Wicked Problems - Climate Tech Conversations

Julia Kumari Drapkin, CEO of IC Change, speaks on the importance of citizen-generated data for urban flood management. Taco Engelaar from Neara discusses AI-driven solutions to enhance grid resilience against climate impacts. John Hartley, CEO of Levidian, explains innovative methods for capturing methane to create hydrogen fuel. Gus Grand and Lucy Cotton from Eden Geothermal highlight advancements in geothermal energy, exploring its potential in the UK. The discussion emphasizes the need for collaboration in adopting climate technologies for resilient infrastructure.

As other companies working on the energy transition in the US fold, the Finnish energy tech giant Wärtsilä - with big footprint in energy storage and energy management systems - is doubling down. What do they know that others don't? We asked Malin Östman, the company's head of strategy. We had our conversation in person at the legendary Chatham House, during their Climate and Energy Summit 2025. And we share some highlights from the public bits of the event that caught our ear. If you're enjoying these conversations and want to go ad-free, I'd invite you to check out ways you can help us keep offering independent analysis from the smartest folks in climate and energy. Go to wickedproblems.earth and check us out! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Outro Track of the DayFor reasons that should become clear…https://open.spotify.com/track/5PGYWv9Xp4IraLSDs8h1bY?si=1b23870ffdad4629 Ben Cooke, Earth Editor at The Times and returning champion guest on Wicked Problems, walks us through why his news outlet just devoted a whole series to climate adaptation.Over the past 18 months, a big thesis of this project is that a certain amount of climate risk and climate effects are already happening. Very few people are willing to talk about it publicly, which I think has put all of us at a huge disadvantage.Because talking about adaptation takes you from some pretty abstract notions about mitigating emissions, CO2 levels and average global temperatures and becomes a really local thing. What's gonna happen in my town? What should we done about it? Who's gonna pay for that?Seeing the series of reporting on adaptation in the UK’s paper of record, particularly with the scene-setter from Science Editor Ben Spencer and cobylined with Anna Dowell, to me says we’ve really hit a big moment.Some other pieces in the series that we discuss:https://www.thetimes.com/uk/environment/article/solar-panels-farmland-food-security-times-earth-wdb6dlhk8https://www.thetimes.com/uk/environment/article/reforestation-flood-defence-farmers-times-earth-8wgzqjdg7https://www.thetimes.com/article/f6181881-35b2-4333-97ae-2396ca835727Yeah But What Can I Do?Funnily enough, as we discussed in last episode with Ivo Mensch of the Climate Majority Project’s Forum, you might stop doomscrolling and hang out in meatspace with other people who see now for what it is but are not queuing up to throw soup at plexiglass protectors of famous Van Gogh paintings.Talking to your neighbours about how to save each other in a natural catastrophe far more likely because of climate change that is here now is a very different chat from ‘you should go vegan to save some future version of the sky’.Tickets are still on sale for their event 15-16th March at Limehouse Town Hall in London.Spam is BadA few people have said we’re pushing you to many things that aren’t relevant. Some of you have nixed our emails. That happens with a fast-growing audience but we care what you think. We want to provide you things in which you find value.Shorter eps? No emails about eps bar a once-a-week thing? Different content streams for our themes, because to be fair we cover a lot of waterfront from politics to tech to law to finance to culture to science. We value your time and don’t want to waste it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s late. Stupid late. Despite remaining in recovery from 3 broken ribs and a part-collapsed lung that have sidelined me for 10 days, here’s a bit of catching up with some hope - some chaps in America who did what they could in this moment: sensing that climate data and analytics (along with other funded science) was about to go under the wheels of the Tump Train, we caught up with some guys organising a flotilla of small boats to carry what they can away from the blitzkrieg onslaught to help prepare to fight another day. It’s a climate data Dunkirk.Outro of the DayIf that’s the opiates talking I make no apologies. Time to figure our where you fit in to help, as things collapse into a nightmare timeline.We interview Ivo J. Mensch about the Climate Majority Project Forum focused on grassroots climate actions with a particular focus on adaptation, happening in London this weekend.And we speak with Raj Desai and Jeremy Herzog of Fulton Ring, who have successfully rescued important FEMA climate risk data from the MAGA bonfire. Finally, we talk with Jonathan Gilmour, a data scientist at Harvard School of Public Health, who helps lead a nationwide effort to safeguard environmental and public health data in the current emergency.They discuss the importance of data preservation, the role of international backups, and ways the tech community can contribute to this critical mission.Outro TracksHopefully listening will be as cool as compiling it. Listen: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2AWvHdqqNAUCJcByQEokut?si=e9d16d87d386420aHaving cleared our guns, we’ll be back soon with the Times’ Ben Cooke on their turn to adaptation, Leo Rayman on Eden Lab on how to properly score the sustainability of business operations, and much more.If you can help us keep this going, we’d very much appreciate it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Charlie Mercer, Policy Director at the Startup Coalition, advocates for government backing of climate tech in the UK, stressing the need to show returns on public funding. Emma Pinchbeck offers insights on the UK's carbon budget, highlighting the urgent requirement to lower electricity prices while advancing clean energy technologies. They delve into the challenges of industrial electrification, the importance of public investment for climate innovations, and BP's notable shift back to fossil fuels, raising concerns about the future of renewable energy transitions.

For full show notes and ad-free listening come to wickedproblems.earth.In this episode, host Richard Delevan discusses the failures and frustrations of traditional climate activism with sustainability strategist Joseph Gelfer. They explore Gelfer's call for 'climate populism'—a revolutionary, rather than reformist, approach to climate change that involves mobilizing public dissatisfaction with the elites. Delavan delves into how populist tactics used by figures like Donald Trump and Nigel Farage could inform a more aggressive climate strategy. The episode also touches on the far-reaching implications of political and technological trends led by influential figures such as Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, and what that means for the future of climate action.00:00 Introduction and Frustration with Current Approaches00:25 Welcome to Wicked Problems00:51 Net Zero 2050: A Sinister Goal01:17 Energy Policies and Their Consequences01:40 Testimony of Secretary of Energy Chris Wright01:56 The Role of Jordan Peterson and the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship02:40 The Impact of Elon Musk and Data Control03:27 Conversation with Joseph Gelfer: Sustainability Strategies06:43 The Disconnect in Sustainability Efforts07:58 The Need for Revolutionary Change10:21 Understanding Trumpism and Climate Denial17:39 Climate Populism: A New Approach21:27 The Potential of Farage and Future Political Shifts24:44 Defining Success and Truth26:33 The Spectrum of Truth27:30 The Climate Crisis and Ethical Dilemmas29:54 Final Thoughts and Contact Information33:47 The Conservative Movement's Long Game37:41 Silicon Valley's Libertarian Vision43:47 The Crisis of Democracy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This edition is supported by our friends at the Climate Majority Project. If you’re in the UK, and have decided it’s time to do something more than doomscrolling and more useful than throwing paint…on 15-16 March at Limehouse in London.Get more info and tickets here.Fires in Los Angeles at last count had $35 billion plus of insured losses and probably $300 billion plus of economic losses. Who should pay?Here to help decode that we spoke with Dave Jones - former Insurance Commissioner for California from 2011 through 2018. He's now the director of the Climate Risk Initiative at University of California, Berkeley. He recently wrote an oped in the New York Times arguing that the oil companies should have to pay for the damages of the LA wildfires, to arrest the insurance crisis.Steve Coulter of the Green Alliance here in the UK expands on, slight tension, conundrum, paradox. Steve talks about his recent briefing on this point, particularly focusing on Lloyd's of London.And, um, finally, our good friend, returning champion, Dana Drugmand, journalist, publisher of Climate in the Courts and One Earth Now, who's been helping us understand these issues in the US nearly a year now. She helps us explore the counteroffensive launched against the Empire State’s 2024 Climate Superfund law by 22 Republican state attorneys general who filed suit against state of New York to challenge the law signed by Governor Kathy Hochul at the end of last year. Dana compares that to some of the other pushback to the first-of-its-kind bill that was passed and signed into law earlier last year in Vermont.06:35 Interview with Dave Jones: Background and Climate Risk08:22 Insurance Industry's Role in Climate Change10:11 Holding Fossil Fuel Companies Accountable15:03 Subrogation and Legal Actions18:12 Impact on Insurance Markets and Homeowners20:15 Financial Risks and Regulatory Responses38:39 Mitigation Measures and Legislative Actions48:06 Industry Split on Sustainable Practices49:09 Lloyd's of London: A Case Study in Poor Performance50:33 The Growing Uninsurability Crisis53:53 Government Intervention and Systemic Risks56:33 Call to Action for Policymakers59:50 New York's Climate Superfund Law and Legal Challenges01:07:34 The Broader Implications of Climate Litigation01:22:40 Conclusion and Final Thoughts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last week, to a lot of online reaction, not all of it good, we spoke to Kelly Wanser from Silver Lining, a non profit that advocates for research in this area. Not everyone was happy we talked about the subject. Understandably people are concerned, with good reason. Humanity doesn't have a great track record of avoiding being reckless or selfish and making decisions here in the so called global north that will definitely hurt other people — but we do it anyway.Whether it's like small island states that will go under the waves in our lifetimes because of. These effects and at the International Court of Justice hearing lawyers for big nations basically saying, “oh, well, that's sad Sorry about that. I don't think we can do about it though But here here's some tickets to get some immigration for a couple thousand of you anyway to come to Australia but in exchange, we're gonna need your fishing rights and Mineral rights for the undersea stuff.”Or telling India and China, “sorry. No, you cannot have the standard of living that fossil fuels enabled The West to have.” Weirdly, not everyone is super excited with that kind of trade off.So if we’re going to feel obliged to look seriously at SRM - which is not the same as endorsing it - at the very least there should be ground rules: Insisting that the science done by and for researchers in the global south should be given privileged position in conversations about whether to do that research, about how to weigh potential costs and benefits, how to govern any of that stuff, how to even talk about it. Because places like Latin America, or South Africa, or Pakistan tend to have communities least able to cope with any potential negative outcomes. Andy Parker, Founder and CEO of the Degrees Initiative based in Bristol in the UK, has doing exactly that for 16 years - we think it made for an interesting chat.And in May, Degrees Initiative is convening the world’s largest conference to date on SRM, in Cape Town, South Africa. It might well reset the global conversation on the science, the economics, and the geopolitics of SRM.If you’re enjoying these conversations, do please share it, leave a rating and review on the platform of your choice, and send us feedback here at wickedproblems.earth.00:49 Current Climate Challenges and Innovations01:39 Global Perspectives on Climate Science05:14 The Ethics of Solar Geoengineering10:05 Interview with Andy Parker19:22 The Degrees Initiative and Global South23:45 Potential Risks and Considerations of SRM26:32 Potential Side Effects of Not Using SRM26:57 Security Implications and Uncertainties27:40 Degrees Initiative: Research and Support28:40 Fictional Scenarios and Real Concerns30:03 Termination Shock and Climate Impact37:01 Governance Challenges of SRM40:22 Mainstream Media and SRM Discourse43:15 Popular Culture's Take on SRM45:50 Final Thoughts and Future Directions48:34 Conclusion and Contact Information Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Get all our episodes and show notes ad-free at wickedproblems.earth.Professor Dana R. Fisher of American University is one of the most astute analysts of two things going through a huge stress test right now in the US - climate science, and democracy.Wicked Problems is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The necessity of today’s outro track will become obvious, and with apologies for my slandering of Flava Flav:She spoke to us from near Washington, where Elon Musk and his merry band of DOGE incels is being cheered on by Donald Trump as they ignore court orders and systematically gut research on the climate.She joined us at the end of last year, to talk about her book Saving Ourselves: From Climate Shocks to Climate Action. We planned to talk for maybe 20 minutes today about her recent work researching and documenting the vandalism to American science underway. Then she told us about her new research surveying attendees at the “People’s March” who were 75% female, overwhelmingly moderate, middle-aged, mainstream Democratic voters, she found that 33% of people surveyed thought violence was justified to protect American democracy. And that was BEFORE Trump’s inauguration and his pardon of those convicted of violently trying to overturn the results of the 2020 US election on Jan 6 2021.So we went over time. For nearly an hour.Come walk with us.Outro TracksChapters05:33 Introduction and Guest Welcome05:52 Discussing the Current State of the Apocalypse06:22 Field Work and Resistance Movements08:37 The People's March and Data Collection10:02 Media Misrepresentation and Crowd Sizes15:00 Political Violence and Survey Findings23:32 Impact on Federal Funding and Research29:06 Government Actions and Future Implications34:06 National Guard and Rising Tensions34:49 Impact on Jobs and Development35:39 USAID and Soft Power37:51 Theories on Government Dismantling38:38 Civil War and Martial Law Concerns39:02 Military's Role and January 6th Reflections48:20 Normalization of Violence51:00 Climate Change and Democracy52:36 Future Uncertainties and Personal ReflectionsThanksAppreciate you listening/watching/reading us. As we also get into it’s more important than ever that we get voices like Prof. Fisher’s to you to make sense of what’s happening. And what might be coming. We hope you’d consider helping us continue the work by becoming a material supporter of Wicked Problems - and maybe even share the love by gifting a subscription to someone who appreciates apocalyptic optimsm. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Get full show notes and our newsletter at wickedproblems.earth - and you can also get these episodes ad-free.Wicked Problems: Energy Transition and Decarbonization InsightsIn this episode of Wicked Problems, host Richard Delevan delves into key issues and recent developments in the energy transition and decarbonization efforts. . Special guest Freya Pratty from SIFTED.eu (get her climate tech newsletter here) shares insights into the growth and challenges within climate tech companies, including an in-depth look at Octopus Energy's software success, Kraken. The episode also highlights a significant paper from Oxford University examining the potential resilience of the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act against repeal, offering a glimmer of hope in the current political climate. Professor Sam Fankhauser of the Smith School joined us. And in some good news, the episode touches on the impressive rise of EV sales in the UK, policy impacts on the electric vehicle market, and the implications of Chinese EV makers entering the market. Ben Nelmes of New Automotive and Ben Kilbey of Bold Voodoo and EVUK came round. Join us for these crucial discussions and deep dive into the future of energy and climate policy.And clips from the Energy Transition Acceleration Forum at the British Library produced by The Carbon Trust - featuring Chris Stark of DESNZ being interviewed by Bloomberg's Akshat Rathi, Quadrature Climate Foundation's Greg de Temmermen, and Arthur Downing of Octopus Energy.00:00 Introduction and Consumer Issues00:34 Welcome to Wicked Problems01:20 Upcoming Interviews and Highlights01:51 Interview with Freya Pratty05:22 Deep Dive into Octopus and Kraken13:41 First of a Kind Factories17:07 Debate on Climate Tech Terminology29:00 Sam Fankhauser Oxford29:00 Interview with Professor Sam Fankhauser39:35 Navigating Congressional Influence on Climate Policy40:22 Vulnerabilities in Renewable Energy Policies41:16 The Role of Media and Reporting in Climate Change41:57 Global Perspectives on Deliverism and Climate Jobs43:28 Emotional vs. Rational Approaches to Climate Advocacy45:16 Global Climate Legislation Trends46:20 Anglo-Saxon Peculiarities in Climate Policy47:51 Future Research and Projects at Oxford Net Zero50:02 EV Sales Ben Squared50:27 Surprising Trends in UK EV Sales01:00:02 The Rise of Chinese EV Manufacturers01:04:35 Challenges and Opportunities in EV Market Policies01:15:54 The Importance of Affordable Electricity in Decarbonization01:18:46 UK's Role in Global Climate Leadership01:20:48 Outro Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.