The Land & Climate Podcast

Daniel Klier is CEO of ESG Book, and was previously HSBC's first Head of Sustainability, and Chair of the Bank of England Climate Risk Working Group. Alasdair spoke to him about how banks are confronting climate mitigation, and what needs to be done for banks and the finance industry to meet net zero targets. Daniel's suggested further reading: The IEA's Net Zero Scenario Bloomberg New Energy Finance Publications from the Energy Transition Commission Impact Investing InstituteESG Book InsightsClick here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

The controversial election of Bongbong Marcos as President of the Philippines on May 9th overshadowed another Filipino news item of global importance that week. After a nearly 7-year-long inquiry, the Philippines Human Rights Commission published a huge document detailing how human rights are infringed by climate change, who is responsible, and what courts could do about it. Bertie talked to the Executive Director of Greenpeace Southeast Asia, Yeb Saño, about the groundbreaking report. Further reading: You can read the report in full here. Read Greenpeace International's press release about the report here. Read Greenpeace's summary of the Filipino presidential candidates' climate platforms here. Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

Award winning author and journalist Sonia Shah talks to Alasdair about her book, The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move. She talks about what we can learn about human migration from wildlife, why climate migration should be seen as an adaptation strategy rather than a coming crisis, and the dangers of elitism in scholarly science. Further reading: Details about The Next Great Migration and where to buy it, as well as Sonia's other books, can be found here on her website.'First Came the Hurricane, Then Came the Campaign of Terror', by Sonia Shah in The Nation.Native Species or Invasive? The Distinction Blurs as the World Warms, by Sonia Shah in Yale School of the EnvironmentClimate Change, Forced Migration, and International Law by Jane McAdamClimate and Human Migration: Past Experiences, Future Challenges by Robert McLeman.'Follow the science: but whose science, and to where?' by Lauren Sneade on Land and ClimateClick here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

Did you know that methane is more than 25 times more potent than CO2 in terms of trapping heat in the atmosphere? In this episode we look at reducing methane emissions without mandating veganism. Our guests Anatoli Smirnov and Sabina Assan are researchers at Ember, international data analysts for clean energy solutions in the power sector. Despite drives to plant-based eating in the West, meat consumption is only going up and will not change any time soon. The other big methane emitters come from the power sector. Coal mining emits 52 million metric tons of methane per year, more than is emitted from either the oil sector, which emits 39 million tons, or the gas industry, which emits 45 million tons. So closing coal mines is the only viable alternative in tackling methane. Global methane emissions from the energy sector are about 70% higher than the amount national governments have officially reported. Methane reduction is  critical. Check out the methane hub to find out about how world leaders and businesses are looking to fulfil the 2030 methane pledge. You can read more about Ember's work here.Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

The day before 80 countries meet in Palau to discuss ocean governance, Bertie talked to Dame Meg Taylor DBE about the changes the Pacific Elders' Voice are campaigning for, including pollution of plastics and nuclear waste, illegal and unsustainable fishing, and loss and damage. Pacific Elders' Voice is a group of diplomats, academics, and creatives who work together to platform issues important to the future of the Pacific Islands. Meg Taylor's distinguished career includes serving as the Ambassador of Papua New Guinea to the United States, Mexico and Canada (1989-1994), Vice President of the International Finance Corporation (1999-2014), and most recently, Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum (2014-2021). She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2002.Further Reading: Read more about the Our Ocean Conference 2022Read the Pacific Elders' Voice Statement on Oceans 'UN ocean treaty summit collapses as states accused of dragging out talks', The Guardian, 21 Mar 2022'Nations commit to develop a legally binding agreement': press release announcing the proposed treaty on plastic pollution, with links to the full text. 'This dome in the Pacific houses tons of radioactive waste – and it's leaking', The Guardian, Fri 3 Jul 2015Follow Pacific Elders Voice here on Twitter, and here on Facebook.Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

Dr. Howard Herzog is a pioneer of carbon capture and storage research, having studied it since 1989 in what is now called MIT's Energy Initiative. He was also a Coordinating Lead Author for the IPCC's 2005 Special Report on Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage, and he is author of the 2018 book Carbon Capture. Bertie talked to Dr. Herzog about the different forms of CCS, issues around direct air capture's cost, why enhanced oil recovery and CCUS are not the way forward, and what policies need to be put in place to incentivise CCS deployment.Further reading: Read Bertie's series of CCS long reads on Land and Climate:What is happening with carbon capture and storage? Why Carbon Capture and Storage matters: overshoot, models, and moneyCapturing and storing problems Publications by Dr. Herzog from recent years on CCS include:Hard-to-Abate Sectors: The role of industrial carbon capture and storage (CCS) in emission mitigation Applied Energy (2021).Assessment of CCS Technology in a Climate Mitigation Portfolio (CCS Assessment Phase 1 Report) MIT Joint Program Special Report (2019)Read Dr. Herzog's 2018 book Carbon Capture, part of the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series.Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

Bertie talked to renowned peatland expert Professor Roxane Andersen, of the University of Highlands & Islands, the Environmental Research Institute, and the Flow Country Research Hub. They talked about the Flow Country in Scotland, her research on restoration, monitoring, and peatland fires, and more generally about why peatlands are so important for climate mitigation. After our podcast last year with Ed Struzik, listeners got in touch to say they wanted more content on peatlands, especially covering the science! We reached out to Professor Andersen, and were delighted she agreed to come on the show: do get in touch with recommendations or feedback, if there is anything you would like to hear about. We love hearing from you all.Further reading from this episode: - Read about the InSAR monitoring technology here, and in even more detail here!- Read about the FireBlanket project here- Read about the damaging afforestation on peatlands in the UK in the 1970s and 1980s here- Read about the Flow Country here, including the application to make it a UNESCO world heritage siteClick here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

Alasdair talks to Associate Professor Wim Carton of Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies about offset markets, carbon removal technologies, and IPCC modelling. They wade into some tricky questions: are scientists watering down recommendations to make them politically palateable? How are neoclassical economics affecting the world's approach to climate mitigation? Why do the IPCC working groups have contradictory messages on saviour tech?Further reading - Carbon Unicorns and Fossil Futures: Whose Emission Reduction Pathways Is the IPCC Performing?- Seize the Means of Carbon Removal: The Political Economy of Direct Air Capture- Undoing Equivalence: Rethinking Carbon Accounting for Just Carbon Removal- The meaning of net zero and how to get it right- Social Science SequesteredClick here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

With the invasion of Ukraine ongoing, Bertie talks to Sam Lawson, Director of investigative NGO Earthsight, following a public letter from 120 NGOs calling for a boycott on Russian and Belarusian wood. The public letter was led by Ukrainian environmental groups in response to the invasion, but Earthsight have been investigating illegal and unsustainable Russian and Belarusian logging for years. Their work has exposed major failings of EU, UK, and US law, and particularly of certifiers like FSC, SBP and PEFC.  NOTE: this is a faster-moving story than we normally cover in our podcasts. Since recording this conversation on Tuesday 8th March, SBP and FSC have both announced that they are longer certifying Russian wood. Further reading: ·         The campaign backed by 120 NGOs to boycott Russian and Belarusian wood·         Russia’s timber oligarchs – new Earthsight analysis·         Earthsight’s ‘Taiga King’ investigations exposing illegal Russian logging for European export·         IKEA’s House of Horrors – Earthsight’s investigation into IKEA’s illegal Russian supply chain·         2020 investigation by The Telegraph exposing unsustainable Russian logging in Drax’s supply chainClick here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

Sami Yassa, senior scientist at the US based NGO the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and their scientific lead on forests and forest biomass,  sets out NRDC research on the use of Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) which looks at whether it can really produce negative emissions.  He also explains NRDC's work with the US Congress on biomass.Further reading from Sami Yassa:·         NRDC's recent research on BECCS·         Further explanatory documents and data from the research ·         NRDC US Congress work around biomass and ensuring scientific independence for US environmental agenciesClick here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.