The Land & Climate Podcast

This week, Bertie Harrison-Broninski speaks with Professor Annette Kehnel, Chair of Medieval History at the University of Mannheim. Kehnel gives us a potted history of sustainability and argues that sustainable practices have existed throughout history, yet our modern collective memory is influenced by ideas of resource exploitation introduced in the 18th and 19th centuries.  Annette Kehnel is currently a visiting fellow at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. She is the author of The Green Ages: Sustainable Practices, winner of the 2021 NDR Book Prize. Its English translation by Geshe Ipsen has been shortlisted for the 2025 Schlegel-Tieck Prize. Further reading:  The Green Ages: Medieval Innovations in Sustainability, Annette Kehnel, Profile Books Die sieben Todsünden: Menschheitswissen für das Zeitalter der Krise (The Seven Deadly Sins: Human Knowledge for the Age of Crisis), Annette Kehnel, Rowohlt Governing the commons : the evolution of institutions for collective action, Elinor Ostrom, Cambridge University Press Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming, Naomi Oreskes, Bloomsbury Managing the Lake Constance Fisheries, ca. 1350-1800, Michael Zeheter, Berghahn Send us a textClick here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright has claimed that nuclear fusion can be harnessed within the next five years, and that its application to the electricity grid is expected within eight to fifteen years. Fusion research has been ongoing for over a century, with experiments beginning in the 1950s, but there has recently been a surge in private investment. Nearly $10 billion has been raised in the last five years, primarily from private funders in the USA.Fusion expert Matthew Hole tells Bertie Harrison-Broninski that many of these new companies are likely to go bankrupt, and that fusion power is unlikely to be operational in time to contribute to net zero targets. They discuss the different forms of fuel for fusion power, the world’s largest fusion project in France, and the high-risk, high-reward nature of fusion investment.Matthew Hole is a professor at the Mathematical Sciences Institute at the Australian National University and a leading authority on plasma fusion physics. In 2005, he founded the Australian ITER Forum and currently serves as co-chair of the International Fusion Research Council of the International Atomic Energy Agency.Further reading: Billions in private cash is blooding into fusion power. Will it pay off? Professor Matthew Hole, 2025, The Conversation US energy chief tells BBC nuclear fusion will soon power the world, Justin Rowlatt, 2025, BBCHelion Energy starts construction on nuclear fusion plant to power Microsoft data centers, Stephen Nellis, 2025 ReutersWhat’s fueling the commercial fusion hype? Victor Gilinsky, 2024, Bulletin of the Atomic ScientistsIter, the nuclear-fusion project proving that multilateral collaboration still works, Simon Bouvier, 2025, MonocleWhat’s the difference between fusion and fission? A nuclear physicist explains, Professor Matthew Hole, 2024, The ConversationSend us a textClick here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

Controversial efforts at space tourism, such as by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, have reignited old debates about the purpose of space exploration. What relevance does the world beyond our planet have to anyone apart from billionaires and their super-rich clients? Without defending the growing commercialisation of the space sector, environmental historian Professor Dagomar Degroot offers some answers. In conversation with Alasdair, he examines the solar system's influence on humanity - and humanity's influence on the solar system. They explore how humans have survived past climate shifts, and how human understanding of climate and space have always been connected. Dagomar Degroot is Associate Professor of Environmental History at Georgetown University and a leading scholar on the Little Ice Age. His first book, “The Frigid Golden Age,” was published in 2018. His new work, “Ripples on the Cosmic Ocean,” is published by Penguin and available to pre-order here.  He also has a podcast telling the story of climate's influence on humanity, The Climate Chronicles.Further reading: Little Ice Age Lessons, Dagomar Degroot, Aeon, 2025 The Frigid Golden Age, Dagomar Degroot, Cambridge University Press, 2018 The History of Climate and Society, Dagomar Degroot, IOPScience, 2022 Climate Change in Human History: Prehistory to the Present, Benjamin Lieberman and Elizabeth Gordon, 2022, Bloomsbury The Story of CO₂ Is the Story of Everything: How Carbon Dioxide Made our World, Peter Brannen, 2025, Harper Collins Colonial Cataclysms: Climate, Landscape, and Memory in Mexico’s Little Ice Age, Bradley Skipyk, 2020, University of Arizona Press Send us a textClick here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

In 2006, the Masdar City project was launched in the United Arab Emirates. Supported by $22 billion in state-funding, it aimed to be the world’s most sustainable city. Situated 6km away from Zayed International Airport, neighbouring a Formula 1 racetrack and golf course, Abu Dhabi’s eco-utopia is full of contradictions.Bertie discusses why oil-rich Gulf states like UAE and Saudi Arabia are investing in sustainability with Gökçe Günel, Associate Professor in Anthropology at Rice University. Gökçe is the author of Spaceship in the Desert: Energy, Climate Change, and Urban Design in Abu Dhabi, published in 2019 by Duke University Press. Further reading: Inside COP28: A Participant’s Take on Climate Diplomacy Efforts in Dubai, Gökçe Günel, Baker Institute, 2024 Horizons, Gökçe Günel, e-flux Architecture, 2022Spaceship in the Desert: Energy, Climate Change, and Urban Design in Abu Dhabi, Gökçe Günel, Duke University Press, 2019  Send us a textClick here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

Global heating in 2024 exceeded 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, but most governments continue to extend fossil fuel use. Are we now in a political situation where decarbonisation and mitigation efforts are failing? Is climate disaster irreversible?Alasdair MacEwen discusses these questions with Wim Carton, who returns to the podcast following publication of his new book, The Long Heat: Climate Politics When It’s Too Late, co-authored with Andreas Malm. Wim also explains the desperate technological solutions being considered for carbon dioxide removal and geoengineering, which he argues could do more harm than good.Wim Carton is a senior lecturer at the Lund University Centre for Sustainable Studies. His research centres on carbon capture and negative emissions. The Long Heat is the second book he has co-authored with Andreas Malm for Verso Books, after 2024's Overshoot: How the World Surrendered to Climate Breakdown.Further reading:Click here to buyThe Long Heat from Verso Books.Overshoot: has the world surrendered to climate breakdown?, Land and Climate Review, 2024 Is climate modelling undermined by economics and ideology?, Land and Climate Review, 2022   Overshoot: Navigating a world beyond 1.5°C, Planet B Productions and the Strategic Climate Risks Initiative., Laurie Laybourn, 2025 Scientists Clash over whether Polar Geoengineering Is a Dangerous Gamble, Scientific American, Alec Luhn and Andrea Thompson, 2025  A ‘doom loop’ of climate change and geopolitical instability is beginning, The Conversation, Laurie Laybourn and James Dyke, 2024 The Sunlight Managers, The Break-Down, Sofia Menemenlis, 2025 Send us a textClick here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

As the energy transition accelerates, critical minerals have become increasingly important, and the priorities of extraction for countries in the Global North are beginning to shift. The U.S., EU, and others are now exploring the possibility of on-shoring critical mineral mining -  potentially bringing a divisive industry closer to home.  This week, Alasdair talks to extraction expert Dr. Thea Riofrancos, who explains the tension between the harmful consequences of mining and the key role of extractive industries in facilitating the energy transition. She outlines the history of lithium mining in Chile, the environmental and human-rights consequences of extraction, and why we may have overestimated the quantities of critical minerals we actually need. Thea Riofrancos’ new book Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism, published by Island Press and W.W. Norton & Company, is available for purchase here. Thea is an associate professor of political science at Providence College and a strategic co-director of the Climate and Community Institute. Further reading Electric cars are drying up the desert, Meabh Byrne, 2023, Land and Climate Review  The ‘critical minerals’ rush could result in a resource war, Thea Riofrancos, 2025, Financial Times  The Security–Sustainability Nexus: Lithium Onshoring in the Global North, Thea Riofrancos, 2023, MIT Press Direct Endogenous Participation: Prior Consultation in Extractive Economies, Thea Riofrancos, Julia Falleti, 2017 World Politics  Send us a textClick here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

Alasdair speaks with Jessica F. Green, author of the new book Existential Politics: Why Global Climate Institutions Are Failing and How to Fix Them, about why thirty years of climate policy have failed to reduce emissions. They discuss why carbon pricing has been largely ineffective, how net zero pledges are misleading, and why focus must shift from measuring emissions by the tonne to measuring profitability.  Jessica is a professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto, and an expert in carbon pricing and global governance. Her new book addresses the climate crisis through asset revaluation and is available to preorder from Princeton University Press here.   Further reading:  The Decarbonization Bargain: How the Decarbonizable Sector Shapes Climate Politics, Nils Kupzok and Jonas Nahm, Cambridge University Press, 2024 The False Promise of Carbon Offsets, Jessica F. Green, Foreign Affairs, 2023 Collaborative Advantage: Forging Green Industries in the New Global Economy, Jonas Nahm, Oxford University Press, 2021 Follow the Money, Jessica F. Green, Foreign Affairs, 2021 Does carbon pricing reduce emissions? A review of ex-post analyses, Jessica F. Green, Environmental Research Letters, 2021 Making Climate Policy Work, Danny Cullenward and David G. Victor, Wiley, 2020 Send us a textClick here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

Bertie speaks with Mark Parrington about this year’s record-breaking wildfires, and the health implications of increasing air pollution.  Mark is a senior scientist at the EU’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, where he uses satellite imagery to monitor wildfire emissions in real-time.  He tells Bertie about the scale of the recent surge in wildfires across Europe, North America, and the Arctic, and the health impacts of particulate matter and long-range pollution transport. They also discuss the climate implications as wildfires – especially in Arctic peatlands - release millions of tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere.  Further reading:  Arctic Climate Change Update 2024: Key Trends and Impacts, AMAP , 2024 State of Wildfires 2023-2024, Earth System Science Data, 2024 'Global, regional, and national mortality burden attributable to air pollution from landscape fires: a health impact assessment study', The Lancet, 2024  'EU wildfires worst on record as burning season continues', The Guardian, 2025 'Why are Europe and the Arctic heating up faster than the rest of the world?' Copernicus, 2025  'Current wildfire situation in Europe', The Joint Research Centre: EU Science Hub, 2025 Send us a textClick here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

Next week, negotiators meet in Geneva to finalise the UN’s historic Global Plastics Treaty, originally announced in 2022. The additional session was scheduled after years of tense international disagreement.Bertie talks to Punyathorn ‘Arm’ Jeungsmarn, Plastics Campaign Researcher at the Environmental Justice Foundation. Arm attended previous rounds of the UN talks, and recently worked on research about problematic solutions to plastic pollution.Arm discusses his experience of the negotiations and the influence of industry lobbying, as well as issues around the implementation of policies addressing plastic waste – from bioplastics to recycling.  Further reading:  False solutions unmasking policy gaps in addressing plastic pollution in Thailand and Southeast Asia, Environmental Justice Foundation, 2025 A global treaty to limit plastic pollution is within reach – will countries seize the moment? The Conversation, 2025   Room for Reduction: Towards sustainable production and consumption of plastics in Thailand, Environmental Justice Foundation, 2024   There is so much to say about plastic pollution. Why are we not talking about it? Land and Climate Review, 2023 Send us a textClick here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

In April, the International Maritime Organisation held the 83rd session of its Environment Protection Committee, where it established a system of penalties and rewards to advance shipping decarbonisation. This follows 2023 industry commitments to reduce emissions by 30% by 2030. Alasdair speaks with Simon Bullock about whether the recent agreement is strong enough to meet climate goals and explores practical actions that can be taken now without relying on greenwashing, expensive infrastructure, or scarce biofuels. Simon Bullock is an interdisciplinary climate change Research Associate at the Tyndall Centre, University of Manchester. He recently completed his doctorate, with his thesis focusing on "Accelerating shipping's climate change transition, and the role of UK shore power. Further reading:  Ten ways to cut shipping’s contribution to climate change, The Conversation, 2021 Update on the latest International Maritime Organization climate meeting, The Conversation, 2025 The need for action now on shipping and climate, Climate Policy, 2025 Send us a textClick here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.