The Sustainability Agenda – Details, episodes & analysis

In this thought-provoking conversation, Professor David Whyte examines how our legal and economic systems—particularly the structures of corporate capitalism—shape environmental outcomes and impede meaningful climate action. Drawing from his academic work and recent report The Carbon Cash Machine, he argues that tackling climate change requires confronting the underlying architecture that enables corporations to prioritize profit while externalizing harm.

Whyte explores the role of institutional investors, shareholder returns, and regulatory frameworks, revealing how financial incentives continue to drive fossil fuel expansion, arguing that corporate sustainability commitments are ultimately at odds with their core economic logic. He believes that corporate reform within the existing system will fall short, urging a deeper reckoning with the structural forces that entrench shareholder primacy over environmental responsibility. Calling for a fundamental reimagining of ownership, governance, and investment, he considers alternatives such as cooperative enterprises and public control of key industries, envisioning what a truly transformative economic model might look like.

This is a important  incisive discussion, from late 2024, that raises urgent questions about accountability, power, and the deeper systemic changes needed to confront the climate crisis.

David Whyte is Professor of Climate Justice in the School of Law, Queen Mary University of London. His most recent book is Ecocide: kill the corporation before it kills us (Manchester University Press, 2020). He is the co-author of Corporate Human Rights Violations: Global Prospects for Legal Action' (Routledge, 2018, with Stefanie Khoury) and editor of The Violence of Austerity (Pluto, 2017, with Vickie Cooper).

In this thought-provoking episode, Christopher Brown—lawyer, novelist, and urban naturalist— takes us on a journey through the landscape around his home in Austin, Texas, the edgelands where the city meets the wild. Drawing from his latest book, A Natural History of Empty Lots, Christopher explores the resilience of urban ecosystems, the unexpected biodiversity thriving in neglected spaces, and the connections between land, politics, and justice in an era of climate disruption.

This is a compelling dialogue about the uneasy balance between human civilization and the natural world—and how rethinking our relationship with wild spaces could reshape the cities of tomorrow. We delve into the intersections of rewilding, environmental justice, and the unfolding polycrisis, unpacking what these abandoned landscapes can teach us about adaptation, resilience, and envisioning a more livable future.

This episode includes readings from A Natural History of Empty Lots, and excerpts of a new sound composition by Cat Byrne, Clapton edgelands (i), gathered in the Lea Valley, Clapton, London, during November 2024. 

Christopher Brown is an American author and attorney based in Austin, Texas, renowned for his work in both science fiction and nature-focused nonfiction. His latest book, A Natural History of Empty Lots, published in October 2024, is a blend of nature writing, literary nonfiction, and memoir that explores the intersection of urban environments and wild nature.  Brown's debut novel, Tropic of Kansas (2017), was a finalist for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. He continued to explore speculative themes with Rule of Capture (2019) and its sequel, Failed State (2020), the latter of which was nominated for the 2021 Philip K. Dick Award.  In addition to his writing, Brown practices law and authors the urban nature newsletter Field Notes. You can subscribe to Chris' excellent Fieldnotes newsletter here: https://fieldnotes.christopherbrown.com/

Cat Byrne is a DJ, radio host, and forest researcher from East London. She hosts the monthly radio show, Biorhythms w/ Cat, on Balamii Radio, where she explores natural sounds, textured rhythms, and percussive down-tempo, and also a live place-based radio show on RTM, Listening From. Cat is also a keen field recordist, weaving her own field recordings throughout her sets. You can listen to the full sound composition Clapton edgelands (i) at https://catbyrne.bandcamp.com and www.catbyrne.com

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.” This interview was first aired at the end of 2021.

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.

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.

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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. 

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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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