri Snær Magnason, we explore Andri's use of his writing talent as a force for activism. 

One of Andri's focuses is to use language to make clear scientific concepts which can often feel foreign and unrelatable, while also invoking time intimacy to bridge the emotional gap we often feel toward future generations. He calls this time intimacy, where we can feel a connection across the generations who are intimate to us, our grandparents and future grandchildren, to feel a sense of time

He shares the unique perspective of Icelandic people, who live in a land in which natural events seem to leave geological timeframe and happen at human speed. Glaciers shrink, have huge water sinkholes, and threaten disappear; new mountains form; volcanic fumes form, and so on. In some ways the warming of the planet is good for local climate, but they have to fight against their instincts that it's not a good change to see this local warming, it actually means humanity is in grave danger.

Through everything, Andri aims to be optimistic and focused on what he can do to raise awareness and create change, to bring rationality and understanding of the climate crises to the public. He fights against momentum to simply harness and tame nature, such as with the eagerness to build dams all throughout the Icelandic highlands, and poetically wonders whether our sense of beauty was part of the immune system of the planet that was meant to protect us from this strain. 

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Andri Snær Magnason is an Icelandic writer who has written novels, poetry, plays, short stories, and essays. His work has been published or performed in more than 30 countries. He was awarded the Icelandic literary prize in 1999, for the children's book and play Blue Planet, and again in 2006 for the non-fiction book Dreamland, a critique of Icelandic industrial and energy policy. His latest book, On Time and Water, explores our relationship to time in an age of ecological crisis.

In this interview with Dr. Arran Stibbe, we discuss ecolinguistics, or how language influences the way we treat the environment. 

Through a number of examples, he explains the great power of words to construct the concepts and values of our world. Stories influence how we think and talk and act. For instance the set of concepts in neoliberalism tell a story about the economy and impact how we view and value growth. This view is entrenched in our culture and therefore our language.

Fortunately, Ecolinguistics exists to give people awareness and be able to change the stories that our society is based on. The stories and languages that are widespread are not the only way to think about things.

One concept which can help in this reframing is to recognize one's personal ecosophy or ecological philosophy. An ecosophy is a framework by which people judge stories against. It's critical to think about what's important and not simply accept prevailing stories of the time. It can evolve and change over time, and we should continue to give thought to the stories we choose to live by.

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Dr. Arran Stibbe is Professor of Ecological Linguistics at University of Gloucestershire. He has a PhD in Linguistics and MSc in Human Ecology and combines the two fields in his research and teaching which examines how our language and stories shape how we see ourselves and our relationship with other animals and the earth. He is the founder and convenor of The Ecolinguistics Association and has published several books on the topic of Ecolinguistics, including Ecolinguistics: Language, Ecology and the Stories We Live By, second edition releasing soon.

In this episode, we meet with Dr. Joel Bakan to discuss the growing sustainability focus of multinational corporations. He is a professor of law at the University of British Columbia, and a legal scholar and commentator. A former Rhodes Scholar and law clerk to Chief Justice Brian Dickson of the Supreme Court of Canada, Bakan has law degrees from Oxford, Dalhousie, and Harvard. His critically acclaimed book, The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power (Free Press, 2004) was published in over 20 languages. The book inspired a feature documentary film, The Corporation, written by Bakan and co-created with Mark Achbar, which won numerous awards, including best foreign documentary at the Sundance Film Festival. His most recent book is The New Corporation: How "Good" Corporations are Bad for Democracy (Penguin Random House, 2020); it is the basis for his second feature documentary film, The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel, which Bakan wrote and co-directed with Jennifer Abbott.

In this episode we talk with Danny Dorling, social geographer and Professor of Geography, about his views on many topics, much of which relates to large changes we see in society, and what things are slowing down.

Through examining data, Danny aims to address arguments which are often very political. We have a real short-termism that prevents us from looking at the future, and from learning from the past. One area he has looked at is the increasing inequality in places like the UK, where 10 million households are facing destitution.

We’re living in a very interesting time. Large portions of the population have welcomed certain changes to their lives caused by the pandemic, like not commuting. It’s hard to know if some of these changes will be adopted in some form for the long term, and how might we adapt them to work?

Danny has looked at turning points in history and how to achieve social change. Some curious things Danny has seen through looking at data include that general elections don’t have a huge effect on the number of children people have or attitudes toward race. In hindsight, he examines how countries change, how they’ve evolved over time to become more or less equitable.

Due to the great inequality in many countries, he says that population growth is not the problem with climate change. You have the top 10% producing the majority of carbon emissions while the bottom 50% is really small in comparison.

Aside from the extreme inequality, we’ve reached mass affluence in rich parts of the world, like the UK and United States. So now people have a relative level of comfort, no ice on the insides of your windows, we’re not in a time before tractors were invented to work fields like our great grandparents. We’re at a point with automation in factories, relatively done with technology for basic life, where the biggest innovation of the year is a phone you can bend. That, in a sense, is showing things slowing down.

There’s so much embedded carbon in the things we buy, a culture of buying too much, too much consumption. We buy more clothes than we will ever wear out, and also it’s normal to buy things that have built in obsolescence. We also have an instinct to explore and travel that’s going to be hard to combat as we learn to slow down.

For the way forward, Danny has optimism that through looking at examples like Finland which ranks highly on many social success measures, we can understand what’s working and apply it more broadly elsewhere.

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Danny Dorling is a social geographer and Geography Professor at the University of Oxford in England. He is a prolific writer who has published with many colleagues, including more than a dozen books on issues related to social inequalities in Britain and several hundred journal papers. His most recent book released in 2020 is entitled Slowdown: The End of the Great Acceleration — and Why It’s Good for the Planet, the Economy, and our Lives.  In 2006, Danny started working with a group of researchers on a project to remap the world (www.worldmapper.org). 

Prior to Oxford, from 1991 to 1993, Dorling was a Joseph Rowntree Foundation Fellow and from 1993 to 1996 he was British Academy Fellow at the University of Newcastle. From 1996 to 2000, he was on the faculty of the School of Geographical Sciences at the University of Bristol. From 2000 to 2003 he was Professor of Quantitative Human Geography at the University of Leeds. From 2003 to 2013 he was Professor of Human Geography and also in 2013 he was Professor for the Public Understanding of Social Science at the University of Sheffield.

He is an Academician of the Academy of the Learned Societies in the Social Sciences and was Honorary President of the Society of Cartographers from 2007 to 2017.

In this episode, we talk with Roman Krznaric about the necessity of overcoming our society's short-termism and discounting of future generations. Roman argues we need to see beyond the immediacy of the pandemic that we're in and recognize the challenges and injustices that we are passing on from one generation to the next if we do nothing. It's challenging, however, when addressing these long term injustices; it requires thinking about them for sometimes decades or centuries ahead. But with COVID we have a collective sense of crisis, a crisis that is one of the only ways we can achieve change. We have a transformative opening which may give space for transformative ideas like a circular economy or Universal Basic Income.

Roman talks about what it means to be a Good Ancestor (the title of his recently released book). He cites Jonas Salk, the creator of the polio vaccine, who believed that we were only going to be able to deal with the great problems we're facing, such as the destruction of the natural world, nuclear threat, and more, if we expand our time horizons. For Roman,  being a good ancestor is having a good long term vision. In Wales, Roman notes, there's a Future Generations commissioner; in Japan there's a citizens' assembly, a local decision making approach called Future Design. When people are tasked with representing future interests they weigh long term investments more heavily and also find the overlap between what benefits the population now and in the future. Roman also touches on the 6 different kinds of long term thinking featured in his book: deep time humility, a legacy mindset, intergenerational justice, cathedral thinking, holistic forecasting, transcendent goals.

One form of intergenerational oppression Roman discusses is discounting - a form a very standard cost benefit analysis in which the further in the future someone is, the less weight is given to them, so the interests of 100 people of today might be valued the same as the interests of 23 people from 50 years in the future. In contrast, he discusses 7th generation thinking of several Native American peoples.

In the end, Roman advocates for empathy, citizens assemblies like Japan's Future Design, rights for future people, and shifting off our our growth addicted economies to regenerative economies.

Roman Krznaric is a public philosopher who writes about the power of ideas to change society. His latest book, The Good Ancestor: How to Think Long Term in a Short Term World, has been described by U2’s The Edge as ‘the book our children’s children will thank us for reading’. His previous books, including Empathy, The Wonderbox and Carpe Diem Regained, have been published in more than 20 languages.

After growing up in Sydney and Hong Kong, Roman studied at the universities of Oxford, London and Essex, where he gained his PhD in political sociology. He is founder of the world’s first Empathy Museum and is currently a Research Fellow of the Long Now Foundation.

Roman has been named by The Observer as one of Britain’s leading popular philosophers. His writings have been widely influential amongst political and ecological campaigners, education reformers, social entrepreneurs and designers. An acclaimed public speaker, his talks and workshops have taken him from a London prison to Google’s headquarters in California.

Roman has previously been an academic, a gardener, and worked on human rights issues in Guatemala. He is also a fanatical player of the medieval sport of ‘real tennis’ and has a passion for making furniture.

In this episode, we dive into understanding denialism and justice dimensions that are gaining visibility with Professor Kari Norgaard. She talks about how we collectively experience and shape things as a society, and how denialism pertains to the various interconnected issues and movements of our time. 

Dr Norgaard has been reflecting on how the COVID-19 pandemic has brought various issues to more of a public light. She has been focused on climate change and racial inequality for a long time, and in her 2011 book, Living in Denial: Climate Change, Emotions and Everyday Life, she explores the issues of denialism, how we do it culturally, and in the United States in particular, how we have formed the capacity to ignore really large problems and try to put everything on the individual. There is more to denial than individual attributes. We live in this society where you can't really talk about things that are disturbing. 

Fortunately, Dr Norgaard says that there is starting to be greater recognition and awareness of our capacity for denial, and pursuit of change. Movements like Black Lives Matter bring people to collectively address and feel accountable for the society around us, changes we need to make, choices we make, and what we think is possible. Dr Norgaard also sees the intersectionality of many different justice issues, acknowledging that everyone will have their own sense of immediacy based on their own family history.

Dr Norgaard has also worked closely with the Karuk tribe and sees that native peoples have extensive knowledge about the ecological sciences and fire.

Lastly, Dr Norgaard talks about the importance of language; only when we collectively have the words to describe the important concepts and issues of our time can we talk more fluently about the world we live in.

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Professor Kari Marie Norgaard (B.S. Biology Humboldt State University 1992, M.A. Sociology Washington State University 1994, PhD Sociology, University of Oregon 2003) is Associate Professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies at University of Oregon. Dr Norgaard trained as a postdoctoral fellow in an interdisciplinary IGERT Program on Invasive Species at University California Davis from 2003-2005 and from there joined the faculty as Assistant Professor at Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA from 2005-2011. She joined the University of Oregon faculty in 2011. Over the past fifteen years Dr Norgaard has published and taught in the areas of environmental sociology, gender and environment, race and environment, climate change, sociology of culture, social movements and sociology of emotions. She currently has two active areas of research: work on the social organization of denial (especially regarding climate change), and environmental justice and climate work with the Karuk Tribe on the Klamath River.

Norgaard is Past Chair of the Environmental Sociology Section of American Sociological Association and author of Living in Denial: Climate Change, Emotions and Everyday Life (MIT 2011). She is recipient of a University of Oregon Faculty Excellence Award in 2017, the University of Oregon Graduate Mentoring Award in 2011 and the Pacific Sociological Association's Distinguished Practice Award for 2005. Her latest book Salmon and Acorns Feed Our People: Colonialism, Nature and Social Action was published by Rutgers

In this episode, Professor Frances Fox Piven talks about this unique moment in United States history in which there is an extensive social movement against fascism. While brought to life by a revulsion and anger at police brutality against African American people, it also carries a host of grievances related to the strength of neoliberalism in the United States. 

Frances talks about the many ways in which collective action and popular power manifest; not just through strikes or the withholding of labor but also the withholding of other forms of cooperation in obeying the rules of our society. Children can refuse to go to school; people can refuse to obey traffic laws. The complexity of our society and its interdependence increases our popular power.

She also talks about the deep economic issues stemming from both consumer capitalism and a level deeper, with the love of “stuff” and dependency upon fossil fuels. There is substantial work to be done to create alternatives to the use of fossil fuels when right now entire sections of the country are heavily dependent. The U.S. needs to find its way to a Green New Deal through the disruptive effects of mass movements. Voting and forming non-profits aren’t enough to stop some of the most powerful interests in American and world politics. 

Looking to the past, Occupy Wall Street was a success in that it drew attention where it was needed, and in the present, the current Black Lives Matter movement is taking the next step in demanding action to address spiraling increase in inequality in U.S.

With November around the corner, Dr. Piven is counting on the current movement to help with electoral victory in 2020. She calls this an exciting and promising time, with hopes that the active protesting can continue to change the course of policy in the United States and create better well-being for the American people. 

Professor Piven is a renowned social scientist and life-long advocate for working people and the poor. The publication of Regulating the Poor, her ground-breaking book with Richard A. Cloward, ignited a debate that reshaped the field of social welfare policy. Her other books include Poor People’s Movements, The Breaking of the American Social Compact, and Challenging Authority. Dr. Piven has been a recipient of Fulbright and Guggenheim awards and has been a visiting professor at the University of Amsterdam, Hebrew University, and the University of Bologna.

Dr. Piven was a founder of the National Welfare Rights Organization (NWRO) and was a co-founder of the Human Service Employees Registration and Voter Education Campaign, which led to legislation popularly known as the “motor voter” bill. She serves on the boards of several advocacy organizations, including Project Vote and Wellstone Action. Her many honors include the Shirley Chisholm Lights of Freedom Award from Community Voices Heard and the Puffin Prize for Creative Citizenship.

In this episode we dive into a discussion with Rob Nixon on climate change denialism, the difficulty of understanding and drawing attention to "slow violence," and in particular, the power of social media and using story and image to to translate scientific knowledge into powerful currents that catalyze social sentiment and action. 

As Rob discusses the dangers of the science denialism permeating a very significant minority in the U.S., he mentions the importance of the upcoming November election in the U.S., with potential fallouts including defunding WHO and defecting from the Paris Accord. However, he also sees that environmental justice is growing in importance within environmentalism. More people are realizing the overlap between public health concerns and environmentalism, such as the unequal climate impact that we are already seeing affect poor parts of the world, and new energy is coming to the movement as a result.

Rob also talks about cultural values, and the idea that over generations people develop a culture and relationship with the environment. Culture and symbolism play a large role in making public statements of cultural values. 

On the digital front, we've seen the power of social media with George Floyd and the swell of the Black Lives Matter movement. Rob raises the question of how we can translate moments of digital massing into structural change. 

Slow violence is a concept to help retain attention in situations in which the damage is continuing but the event has ceased, such as the aftermath of war with toxic chemicals from depleted uranium land mines. This concept also applies with climate change and distributive justice across generations.

If we are to tackle something like COVID or even bigger, climate breakdown, we face some large challenges. We need collaboration and government to invest in precautionary institutions. Daily life lived at the nanosecond with constant interruptions, but we're also needing to think in vast geological sense.

Rob Nixon is the Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Family Professor in the Humanities and the Environment. He is affiliated with the Princeton Environmental Institute’s initiative in the environmental humanities. Before joining Princeton in 2015, Nixon held the Rachel Carson Professorship in English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he was active in the Center for Culture, History and Environment. He is the author of four books: London Calling: V.S. Naipaul, Postcolonial Mandarin (Oxford); Homelands, Harlem and Hollywood: South African Culture and the World Beyond (Routledge); Dreambirds: The Natural History of a Fantasy (Picador); and Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor (Harvard). He has published extensively in the fields of environmental studies, postcolonial studies, nonfiction and contemporary literature and has delivered lectures on six continents. Throughout his career, he has sought to engage in both scholarly and public writing on environmental concerns and social movements, particularly as they pertain to the global South. His areas of particular interest include environmental justice, climate change and the interface between the environmental humanities and the public humanities.

In this episode, we talk with Eric Holthaus about his outlook for the future with climate change. Although our circumstances are certainly dire and much damage has already been done, Eric maintains hope that with collective and focussed radical action to overcome our systemic problems, we can move forward and enact transformative change to stop temperature rise exceeding 1.5 degrees.Three ideas that bring him hope are in a Citizens’ Assembly model, where citizens are called together to problem solve, regenerative energy, and anti-racist thought, action and movement.

Eric Holthaus is a meteorologist, writer, and ecosocialist, who seeks to change the narrative of the climate emergency away from dystopia toward courageous, imaginative possibility. In his recent book, The Future Earth, he describes a vision of what’s still possible, and what our future can look like if we make the necessary, radical changes to reverse the short- and long-term effects of climate change and address these crises head on. I’m a climate journalist for The Correspondent, and a fellow at the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment. He is a former columnist for Grist, Slate, and the Wall Street Journal.

In this, the 100th episode of the Sustainability Agenda, we speak to Dr. Anne Poelina an indigenous Australian academic and human and earth rights activist. Dr. Poelina explains her role as a “Yimardoowarra marnin,” which, translated from the Nyikina language, means “a woman who belongs to the Martuwarra River,” in Western Australia. Dr. Poelina discusses what she calls “first law,” the Aboriginal peoples’ customary law covering the rules for living in coexistence with nature, the rules of conduct that hold together and bond a civil society, the principles of an ethics of care. She talks about the indigenous cultural approach to collaborative water governance underlying the legal work that she is spearheading to make sure that the development of the Fitzroy River does not lead to the mistakes made in the development of the Murray-Darling river.

Please see the Matuwarra Fitzroy River Council website to learn more about the Council and its work.

Dr. Anne Poelina is a Nyikina Warrwa (Indigenous Australian) woman who belongs to the Mardoowarra, the lower Fitzroy River in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. She is an active Indigenous community leader, human and earth rights advocate, filmmaker and a respected academic researcher. Anne is currently an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow with Notre Dame University and a Research Fellow with Northern Australia Institute Charles Darwin University. She is also Managing Director of Madjulla Incorporated, an indigenous not-for-profit non-government community development organisation working with remote Aboriginal communities.

The post Episode 100: Interview with Anne Poelina, Indigenous Australian and Nyikina Traditional Custodian appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

In this episode we meet with Dr. Rebecca Henderson to discuss her ideas on how to reimagine capitalism, ideas at the heart of the new book, Reimagining Capitalism in a World in Fire. This is a wide-ranging spirited discussion, assessing the state of the corporation today, identifying key shortcomings–oligopolies, excessive pay, power, share buybacks –particularly in the United States—as well as the key role of investors -and the importance of shareholder primacy. Rebecca believes there is enormous opportunity for corporations to play addressing climate change, but that firms often need to be forced to do the right thing. Rebecca is optimistic that we can reimagine capitalism and make progress, while recognising that change is frustratingly slow. 

Rebecca Henderson is one of 25 University Professors at Harvard, a research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a fellow of both the British Academy and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is an expert on innovation and organizational change, and her research explores the degree to which the private sector can play a major role in building a more sustainable economy, focusing particularly on the relationships between organizational purpose, innovation and productivity in high performance organizations. For several years she taught “Reimagining Capitalism: Business & the Big Problems”, a course that grew from 28 students to over 300 and that is the basis for her book “Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire” (Hachette/Public Affairs, April 2020). Rebecca sits on the boards of Idexx Laboratories and of CERES. Her publications include Leading Sustainable Change: An Organizational Perspective, and Accelerating Energy Innovation: Lessons from multiple sectors. She was named one of three “Outstanding Directors of 2019” by the Financial Times. 

The post Episode 99: Interview with Rebecca Henderson, Economist and University Professor appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

In today’s episode we talk with Rutger Bregman about the ideas underlying his thought-provoking new book, Humankind. Rutger Bregman is a historian and author. He has published five books on history, philosophy, and economics. His books Humankind (2020) and Utopia for Realists (2017) were both New York Times Bestsellers and have been translated in more than 40 languages. Rutger has twice been nominated for the prestigious European Press Prize for his work at The Correspondent. He lives in Holland

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In this episode, we meet for the second time with Jeremy Lent and discuss the present time with COVID-19. Jeremy identifies how this disruption in our normal lives is a critical time to recognize and begin implementing solutions for some of the deep structural problems exposed. Jeremy builds on the ideas discussed in his first appearance on The Sustainability Agenda, focussing on patterns of ecological systems should be applied to human society-and introducing some of the new ideas he is exploring in his upcoming book.

Jeremy Lent is an author whose writings investigate the patterns of thought that have led our civilization to its current crisis of sustainability. His most recent work, The Patterning Instinct, a cultural history of humanity’s search for meaning, traces the deepest dark of foundations of our modern worldview. Jeremy is currently working on his next book, provisionally titled the Web of Meaning: An Integration of Modern Science with Traditional Wisdom, which combines findings in cognitive science, systems theory and traditional Chinese and Buddhist thought, offering a framework that integrates both science and meaning in a coherent whole.

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Geoff is Director of the Centre for Global Political Economy, Simon Fraser University in Canada- his teaching and research concern the politics and political economy of capitalism. Geoff the author of several books most recently Climate Leviathan: A Political Theory of Our Planetary Future, written with Joel Wainright, a explores the challenges global climate change poses to the contemporary geopolitical order. 

In this broad ranging interview, Geoff shares his views on some important recent trends in the global economy, the impact of Covid, and current political scene in the United States.
 Geoff also talks about his recent book, Climate Leviathan, arguing that rapid climate change will transform the world’s political economy and the fundamental political arrangements most people take for granted. 

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In this episode, we meet with Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, an atmospheric scientist who focuses on projecting and communicating tangible, local effects of climate change to increase people’s willingness to act now. Dealing with time lags, is one of our biggest challenges as humans; if we can’t see the impacts of our actions today, we’re unwilling to act. While we’ve seen a temporary drop in carbon emissions from COVID-19, and also general progress in adopting clean energy and carbon pricing, we have a long way to go and Dr. Hayhoe believes in appealing to people through their identities values is the way to achieve more progress.

Dr. Katharine Hayhoe is an atmospheric scientist whose research focuses on developing and applying high-resolution climate projections to understand what climate change means for people and the natural environment. She is a professor and director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University, and has a B.Sc. in Physics from the University of Toronto and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science from the University of Illinois. She is the founder and CEO of ATMOS Research, which focuses on bringing the most relevant, tangible information on how climate change will affect our lives to a broad range of clients.

She is widely published including being the lead author on several U.S. National Climate Assessments, over 120 peer-reviewed publications, and co-authored A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions. She has been named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People along with numerous other honours, and is considered to be a world leader in climate policy, communication and innovation.

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In today’s episode, we discuss Earth System science and tipping points with Will Steffen. We often hear about tipping points in relation to climate change–the dangers of arctic ice melt, sea level rise and the 2-2.5 degrees C temperature threshold beyond which things become catastrophic. What we don’t always realize is the complexity of system dynamics. Will talks about the likelihood of a tipping cascade, when one tipping point kicks off a series of others. He also draws parallels between COVID-19 and climate change, in that it’s important to understand science and not just what intervention needs to take place but to plan for the amount of time it takes for it to take effect.

Will Steffen has a long history in international global change research, serving from 1998 to 2004 as Executive Director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), based in Stockholm, Sweden, and before that as Executive Officer of IGBP’s Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems project.

Will was the Inaugural Director of the ANU Climate Change Institute, from 2008-2012. Prior to that, he was Director of the ANU Fenner School of Environment and Society. From 2004 to 2011 he served as science adviser to the Australian Government Department of Climate Change. He is currently a Climate Councillor with the Climate Institute, and from 2011 to 2013 was a Climate Commissioner on the Australian Government’s Climate Commission; Chair of the Antarctic Science Advisory Committee, Co-Director of the Canberra Urban and Regional Futures (CURF) initiative and Member of the ACT Climate Change Council.

Steffen’s interests span a broad range within the fields of sustainability and Earth System science, with an emphasis on the science of climate change, approaches to climate change adaptation in land systems, incorporation of human processes in Earth System modelling and analysis; and the history and future of the relationship between humans and the rest of nature.

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In this episode we speak with Eva Gladek, founder and CEO of Metabolic, and a leader in the space of circular economies. She talks about the importance of resilience especially in times of crisis as we’re experiencing now with COVID-19. Eva talks about the importance of taking a systems approach to the problems we are now facing–outlining key elements of this approach–at the heart of the book that she is currently completing. Eva highlights the critical importance of circular approaches to business-and the powerful results that can be achieved. Finally, she discusses how the current crisis might be a catalyst for us to reassess the way our economic social systems work and perhaps enabling substantial reform.

Eva Gladek is the founder and CEO of Metabolic, a consulting, research, and venture building firm focused on tackling global sustainability challenges and advancing a circular economy. She has worked with organizations in nearly every economic sector, from progressive cities and NGOs, to industry leaders. Eva welcomes the most complex sustainability questions from any sector with an approach grounded in science and systems thinking.

Over the last 10 years, Eva Gladek has developed broadly-adopted methodologies for systems transformation, the circular economy, and sustainable design. She speaks at forums and events around the world, sharing her vision to accelerate a collective greater impact, and is considered a top influencer in sustainability in the Netherlands, a country recognized as leading the transition to the circular economy. Eva works to create an economic system that benefits everyone. She has a master’s in industrial environmental management from Yale University and a bachelor’s in molecular biology from Amherst College.

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In this interview, we talk with renowned Indian social activist Medha Patkar. She speaks about many of the social and environmental issues facing India for which she has been a leader and champion in fighting injustice with peaceful protests and marches. This includes dam and watershed projects which displace populations while also devastating farmland.

Medha Patkar is the founder member of the 35 years old people’s movement called Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA). NBA has been engaged in a struggle for justice for the people affected by the dam projects related to the Sardar Sarovar dams project, especially those whose homes will be submerged, but have not yet been rehabilitated. She is also one of the founders of the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), an alliance of hundreds of progressive people’s organisations. In addition to the above, Patkar was a commissioner on the World Commission on Dams, which did a thorough research on the environmental, social, political and economic aspects and impacts of the development of large dams globally and their alternatives. She was the national co-ordinator and then convener of National Alliance of People’s Movements for many years and now continues to be an advisor to NAPM. Under the banner of NAPM she has participated in and supported various mass struggles across India against inequity, non-sustainability, displacement and injustice in the name of development. Her work challenges Casteism, Communalism and all kinds of discrimination.

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In today’s episode, we speak with Professor Ioannis Ioannou on business sustainability four years after his first interview for this podcast. Professor Ioannou gives an overview of the progress that has been made over this time. He argues that sustainability is the mother of all disruptions–and as it is a domain where companies lack necessary experience and knowledge and skills, some iconic brands are heading for the corporate graveyard. He also discusses his recent research that shows that companies are increasingly adopting a similar set of sustainability practices within their industry–and when companies don’t keep up with these minimum sustainability practices, its performance will suffer. Professor Ioannou is optimistic about the progress corporations are making toward sustainability, but also believes that the level and speed are not enough, nor should we rely solely upon corporations to achieve the systemic change needed to fight climate change.

Ioannis Ioannou is an Associate Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the London Business School. His research is focused in the area of Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility and understanding whether, how, and the extent to which companies and capital markets can lead on the path towards a sustainable future. He is a global influencer, speaker, and advisor to many, engaging with top executives around the world. He has frequently published in top-tier academic journals as well as popular and managerial press outlets, as well as presented his research around the world.

He is currently an Associate Editor of the Strategic Management Journal. In 2016, Prof. Ioannou was awarded the 2016 ARCS Emerging Sustainability Scholar Award. He recently launched a pioneering, 5-week online course on Sustainability Leadership and Corporate Responsibility.

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In today’s episode we speak with John Dennis Liu on the large-scale disruption of ecosystems caused by human activity and the approach we must take to ecological restoration. Everyone likes to focus on CO2, but that’s just one greenhouse gas indicator of an egregious problem. We need to shift our focus from placing too much value in material things and abiotic approaches like renewable energy to focus on climate regulation and restoring symbiotic relationships between living systems, starting with integrated water management.

John Dennis Liu is a Chinese-American filmmaker and ecologist. He left journalism over 20 years ago to create and direct the Environmental Education Media Project, and in 2017 created Ecosystem Restoration Camps, a critical tool to build knowledge and skills for revitalizing large-scale damaged ecosystems. He is a Rothamstead International Fellow for the Communication of Science at Rothamsted Research, an agricultural research institution. He has won awards for his filmmaking, including Hope in a Changing Climate which is an inspiring documentary about the hope ecosystem restoration offers us.

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In this episode we speak with Naomi Klein, renowned author and activist on the state of crisis we’re in and the hope provided by Green New Deals. We’ve made a lot of progress in lifting the importance of climate change in the progressive political agenda, but Naomi explains that we can’t just apply a narrow, technocratic solution. We need a solution that puts social, racial and gender justice at the center. She describes the power of a science-justice-guided approach, and the danger of a hierarchy-based worldview we must fight against. 

Naomi Klein is an award-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author. She is Senior Correspondent for The Intercept, a Puffin Writing Fellow at Type Media Center and is the inaugural Gloria Steinem Endowed Chair in Media, Culture and Feminist Studies at Rutgers University.

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Today we speak with Dr. Mike Hulme about climate change from an enlightening perspective that encompasses the relationship between science and policy, science and culture, the politics of climate change, and the possibilities for action in the world. Mike claims we are beyond “stopping” climate change, we must be pragmatic and scale back to simply trying to avoid most egregious problems. We must not rely on artificial, one-size-fits all deadlines put into place regarding a specific number of degrees or tons of CO2, and also consider the world’s other problems beyond climate change.

Dr. Mike Hulme is a Professor of Human Geography in the department of Geography at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Pembroke College. His work explores the idea of climate change from a range of perspectives, historical, cultural, scientific, revealing various ideological, political and ethical dimensions to the way climate change is deployed in public and political conversations. 

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Today we speak with Dr. Keir Milburn about the ongoing shift of young people to the left in the UK. In this interview, Keir notes how the material interests of older people are aligned with the performance of the financial sector and real estate whereas younger people are less tied to such measures and more invested in public and social good. Keir argues that we need to find a way to get people with many different views to want to work toward the same thing. We have no time to wait and we must move from the place we’ve gotten through awareness raising through efforts such as Extinction Rebellion into action.

Dr. Keir Milburn is a British writer, activist and lecturer on political economy and organization at the University of Leicester. He has a special interest in generational politics and is the author of Generation Left, exploring the large scale move to the left by young people in Britain. Keir’s research also explores the potential for progressive governance, in particular public commons partnerships as a means to socialize the way we process economics decisions.

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In today’s episode with Professor Colin Mayer, we look at the role of corporations in society. Colin believes that corporations must evolve from a focus on profit maximisation to embrace purposeful goals as being positive contributors to society. Ultimately, this is should be enforced by law and performance measured using principles for purposeful business. While Colin is hopeful about the growing momentum building, he recognises that we have a long way to go.

Professor Colin Mayer is the Peter Moores Professor of Management Studies at the Said Business school at University of Oxford where he was Dean between 2006 and 2011. Colin’s research explores the regulation of financial markets and institutions international comparisons of financial systems and corporate governments and their effects on the financing and control of corporations. He also has a longstanding research interest in the role of corporations in contemporary society.

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Today we talk about the expectations and outcomes of the COP 25 climate summit with Professor Maisa Rojas, COP 25 scientific coordinator. Professor Rojas hopes that this will be be a time for mobilization and turning scientific reports into action. However, she acknowledges the large social and political hurdles remaining, and that getting people to change their values is not as straightforward. Professor Rojas also talks about the importance of science communications and the role of scientists in dealing with climate change. Professor Maisa Rojas was the scientific coordinator for the COP25 climate summit and director of Chile’s Center for Climate and resilience research she’s also an Associate Professor of the Department of Geophysics at the University of Chile. Her two main research areas are paleoclimate, the study of past climates, and regional climate change.

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Described by the New York Times as “arguably the most important intellectual alive,” Noam Chomsky is a pioneering American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, social critic, and political activist.

Sometimes called “the father of modern linguistics”, Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy and one of the founders of the field of cognitive science. Chomsky has been a hugely influential figure in the international anti-war movement –and an unrelenting critic of international power. In Manufacturing Consent, Chomsky, together with Edward Herman, skilfully analyse the way in which the marketplace and the economics of publishing significantly shape the news.

He holds a joint appointment as Institute Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Laureate Professor at the University of Arizona, and is the author of more than 100 books on topics such as linguistics, war, politics, and mass media.

In this fascinating and timely interview, Professor Chomsky shares his views on the urgent environmental crises we are facing today—and says, following the recent IPCC report, that it is indeed “time to panic” about climate change (he is also very worried about growing nuclear challenges).  He talks about the disastrous impact of the U.S Republican Party over decades, a denialist organisation, and discusses the emergence, and dangers, of growing climate nationalism and fascism in the US.

Chomsky argues that the US urgently needs a Green New Deal, a theme at the heart of his recent book with Robert Pollen, The Political Economy of Climate Change and the Green New Deal.  He notes the way the Green New deal is discussed in the media is a continuation of a massive propaganda to demonize the work of government over several decades.

While acknowledging the impact we can have as individuals by modifying our personal consumption, Chomsky argues that these personal choices don’t measure up against the massive decisions on a national and global level, for example, stopping fossil fuel companies relentlessly developing new production facilities. Chomsky sees great potential for social protest, noting the recent impact of Extinction Rebellion and the Sunrise movement in the US.

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In this wide-ranging interview, Nate highlights the vital, and oft-overlooked, role that a systems synthesis plays in our understanding of the human predicament. Integrating human behavior, energy, money, economy, ecology into the story that brought humans to this point – is the only way we can make sense of future paths, according to Hagens. He paints a picture of a society deeply dependent upon the massive productivity of fossil carbon and hydrocarbons rich energy sources- “in some ways capitalism is the natural biological response of a social species finding a huge bank account of fossil carbon and hydrocarbons”– but, interestingly, he argues we are not only carbon constrained but behaviorally growth constrained and will kick any cans -debt, rule changes, etc to keep global economies growing. Nate also talks about the implications of this – that we are soon approaching a ‘Great Simplification’ and what this means for communities and young people, living differently and preparing.

Nate Hagens is a well-known speaker on the big picture issues facing human society and currently teaches a systems synthesis Honors seminar at the University of Minnesota ‘Reality 101 – A Survey of the Human Predicament’   Nate is on the Boards of Post Carbon Institute, Bottleneck Foundation, IIER and Institute for the Study of Energy and the Future.  Previously, he was lead editor of The Oil Drum, one of the most popular and respected websites for analysis and discussion of global energy supplies and the future implications of the upcoming energy transition. Read his recent publication for more: Economics for the future – Beyond the superorganism

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We are living in a very vulnerable, unprecedented situation–an ecological crisis which is as social as it is environmental. The way we look at technology and economic systems, and the way we interact as social beings in a globalized world is often as if they are separate from nature, but in reality they’re inextricably intertwined.

Today we speak with Unai Pascual, an ecological economist, on the human disconnect with nature, the importance of ecological services, and the need to broaden our focus beyond economics and markets. Unai argues that we must adopt a more multi-dimensional perspective that includes not just tangible resources and money but also fairness, social justice, respect for diversity and nature.

Unai Pascual is an ecological economist. He’s an Ikerbasque research professor at the Basque center for climate change at Bilbao in Spain and one of the lead authors of IPBES’ global biodiversity and ecosystem services assessment. In 2018 he was also nominated co-chairman of the IPBES assessment on the values of nature. In Europe and especially in developing countries, he has conducted research with a focus on the interactions between climate change, biodiversity, and ecosystems. He has written many journal articles and published books and chapters, given talks about the links between land use change and human well-being, and has an active role in international policy bodies.

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In this episode, we speak with Dr. Robert Romanyshyn, a retired emeritus professor of clinical psychology. Prof. Romanyshyn is an internationally recognized scholar in depth psychology, which attends to how unconscious dynamics shape human behavior. A prolific author, he has published many books, chapters, and, articles on the cultural and historical origins and development of the scientific and technological worldview. His most recent book Victor Frankenstein, the Monster and the Shadows of Technology; The Frankenstein Prophecies continues this work. Within the context of that dramatic tale, his new book describes for a general audience the story of technology that he told in Technology as Symptom and Dream.

Along with his nearly 50 years as teacher and practitioner of clinical psychology, he has focused his work on the increasingly dire issue of climate challenges, emphasizing the role of unconscious dynamics in shaping the ways we see ourselves in relation to the natural world. Using numerous examples, he describes how the various social, political, economic and ecological crises that we face today are the dark shadow side of our unexamined and unquestioned belief that we are apart from the natural world and not a part of it.

Drawing on his many years of experience working with unconscious dynamics in the private contexts of psychotherapy, he acknowledges the challenges of bringing these skills into the public sphere. He argues, however, that alongside political, economic and technological responses to climate crises, a psychological perspective is essential. In his remarks he provides examples of how a perspective that would make a place for unconscious factors offers seeds of hope for the future of our planet and our species.

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With over half of CO2 recaptured from the atmosphere going into the world’s oceans, they are by far the world’s largest carbon sink. Regenerating the oceans both for the benefit of the climate and the millions of people who rely on them for their livelihoods is therefore essential. In this episode, we are joined by Drawdown Advisor Dr Brian Von Herzen for an exploration into one of Drawdown’s most exciting “Coming Attractions”; marine permaculture.

As has become well established, the accumulation of pollution, ocean plastic and overfishing have left the planet’s oceans in a dire state. In addition, with the oceans absorbing over 90% of warming we are not only seeing a massive die-off of the ocean’s coral reefs but also a breakdown of ocean overturning circulations that is erasing the marine food chain and causing massive dead-zones. As Brian explains, warming is pushing vital cold nutrient rich water deeper underwater so that they are increasingly unable to come to the surface and sustain life. As a result, the oceans are fast becoming vast aquatic deserts. Marine permaculture is a way to address this by bringing these colder waters up to “irrigate” the surface. Effectively it seeks to regenerate the oceans by creating the planet’s most productive ecosystem; the kelp forest.

Kelp forests are the basis and habitat for vibrant ocean ecosystems. With the potential to grow up to half a meter a day, kelp is also an excellent means of sequestering carbon as it grows. If sunk at sea at a depth of over one kilometre, this carbon is effectively taken out of the atmosphere for centuries giving kelp and other forms of seaweed enormous potential as an effective means to sequester capture. Coupled with the fact that seaweed is already a billion dollar industry, with an array of new applications emerging, such as a source for biofuel and animal feed (see “A Cow Walks onto a Beach”), marine permaculture could regenerate the oceans and provide sustainable long-term financial returns.

The potential is thus enormous and Brian takes us through the Climate Foundation’s efforts, since it began exploring marine permaculture a decade ago. Following two successful trials in Hawaii and Indonesia the team are now gearing up to prove that marine permaculture is viable in the open ocean. Brian’s vision is to create “marine permaculture arrays” – effectively floating structures of interconnecting tubing with a wave-powered pump to bring colder waters to the surface. Kelp can then attach to the beams thereby creating the conditions for what are effectively a floating ocean forests; the ultimate organic farm. The beams are suspended fifteen meters below the ocean surface keeping it safe from extreme weather events and shipping lanes. Brian ultimately envisions that these arrays can be scaled to the extent that they can even sustain the economy of small island states – or “big ocean states” as he calls them, whilst regenerating the oceans and providing vital ecosystem services. We discuss the momentum behind this vision and opportunities and challenges around funding and support. Brian finishes by reminding us of the scale of the challenge posed by global warming and stressing that technological innovations, like marine permaculture, provide the “teeth” to match the established political consensus of limiting global warming to 1.5ºC.

Brian Von Herzen is an ocean scientist, engineer and entrepreneur. Much of his career has been in Silicon Valley where he developed innovative technical solutions for companies like Pixar, Dolby and Microsoft. Brian is founder and Executive Director of the non-profit The Climate Foundation, an institute working to regenerate life in the world’s oceans and reverse global warming within our lifetimes.

Follow this link to find out more about marine permaculture.

This is an edited version of the interview originally broadcast on The Drawdown Agenda podcast.

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With the growing reach of climate change-induced extreme weather events and increasing urbanization, it is becoming more and more important to be deliberate about the way we build our cities. In this episode, we talk with Peter Head about resilience and the importance of systems-thinking for cities and city regions.

Every day, intense weather events such as flooding, earthquakes, mudslides and more, disrupt local infrastructure such as energy, water, and food systems, and tests the resilience of the surrounding community. Will they come together to problem solve? Are there alternative means of supplying their needs? Resilience requires communication and collaboration, good governance structures with participation rather than dictatorship, and alternative supplies, systems to help get life back to normal again.

Peter founded Ecological Sequestration Trust and the Trust’s Resilience Broker program to address many of these issues. Its focus is making tools and systems available to every country make sustainable systems a reality across the world. It also works with cities to help them attract capital and investors to set up investment funds.

Peter Head is a civil and structural engineer who is passionate about using sustainable development principles in construction. In 2011, he founded the Ecological Sequestration Trust with the goal of helping cities, regions, and communities develop sustainable energy and water systems and enhanced food security in the face of the combined environmental challenges they are now facing. Prior to that he worked for many years in the design and engineer group Arup. 

He is a recognized world-wide leader in major bridges (he received an OBE for successfully delivering the Second Severn Crossing as Government Agent), advanced composites, and of course, sustainable development. He has won many awards for his work including the Award of Merit of IABSE, the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Silver Medal and the Prince Philip Award for Polymers in the Service of Mankind. 

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Two years on from the book’s publication, the Drawdown team have got their sights on how they can turn their groundbreaking research into action. In this interview, we talk to Drawdown Executive Director Dr. Jonathan Foley to reflect on the research’s impact and discuss plans for Drawdown 2.0, the next iteration of Drawdown that will help implement solutions across sectors and across the globe.

As a renowned scientist and science communicator, Jonathan tells us that he initially admired Drawdown from afar before taking over as director from Paul Hawken. According to Jonathan, Drawdown’s core strengths lie in how it combines rigorous scientific research with strong storytelling. Moreover, by setting a clearly defined goal to reverse global warming, it has resonated with both the public and those leadership positions. We also take a broad look at Drawdown’s research and reflect on some of the key takeaways, notably the vital importance of agriculture and land use solutions, something that is now entering the climate mainstream. With regards to progress in each sector, Jonathan reflects that it is a mixed picture, with substantial success in electricity but solutions still lagging in both buildings and transport. Although the steep drops in emissions required to stay under 2°C of warming may seem insurmountable, Jonathan stresses that it is nonetheless possible should one consider exponential roadmaps of emissions reduction.

Looking ahead, we discuss in detail plans for Drawdown 2.0. Jonathan tells us that the team are looking to further digitize the research through a platform that is updated in real time. In addition, there are also plans for a directory with a comprehensive list of different organizations and groups that are implementing solutions to help create a network of changemakers. Another strategy is to work with actors on the ground in key jurisdictions, notably cities, business leaders, investors and philanthropists, especially to marshal capital towards climate solutions that typically receive less attention. Finally, the team also intend to carry forward Drawdown’s empowering climate message by seeking to reach prominent influencers to shape the public’s perception of the climate crisis. Finally, we also briefly discuss whether our political and economic paradigm is capable of meeting the challenge, looking specifically at the role of business. Jonathan firmly believes that climate is above all a technical problem and that there is ample opportunity to work with committed and sincere businesses to help nudge the system towards change.

Dr. Jonathan Foley is a world-renowned environmental scientist, sustainability expert, author, and public speaker. His work is focused on understanding our changing planet, and finding new solutions to sustain the climate, ecosystems, and natural resources we all depend on. He has published over 130 peer-reviewed scientific articles, including many highly cited works in Science, Nature, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He is also a trusted advisor to governments, foundations, NGOs, and business leaders around the world. A noted science communicator, Jonathoan’s presentations have featured at hundreds of international venues, including the World Bank, the National Geographic Society, the Commonwealth Club and TED.com. His writing regularly appears in leading publications and he is frequently interviewed by major television networks.

Before joining Project Drawdown, Foley led a number of world-leading environmental science and sustainability organizations. He has founded and led climate and environment departments at the University of Wisconsin and University of Minnesota. He also served as the Executive Director of the California Academy of Sciences, one of the greenest and more forward-thinking science museums in the world.

This is an edited version of the interview originally broadcast on The Drawdown Agenda podcast.

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In this interview with Mark Campanale, we discuss divestment from coal, oil and gas and the carbon bubble. 
Mark asks the important question, if we can’t even burn all the reserves of fossil fuel companies, why are we still investing in their expansion, which could end the world as we know it? Stock prices are not properly valuing the climate risk. 
He goes on to describe the substantial momentum that has begun to take hold, with many taking a step up to voice their concerns and divest by moving their investments to clean energy technology or simply away from coal, oil, and gas. Over 8 trillion dollars of investments have announced divestment.
Momentum around climate risk still varies a lot by geography, and some still think that only the government can solve the issue. Fortunately more and more are saying we can’t wait for the government and we must act now. 
What we need companies to act responsibly, and incorporate climate risks into their goals and bottom line. We need a steady change to a low carbon future to avoid the bubble bursting.
Mark Campanale is the founder of the Carbon Tracker Initiative, a non-profit think tank launched to pinpoint with clarity how global capital markets have failed to deal with climate risk. Mark developed the unburnable carbon capital markets thesis, the idea that there are substantial fossil fuel energy sources that cannot be burnt, if the world is to adhere to the necessary carbon budgets to limit global warming. Mark commissioned and was editor of the “Unburnable Carbon – Are the World’s Financial Markets Carrying a Carbon Bubble?” report that launched launched in 2011.

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In this episode we speak with Eva Garen, Director of ELTI, Environmental Leadership and Training Initiative. ELTI focuses on capacity development in human-dominated mosaic landscapes, primarily in Latin America and Indonesia, teaching the people who manage landscapes to restore and rebuild biodiversity.

Much of ELTI’s work is in tropical regions that were once forested, and one of the reasons ELTI’s programs are so important is that only 9.8% of tropical forest is protected. 

In Latin America, ELTI primarily works with farmers and cattle ranchers, while in Indonesia they primarily work with coal companies charged with environmental restoration of their mining sites. ELTI provides field-based training that are experiential.

In one case study with cattle ranchers in Panama, the field-based training on how to create a silvopastoral system was eagerly received because in the dry season, in the tropics, cattle with only access to grass will die from starvation. With the combination of diverse trees fruiting at different times providing nuts with proteins, a silvopastoral system provides the necessary food to keep them alive.

Eva underscores the complexity of power dynamics and need to work with the local organizations and individuals in order to understand the local economic, cultural and political practices. 
ELTI also has online coursework that has reached over 1000 individuals around the world.

Eva Garen, Ph.D. is the Director and Principle Investigator of ELTI, Environmental Leadership and Training Initiative. Based at Yale University, she has spent almost twenty-five years working on the social aspects of conservation and development in the tropics.

Previously Eva worked as a technical advisor on the social aspects of REDD+ with Conservation International’s Science and Knowledge Division. Eva also worked with USAID’s Forestry and Biodiversity Teams in Washington D.C. as a Science and Technology Policy Fellow with the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

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As a society, we constantly hail growth as the mark of progress and solution to our problems, whether it be poverty or inequality. In doing so, we ignore that there are limits to growth and the ecosystem we live in has finite natural resources. In this episode we speak with Herman Daly, the dean of ecological economics, on his pioneering work on steady-state economy, based on the idea a constant population of people and a constant stock of physical wealth.

Professor Herman Daly is a pioneering figure in economics, at the forefront of the development of the field of ecological economics, ideas he has been working on for more than 50 years, in particular the idea of the steady state economy. Herman was Senior Economist in the Environment Department of the World Bank in the 1990s where he worked to develop key sustainable development policy guidelines. In 1996, he was awarded the Right Livelihood Award for “defining a path of ecological economics that integrates the key elements of ethics, quality of life, environment and community”-and a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize. He wrote Steady-State Economics in 1991 and edited the 1993 anthology, Valuing the Earth: Economics, Ecology, Ethics (a revision of earlier anthologies).

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In this interview with Caroline Lucas, the first Green Party Member of Parliament, we discuss how “green” the UK is, and what progress – if any – is being made towards achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate change is getting more and more attention from across the political spectrum. Theresa May, in one of her last acts as prime minister, committed the UK to net zero emissions by 2050 – a target Caroline says it is too late. We are off target on near-term goals and the longer term goals are weakly implemented, she says. What we need is a massive 10 year mobilization strategy, on the order of a third world war.

With predictions that the global economy will triple in size, we need to take a step back and focus on living with what we have. We should focus our energy on green growth instead of net growth. International action on repairing the damage to the ozone layer was successful because everyone responsible was brought together. There are 100 companies responsible for 70-80% of emissions; this is one place we need to start.

Caroline was elected as Member of Parliament for Brighton Pavilion in 2010, becoming the first Green Party MP. Before that, she served as one of the Green Party’s first Members of the European Parliament. She has twice led the Green Party of England and Wales. Prior to politics, she worked at Oxfam for ten years.

Caroline’s book, Honourable Friends, details her first parliamentary term as a fresh, green voice to the House of Commons. She also co-edited a book on cross-party working called The Alternative.

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Biological diversity and climate change are two incontrovertibly intertwined issues. Destroying and degrading ecosystems releases huge amounts carbon into the atmosphere, and in turn, increasing carbon in the atmosphere adversely affects the delicate balance of biodiversity where it presently exists. Professor Thomas Lovejoy has spent many years studying the relationship between biological diversity and climate change, today he talks with us about why we should think about them together and what we should do for the future, and Biodiversity and Climate Change, which Professor Lovejoy co-edited.

In this interview, Professor Lovejoy discusses the clear evidence of climate change on biological diversity–how it has wreaked havoc on historical patterns, changing the annual calendar and location of species; how the largest wildlife habitat, the ocean, has become more acidic; and shockingly, how the amount of carbon in the atmosphere from degraded ecosystems is the same as the total remaining in extant ecosystems.

Professor Lovejoy argues here that we can take action to restore ecosystems. Conserved or restored forest ecosystems, for example, lead to better watersheds and provide wildlife habitats; conserved or restored coastal ecosystems such as mangroves are more effective to reduce storm surge than a sea wall which simply spreads the impact; restoring agricultural systems to carbon additive systems unlike the modern approaches that leak carbon results in better soil fertility. If we are unable to mitigate ecosystems, we can also take an approach to do ecosystem-based adaptation, which is conservation design so that species can move from one elevation or location to another.

Although the Global Climate Action Summit in September will in all likelihood renew our focus on biodiversity and conservation, we don’t have a minute to lose. Professor Lovejoy argues we need to pivot, and start to think for all the effects our daily choices have within our economic system. There is a need for dramatic change, now, and we need society to reach tipping point where this becomes a central focus.

Thomas Lovejoy, PhD has been a University Professor at George Mason since 2010, focusing on the application of ecological science to conservation policy. Previously, he held the Biodiversity Chair at the Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment and was President from 2002-2008. Starting in the 1970’s he helped bring attention to the issue of tropical deforestation and in 1980 published the first estimate of global extinction rates (in the Global 2000 Report to the President). He conceived the idea for the long term study on forest fragmentation in the Amazon (started in 1978) which is the largest experiment in landscape ecology. He coined the term “Biological diversity”, originated the concept of debt-for-nature swaps and has worked on the interaction between climate change and biodiversity for more than 30 years. He is the founder of the public television series “Nature”. In the past, he served as the Senior Advisor to the President of the United Nations Foundation, as the Chief Biodiversity Advisor to the World Bank as well as Lead Specialist for the Environment for the Latin American region, as the Assistant Secretary for Environmental and External Affairs for the Smithsonian Institution, and as Executive Vice President of World Wildlife Fund-US.

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People feel defeated when they hear the grand cost of achieving carbon neutrality. But what if some of the solutions were to be found in revitalising the collective imagination, harnessing the dynamism of local communities and rethinking local economies to achieve a sustainable future? In this episode we speak with Rob Hopkins, the founder of the Transition movement, which seeks to do exactly that.

The Transition movement is all about dreaming the future we want to create and rebuilding the world at the level of individual communities. When you look at a local community through a Transition lens, you find numerous opportunities to bring the economy home, recreating it in a way that enables money to stay local and cycle locally, all the while creating community connection and entrepreneurship.

There are currently Transition groups in more than 50 countries worldwide and Rob shared some of the unique local projects. One example was Black Isle peninsula in Scotland was given funding to focus on transportation solutions and because they knew their situation best, they arrived at a solution of encouraging biking, ridesharing, and walking in ways were synergistic, so much so that they reduced their mileage by an amount equivalent to driving to the Moon and back two and a half times. The City of Liege in Belgium asked “what if in a generation’s time the majority of the the food eaten in Liege were grown on the land closest to Liege. This resulted in 21 new cooperatives, 5 million euros of investment by local people, two new farms started, two vineyards, a brewery, and 3 shops in town. Lastly, in the thriving Transition town of Totnes, the Reconomy Center is an innovative incubator for new enterprises. They run an event every year where people step up to support each other with their new enterprises. Totnes also has some projects that are building over 100 homes, workshop spaces, a hotel, and a new space for public events, which will all be in community ownership forever and will generate funds going forward.

A common thread of successful Transition efforts is that you see solutions that have benefits beyond a direct reduction in carbon emissions – you also see public health strategy, biodiversity, economic strategy, people feeling invested in their community, and more.

Because of the way things work with subsidies, externalities unaccounted for in costs, existing infrastructures and organizations, we get stuck in our current way and often lack the imagination or dedication to do the necessary rethinking of systems and rebuilding of economies to create a better future. The Transition movement invites and inspires us to think outside the box about the future we wish to create. Rob shares his vision of reimagining the future into something positive, realistic, and hopeful through storytelling and creating ‘memories of the future’. We need great leaders to help us overcome our imaginative poverty.

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In this interview with Dr. Elisabet Sahtouris, we explore the Gaia hypothesis or metaphor of a living earth, integrating physics, biology and spirituality. Indigenous cultures have long viewed the earth in such a way. Treating the earth and universe as living means we can develop a richer relationship with them than what traditionally happens with Western scientific views. Care for the earth leads to resilience and will give a greater chance of survival through the coming climate crisis.

She sees the climate crisis as very real, imminent, and irreversible, but believes humanity will survive and adapt, though maybe at much smaller scale. We should all be working for well-being of our mother earth and global family.

Dr. Elisabet Sahtouris is an internationally known evolution biologist, futurist, professor, author, speaker and consultant on Living Systems Design. She is a Fellow of the World Business Academy, an advisor to EthicalMarkets.com and the Masters in Business program at Schumacher College, also affiliated with the Bainbridge Graduate Institute’s MBA program for sustainable business.

Dr. Sahtouris has convened two International Symposia on the Foundations of Sciences. Her books include A Walk Through Time: from Stardust to Us, Biology Revisioned, co-authored with Willis Harman, and EarthDance: Living Systems in Evolution.

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The scale of human impact on our planet is not easy to engage with – even scientists often have a narrow focus on the specific problems they’re trying to solve. In this episode, we talk with Professor Mark Maslin about humanity’s impact on the planet and the new geological epoch into which we are entering as a result – the Anthropocene.

The Anthropocene is the scientific definition of the geological time frame in which human impact has become so large that we’re now in a new geological epoch. It only identifies the “when” without ascribing causation, but will allow us to move forward to discussing specific causes.

In this interview, Mark first of all presents the scale of our environmental impact with powerful data. First there is the tremendous impact from the vast amount of concrete we need for buildings and more, in fact we’ve already made enough to cover the entire planet with a 2mm layer. In addition, we’ve already destroyed what should be normal ecology on land, with only 3% of land mammals being wildlife (the other 97% being humans and domesticated animals). Not to mention the deforestation – we’ve already harvested effectively half of the trees on the planet.

Mark talks about an inherent contradiction between the environmental problems we’re facing and continued economic growth. We’re currently on track to double the size of our economic system, but we desperately need to break our obsession with consumption, question the Western model and rethink the way we define economic systems to account for impacts to society.

Mark believes there is hope that we now have enough knowledge to do something about our predicament, but argues we need several big changes. One is effective leaders who can make real change by leveraging crises to implement balances and checks. We need to take advantage of win-win situations where there is a positive impact that will also happen beyond addressing global climate impacts. Mark suggests we should tackle reforestation, as people move to urban centers and we have available land. He argues we should adopt Universal Basic Income so that people have breathing room to truly innovate and become entrepreneurs and problem solvers. And last but not least, that we should empower the next generation who is already motivated and engaging with climate strikes.

Mark Maslin is leading scientist with particular expertise in past global and regional climatic change. He is published in over 165 papers in journals such as Science, Nature, and The Lancet and authored 8 popular books including most recently, The Human Planet. He is Professor of Earth Systems Science at University College London, a Royal Society Industrial Fellow, Executive Director of Rezatec Ltd and science advisor to the Global Cool Foundation.

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Solutions to many of the major problems in the world have been identified in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, funding these SDGs remains an immense challenge, in the region of $5-7 trillion annually. In this episode, we talk with Marc Ventresca and Michele Scataglini, two experts in economic systems and emerging technology, to explore the potential application of crowdfunding as a solution to bridge the funding gap.

While today’s donation-based crowdfunding amounts to less than a half billion US dollars –global philanthropic giving is $500 billion–Ventresca and Scataglini believe that utilizing best practices and innovating on crowdfunding platforms can unlock significantly larger sums. In Marc and Michele’s research, they look at three key areas. The first focus is upon the intricacies of crowdfunding technology to learn how it disrupts traditional economic systems thinking. Second, they consider how the platform of crowdfunding could be applied to funding the SDGs. Finally, they look at crowdfunding from a system-building perspective.

Marc Ventresca serves on faculty at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, and is a Governing Body Fellow of Wolfson College. His research and teaching focus on innovation, institutions and infrastructure. His current research investigates comparative infrastructure and governance in digital platform technologies and on systems change in the context of 4IR. He advises Oxford alumni ventures and sits on the Advisory Board for Global Thinkers Forum and for Participatory City. He is Senior Research Fellow at the Technology and Management for Development Centre, QEH, and he is a member of the Management Committee of the Centre for Technology and Global Affairs, DPIR. @marcventresca.

Michele Scataglini is an innovation strategy advisor with more than 20 years of international experience in the management consultancy industry, including 10 at EY. He specializes in public policy and innovation strategy. Scataglini is also the founder of INSTA Associates, an innovation and strategy consulting practice. He received a post graduate diploma in strategy and innovation from the University of Oxford’s Said Business School. @michelescatta.

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Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) (www.ciwf.com) is a leading international charity working to improve farmed animal welfare around the world. Its mission is to end factory farming and advance the well-being of farmed animals globally. CIWF’s undercover investigations have exposed the reality of modern intensive farming systems and brought the plight of farm animals to the attention of the world’s media. It has a long track record of political lobbying and campaigning–facilitating, for example, EU legislation to recognise animals as sentient beings, capable of feeling pain and suffering. CIWF has also secured landmark agreements to outlaw the barren battery cage for egg-laying hens, narrow veal crates and sow stalls across Europe. Increasingly CIWF’s team is working with some of the world’s biggest food companies – retailers, producers and manufacturers towards achieving a more ethical and sustainable food supply.

As Executive Director, Rachel leads CIWF’s USA’s initiatives to forge a more humane and sustainable food and farming system through measurable farmed animal welfare improvements and protein diversification. Rachel also serves as board member of Global Animal Partnership, and the Regenerative Organic Alliance, and has worked extensively with Fortune 500 companies to incorporate and strengthen animal welfare within corporate sustainability programs. Prior to Rachel becoming Executive Director, she served as CIWF’s Head of Food Business where she oversaw the growth and development of the organization’s corporate engagement program. A graduate of Northeastern University’s School of Business, Rachel has guest lectured at Stanford and University of Delaware, and has been featured in Bloomberg, Fortune Magazine, the Chicago Tribune, amongst others.

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Since the 1970s, credit has become increasingly easy to acquire. We have become a consumption-based society driven by our wants, supported by credit, rather than a sustainable society driven by our needs. In this compelling interview, renowned economist and author Ann Pettifor discusses the impact of deregulation of credit on consumption, and the environment, and shows how the globalization of our financial system undermines our ability to solve the climate crisis. She also discusses the impact of credit, and more particularly, interest rate levels, on the environmental problems in the global south. Ann argues that the monetary system is a vital public good which needs to serve society, rather than a small financial elite. She suggests that the way in which central banks responded to the financial crash, creating trillions of dollars credit overnight to bail out banks, has drawn public attention to the power central bankers have—and the very secretive way the financial system operates. Ann also shares her vision for a future with high levels of public investment, low real rates of interest, and government support for a green economy.

Ann Pettifor is a UK-based analyst of the global financial system, director of Policy Research in Macroeconomics (PRIME), a network of economists concerned with Keynesian monetary theory and policies; an honorary research fellow at the Political Economy Research Centre at City University, London (CITYPERC) and a fellow of the New Economics Foundation, London. She is an influential political economist with a record of achieving real changes in public policy, especially in relation to sovereign debt. She correctly predicting the global financial crises in several publications including in a book The Real World Economic Outlook, and summarised later in the New Statesman. This was followed by her September, 2006 book The Coming First World Debt Crisis. Ann is currently working on the relationship between economic policy and the climate, and her next book will detail how it’s possible to finance a Green New Deal.

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Helena Norberg-Hodge is a pioneer of the ‘new economy’ movement. Through writing and public lectures over more than thirty years, Helena has been promoting an economics of personal, social and ecological well-being. She is a widely respected analyst of the impact of the global economy on communities, local economies, and personal identity, and is a leading proponent of ‘localization’, or decentralization, as a means of countering those impacts. Local Futures is a non-profit organization “dedicated to the revitalization of cultural and biological diversity, and the strengthening of local communities and economies worldwide.”

Helena’s book, Ancient Futures, has been described as “an inspirational classic”. Together with the film of the same title, it has been translated into more than 40 languages, and sold about half a million copies. She is also the producer and co-director of the award-winning film, The Economics of Happiness, and the co-author of Bringing the Food Economy Home and From the Ground Up: Rethinking Industrial Agriculture. The Earth Journal counted Helena among the world’s ‘ten most interesting environmentalists’, while in Carl McDaniel’s book Wisdom for a Livable Planet, she was profiled as one of ‘eight visionaries changing the world’.  The Post Growth Institute counted Helena on the (En)Rich List, a list of 100 people “whose collective contributions enrich paths to sustainable futures.”

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Martin Kirk is co-founder of /The Rules, a global collective of activists of all types dedicated to challenging the root causes of global poverty and inequality. He is also a consultant for the NoVo Foundation, helping advise their work on supporting communities to transition to new economic models. Prior to /TR Martin was the Head of Campaigns at Oxfam UK, and Head of Global Advocacy for Save the Children. He has written extensively on issues of poverty, inequality, and climate change, including in The Guardian, Al-Jazeera, The Independent and Fast Company.

In this provocative interview, we get a perspective on issues of poverty and environmental breakdown that is very much outside of the norm. Drawing on his previous experience trying to understand attitudes towards poverty, Martin explains how harmful psychological narratives around poverty have become deeply embedded, so much so that they are inadvertently replicated by major development bodies. Martin analyses why this is the case and outlines the need for alternative narratives rooted in history and economics that show that extreme poverty is in fact a political choice.

In discussing sustainability, Martin highlights how the current economic system is unsustainable in its very nature. Martin talks at length about the climate crisis, what implications this could have for global poverty and how the severity of the crisis has failed to be communicated to us. By way of explanation, Martin discusses structural flaws in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the primary international scientific body for studying climate change and political flaws in the organisation (as its final report is scrutinised by diplomats representing the world’s governments, some of which have vested interests in downplaying the severity of the situation). He also points out that the lengthy processes by which new scientific reports are vetted by the body mean that their reports are reliant upon studies that are at least five years old; an eon in the context of the rapidly changing climate. On a more hopeful note, Martin also outlines how recent events have given a cause for optimism as just in the past twelve months, an alternative economic narrative and vision for the future around poverty and environmental issues is starting to take shape.

If you are interested in Martin’s interview, we also recommend that you listen to our interviews with Kate Raworth, Jason Hickel and the Drawdown Agenda Podcast, our podcast exploring the solutions behind Project Drawdown.

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When we think about the magnitude of global emissions and the scale of the decarbonisation challenge, it is easy to feel that our individual actions are inconsequential. In this episode, we talk to Brett Jenks, President and CEO of the conservation organisation Rare, to look at the crucial role of behaviour change in reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Brett tells us about the practical insights Rare has gleaned on how to facilitate behaviour change– and talks us through a recent report by Rare which found that 30 key carbon dioxide reduction solutions –as outlined in Project Drawdown — depend on behaviour change, altogether amounting to one third of the reductions in greenhouse gas emissions modelled. While different solutions are applicable to different parts of the world, it is clear that behaviour change is crucial. As Brett puts it: “socially we need to change our lifestyles faster than our climate is changing or we’re no longer going to be in control”.

With over twenty years’ experience in harnessing behaviour change for conservation and sustainability efforts, Brett stresses that typical strategies revolving around logic and hard facts are broken and rarely go beyond creating a small but committed constituency. Instead, creating climate smart behaviour is dependent on emotional appeals, social incentives and choice architecture, approaches found in nudge theory. Drawing parallels with the societal changes that have occurred in much of the western world around attitudes to racism, homophobia and sexism, Brett points out that rapid changes in societal norms are possible. Drawing on Everett Rodgers’ theory of the diffusion of innovation he explains how change happens and emphasises the importance of early adopters in making change visible and desirable. In particular, he points to a growing acceptance for plant-rich diets and the rise of Tesla as examples of climate smart behaviours that are starting to move towards an early majority.

Brett also emphasises the importance of building momentum around behaviour change in order to encourage policy shift. He notes that advocacy work by organisations tends to overemphasise the importance of politicians at the expense of social movements, which are often what drive policy change. He also points to how shifting consumer preferences, particularly among eco-conscious millennials are encouraging the market to react accordingly. He also points out that much of this is being facilitated by the radical transparency provided by new technologies, such as blockchain, which are empowering consumers and may eventually allow us to see our carbon footprints as accurately and readily as we see our bank balances.

Brett Jenks is the President and CEO of Rare, a global conservation organization whose mission is to inspire change so people and nature thrive. Rare’s work stems from the belief that the root causes of environmental dangers stem from human behaviour and draws on marketing techniques and technical interventions to equip people in biologically diverse areas with the tools and motivation to protect their natural resources. Under Brett’s leadership the organisation has grown substantially so that it now operates in 56 countries and has reached over ten million people. He has written for The New York Times, Huffington Post, the Stanford Social Innovation Review and other publications. He is a Catto Fellow, Braddock Scholar, and McNulty Prize laureate at the Aspen Institute and serves on the Closed Loop Fund investment committee and Rare’s board of directors. Prior to Rare, Brett was a journalist and filmmaker, and he served as the Costa Rica Field Coordinator for WorldTeach, a non-profit based at Harvard’s Center for International Development.

You can find out more about the report Climate Change Needs Behavior Change: Making the Case for Behavioral Solutions to Reduce Global Warming here. This is an edited version of an interview for the Drawdown Agenda podcast.

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Peter Barnes is an innovative thinker and entrepreneur whose work has focused on fixing the deepest flaws of capitalism. He has written numerous books and articles, co-founded several socially responsible businesses, and started a retreat for progressive writers. His most recent books are With Liberty and Dividends for All and Capitalism 3.0: A Guide to Reclaiming the Commons. Peter lives in northern California with his wife, dogs and vegetable garden. In this wide-ranging and compelling interview, Peter discusses his work over recent decades, exploring the workings and evolution of capitalism, and looks to the future. Peter believes that capitalism started as a highly effective solution to the problems of scarcity, but has become the central problem of our day, highlighting how it has driven the environmental crises we are now facing. Peter emphasizes the importance of managing the commons, a central concern in his recent work, as well as the role of property rights, and identifies a number of innovative ideas which he believes will make capitalism work better at the same time as deal with the environmental crises we are now facing.

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In this interview with author Daniel Pinchbeck, we explore the ultimate meaning of the psychological and civilizational crisis we are facing today. As humanities rapid evolution has disrupted our fragile ecosystems, we must consider a transition between an old world and way of living to the next world, our future societies. Daniel describes his ideas for regenerative or post-growth societies, where an emphasis is placed on the things we can grow together, indefinitely, rather than our current systems that do not produce happiness. We consider ways to enhance regenerative practices and question whether core issues in love have led to corruption.

Daniel Pinchbeck is a writer, author and blogger. His works include Breaking Open the Head (2002), 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl (2006), and most recently How Soon is Now (2017). He was the executive director of the think tank Center for Planetary Culture, and launched the web magazine Reality Sandwich and co-founded Evolver.net.

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Professor Carlota Perez has spent her career researching the profound impact technology has had on socio-economic development.  In this fascinating interview, we explore the two distinct phases of a technological revolution as outlined by Carlota: installation – or experimental early phase – and deployment (or “Golden Age”).  Carlota emphasizes the critical role governments play in this phase. By setting a clear and context-sensitive pathway for the transformation through new policies, regulations and taxes, the state can ensure a win-win outcome for both business and society.  Considering the trends from the four previous technological revolutions, Carlota compares the current socio-economic situation to the 1930s and suggests how we can move forward towards a sustainable golden age for our information revolution.

Carlota Perez is a Venezuelan-British researcher and educator, currently affiliated to three universities in the UK ­– LSE, IIPP-UCL and SPRU (Sussex) – and to TalTech in Estonia.  She specializes in the relationship between technology and socio-economic development, with a focus on techno-economic paradigm shifts and the theory of great surges (a development of Schumpeter’s work on Kondratieff waves). Her book, Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages, published in 2002, has had a profound impact on our understanding of how technology shapes our institutional, economic, and social development.

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In recent years, more and more attention has been paid to how economic theory is divorced from environmental reality, exemplified by how environmental breakdown is often dismissingly referred to as a mere “externality”. In this fascinating interview, we’re talking to self-described renegade economist Kate Raworth about a new economic vision that is firmly grounded in social progress and embedded in the environmental limits of our planetary household.

Images are immensely powerful in shaping our perceptions. Raworth believes that tackling the unsustainability of our economic system requires new images that anchor human wellbeing within environmental boundaries. Raworth proposes an alternative in the doughnut – a safe and just space in which for humanity to survive and thrive in the 21st century. The doughnut, named after its shape, features an outer ecological ceiling with the nine planetary boundaries that humanity must not transgress to maintain a safe and stable environment and an inner ring with twelve crucial social foundations to ensure all of humanity’s peoples can have their human rights met. Doing so provides a compass in which we can redefine economics success.

To this end, Raworth proposes seven different ways of evolving economic theories of the 20th century to meet the challenges of the 21st. In particular, she stresses the limits of GDP-oriented economic growth particularly its great inefficiency in distributing economic gains and the evident flawed thinking of the environmental Kuznets Curve. Rather than get mired in the green growth debate Raworth elegantly navigates the issue by stating that we need to be agnostic about growth. In short, we need to move from economies that need to grow, whether or not it makes us thrive towards economies that make us thrive, whether or not they grow.
 The doughnut also reveals the scale of the challenge, as currently no country is living within the doughnut so that “we are all developing countries now”. On a global scale, the picture is equally bleak as four environmental boundaries have been breached and none of the social foundations are being met. Far from being an optimist, Raworth stresses the urgency of the present and how we, the people of the early 21st century, are the first generation to truly understand the extent of damage we are doing to the planet, and the last to be able to do something about it.

Raworth is a Senior Visiting Research Associate at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute and a Senior Associate at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. Since Doughnut Economics was published in 2017, it has been translated into 15 languages, and The Guardian has named her “one of the top ten tweeters on economic transformation.”

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In this interview, we welcome Ian Gough to discuss his most recent book Heat, Greed and Human Need: Climate Change, Capitalism, and Sustainable Wellbeing. Here, Ian describes his initial concerns over the evident gap between the climate change agenda and social policy over the last decade. Ian’s work aims to blend together economy, ecology, social policy, and politics into a conclusive analysis to explain both the drivers and the human consequences of climate change. He discusses the importance of eco-social policies (combining climate policies and social policies) with examples such as social pricing of utilities, higher taxes on luxury items, or reduced work schedules to enhance people’s lives. Like many, Ian is worried about the consumption rate of wealthy nations and discusses his idea of ‘recomposing consumption’ as an intermediate strategy: to reduce pointless luxuries and improve the production of necessities to enhance wellbeing. He uses the example of 46 million people driving SUVs in the United States. The World Bank found that if all these SUVs were swapped for European cars, enough electricity could be generated within this emissions envelope to supply all the people on the planet with power. While SUVs are not a necessity, electricity is, and Ian stresses our need to start thinking about this on a world scale.

Ian is Visiting Professor at the Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) and an associate at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment (GRI), both at the LSE. He studied Economics at the University of Cambridge in the early 1960s and then spent over 30 years teaching and researching Social Policy at Manchester University before moving onto the University of Bath, where he is now Emeritus Professor.

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Founded in 1993, Global Witness is a non-profit organization working to expose environmental and human rights abuses resulting from the exploitation of natural resources supported by political and/or economic corruption through the help of a global network of partners and allies.  Global Witness currently has active campaigns in over 15 countries designed to make national level impacts through international systems changing reform.

In this episode, Gillian shares with us some of the hard-hitting campaigns that Global Witness has worked on in recent years. She describes a recent campaign where Global Witness repeatedly found that anonymous companies in the oil, mining, and gas companies had been shielding the public from important financial information.  In the Publish What You Pay campaign, oil, mining, and gas companies were forced to disclose how much they were paying for access to these resources. Global Witness also uncovered bribes from Shell to Nigerian officials totaling $1.1 billion. Gillian highlights the role of anonymous companies allowing corruption to take place—and stresses the importance the global trend for transparency in order to combat injustice and influence positive change around the world.

Gillian Caldwell is no stranger to social injustice campaigns.  She was recognized as a Public Interest Law Scholar by Georgetown University where she received her J.D., and has since confronted women sex trafficking issues at WITNESS, and was instrumental in the success of the 1Sky campaign which became the largest collaborative climate and energy campaign in the United States (prior to its merger with 350.org).

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Jeremy Lent is an author whose writings investigate the patterns of thought that have led civilization to its current crisis of sustainability. He is the founder of the non-profit Liology Institute, which is dedicated to a worldview that could enable humanity to thrive sustainably; Jeremy works to integrate history and philosophy to shape a more meaningful and sustainable life for all. More recently, his book, The Patterning Instinct, outlines how different cultures shape values and how those values have helped shape world history.

Jeremy Lent is a graduate from Cambridge University and received an MBA from the University of Chicago. He is the founder NextCard, the first financial services company to enable consumers to apply for credit cards over the internet and be approved in real time.

In this thought provoking interview, Jeremy discusses the evolution of cultures, values, and how world views change. Jeremy identifies key myths from the past and highlights the role that the media and transnational corporations play in developing our current culture. He makes several structural suggestions so corporations can shift from maximize immediate shareholder wealth to a triple-bottom line approach for the long-term, leading to a more sustainable future. In this wide-ranging interview, Jeremey presents a compelling vision of an ecological civilization – as an alternative to the present capitalist model – in which greater value is placed on life and growth.

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Dr. Jason Hickel is an anthropologist, author and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. His book, The Divide, addresses global inequality and was published by Penguin Random House in 2017. Jason has taught at a number of universities including Goldsmiths, and the University of London where he currently convenes the MA in Anthropology and Cultural Politics. He serves on the Labour Party task force on international development, works as Policy Director for the Rules collective, sits on the Executive Board of Academics Stand Against Poverty (ASAP), and recently joined the International Editorial Advisory Board of Third World Quarterly.

This is a wide-ranging and thought-provoking interview, chock full of fresh thinking on sustainability, poverty and inequality, and the impact of the western-led development agenda across the world. Jason paints an eye-opening picture of the state of the global economy today, building upon his research in The Divide. He presents strong arguments for a post-growth economy in order to achieve emissions reductions, and to avoid crossing other planetary boundaries, and provides examples from Costa Rica, Japan, and other EU countries, highlighting non-growth approaches that facilitate human flourishing. Jason also provides an array of ideas for action including the need to limit shareholder power, and alternatives to GDP measurement techniques to account for ecological and social negatives.

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Daniel Nyberg is a Professor of Management at the Newcastle Business School in Australia.  His main research focus is seeking to understand how corporations responsibly – or not so responsibly – engage with society and the environment. He has a background in social sciences and co-authored the book Climate Change, Capitalism, and Corporations: Processes of Creative Self-Destruction.

In this thought provoking interview, Daniel offers a challenging perspective on how corporations pursue sustainability strategies with a particular focus on climate change.  In his research, Daniel found that businesses struggle to uphold their climate change goals over the long-term, eventually reverting back to prioritizing growth over green initiatives.  In a wide ranging discussion, Daniel also discusses the role investors and governments play in influencing corporate compliance with respect to sustainability practices and debates what role corporations should play in dealing with climate change.

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As more and more cities transition away from the port and manufacturing hubs of old to brain-based, service leading economies of the future, a greater emphasis will be placed on cities to push for sustainability in order to successfully compete for global commerce.  In this insightful interview with Dr. Cohen, co-author of The Sustainable City (2017), we consider the ways urban life is changing and how we can effectively transition to a renewable resource based economy.  He provides numerous examples of current trends guiding us towards a less resource consumptive society, and highlights the importance of government facilitated projects and the role public-private partnerships play in driving the sustainable city forward.

Dr. Steven Cohen is a Professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs where he also serves as Director of the Master of Public Administration Program in Environmental Science and Policy, and Director of the Masters of Science in Sustainability Management within the School of Continuing Education.  In addition, he is the Director of the Research Program on Sustainability Policy and Management at Columbia University’s Earth Institute.  Dr. Cohen has worked as a consultant for the Environmental Protection Agency intermittently since 1981, and serves on the Board of Directors for a number of organizations.

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Tobias Webb is the founder of the Innovation Forum, a sustainability events and publishing company based in London. Innovation Forum facilitates debate-driven events to help drive innovation and dialog.  Through collaborative events with partners, the company focuses on addressing the most difficult questions companies are facing today to assure sustainable supply chains. Tobias has also spent eight years teaching Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability, and is now a visiting lecturer on corporate sustainability, supply chains and innovation at King’s College London.  From 2006-2009, he was co-chair of the Independent Working Group on Corporate Responsibility.

In this fascinating interview, we take a deep dive with Tobias on the importance (and challenges) assuring sustainable agricultural value chains. Toby talks about the four key drivers forcing companies to address issues within their global supply chains: generational changes, consumer expectations, technology, and regulations.  Based on the Innovation Forum’s in-depth research, Toby discusses the progress and (complex) challenges associated with the drive to produce (and certify) sustainable palm oil –and assesses progress with respect to sustainability and governance for other commodities.  He is optimistic that transparency, traceability, and technology will come together and help drive change in agricultural supply chains, provide assurances to consumers that they are receiving sustainably sourced products, and in turn help generate momentum to address the sustainable production of other commodities.

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Tim Jackson is Professor of Sustainable Development at the University of Surrey and Director of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP). His vision for CUSP builds on thirty years of multi-disciplinary research on sustainability and decades of policy experience, in particular his work as Economics Commissioner on the UK Sustainable Development Commission. Tim is the author of Prosperity Without Growth, recently published in a substantially revised and updated 2nd edition. He is also an award-winning playwright with numerous radio-writing credits for the BBC.

In this wide-ranging interview, Professor Jackson outlines the compelling arguments for a post growth economy, based on his research and best-selling book Prosperity without Growth, highlighting the contradiction between the idea of unlimited growth and life on a finite planet. Professor Jackson recognises the progress that has been made in terms of relative decoupling of GDP growth from environmental impact but highlights the challenge of reaching a stage of absolute decoupling. He also discusses the shortcomings of using GDP as a measure of economic welfare and provides an overview of recent initiatives to develop alternative measures. This is a fascinating interview with a key thinker at the heart of post-growth thinking which gets to the heart of some of the biggest contradictions at the heart of green growth-and why green growth has proven to be such a seductive idea.

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Georg Kell is the founder and former Executive Director of the United Nations Global Compact. the world’s largest voluntary corporate sustainability initiative with over 9,000 corporate signatories in more than 160 countries. As its founding Executive Director, Georg helped to establish the United Nations Global Compact as the foremost platform for the development, implementation and disclosure of responsible and sustainable corporate policies and practices. In a career of more than 25 years at the United Nations, he also oversaw the conception and launch of the Global Compact’s sister initiatives on investment, the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), and on education, the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), together with the Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) initiative. Georg is currently Vice Chairman of Arabesque Partners, an Anglo-German asset management firm that integrates environmental, social, and governance data with quantitative investment strategies. The firm was named as SRI Manager of the Year at the Investment Excellence Awards 2015, organised by Global Investor.

In this revealing interview, Georg Kell reflects on three decades of sustainability, and highlights some of the most important changes he has seen over this time. He shares his views on the key role of corporates in dealing with the global environmental challenges we are now facing—while recognizing their role in creating these problems. In this interview, Georg focusses on three key forces reshaping markets: technology and automation, the issue of natural boundaries and, finally, changes in governance–and he explores the implications for markets, corporations and sustainability. Georg also discusses the role of finance– which he believes is now overtaking and giving direction to the corporate sustainability agenda. This is an essential interview—a fascinating perspective from a key figure at the heart of the development of today’s sustainability agenda.

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In this interview, jointly with the Drawdown Agenda, Paul Hawken, the co-founder and Executive Director of Project Drawdown, discusses the inception and mission of Drawdown– and explains the research, modelling and analysis underpinning the project. He emphasises how this project is the first of its kind, as previously many, even within the science community, had a scant understanding of the wide range of different possible solutions–and their effectiveness. In particular, Paul emphasises the need to move beyond the pervasive “silver bullet” mentality that venerates a single overarching solution towards a broader positive solutions-based approach to systemic change. This is now essential, he argues, as an overtly negative focus in climate communication has largely prompted disempowerment and disengagement. Instead, Drawdown presents a positive action-oriented framework to reverse global warming — and also to create a fairer, more egalitarian, and regenerative world. This is a profoundly inspiring, world-changing vision of the future, highlighting the critical importance of collective action to reverse global warming. (This is an edited version of an earlier interview Paul for the Drawdown Agenda).

Paul Hawken is the co-founder and Executive Director of Project Drawdown, a global non-profit that describes when and how global warming can be reversed. Paul is also an author and activist and has written seven books including; The Next Economy, The Ecology of Commerce, Blessed Unrest and Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution, co-authored with Amory Lovins. Paul has also founded successful, ecologically-conscious businesses, and consulted with heads of state and CEOs on economic development, industrial ecology, and environmental policy. He has served on the board of many environmental organizations including Centre for Plant Conservation, Shelburne Farms, Trust for Public Land, Conservation International, and National Audubon Society. a global non-profit that describes when and how global warming can be reversed. Paul is also an author and activist and has written seven books including: The Next Economy, The Ecology of Commerce, Blessed Unrest and Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution, co-authored with Amory Lovins. Paul has also founded successful, ecologically-conscious businesses, and consulted with heads of state and CEOs on economic development, industrial ecology, and environmental policy. He has served on the board of many environmental organizations including Centre for Plant Conservation, Shelburne Farms, Trust for Public Land, Conservation International, and National Audubon Society.

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In this rich and broad discussion, Dr. Daniel Wahl makes the case for biomimicry and regenerative cultures, particularly by stressing the importance of creating biomaterials-based circular economies that are conducive to life. He highlights the innately destructive nature of our economic system whereby environmental and social costs are not adequately priced and regenerative activity is not incentivised. A firm believer in regionalisation, Wahl discusses regional based economies and the importance of valuing the health of local ecosystems, citing the Loess plateau in China as a successful example of regeneration at the bioregional scale. He explains how the concept of regenerative cultures differs from sustainability discourses as it asks how economies can be designed to meet humanity’s needs centuries from now. Doing so necessitates an understanding of “inter-being,” a deeper consciousness that stipulates we are not separate from the world or one another. Wahl’s passion for education is also evident as he stresses that humanity’s most underused resource is the frontal lobes of the five billion poor without access to privileged education. He warns that conventional education systems based on competition are anachronistic vestiges of the 20th Century and that it is skills of collaboration that must instead be nurtured to deliver regenerative economies that benefit all.

Dr Wahl is an international consultant, educator and activist specialising in biologically inspired whole systems design and transformative innovation. He originally trained as a biologist and zoologist before choosing to focus on sustainability and sustainable communities. He holds an MSc in Holistic Science from Schumacher College and a PhD in Natural Design from the University of Dundee. Daniel has worked with local and national governments, as well as, the  Commonwealth Secretariat. He delivers capacity building workshops on a range of sustainability issues and as a consultant on sustainable innovation has worked with a number of companies including Camper, Ecover, and Lush. He is a member of the International Futures Forum, a fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts (FRSA) and the Evolutionary Leaders Circle, co-founder of Biomimicry Iberia and brought Bioneers to Europe in 2010. As an educator, he has co-authored and taught sustainability training courses for Gaia Education, LEAD International and various universities and design schools. His first book Designing Regenerative Cultures https://www.triarchypress.net/drc.html was published in 2016

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Dr Lovejoy is a tropical biologist and conservation biologist. He a Senior Fellow at the United Nations Foundation and University Professor in the Environmental Science and Policy department at George Mason University. Dr Lovejoy was the World Bank’s Chief Biodiversity Advisor and the Lead Specialist for Environment for Latin America and the Caribbean as well as Senior Advisor to the President of the United Nations Foundation.  In 2008, he also was the first Biodiversity Chair of the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment to 2013. Dr Lovejoy introduced the term biological diversity to the scientific community in 1980. He also developed the debt-for-nature swaps, in which environmental groups purchase shaky foreign debt on the secondary market at the market rate, which is considerably discounted, and then convert this debt at its face value into the local currency to purchase biologically sensitive tracts of land in the debtor nation for purposes of environmental protection.

In this important interview, Dr Lovejoy explains the meaning of biodiversity and its importance as the foundation for human civilization. He outlines the impact warming temperatures are having to ecosystems, such as tropical coral reefs and the coniferous forests of North America. He also addresses the idea of tipping points in natural systems, notably in the Amazon rainforest where scientists now understand an eighty percent forest cover is needed to maintain the hydrological cycle and prevent the rainforest from turning into grassland. Lovejoy discusses positive initiatives in biodiversity protection but cites concerns that the pace of change is far too slow: what happens in the next twenty years is crucial. Dr Lovejoy highlights the vital importance of ecosystem restoration in reversing global warming, notably through reforestation and protection of wetlands. A proponent of valuing ecosystem services he stresses that what is not valued cannot be protected. Dr Lovejoy also demonstrates how ecosystem health can be linked to human prosperity, pointing to the example of the restoration of the New York watershed forest which provided New York with clean drinking water for a fraction of the cost of building a new water treatment plant. Finally, on a positive note, he emphasizes how societies, like ecosystems, can have their own “tipping points” which are reached once enough people are persuaded of the need for change to demand decisive action.

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Jeff Goodell is a leading environmental journalist and author. He is a frequent contributor to The New York Times magazine and serves as serves contributing editor to Rolling Stone magazine. He is the author of six books including How to Cool the Planet: Geoengineering and the Quest to Fix Earth’s Climate (2010) and Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America’s Energy Future (2006). His latest book The Water will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities and the Remaking of the Civilized World was published in 2017 to critical acclaim. He also serves as a fellow at the New America think-tank.

In this sobering interview devoted to his latest book, Goodell outlines the very real dangers posed by sea-level rise. Historically sea-level has been susceptible to rapid variations and Goddell notes that this century’s sea-level rise will be dependent on how rapidly glaciers on the mainland of Greenland and Antarctica melt into the ocean. He discusses how established vulnerable coastal infrastructure exacerbates the issue and outlines the economic impacts sea-level rise will have, particularly in cities economically dependent on prime coastal real-estate. Primarily, however, sea-level rise is an existential threat and humanitarian emergency, illustrated by the fact that over 145 million people live within three feet of coastal water lines. Indeed, he predicts this century will be characterised by a huge displacement of people from coastal regions, particularly those in poorer countries, which will dwarf the world’s current refugee crisis. Having travelled extensively in researching the book, Goddell discusses insights from around the world, such as the effectiveness of rudimentary flexible infrastructure and the dangers posed by exclusive development projects, such as Eko-Atlantic in Lagos, which could create a stark divide between the saved and doomed. He expresses scepticism about technological solutions citing how technological-optimism risks fostering complacency. Finally, as a published authority on geoengineering he briefly outlines developments in the space and what role it might play in the coming decades.

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Cameron Hepburn is Professor of Environmental Economics at the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics and Political Science, and he is Director of the Economics of Sustainability Programme at the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School He has published widely on energy, resources and environmental challenges across a range of disciplines, and is a policy advisor on energy and climate policy to governments and international institutions around the world including the OECD, and UN organisations. He is on the editorial board of Environmental Research Letters and is the managing editor of the Oxford Review of Economic Policy.

In this wide ranging interview, Professor Hepburn discusses his work as an academic and policy advisor on expanding markets to help spur the transition to a sustainable future. Recognising that price mechanisms, like ecosystem pricing, are not a panacea to deal with environmental challenges, he nonetheless believes that they can be effective and ethical. He describes some of the challenges in constructing these markets and what lessons have been learnt from both successes and failures. Professor Hepburn also notes how corporations and governments, rather than being in opposition to each other, can work constructively together. Indeed, given that some of the most challenging environmental issues are global in nature, Professor Hepburn believes that multinational corporations can play a positive role, particularly in protecting the natural capital which ultimately their businesses depend on. At the same time, he acknowledges the limits of such markets, stressing that regulations are vital to prevent fundamental planetary thresholds from being transgressed. While optimistic about the direction of travel, Professor Hepburn acknowledges the need to speed up the energy transition and stresses how socio-political self-reinforcing mechanisms, such as the falling cost of renewables and consumer behaviour, will help the energy transition. Finally, he discusses some of his latest work on expanding the concept of stranded assets to stranded labour and communities in order to demonstrate how the post-carbon economy must be inclusive by design so that it can expand at the necessary speed and scale.

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In episode 45 of the Sustainability Agenda, Professor Bill Laurance reveals the enormous, and neglected, environmental impact of road building in the global south and highlights the massive environmental risks associated with China’s dizzyingly ambitious Belt and Road initiative—a vast series of infrastructure projects across 70 countries with an estimated budget of $8 trillion. Laurance explains the traditional cycle of road development and its detrimental environmental impact–which has to date mostly been neglected: deforestation from road development can amount to 12 times the impact of any specific infrastructure related project. He also discusses the approach of overseas Chinese companies: after many decades working on the ground as a researcher in the tropics, he has seen first-hand some of the adverse environmental impact of large-scale infrastructure investment in countries with less developed regulatory systems, and the impact of huge bribes to local politicians. Finally, he looks to the future: as this issue is getting increasing attention via The Convention on Biological Diversity and leading environmental organisations, more needs to be done to get the message out.

Bill Laurance is a Distinguished Research Professor at James Cook University in Cairns, Australia, and also holds the Prince Bernhard Chair in International Nature Conservation at Utrecht University, Netherlands. His research over the past 35 years spans the tropical world, including the Amazon, Africa and Asia-Pacific regions, and his research focuses on the impacts of intensive land-uses, such as habitat fragmentation, logging, hunting and wildfires, on tropical forests and their biodiversity.  He is also interested in protected areas, climatic change, the impacts of roads and other infrastructure on biodiversity, and conservation policy.  To date, he has published eight books and over 600 scientific and popular articles. Professor Laurance has received many scientific honors including the BBVA Frontiers in Ecology and Conservation Biology Award, a Distinguished Service Award from the Society for Conservation Biology, the Heineken Environment Prize, and the Royal Zoological Society of London’s Conservation Scientist of the Year Award.  He is also founder and director of ALERT—the Alliance of Leading Environmental Researchers & Thinkers, a group that advocates for environmental sustainability.

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In episode 44 of the Sustainability Agenda, China Dialogue founder Isabel Hilton gives an overview of China’s emergence as a key environmental actor on the world stage and assesses China’s recent environmental engagement (and motivations). Isabel talks about how the Chinese government exercises control in matters environmental – and some of the particular challenges the government faces- and situates its growing environmental commitment against a background of changing industrial strategy, and movement into more value-added technologies. She distinguishes between China’s domestic and international environmental commitments, in particular, with respect to global warming. Looking to the future, Isabel draws lessons from China’s environmental policies, in particular for the current US administration, and identifies some tell-tale signs we should look for to assess China’s evolving environmental commitments.

Isabel Hilton is a London-based international journalist and broadcaster. She is founder and editor of chinadialogue.net, a non-profit, fully bilingual online publication based in London, Beijing, and Delhi that focuses on the environment and climate change. She is the author and co-author of several books and was awarded the OBE for her work in raising environmental awareness in China. As a journalist, Isabel has worked for The Sunday Times, The Independent, The Guardian, and the New Yorker. In 1992 she became a presenter of the BBC’s flagship news program, “The World Tonight,” then BBC Radio Three’s cultural program “Night Waves.” She is a columnist for The Guardian and her work has appeared in the Financial Times, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Granta, the New Statesman, El Pais, Index on Censorship, and many other publications.

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Dr. Charly Kleissner is a pioneer in the field of impact investment. He believes that the deeper meaning of wealth is to make a positive contribution to humanity and the planet. Dr. Kleissner co-founded KL Felicitas Foundation (www.klfelicitasfoundation.org), and Social-Impact International (www.social-impact.org), which help social entrepreneurs worldwide to accelerate and increase their impact.  Dr. Kleissner co-founded Toniic and the 100% Impact Network, global networks for impact investors. Dr. Kleissner serves as Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Global Hub Company (www.the-hub.net), and as Board Director and Chairman of the Investment Committee of ImpactAssets.

In this extended and wide-ranging interview, Charly paints an exciting picture of the state of impact investment today, talks about the importance of “deep impact investing”-and shares his abiding belief in the potential of changing the financial system to build a better world. Charly talks about his experience at TONIIC and the 100% impact network and highlights the results that have been achieved at the KL Felicitas Foundation (that impact investors can construct a 100% impact portfolio and achieve competitive financial returns in all asset classes while making a big impact). Charly highlights some of the important work the Foundation is doing supporting the impact investment ecosystem. Finally, he discusses how modern portfolio theory should be re-conceptualized to integrate positive impact. (This is edited version of an interview posted on the Financing Social Entrepreneurs podcast.)

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George Serafeim is the Jakurski Family Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He has a wide range of research interests including international business, corporate governance and corporate reporting, with a special focus on sustainability. George has presented his research in over 60 countries and is one of the most popular business authors, according to rankings of the Social Science Research Network. Serafeim also has extensive experience as a senior adviser of investment managers and corporations around the world and as a board member in both the non-profit and private sectors. He served as a member of the Standards Council of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and sits on the board of the High Meadows Institute. In 2013 he co-founded KKS Advisors, a consultancy firm that applies robust academic research to support organizations to develop effective strategies for sustainability. His work has been published in numerous academic and practitioner journals such as the Strategic Management Journal, the Journal of Finance and the Harvard Business Review, and has appeared in media outlets including the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal.

In this interview, Serafeim discusses how sustainability factors can be embedded within the corporate sector. He differentiates between two different forms of sustainability; one that seeks competitive advantage versus one that advocates a new standard of doing business. He argues that while the free market is a very powerful idea, it is clear that strong institutions and effective integrated reporting on ESG are needed in order to deliver sustainable prosperity. He makes the case for corporate leadership on sustainability issues by arguing that corporations are best positioned to implement long-term strategies. He argues that the critique of inherent short-termism often levelled at markets actually reflects a failure of organisational management and vision. Moreover, Serafeim argues that the fiduciary responsibility to maximise returns to shareholders can be overcome at the board level. He finishes by briefly discussing the role of investment in embedding ESG factors and the role of new business models such as the benefit corporations.

The post Episode 42: Sustainability: a new way of doing business. How Interview with George Serafeim, the Jakurski Family Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

William McDonough is a globally recognised leader in sustainable development. His books Cradle to Cradle: Rethinking the Way we Make Things, co-authored with chemist Michael Braungart and followed up in 2013 by The Upcycle: Beyond Sustainability – Designing for Abundance, are seminal texts in the circular economy movement. Originally trained as an architect, McDonough firmly believes that design signals human intentions and is thus crucial to shaping a sustainable and inclusive future. Through biomimicry, McDonough believes we can design products as services and emulate closed loop material cycles, so that materials, buildings, companies and communities continuously improve over time. McDonough brings his vision of a sustainable future characterised by abundance to commercial and government leaders worldwide through his consultancy McDonough Innovation. He remains active with his architectural practice William McDonough + Partners, as well as MBDC, the Cradle to Cradle consulting firm. He also co-founded two not-for-profit organizations to allow public accessibility to Cradle to Cradle thinking: GreenBlue and the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute. He has previously served as the Inaugural Chair of the World Economic Forum’s MetaCouncil on the Circular Economy and currently serves on the Forum’s Global Future Council on the Future of Environment and Natural Resource Security.

In this inspiring interview, McDonough discusses the concept of Cradle-to-Cradle, notably how reusable and durable cycles benefit the biosphere and future generations. Successful examples of circular economies already exist and McDonough outlines how Shaw Industries, the world’s largest carpet manufacturer, generates 85 percent of their revenue from by cradle-to-cradle products. The benefits in savings coupled with new forms of customer engagement demonstrate that such circular economies are financially viable and of interest to companies around the world. McDonough also outlines the certification schemes that underpin Cradle-to-Cradle and the importance of expanding consumer awareness. We see flashes of his creative brilliance, such as his views on the ocean plastic crisis and vision of restorative solar farms. He also touches on the path ahead by discussing how finance is limited by its dependence on destructive industries, such as fossil fuels, and the role of government in driving change by benchmarking best practice. He finishes by sharing his optimism for the future, stating he primarily designs for eight year olds, as children have a natural grasp of the wonder of nature and desirability of sustainable design.

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Jay Coen Gilbert is co-founder of B Lab, the non-profit organisation that serves a global movement of people using business as a force for good. B Lab certifies B Corporations, companies that meet the highest standards of verified, overall social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability.Since its inception in 2006, the B Corp movement has grown so that there are currently over 2,300 certified corporations operating within 150 industries in 50 countries. Jay also serves on the board of Investors’ Circle, an organisation dedicated to the acceleration of patient capital markets towards a sustainable future. Prior to founding B Lab, Jay enjoyed a successful career in the private sector, notably through AND 1, a 250 million dollar basketball footwear and apparel company which he co-founded and later sold.

In this encouraging interview, Jay provides some fascinating insights into an exciting global movement that aims to re-define success in business. He describes how institutions are typically slow to react to social change and how there is ample opportunity to cater to millennials’ greater concern for social and environmental issues, both as consumers and as a workforce. He outlines how B Corps unlock the full potential of business by harnessing the power of competition so that businesses not only compete to be the best in the world but “the best for the world.” He also describes the “B Impact Assessment,” the comprehensive accreditation system which accounts for supply chains, workers’ rights, the environment, community engagement and governance, thereby providing a holistic and genuine picture of a company’s impact. This assessment is fully transparent and is regularly updated through solicited public engagement. Joel also touches on B Corps’ relationship with finance by describing how larges investors can use B Corps as a blueprint for managing systemic risk. Joel is optimistic about the prospects for expansion of the movement, pointing to Danone as the first Fortune 500 Company with aspirations to join, but stresses how the ultimate goal is to change attitudes in the business community. Finally, he outlines the need for a more inclusive and distributive form of capitalism, stressing how the rise of populism is symptomatic of a growing disenchantment with an economic system that rewards an ever shrinking portion of the population.

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David Blood is co-founder and Senior Partner of Generation Investment Management. Previously, he spent 18 years at Goldman Sachs including serving as co-CEO and CEO of Goldman Sachs Asset Management from 1999-2003. David received a B.A. from Hamilton College and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Graduate School of Business. He is on the board of Dialight, New Forests, Motivate International, On the Edge Productions, SHINE, Social Finance UK and WRI. David is also a life trustee of Hamilton College.

In this insightgul interview, David gives his views on the extraordinary economic moment we are in. He stresses the importance of finance as the issues of today cannot be solved by government or civil society alone. With reference to considerable changes in the past decade, he outlines the present state of sustainability in finance and how it is starting to capture the interest of the business community. He questions the myth of trade-offs by asserting how sustainability is integral to sensible investment as it embeds the long-term interests of clients. David addresses the dichotomy surrounding economic growth and whilst emphasising the perils of consumerism and macroeconomic growth policies, stresses how sustainable investments allow for growth opportunities even within a no-growth environment.  Finally, he suggests some of the key areas of sustainability that he believes must be addressed going forward, notably a global price on carbon.

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Sam Fankhauser is Director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics. He has been at the institute since its inception a decade ago, where he initially joined as a Principal Research Fellow. He also holds positions as Deputy Director of the Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy, Non-Executive Director the CDC Group and a member of the editorial board for the journals Global Environmental Change, Climate Policy and Global Sustainability. Prior to joining the Grantham Institute, Sam served as Deputy Chief Economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). He has also worked at the World Bank, the Global Environment Facility and in the private sector. His research interests include the economics of adaptation to climate change, climate finance and the functioning of carbon markets and climate change policy in the UK.

In this episode, Sam provides an excellent overview of the state of carbon pricing today and outlines its two principal forms; carbon taxation and carbon trading. He discusses the merits and disadvantages of each, stressing that all carbon pricing is ultimately results based. Noting that current carbon prices are far too low to meet the objectives of the Paris agreement, he provides words of cautious optimism looking at successful schemes in Sweden and British Colombia in Canada which show the effectiveness and viability of carbon trading. Sam also discusses significant barriers around issues of political economy and voters’ suspicion of government taxation, and how this renders carbon trading easier to implement practically. He also addresses “shadow pricing” and how the private sector’s growing enthusiasm seems to reflect an understanding that the economic growth of this century will arise from low-carbon opportunities. Finally, he stresses the need for collaboration around carbon pricing to avoid “carbon leakage.” He also points to how empirical evidence suggests that successful schemes can be imported as regulators in different jurisdictions learn from one another.

The post Episode 38: Sam Fankhauser, Director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at LSE, discusses carbon pricing appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

Dr Sabina Alkire is the director of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), an economic research centre within the Oxford Department of International Development. She is a professor in International Affairs at the George Washington University and is a fellow of the Human Development and Capability Association. With fellow economist James Foster, she developed the Alkire-Foster Method, which measures multidimensional poverty by considering a range of deprivations associated with poverty which are aggregated to reflect societal poverty. In the seven years since its adaptation the multidimensional poverty indicator (MPI) has been adopted the United Nations Development Programme and several national governments, notably that of Bhutan.

In this lucid interview, Sabina outlines the MPI and stresses that effective measurements are crucial to the eradication of poverty. She describes the benefits of using a multidimensional approach which considers deprivations associated with poverty, such as lack of access to adequate education, healthcare and employment. While the MPI compliments conventional measures, Sabina emphasises how it is more sensitive to immediate gains, such as improvements in education enrolment rates, which monetary measures are slow to account for. Furthermore, the MPI demonstrates that solving poverty requires multifaceted strategies and collaboration; a growing global trend that is perhaps epitomised by the SDGs. Sabina also discusses the practical implementation of the MPI and provides some positive insights into the Gross National Happiness index of Bhutan. Finally, she finishes by describing the future of the MPI, particularly efforts around child poverty measures.

The post Episode 37: Interview with Sabina Alkire, director of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI: how to effectively measure poverty using the  multidimensional poverty indicator (MPI) appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

Leo Hickman is director and editor of Carbon Brief, a leading UK based website covering the latest developments in climate science, climate policy, and energy policy. Carbon Brief specialises in clear data-driven articles and graphics to communicate complex and fast-moving developments in climate science to improve the understanding of climate change both in terms of the science and policy response. Leo previously worked for 16 years as journalist, editor and author at the Guardian newspaper and prior to joining Carbon Brief worked as WWF-UK’s chief advisor on climate change. His books include A Life Stripped Bare,The Final Call and most recently Will Jellyfish Rule the World?

In this special episode devoted to COP23, Leo gives us a succinct summary of events in Bonn. He reminds us that since Paris, the annual COP meetings have focused on creating a rulebook to implement the Paris Accords. He stresses that current pledges fall short of meeting the goals set out in Paris, something highlighted by UNEP’s annual “Emissions Gap Report.” He discusses how disagreements around financing have reignited tensions between developed and developing countries, particularly over action before the Paris agreement formally begins in 2020. Leo also addresses the two American delegations that stole the spotlight and emphasises how Trump’s withdrawal from Paris has acted as a catalyst for American action on climate change. He also addresses how China is filling the void left by American leadership and briefly discusses the British presence at Bonn, notably through the Powering Past Coal alliance. Finally, he gives us an overview of key events to look for over the next year, including the Californian Global Climate Action Summit in September 2018, as well as telling us of Carbon Brief’s upcoming projects.

The post Episode 36: Carbon Brief’s Leo Hickman reviews COP23 appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

Dr. Andy Price is head of politics at Sheffield Hallam University. His primary research area lies in political theory; particularly in ecology, environmentalism and new social movements, such as the Occupy movement. He has taught and researched in higher education for over fifteen years and previously held positions at Saint Louis University in Madrid, Liverpool John Moores and Manchester Metropolitan. Andy is a regular commentator on British politics and contributes to BBC radio, the Huffington Post, the Conversation, The Independent and Brazil’s O Globo.  He is the author of “Recovering Bookchin.”

In this podcast, Andy discusses the ideas of the neglected American political theorist Murray Bookchin-a key political thinker and pioneer of the ecology movement of the 1960s. Bookchin was one of the first theorists to tie the green agenda to radical politics and predict that the primary threat to capitalism would come from environmental pressures. Bookchin saw ecological destruction not as a human failing per se, but rather a result of centralised neoliberal capitalism’s inherent endeavour to dominate nature. Andy discusses how Bookchin, through the ideas of social ecology, provided a blueprint for integrating ideas of rational stewardship over nature together with direct, localised democratic participation. Andy discusses the important role that grassroots movements play: in particular, he describes why we need to connect ecological issues to the lived experiences of ordinary people — in a manner that organisations such as the UN and EU often struggle to achieve. Essential listening

The post Episode 35: Dr Andy Price, head of politics at Sheffield Hallam University, discusses the ideas of the neglected American political theorist and pioneering ecologist, Murray Bookchin appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

Annemieke Tsike-Sossah de Jong is Head of Portfolio at the IKEA Foundation, the independent charitable foundation that overseas IKEA’s global philanthropy. First established in 1982 with the main goal of preventing child labour, the foundation’s operations expanded considerably in 2009 so that today it administers an annual budget of 140 million euros. Its efforts are primarily aimed at addressing children’s fundamental needs of home, health, education and sustainable family incomes, through funding holistic, long-term programmes in some of the world’s poorest communities. 

In this interview, Annemieke talks at length about the foundation’s operations and commitment to children. She discusses the need for humanitarian aid to be more effective, by promoting sustainable employment and economic self-sufficiency, particularly among people living in long-term displacement. Annemieke also addresses the widening field of private sector humanitarian investment and its relationship with traditional actors, such as large NGOs and governments. As an independent charity, Annemieke stresses how the foundation can operate in countries outside of the IKEA business’ sphere of influence, such as Uganda and Jordan, whilst sharing the multinationals core values. In addition, the foundation compliments the business’ attempts at implementing sustainability through its supply chain by focusing on similar themes of water scarcity, renewable energy and through infrastructural and educational investment, climate mitigation and adaptation.

The post Episode 34 Interview with Annemieke Tsike-Sossah de Jong, Head of Portfolio at the IKEA Foundation appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

Scott Tew is the executive director of the Center for Energy Efficiency & Sustainability (CEES) at Ingersoll Rand, a global diversified industrial company with over 40,000 employees and annual revenues of over 13 billion dollars. Ingersoll Rand is involved in numerous operations including connected heating, ventilation and air conditioning solutions, air compression technologies, electrical vehicles and transport refrigeration.  The CEES is responsible for supporting all of the company’s strategic brands – Club Car, Ingersoll Rand, Thermo King and Trane – and for driving sustainability initiatives within the company’s operations.

In this inspiring interview, Scott discusses practical sustainability measures across Ingersoll Rand’s operations. He outlines the bottom line business impact of sustainable practice and describes how embedding sustainability into the business strategy at Ingersoll Rand is more enduring than compliance with regulation. Scott outlines the SDGs’ influence on Ingersoll Rand’s internal targets and discusses the role of large corporates in ingraining sustainable practices across supply chains, through partnerships based on common values. Additionally, Scott touches on Ingersoll Rand’s growing role in an urbanising world and discusses the importance of effective design in building energy efficient buildings.

The post Episode 33: Interview with Scott Tew, executive director of the Center for Energy Efficiency & Sustainability (CEES) at Ingersoll Rand. appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

Dr. Per Espen Stoknes is a distinguished psychologist and economist and chair of the Centre for Green Growth at the Norwegian Business School.  He is a pioneer in the field of climate change psychology, which he has studied for twenty years–and the author of numerous books including the acclaimed What We Think About When We Try Not to Think About Global Warming (2015). Per is also a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of the clean tech company GasPlas. 

In this revealing interview, Per unpacks the psychology of climate change communications –and why increased scientific certainty on this issue has only entrenched apathy among much of the general public. He outlines the five key psychological barriers impeding climate change action, explains why gloomy narratives about climate change are ineffective, and counsels communication that takes into account people’s psychology—for example, stressing the wider societal benefits of climate action through “positive framing”. Stoknes also highlights the dangers assuming the general public reach decisions on a rational basis, highlighting the influence of the mass media’s powerful distortions of climate issues, such as the “ClimateGate” debacle of 2009.

The post Episode 32: UN Climate Week Special: Dr. Per Espen Stoknes: The psychology behind climate change denial appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

Barry Parkin is the Chief Sustainability Officer at Mars, Inc. The family run confectionary giant has over 33 billion dollars in annual sales and is ranked by Forbes as the 6th largest privately held company in the United States, with over 80,000 employees, 150 factories and a million small-scale suppliers around the world. As Chief Sustainability Officer, Barry is responsible for sustainability across the value chain, notably through shaping and articulating its key targets, policies, and practices. In particular, he has spearheaded the company’s ambitious $1billion Sustainable in a Generation plan. Furthermore, as Chairman of the World Cocoa Foundation, Barry leads the cocoa industry’s collaborative efforts to tackle sustainability issues in a pre-competitive way.

 In this revealing interview, Barry outlines the company’s historical commitment to its stakeholders through the concept of mutuality and traces continuities to the company’s current commitment to sustainability. He talks at length about the Sustainable in a Generation initiative’s core pillars of a healthy planet, thriving people and nourishing well-being—with a particular focus on the company’s commitment to fight climate change. Barry highlights the importance of Mars sustainability initiatives pointing out that Mars’ entire carbon footprint is equivalent to Panama’s. He describes some of the company’s recent successes, such as using good agricultural practices to boost yields at the supply level and improvements in energy use in manufacturing through largescale renewable energy infrastructure projects. Barry also stresses the company’s dependence on agriculture. In particular, he discusses how sustainability efforts must help small-scale farmers out of poverty and to guarantee the long-term supply of quality agriculture over the coming decades.

The post Episode 31: UN Climate Week Special: Interview with Barry Parkin Chief Sustainability Officer at Mars, Inc. appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

Michael Mann is a distinguished professor of atmospheric science and director of the Earth System Science Centre at Pennsylvania State University. A climatologist and geophysicist, he is a leading contributor to the IPCC and is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading climate scientists. His work has been pivotal in advancing our understanding of humanity’s influence on global temperatures, notably through the famous “hockey stick graph” outlining the earth’s temperature over the past millennium.  An outspoken defender of the scientific process and academic freedoms, his work also focuses on climate change denialism, reflected in his most recent book The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy (2016). He is a contributor to numerous publications including The Guardian and the Washington Post and documents the impact of climate change on current events in RealClimate.org.

In this interview, Michael discusses the overwhelming scientific consensus on man-made climate change. He outlines some of the effects a warming planet could have in the future and through reference to recent extreme weather events — how climate change is already being felt in real time. Michael addresses climate change denialism, particularly the influence of “fake news,” and public disinformation campaigns that have helped turn climate science into a politically contentious topic. Michael also provides words of warning regarding geoengineering and stresses the primary need to reduce emissions whilst the carbon budget remains. He ends on a note of cautious optimism, stressing the success of the Paris Agreement, providing a blueprint to curb emissions, and how initiatives at the municipal and state level can help the United States’ commitment to the accord, regardless of the political administration in the US.

The post Episode 30: UN Climate Week Special: Professor Michael Mann appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

Dr. Richard Norgaard is Professor Emeritus of Ecological Economics in the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley, environmental pioneer, and founding member and former president of the International Society for Ecological Economics. After receiving his PhD at the University of Chicago, where he studied with numerous economists who would later be awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, he became a critic of free market fundamentalism and went on to found the field of ecological economics which he continues to lead today. His recent research addresses how environmental problems challenge scientific understanding and the policy process, how ecologists and economists understand systems differently, and the impact of globalization on environmental governance.

A philosophical and eclectic thinker, Dr Norgaard received the Kenneth E. Boulding Memorial Award in 2006 for recognition of advancements in research combining social theory and the natural sciences –and for more than 40 years he has been a strong voice calling for introduction of values of spirituality, beauty and ecological boundaries into mainstream economics. He is the author of Development Betrayed: The End of Progress and a Co-evolutionary Revisioning of the Future, co-author or editor of three additional books, and has over 100 other publications spanning the fields of environment and development, tropical forestry and agriculture, environmental epistemology, energy economics, and ecological economics. He serves on the Board of Directors of the New Economics Institute, on scientific advisory boards to Tsinghua and Beijing Normal University, and on the Board of EcoEquity.  

In this interview, Richard discusses the dichotomy between ecology and economics, how a kind of faith thinking underpins the economic system (economism), and the failure of neo-classical economics to adequately grasp environmental limits. He also touches on the limits of conventional economic measures and the need for an approach system to environmental issues that allows for effective global governance while respecting agency at the local level. A proud Californian, Richard also discusses his work in water stewardship for the California Delta independent science board and the danger of conservation’s inherent bias towards the past in addressing the challenges posed by a changing climate.

This is a rare opportunity to hear the latest views of a pioneering thinker who has had a major influence on how we think about ecological economics, raising profound questions about our understanding of economic progress and development.

The post Episode 29: Interview with Dr Richard Norgaard, Professor Emeritus of Ecological Economics appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

In this thought provoking and insightful interview, Tony Juniper provides a timely assessment of the state of sustainability agenda and the relative importance of key sustainability drivers, highlighting how corporations are taking the lead driving the sustainability agenda, the growing influence of investors on sustainability and the role of technology. Tony highlights the scale of change taking place in the motor industry: how corporations in Europe phasing out diesel and petrol vehicles despite government policies often lagging behind. Tony talks about China’s business leaders increasing focus on sustainability and the often hidden dangers that are being stored up by growing inequality. This is a tremendously powerful, synoptic picture of the evolving state of sustainability from a leading sustainability thinker who sees optimism as a key ingredient in building a better world.

Campaigner, writer, sustainability advisor and environmentalist: Tony Juniper has spent more than 30 years working in a variety of roles to drive change toward a more sustainable society — making the case for new recycling laws, orchestrating international campaigns for action on rainforests and climate change, providing ecology and conservation experiences for primary school children. Today Tony works in a variety of roles –he is a Special Adviser to the Prince of Wales’s International Sustainability Unit, a Fellow with the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), and also a co-founder of the sustainability advisory group Robertsbridge. Tony is a Trustee of Fauna and Flora International, of Solar Aid, Ecologist-Resurgence magazine, and in 2015 he was named President of The Wildlife Trusts.

The post Episode 28: The future of the sustainability agenda: interview with Tony Juniper, CBE. appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

In this interview, Lynelle Cameron talks about the work of the Autodesk Foundation-and the relationship between sustainability, CSR and corporate philanthropy at Autodesk. She highlights the growing importance of sustainability in design and the company’s commitment to bringing sustainability thinking into all its design work, and the development of Sustainability Workshop, an online learning platform developed to teach sustainable design. Lynelle also discusses the growing interest in sustainability and convergence across different industries –construction, design and engineering and manufacturing- in which Autodesk works-and the growing interest from investors in sustainability.

Lynelle is President & CEO of the Autodesk Foundation and Senior Director of Sustainability at Autodesk, Inc. – both initiatives aimed at investing in and supporting individuals who are designing solutions to solve today’s most epic challenges. She has led the company in setting ambitious science-based greenhouse gas reduction targets, committing to 100% renewable energy and integrated reporting. Since Lynelle joined eight years ago, Autodesk has received numerous awards for sustainability leadership and innovation.

Lynelle brings over two decades of experience in both the nonprofit and private sectors and has led pioneering efforts in the pursuit of enabling 7 billion people to live well and live within the limits of the planet. She believes in the power of partnership between business and civil society and has served on numerous boards, including currently the Center for Environmental Health, Innovators International, and UC Berkeley’s Center for Responsible Business.

The post Episode 27: interview with Lynelle Cameron, President & CEO of the Autodesk Foundation and Senior Director of Sustainability at Autodesk, Inc. appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

David Biello is the science curator at TED Talks as well as a contributing editor for Scientific American.  He recently published “The Unnatural World: The Race to Remake Civilization in Earth’s Newest Age,” in which he explores the emergence of the“Anthropocene,” the period during which human activity has become the dominant influence on planet-sized systems like the climate, as well as investigates some of the latest ideas on how humans might live better in this fast-changing time.

In this interview, David talks about the inspiration for this 5-year research project, and talks about some of the most interesting and exciting approaches to deal with climate change and other challenges that he came across on his global journey. At once a frightening picture of the state of the planet and a resolutely hopeful assessment of the potential for people and technology to deal with the escalating problems we are now facing.

The post Episode 26: Innovative ideas on how to survive on a fast changing planet. Interview with David Biello, author “The Unnatural World: The Race to Remake Civilization in Earth’s Newest Age.” appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

In recent years, sustainable procurement has become an increasingly important issue for customers and stakeholders in large companies around the world. Yet assessing levels of sustainability across supply chains remains a tremendous challenge for many companies. In this interview, Pierre-Francois Thaler, co-founder, and co-CEO of EcoVadis, talks about the key drivers of sustainable procurement and the scale of the challenge facing companies. He highlights the importance of being able to measure and benchmark sustainability performance and gives a frank assessment of how companies are doing in different sectors and the progress that needs to take place in the coming years.

EcoVadis provides environmental, social and ethical performance ratings for global supply chains. The EcoVadis platform is used by 175 companies and over 30,000 of their trading partners the company and provide CSR Ratings and Scorecards Covering 21 CSR Indicators, 150 commodities, and 110 countries.

The post Episode 25: Sustainable procurement: how are companies doing? Interview with Pierre-Francois Thaler, co-founder and co-CEO of EcoVadis. appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

How well are companies doing when it comes to sustainability? This is a key question that Corporate Knights assesses in its annual Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations—based on publicly available information provided by companies around the world. In this interview, Toby explains how Corporate Knights assess companies’ sustainability credentials –and the different ways in which Corporate Knights provides information on sustainability and clean capitalism. He assesses the overall progress that companies have made-and the terrain that still needs to be covered –and identifies a wide range of accessible user friendly information sources to help assess companies sustainability initiatives.

 Corporate Knights Inc. is a Canadian a media company that produces corporate rankings, research reports and financial product ratings based on corporate sustainability performance. Its best-known rankings include the Best 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada and the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations.

It also publishes of Corporate Knights Magazine– which focuses on how companies, markets and governments are advancing social and environmental sustainability worldwide. It calls itself “the magazine for clean capitalism.” Toby spearheaded the first global ranking of the world’s 100 most sustainable corporations in 2005.

The post Episode 24: Keeping track of corporate sustainability commitments: interview with Toby Heap, the CEO and co-founder of Corporate Knights Inc. a media company  appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

In this interview, Jean Bennington Sweeney, Chief Sustainability Officer at 3M, gives an overview of the company’s sustainability journey as a purpose-driven organisation. She points to three main ways in which sustainability helps 3M –compliance, risk management, and growth—and how this resonates with investors. Jean emphasizes the crucial importance of setting bold sustainability goals-how that drives innovation-and discusses the lesson for the company when it fails meet its sustainability targets, which happened for the first time over the last year. Finally, Jean gives her views on the company’s recently launched 2017 Sustainability Report.

Jean Bennington Sweeney is Chief Sustainability Officer for 3M Company. She has held a wide variety of positions at 3M in product development, manufacturing and business management. Today, Ms. Sweeney is responsible for 3M environment, sustainability, and corporate social responsibility programs globally covering over 200 facilities and the development and implementation of corporate sustainability strategies in collaboration with 3M employees, suppliers, customers and stakeholders globally.

The post Episode 23: Interview with Jean Bennington Sweeney, Chief Sustainability Officer for 3M Company: 3M’s sustainability journey. appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

In this interview, Professor Giorgos Kallis, a leading degrowth thinker, provides an overview of evolving theories of degrowth. Degrowth theorists argue for a reduction in production and consumption, arguing that overconsumption is at the root of many of the long term environmental issues and social inequalities facing the world today. Professor Kallis highlights the importance not just of reducing consumption, but also of different ways of consuming, like the sharing economy, and also connecting consumption with production. Looking to the future, he explores the likely impact of increasing pace of automation on the economy.

Professor Kallis is a Leverhulme visiting professor at SOAS and an ICREA professor at ICTA, Autonomous University of Barcelona. He is a leading thinker in the emerging field of degrowth, based on ecological economics, aims to achieve a steady state of growth that allows the economy to operate within the Earth’s biophysical limits. Giorgos is the co-editor of Degrowth: a vocabulary for a new era.

The post Episode 22: Professor Giorgos Kallis: Degrowth and the dangers of excessive economic growth appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

Michael has led sustainability at Levi Strauss & Co. since 2001. Under his leadership, Levi has been a leader in bringing sustainability to the apparel industry and Michael has helped drive industry collaboration on sustainability, serving as Chair of the Better Cotton Initiative and Board member of the Sustainable apparel Coalition. In this interview, Michael explians what sustainability means to Levi’s, discusses the company’s commitment to becoming more sustainable, and its profits through principles programme. He explains how the Levi’s various water reduction initiatives operate– and how they have saved over a billion litres of water– as well as plans, together with several other companies, to eliminate all discharge of hazardous chemicals by 2020. Finally. Michael looks to the future and discusses some of the signature sustainability initiatives over the coming years.

The post Episode 21: Michael Kobori, Vice-President, Sustainability, at Levi Strauss & Co. Levi’s Sustainability Journey appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

How can economics deal with climate change? In this interview, Martin Wolf, Associate Editor and Chief Economics Commentator of the Financial Times, talks about the crucial importance of dealing with climate change and discusses the ways in which economic analysis and policy can help. He shares his views on the milestone COP21 agreement and the role of taxes and regulation dealing with climate change. Martin assesses the potential of using more environmentally inclusive economic accounting measures to help deal with environmental issues, and shares his views on emerging economic models that emphasize low or no-growth economic activity. What emerges finally, in this wide-ranging, personal, interview, is a resolutely optimistic vision, one where man’s capacity to invent and innovate can provide solutions to overcome the growing environmental challenges we face.

Martin Wolf is a distinguished and highly respected financial and economic journalist and commentator – covering a very wide range of economic, financial and other topics –and has recently been a strong voice on the importance of dealing with climate change.  He has received numerous awards for his work — including a CBE for services to financial journalism in 2000 –and was appointed a member of the UK government’s Independent Commission on Banking in June 2010. Martin’s most recent publications are Why Globalization Works and The Shifts and the Shocks: What we’ve learned – and have still to learn – from the financial crisis, published in 2015. This interview was undertaken last year prior to the COP22 and prior to the election of Donald Trump.

The post Episode 20: Martin Wolf: How economic policy can help deal with growing environmental challenges and climate change appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

Andreea Strachinescu is head of the New Energy Technologies and Innovation unit in the Directorate General for Energy at the European Commission. She is responsible for the development of the policy and actions on non-nuclear energy research and innovation. In this interview, Andrea talks about recent developments in EU renewable energy, in particular, growing focus on research & innovation, the ways in which the EU is currently emphasizing replication & scaling of renewable energy initiatives. She also talks about the crucial importance of developments to integrate renewable energy within the existing grid & looks to the future and identifies key areas for growth.

The post Episode 19:  Andreea Strachinescu | developments in new energy technologies and innovation in the EU appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

Katherine Collins has had a a long successful career in traditional fund management – she was head of US Equity Research at Fidelity Investments and later as Portfolio Manager was responsible for investment decisions for the multi-billion dollar Fidelity America funds. But over her career she came to see serious shortcomings in the way traditional finance operates. Her work at Honeybee Capital today is focussed on illuminating a more human and natural path to investing – in particular applying natural science and the principles of biomimicry, a broad approach where systems are modelled on biological processes, to investing.

In this interview, Katharine talks about some of the shortcomings of traditional financial analysis and calls-out the epidemic of short termism on Wall Street. She explores how new ways of looking at finance using biomimicry-like approaches can unlock value and help identify risks in companies’ long term viability. Katherine raises questions about financial models that suggest there is a systematic trade off between financial returns and ESG benefits, and talks about how these traditional analytical models can, notwithstanding their efficiency, increase rather than reduce risk. In this inspiring interview, Katharine draws on her twenty-plus years of leadership in  leading investment firms, proposing an exciting new approach where finance is about resiliency rather than rigidity, simplicity rather than complexity, with mutual value and exchange at its heart.

The post Episode 18: Katherine Collins| How to connect investing with the real world and how finance can learn from nature appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

Professor Kevin Anderson is an important – and outspoken – voice on how our emissions today are locking in dangerous levels of climate change and how we need immediate and strong action now, individually and collectively, if we are to bequeath our children a safe and secure future. He is the Deputy Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research holds a joint chair in Energy and Climate Change at the School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering at the University of Manchester and in Climate Change Leadership at the Univeristy of Uppsala in Sweden. Kevin engages with all tiers of government, within the UK, Sweden and the wider EU.

In this podcast, Kevin presents a stark vision of a world on the brink of catastrophic climate change—and argues that there is now no way to address this challenge without radical economic and social change. With a strong focus on the need for institutional change, Kevin draws attention to the urgent need to transform our energy infrastructure from a high- to zero-carbon over the coming decades. He weighs up various different policies to achieve this–and expresses strong concerns about overreliance on new technologies to deal with climate change (largely technologies that would remove carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere).

The post Episode 17: Professor Kevin Anderson| Climate Change Warning appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

Ericsson has been at the forefront of corporate sustainability initiatives for many years- and will publish its 24th annual Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility Report on March 1 2017.  In this podcast, I speak to Elaine Weidman-Grunewald, Vice President of Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility (CR) for the Ericsson Group worldwide about the company’s sustainability journey. Elaine’s work is focused on driving Ericsson’s sustainability and CR initiatives and she is head of Ericsson Response, the company’s flagship employee volunteer program for humanitarian and disaster response, and is responsible for partnerships that explore using Ericsson’s core technology to solve compelling sustainable development challenges facing the world.

 In this interview, Elaine talks about Ericsson’s sustainability journey-it’s three key stages–and the work it has done to integrate sustainability deeply within the business. She explains how senior leaders at Ericsson have worked with the SDG goals –each of the executive leadership team is ambassador for an SDG goal–and how it has begun to cascade throughout the company. Elaine shows how the company’s sustainability initiatives have been good for the company–particularly in terms of employee engagement-and talks frankly about some of the more challenging sustainability decisions that the company has had to make. Finally, Elaine talks about the company’s Technology for Good programme and highlights some recent initiatives.

 Elaine paints a compelling picture of how a leading technology company is putting its sustainability values into practice, highlighting what can be achieved when sustainability values are embraced across a company’s senior leadership team.

The post Episode 16: Interview with Ericsson’s Elaine Weidman-Grunewald: Ericsson’s sustainability journey appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

John is a pioneer in the world of corporate responsibility and sustainable development -as a writer, consultant, and serial entrepreneur he has been at the forefront of sustainability thinking for four decades. John is the author or co-author of 19 books —- he is credited with coining key sustainability terms including environmental excellence, the triple bottom line, and People, Planet & Profit. He is also co-founder of four environmental and sustainability businesses, including SustainAbility. His latest, Volans, launched in 2008, is a future-focused business working at the intersection of sustainability, entrepreneurship and innovation. 

In this interview, John talks about key sustainability lessons and insights developed over this career—and how he sees the future of sustainability. He talks about the innovative work that Volans is doing with the United Nations Global Compact –and shares his optimism for technological innovation as a means to deal with climate change. John talks about the potential of exponential technologies, why he believes in stretch and exponential targets to impact climate change, and the power of breakthrough business models. Finally, John reflects on the appropriateness of existing financial investment models to finance green investment.

The post Episode 15: John Elkington| Exponential technologies, climate change, and sustainable development. appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

From a vantage point of 40 years experience helping create the field of sustainability, Hunter Lovins is in an excellent position to explain where sustainability is today–and to highlight the latest thinking that will drive regenerative practices, the next wave beyond sustainability. Hunter is the President of Natural Capitalism Solutions, an entrepreneurial NGO that helps companies, communities and countries implement more regenerative practices profitably. Hunter is on the steering committee of Leading for Well-Being, an international team charged by the King of Bhutan to reinvent the global economy. A Professor of Sustainable Business at Bard MBA in New York, she is also one of the entrepreneurs creating Change Finance, an advisory moving money from harm to healing.

 In this podcast, Hunter gives her vision for a sustainable future, building on A Finer Future, a forthcoming book she is co-writing for the Club of Rome, on whose Executive Committee she serves. Hunter talks about the power of resource efficiency, renewable energy, and the potential for tax shifting. She describes the potential for positive change with cutting-edge ideas like Biomimicry and Regenerative Capitalism. This is a resolutely positive vision of change and building a better world, inspired by Buckmister Fuller, Dana Meadows and many others. But it is only possible if we take action today.

The post Episode 14: Hunter Lovins| New thinking that will drive Regenerative Capitalism, the next wave beyond sustainability appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

Little had been written on the role of environmental taxes when Paul Ekins wrote The Living Economy in1986. Since that time we have learnt a lot more about the potential role of taxation in dealing with climate change, yet there has been relatively little implementation of these ideas. In this podcast, Professor Ekins gives his view on the crucial role of smart regulation, new technologies and carbon taxation in dealing with climate change. He also discusses role of markets in solving climate problems, the challenge of inequality, and the prospects for a low-carbon high-growth economy. 

The post Episode 13: Professor Paul Ekins| Smart regulation, new technologies and carbon taxation appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

After several false starts, many experts now believe that the green finance sector is at a tipping point. Investors are paying attention to ESG factors as never before, there is an explosion of investor interest in green bonds, and195 countries adopted the first-ever universal, fully ratified global climate deal in Paris in 2015. In this podcast, eco-finance pioneer Tessa Tennant gives her view on recent developments in green finance, explores the implications of the Paris Agreement, and talks about her latest initiative NDCi.global –which aims to connect professionals around the world working to finance and implement the national climate commitments (NDCs) underlying the recently ratified Paris Agreement. Finally in an update to the original podcast, Tessa gives her feedback on COP22 and looks at a possible future where the US government is less committed to taking action on climate change.

The post Episode 12: Tessa Tennant | The future of green finance appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

Author, media theorist, professor, activist: Douglas Rushkoff wears many hats. At the heart of his work is a recurring theme: how to redevelop society to better serve humans. In this episode, Douglas discusses his latest book, Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus, which raises fundamental questions about what he calls the “old extractive, growth-based capitalism.” This is a hard-hitting critique of the digital revolution, finance in Silicon Valley, and its obsession with growth-and a call for new economic, technological, and social programs to create a fairer, more sustainable economy for humans.

The post Episode 11: Douglas Rushkoff | How the digital revolution undermines sustainability–and some proposals for a fairer more sustainable world appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

Paul Dickinson founded CDP, formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project, in 2000 with a vision to help the global economic system operate within sustainable environmental boundaries, and to prevent dangerous climate change.  CDP manages a data platform that gathers data on the greenhouse gas emissions from major corporations around the world. The data reported through CDP is used by a global network of investors and purchasers, representing over $100 trillion. In this interview, Paul discusses trends in provision of climate change information by corporations, how this information is being used in various industries, and gives a frank assessment of the progress companies are making responding to climate change. 

The post Episode 10: Paul Dickinson | The crucial importance of corporate climate change data appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

BSR has been providing socially responsible business solutions to many of the world’s leading companies for almost 25 years, working with 250 member companies around the world to create a more just and sustainable global economy. In this podcast, BSR CEO Aron Cramer, gives his frank assessment of where companies are on their journey to sustainability, the crucial role of finance in the sustainability, and asks difficult questions about the future of an economy based on Western consumption models. Aron also talks about the work that BSR is doing around building an inclusive economy, and the role of new sustainability models like the sharing economy.

The post Episode 9: Aron Cramer | Corporate sustainability – past progress and future questions appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

John Kay is one of Britain’s leading economists and has a long-standing interest in the relationships between business and society; he has been writing about responsible business, the role of stakeholders, and business and society for several decades. In this interview, John talks about the real meaning of corporate sustainability, which goes way beyond ESG considerations, and looks at what it takes to develop great sustainable business. This is a fresh and direct look at sustainability that clears away much fuzzy thinking about business and sustainability, and some prominent myths –including shareholder rhetoric to maximise profits — and situates ethics at the heart of the sustainability agenda.

The post Episode 8: Professor John Kay | The real meaning of sustainability appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

In this episode of the Sustainability Agenda, Professor CB Bhattacharya, one of the word’s leading sustainability researchers, gives his perspective on his evolution of corporate sustainability over recent decades. Professor Bhattacharya discusses his latest research and gives a preview of his new book. What is the trade-off between sustainability and profits? How do investors respond to good and sustainability news? The impact of engaged employees. And he discusses the five necessary steps to integrate sustainability into the business-ideas at the heart of his upcoming book.

The post Episode 7: Professor CB Bhattacharya | How to integrate sustainability into the business appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

When it comes to getting a perspective on the future of sustainability, who better to speak to than renowned author, futurist and sustainability pioneer Hazel Henderson. A long-time pioneer promoting the integration of environmental and social considerations into economics and business, Hazel has been a key mover in numerous key sustainability initiatives since the mid-1970s. A multi-award winning author, she has been a board member of many important environmental and social finance organisations, including Worldwatch Institute (1975-2001), Calvert Social Investment Fund (1982-2005), the Social Investment Forum and the Social Venture Network. Hazel co-developed with Calvert the GDP alternative measure now called the Ethical Markets Quality of Life Indicators. She set up Ethical Markets Media, a certified B Corporation in 2004.

In this interview, Hazel talks about: 

• Why 2015 was the inflection point in the development of a cleaner green economy
• The key role of the UN in convening key parties to promote the sustainability agenda
• Why and how the current financial paradigm needs to change
• How the Ethicmark awards aim to transform advertising by demonstrating the power of media campaigns to inspire
• Why Hazel is excited about the potential of biomimicry: innovation inspired by nature

The post Episode 6: Hazel Henderson| The future of sustainability appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

It took many decades over the early 20th Century for a standardised way of presenting financial information to investors to evolve. A similar process is now under way in an effort to include non-financial information in mainstream accounts. But we have to do it in years, not decades. Nowhere has there been more progress than with respect to integrating climate change information. In this podcast, Mardi McBrien, MD of the Climate Disclosure Standards Board discusses the progress that has been made integrating climate change-related information into mainstream financial reporting for investors and financial markets. Mardi talks about the CDSB framework, the distinct role the CDSB plays, and the crucial importance of coming to an agreed understanding of materiality in sustainability that is aligned with a more traditional financial perspective on materiality.

The post Episode 5: Mardi McBrien | Why we need to integrate climate change-related information into mainstream financial reporting appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

By many measures, humans have shown themselves to be a pretty successful species. But we are living unsustainably. We are consuming more resources than the Earth can provide– we are in global ecological overshoot. The Ecological Footprint, developed by the Global Footprint Network, is a leading measure of human demand on nature, reflecting the productive area required to provide the renewable resources humanity is using and to absorb its waste. And this calculation show that every year we are effectively consuming the equivalent of 1.6 planets. In this podcast, Global Footprint Network co-founder Susan Burns talks about the power of ecological footprint- the impact of our increasing ecological deficit -and talks about her recent research integrating environment risk into sovereign credit analysis.

The post Episode 4: Susan Burns | What the ecological footprint tells us appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

Marks & Spencer launched its Plan A progamme in 2007 with the ambition to make the company the world’s most sustainable major retailer. This far-reaching ecological and ethical programme is now in its 9th year. In this interview, Mike Barry, who oversees Plan A, and was part of the initial team that developed the programme, talks about the progress that M&S has made hitting its targets, how M&S deals with innovation in sustainability, the challenges and lessons from integrating sustainability across the business-and why this is so crucial to the company’s future success.

The post Episode 3: Mike Barry | The path to become the world’s most sustainable retailer appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

Over the comings years, sums of between US$5 and $7 trillion a year will need to be invested in infrastructure, clean energy, water, sanitation, agriculture, to meet Sustainability Development Goals.  New Climate Economy estimates that a massive $93tn investment will be required across the whole economy by 2030 to keep the temperature rise below 2 degrees. This will require both a massive increase in investment and a re-orientation of investment towards lower carbon technologies. How will this money be raised? Climate bonds–bonds linked in some way to climate change solutions—are a key and growing source of investment.  Already one of the fastest growing asset classes, some expect to rise to $1 trillion a year by 2020. In this interview, Sean Kidney, co-founder of the climate bonds initiative, discusses the role of climate bonds, explains the recent explosive growth, and looks to future plans to credentialise the market.

The post Episode 2: Sean Kidney | Why climate bonds matter appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.

In the first episode of the Sustainability Agenda, Professor Ioannis Ioannou, a noted sustainability scholar at London Business School unveils the latest research on corporate sustainability.  The long-assumed trade-off between sustainability and profits, is it turns out, as many sustainability leaders suspected, illusory. The latest research shows that high sustainability companies are not only more profitable-but they can outperform as investments. And increasingly, investors are paying attention to a company’s sustainability initiatives. 

In this podcast, Professor Ioannis draws together the latest thinking and research on sustainability: 

• why sustainability today is at the heart of competitive advantage;
• the role of stakeholders in sustainability
• the dangers of a non-strategic approach to sustainability;
• the deep implications for transparency and governance;
• the changing role of the board

The post Episode 1: Ioannis Ioannou | The cast iron business case for sustainability appeared first on The Sustainability Agenda.