I need to take stock and make the Sustainable Futures Report as relevant and interesting to you the listener as I can. I'm going to develop ideas for the theme and the content. To do that I'm taking a break and aiming to be back in January.

There are still many people who are determined to deny the dangers of the climate emergency with refusal to face facts or even by supporting censorship. There are lots of stories at the moment about the climate, principally about soaring sea temperatures, but also about the legacy of wildfires in Canada and the effect of temperature on solar panels. Are we counting the cost of the climate crisis correctly? A paper in Nature Sustainability suggests that we are counting the money cost and ignoring the human cost. How will we achieve a transition to net zero? Is Just Stop Oil the answer, or will it make things worse? And finally how good are you at thinking on your feet, when faced with tricky climate questions? There’s a new online club to help you with that.

First, though, we'll look at some political policy issues.

Let me start by telling you that the Wednesday Interview next week is a discussion on the future role of electric vehicles. Don’t miss it and do let me know what you think.

That’s about all for this week - yes, really - because in January I am going to concentrate on developing the website, raising the social media profile and developing the deal for patrons... 

 Is  carbon neutral the same as net zero?

Also this week, How to spend $1 trillion, behaviour change against climate change, and converting Nature to a financial instrument.

It sounds too good to be true. Just pay to plant a few trees and you can travel as far and as frequently as you like. I admit, I was very sceptical when I first met Christian Møller-Holst whose business is based on making business trips not just carbon neutral, but net zero.

Here's how Christian explained it to me.

It's not just about greenwash this week; I'll also talk about the Climate Change Committee’s reaction to COP 26, the future of the Cambo oilfield, why it might be a good thing for the environment that Allegra Stratton has resigned and rubbish in Romania.

Can Covid help us solve the climate crisis? This week I'm talking to authors Graeme Maxton and Bernice Maxton–Lee about their new book. It's a very wide-ranging discussion and I think you'll find it interesting.

This week I look at some of the consequences of global warming which have hit North America and China this year. It's getting colder, as winter takes over the northern hemisphere. Is Russian gas the best way of keeping Western Europe warm?  And here in the UK, are there political changes afoot? And if there are, how will that affect our progress towards net zero?

This week I’m talking to Michelle Marks about how one part of the world is starving while another part is wasting food. Michelle is a sustainability consultant. She’s owner of Coral Mountain and founder of Speak Carbon, an organisation dedicated to raising carbon literacy through training.

If you want to know what Greta Thunberg or David Attenborough or Alok Sharma thinks you only have to open a newspaper or go on line. What about the rest of us? After all, we’re all in the front line. I’ve collected a few comments. And what about the Insulate Britain protestors? Nine of them are in jail. A motorist responds.

Today we have a follow-up on last week’s methane story, a reminder of World Refill Day and I reveal why we’re burning more coal this week. In other news I ask who’s in the driving seat, or is the seat driving? There's a podcast about the end of the world, but first, let's talk about the warming oceans, the biggest heat sink on the planet.

The Wednesday Interview with Jenny Bailey, guiding children to become environmentally aware and responsible. 

And Green Jumper Day - something you can get involved in on Friday.

Well it's over. Where are we now, now that all the delegates have gone home from Glasgow and COP26 is finished? I’ll start with a review of comments in the press and close with a conversation with a colleague who actually went to Glasgow.

In this week's Wednesday Interview Mattias Axelson of the Stockholm School of Economics describes a variant on the Circular Economy.

Greenwash, Offsetting and James Lovelock’s warning of Gaia’s Revenge. Should we reconsider Personal Carbon Allowances, and is there really an Anti-Solar Panel that works in the dark?

And for something completely and utterly different check out SteelHaven.info 

The Wednesday Interview

Sunshine is everywhere and it's free! Let's not waste a drop. Veeral Hardev of Ubiquitous Energy explains one way of making the most of it.

So we’re in the last chance saloon! Who would have thought it? Maybe anybody who has been listening to the Sustainable Futures Report for the last 14 years. But let’s accentuate the positive. 

A conversation with CEO Ian Riley.

COP26 – the Big Issue

Seeing as COP26 has made the front cover of The Big Issue magazine the message must really be getting through! 

Ori Ben Ner, CEO of SupPlant, explains how software can help farmers get the best out of every last drop of water. 

Before looking at prospects for COP26 and other sustainability news, let's remember Sir David Amess MP, who lost his life last week while serving the public.

Today, I'll bring you items about electric cars, about Western Australia's personality of the year, and about the controversy over the President of COP 28. First, though, I'm going to talk about methane. 

An interview with CEO Christian Kroll

Empty shelves, queues for petrol, rocketing gas prices. Will these short term crises take  the eyes of world leaders off the COP26 ball?

David Hanney, CEO of Alpkit, describes how his company builds sustainability into all aspects of the business.

COP26 and Insulate Britain. These are the two key issues I’ll discuss today. I’ll also tell you about plans for extra editions of the Sustainable Futures Report, coming soon.

The role of social impact bonds and impact accounting in meeting the challenges of the climate crisis. If we can make organisations accountable not merely for their handling of risk and profit but also for their impact on the environment, investors and consumers can support those having a net beneficial effect and reject those which do more harm than good.

While the hydrogen debate continues, the Extinction Rebellion protest continues as well - but it's not getting many headlines. If you exercise your democratic right to protest could it prevent you from getting a job, from getting motor insurance, from getting a visa to visit Europe? In this episode there's also news about a new form of mass electricity storage and details of the events that the Sustainable Futures Report is presenting next month as part of York Environment Week and the Great Big Green Week

Denialists and those in denial - hydrogen - should it be grey, green or blue, or is it a red herring? - Should Alok Sharma be driving a diesel car? Why are both Biden and Boris encouraging the extraction of more oil and coal? And an interview with the team at Bucha Bio: young entrepreneurs replacing a traditional material with a sustainable alternative.

Yes, that report's out. No surprises for most of us. What do we do now? What do governments do now? Well, they take action, and we make sure they do. Never give up!

In episode No. 350 we have an interview with Ross O’Ceallaigh of the Green Urbanist podcast. In other news there's the Siberian heatwave and methane emissions, foreign control of North Sea oil  threatens UK’s net zero goal, the mortality cost of carbon, HS2 may never reach the end of the line and new insights from Allegra Stratton, the Prime Minister’s climate crisis spokesperson.

This is an extra edition of the Sustainable Futures Report. There's so much comment, reporting and news that this is an attempt to keep you up to date. There will be another edition on Friday as normal!

If you work hard on making your organisation sustainable, isn't it nice to be recognised? Karen Sutton founded the Global Good Awards. Here's how it happened.

Rewilding to address the climate crisis: I talk to Ria Rocha of Mossy Earth. And there's news from Ireland of creative climate action. 

Floods in Edinburgh and London, floods and fatalities in Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, India and China; wildfires across North America, heatwaves in Europe. Is this our final wake-up call?

I'm talking to Jason Szeftel about China's role in solving the climate crisis, and how the West has exported much of its manufacturing, its carbon footprint and its rubbish to China. We look at economic stress and strains within the country, its desire for secrecy and the ever-increasing surveillance of its population. 

Sustainable business plus extreme weather, continued warnings, Belgians have their day in court and so does the Transport Action Network, (more) climate-warming plans from the UK government, what is Amazon throwing away? And the BBC has a change of heart.

All this and more in your latest Sustainable Futures Report.

This week Climate Action staged the Climate Innovation Forum 2021, a three-day event. I got a press pass and I’ll share my review of some of the sessions. Also on this week’s agenda: more on the nuclear plant at Taishan, extreme weather in North America, shortfalls in the UK, and the future of the Sustainable Futures Report.

Last week the leaders of seven powerful nations met in the UK. Let’s look at what they said and indeed what they didn't say. I also have the usual miscellanea to share with you, and some thoughts on the future of the Sustainable Futures Report. 

No clear theme this week. G-7 is still going on so I can only report on speculation rather than outcomes. We look at a potential pitfall of trade deals, analyse rain in Newcastle, I'll draw your attention to some events which look interesting and there is more, yes more, about bitcoin. In the Amazon region they have been living in harmony with nature for some 5,000 years. Then civilisation happened.

Last week Business Green staged an important conference - Net Zero Nature. I share some of the insights I gained. In other news, some thoughts about G7 - the upcoming intergovernmental conference, a missed opportunity for green recovery, more reaction to the news about Shell, blowing hot and cold on energy storage, is public transport the way forward? And a bit of mining in the West Midlands.

Should the Nord Stream 2 pipeline face sanctions following this week’s air piracy by Russian ally Belarus? Oil company Shell faces continued protests and car manufacturers - and other industries - find the chips are down. In the hunt for rare metals, mining may come back to the UK. Will it cause as much pollution as mining for bitcoin - now opening new markets for coal-generated electricity? Restaurant chain Nando's announces plans to go carbon neutral by November while McDonald's is under siege from Animal Extinction protesters.

This week Fatih Birol, a leading energy economist and currently executive director of the International Energy Agency, said that exploitation and development of new oil and gas fields must stop this year and no new coal-fired power stations could be built if the world were to stay within safe limits of global heating and meet the goal of net zero emissions by 2050.  

Meeting net zero is one target, but meeting increasing energy demand is another. How do we do this without fossil fuels? Is there a role for nuclear power to make up the shortfall?

Recently I met with three experts to discuss this point...

A wide-ranging interview with James Murray, Editor in Chief of Business Green. Our conversation included the role of China, carbon capture and storage, the resignation of the CEO of Verra (the offset certification body) and even the sponsorship by Drax Power of the upcoming Net Zero Festival.

A lot more stories, actually. I'm trying to get to grips with the stories that I haven't covered over the last four or five weeks. Links to all the sources, as usual, below. There’s a whole range of issues which I’ve loosely grouped into Energy, Science and Warning Signs, Managing the Message, and Inconsistencies, Greenwash and Counter-Intuitive ideas. With that last category in mind, we'll look at the East Yorkshire Oilfields.

First I'm pleased to announce that  the Sustainable Futures Report has been recognised as one of the 20 Best Podcasts About Climate Change of 2021 by https://prettyprogressive.com/20-best-podcasts-about-climate-change-of-2021/

One year on I'm talking again to James Dyke of Exeter University. This time our discussions ranged from Chelsea tractors to carbon sinks in the Arctic and the Amazon, the mystery of the missing methane (missing from the stats, that is, there’s too much of it in the atmosphere), why injecting sulphuric acid into the stratosphere might be a good idea and why it might not be. We reflected that peat takes centuries to form and only days to destroy, and asked why fossil fuel companies like selling fossil fuels. (Spoiler alert: it makes them rich.) I asked, "When the science is disregarded, denied, disputed, even distorted, why don’t scientists speak up?" And are the politicians right in saying that we’re on track to meet the Paris Agreement and meet Net Zero Carbon Emissions by 2050? "Yes!", they say, (but they are probably crossing their fingers behind their backs.)

What do we do now? This is what James Dyke told me.

Joe Biden hosted a climate summit last week. Greta Thunberg accused leaders of still talking and not doing, and nine women were arrested for breaking windows at the HQ of HSBC, a major investor in fossil fuel industries. Talk Radio wanted to know what I thought about it all. You’ll hear what I told them.