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This week on Cleaning Up, Bryony Worthington is joined by Peter Cox, Professor of Climate System Dynamics at the University of Exeter and Director of the Global Systems Institute. A former lead author of the IPCC climate reports, Peter has spent decades studying the complex feedbacks between the climate, carbon cycle and natural world.

They delve into some of the biggest questions in climate science today: Is the planet warming faster than we thought? What is the role of forcing versus feedback? How much of the recent change is being driven by external forces, including the decline of reflective sulphur pollution, and how much is the climate system responding in ways that amplify warming? 

They explore why the Earth is reflecting less sunlight back into space, the growing Earth energy imbalance, climate sensitivity, tipping points in the Amazon and Arctic, and whether solar radiation modification should remain taboo.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Why the Earth is darkening
• Is global warming accelerating?
• The Earth’s energy imbalance
• Climate sensitivity and feedbacks
• Amazon and Arctic tipping points
• The hidden cooling from pollution
• Geoengineering the planet
• Positive clean energy tipping points

Leadership Circle:

Cleaning Up is proud to be supported by its Leadership Circle. The members are Actis, Alcazar Energy, Arup, Climate Imperative Foundation, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, Cygnum Capital, Davidson Kempner, EcoPragma Capital, EDP, Eurelectric, KKR, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, National Grid, Octopus Energy, Quadrature Climate Foundation, Schneider Electric, SDCL and Wärtsilä. For more information on the Leadership Circle, please visit cleaningup.live.

Links:

• Professor Peter Cox’s bio: https://experts.exeter.ac.uk/962-peter-cox/about 
• Professor Cox’s publications: https://experts.exeter.ac.uk/962-peter-cox/publications 
• Subscribe to our newsletter: https://cleaninguppod.substack.com

Acronyms:

• IPCC: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
• CMIP6: Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 6
• CERES: Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System
• ARIA: Advanced Research and Invention Agency 
• SO2: Sulphur Dioxide
• RCP8.5: Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5
• SSP5-85: Shared Socioeconomic Pathway 5 - Radiative Forcing 8.5
• IAM: Integrated Assessment Model
• AMOC: Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation
• PV: Photovoltaics
• SRM: Solar Radiation Modification

Chapters

• 00:00 Coming Up
• 01:08 Professor Peter Cox
• 03:40 Climate System Modelling
• 07:36 Climate Tipping Points
• 17:04 Accelerating Global Warming
• 18:57 Earth’s Energy Imbalance
• 22:13 The Darkening Planet
• 37:59 Rethinking Climate Scenarios
• 45:59 Positive Tipping Points
• 52:24 Geoengineering The Planet 
• 01:05:14 Outro