The Sustainable Futures Report

I recently had the opportunity to talk to Christophe Bourguignat about insurance in the context of natural disasters and the climate crisis.

This week I'm talking about the power of the press, about how the rich view the climate crisis and what are they doing about it, how NASA is saving the world and a different perspective on one of the oil majors. First, we are back to carbon offsets and Verra's U-turn.

I promised you more detail on the carbon offset controversy which was started by a report in the press last month. Here's an interview with someone with firsthand knowledge of the market, Chief Impact Officer and co-founder of Compensate, Niklas Kaskeala.

This week’s headline is Regenesis, the title of a book by George Monbiot. I'll tell you what I think and indeed what others think about his latest ideas. I'm also bringing you a few stories that you might have missed; some about food, some about geo-engineering, the threat of a new pandemic and another book I’m just reading.

Each week I write between 2,000 and 4,000 words to bring you an episode of the Sustainable Futures Report. I also write to the paper from time time and sometimes I get published...

Is the law an ass? Or is it something more sinister?

Sustainability news doesn’t stop, nor does the weather, nor do GHG emissions. I’ve a bit of catching up to do, including XR, more extreme weather, wood burning stoves, the government’s environmental plan, FOMO and FOFO, the controversy over Verra and carbon offsets, the future for podcasts, the financial climate, the unlawful arrest of journalists, biodiversity and the cost of Twitter, a comment from Greta and a whole lot more that I’m going to have to hold over until next week.

If we are to preserve a habitable environment and successfully meet the challenge of the climate crisis our organisations need competent, sustainable leadership. I spoke to Clarke Murphy, who knows about these things.

My guest this week, Leonardo Zangrando, wants to save the oceans and wants to inspire 100 million people to help him do that. Sounds a lot, although given that world population passed 8 billion last year is it really a lot? The oceans, he tells us, are the lungs of the planet. Forget the tropical rainforests - the oceans are far more significant. Everything, everything we do, affects the oceans. And the oceans affect us.

Trees are good for the planet. Hank Dearden explains how trees do so much more for us than just sequester carbon. We can all help too!

Today I'm talking to Paul Hughes about new applications for batteries. How they can store energy, save energy, save money and cut carbon emissions.

There are now 8,000 million people (8 billion) across the world. Every one of those has to be fed. The RIPE project has been ongoing for decades at sites in different parts of the world. Its aim is to adapt plants to the harsher future that climate change is creating, to safeguard food supplies. I spoke to Steve Long, Project Director

In the final part of our series on the management of waste I bring you an interview with Peter Wang Hjemdahl of rePurpose Global. As I mentioned last week, his organisation aims to help you get your plastic footprint under control. The headline on the website is “Together, rePurpose Global’s coalition is recovering 14,228,074 pounds of plastic each year - will you join us?”

This week I’m looking back on 2022. I’ve published 62 episodes over the year - about 150,000 words. Thank you for listening and thank you for your feedback. In this episode I’m going to look at what concerned us this time last year and what progress we’ve made since then. In December last year we were talking about COP26, which had just ended in Glasgow. There were complaints about fossil fuel subsidies, an Insulate Britain protester on hunger strike, profound wisdom on climate mitigation...

Waste has a cost. It's a cost to the environment in terms of pollution. It's a cost to the world as lost resources. Increasingly it's a cost to the producer, through the cost of disposal or even through fines. Stacy Savage is Founder & CEO of Zero Waste Strategies. Here's how she helps her clients address the problem.

In April 2021 seven women took hammers and chisels to the office of Barclays Bank in Canary Wharf, London and cracked the glass panels of the facade. They put up posters saying, “In case of climate emergency break glass.” They then waited to be arrested. All seven appeared in court this week. All seven were found guilty of criminal damage. One of those arrested was Zoe Cohen, who spoke to the Sustainable Futures Report only last month. She told me why she did it, and what sentence she...

The idea of the circular economy is to use, reuse and recycle materials to minimise the amount that we have to take from virgin resources. In an ideal world there is no such thing as a waste. When something is finished with it becomes an input to a new process. We are very far from achieving that, but there are people working hard to make it a reality. People like those at the Material Library of India. And it’s about a lot more than just collecting things up after they have been thrown...

To give you some pointers on how to control your carbon footprint I'm talking this time to John Cossham. And not just about being green and cutting carbon, but our wide-ranging discussions included population, changing the system, being vegan or vegetarian, the steady-state economy, doughnut economics, gross domestic happiness, tipping points and positive feedback, climate anxiety, near-term human extinction and why we should be doing good now – it's the right thing to do. And never, ever...

It's over. Cop 27 has finished even though it ran on for several days after its scheduled closing. An agreement was reached at the last minute! But where have we heard all this before?

I've been promising you a review of what's been going on from an environmental point of view since Anthony Albanese's Labor government took office in May. I spoke to Dr Simon Wright. He’s Director at Simply Sustainable Consulting and Research Principal, Institute for Sustainable Futures (ISF) at the Orange campus of the University of Technology, Sydney.