The Sustainable Futures Report – Details, episodes & analysis

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.