The Land & Climate Podcast

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.

Liz Carlisle talks to Bertie about her new book, soon to be published by Island Press: 'Healing Grounds - Climate, Justice, and the Deep Roots of Regenerative Farming'. The agroecologist, Environmental Studies Professor and award-winning author has spent the last year talking to Indigenous communities & farmers of colour across North America about their approaches to land, crop cultivation and livestock. Originally looking to learn more about soil sequestration, she was confronted with bigger picture issues about the relationships between climate policy, social justice, and agriculture.Liz's further reading: ·        HEAL Platform for Real Food·        Soul Fire Farm·        Vox’s coverage of Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren’s farming legislation·        IPES Food reports ·        Adam Calo’s work on Scottish low carbon farming·        You can order Liz Carlisle’s previous books on agroecology on her websiteClick here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

Alasdair talks to John Sterman about his groundbreaking research that found burning wood for energy will "increase atmospheric CO2 for at least a century". John Sterman is the Jay W. Forrester Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, the Director of the MIT System Dynamics Group and the Director of the MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative. His team developed a model for dynamic bioenergy lifecycle analysis, which he hoped would prove burning "wood was part of the solution" for the climate. Instead, "it came out the other way". Further reading: ·         Professor Sterman’s paper about the outcomes from his bioenergy modelling·         More details on the study, in reply to a comment on the paper·         En-Roads, MIT Sustainability Initiative’s interactive climate simulator that allows users to explore the impacts of different climate policies·       Read more about bioenergy and BECCS, and listen to more podcasts on the topic, in Land & Climate's bioenergy hubClick here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

Louisa Casson from Greenpeace (now on an Antarctic expedition) explains her work looking into carbon offsets and how they have developed since COP26.  She also gives her view on the  development of voluntary carbon markets.Here is some of Louisa's suggested further reading on the issue:- Oxfam’s report on the use of offsets in net zero  - European Climate Foundation CEO, Laurence Tubiana's commentary on offsets Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

"There is more CO2 contained in the oil and gas reserves already being extracted than in our entire global carbon budget to keep warming under 1.5 degrees C."Romain Loulalalen from NGO Oil Change International (OCI) tells Alasdair where we are on the global phase out of fossil fuels, what the current challenges are, how COP26 was significant and what political changes to expect in the next few years on oil and gas.  He also comments on whether the oil majors are genuinely committed to net zero targets.Further reading: Production Gap Report 2021Managing Peak Oil: a recent report by Carbon TrackerOil Change International's Big Oil Reality CheckBeyond Oil and Gas AllianceThe Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty initiativeClick here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

Is the net zero approach to climate mitigation working, or is it an unrealistic framework that does more to help corporations than the planet?Professor Holly Jean Buck of the University at Buffalo in Buffalo, New York comes onto the podcast to discuss her new book, 'Ending Fossil Fuels: Why Net Zero is Not Enough' with Bertie. You can order the book here from Verso, or read Bertie's review of it here. Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

Lauren asks Dr. Mark Bould about his new book The Anthropocene Unconscious.They discuss whether fiction goes far enough in representing narratives of climate crisis, ranging from Jane Austen’s ‘Mansfield Park’ to the 'Fast & Furious' franchise.You can also read Lauren's review of 'The Anthropocene Unconscious' here. Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.