Climate One

More than half of Americans are invested in the stock market, either directly or through their retirement funds, but individual investors rarely think about how their money is actually being put to use. And even if they decide to take a stand and divest from fossil fuels, that may not translate into a single molecule less carbon being released into the atmosphere. On the other hand, large institutional investors - like those that manage individuals’ retirement funds - can wield huge influence over the companies in their portfolios. So how are asset managers accounting for climate risk? And how can they drive corporate leaders to be more accountable for their emissions today, and cut emissions tomorrow? This episode was supported in part by The ClimateWorks Foundation.Guests:Cynthia McHale, Senior Director, CeresDylan Tanner, Executive Director, Influence MapShane Khan, Head of Research, JUST CapitalYasmin Dahya Bilger, Head of ETFs, Engine No. 1 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A fundamental injustice of the climate crisis is that those who have contributed to it least are already bearing the brunt of the impacts, and that will continue as global temperatures rise. Like many other environmental and societal challenges, we can’t make real progress if certain groups are left behind. How might a new model for working together to solve interconnected crises, by tracing the origins of ecofeminism, environmental justice and other movements that center the voices and experiences of Black, Indigenous and people of color, work?Guests:Leah Thomas, author, Founder, The Intersectional Environmentalist Hop Hopkins, director of organizational transformation, The Sierra Club Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD) took the national spotlight as the lead manager for the second impeachment trial of the former president. As a member of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, he has grilled fossil fuel executives on the industry’s long history of intentionally misleading the public. And as a constitutional law professor, he has offered deep insight into the connections between an informed citizenry and a robust democracy. At a time when many Americans doubt Congress’s ability to get anything done, what are the government’s strongest levers for climate action? And what are the connections between climate and democracy?This story is part of ‘Climate & Democracy,’ a series from the global journalism collaboration Covering Climate Now.Guests:Jamie Raskin, U.S. Representative, Maryland’s 8th Congressional District Heather McGhee, Board Chair, Color of Change; author, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper TogetherRebecca Willis, Professor, Lancaster University; author, Too Hot to Handle? The Democratic Challenge of Climate ChangeVisit our website for show notes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fossil fuel companies and others have spent decades casting doubt on climate science to allow them to continue to profit. As documented by climate communication expert John Cook and others, these strategies have taken many forms: deny, dismiss, delay, deflect; and they have evolved over time. They’ve also included a concerted effort to recast political speech, banned and regulated in some contexts, as protected free speech, giving corporations more leeway in broadcasting their messages. In a special collaboration with Amy Westervelt of Drilled, we trace the origins of this free speech argument and break down the tactics used to spread misinformation. Guests:Amy Westervelt, journalist, Founder and Executive Producer, Drilled, Critical Frequency Podcast NetworkJohn Cook, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Climate Change Communication Research Hub, Monash University Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Global sales of electric vehicles more than doubled in 2021. Projections for this year are for another huge gain as more automakers introduce more models with increasing range. This is all good news for transitioning to a clean energy economy. But sourcing the materials needed for clean energy might not be so clean. Mining is the leading industrial polluter in the U.S., but the climate crisis demands a transition to technologies that require raw materials to be extracted. How can the world get the minerals it needs to mitigate the climate crisis without creating other ecological disasters in the process? Guests:Morgan Bazilian, Director, Payne Institute, Colorado School of MinesPayal Sampat, Mining Program Director, EarthworksMaureen Penjueli, Coordinator, Pacific Network on Globalisation Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Earlier this year, California regulators were set to propose significant changes to the incentives that drive rooftop solar installations. After widespread opposition from industry and climate advocates, the California Public Utilities Commission paused the effort. The issue centers on how much rooftop solar customers pay to use the grid and what rewards they get for selling their excess power. But California is far from the only state where net metering is a hotly contested issue. While utility-scale projects may offer more bang for the buck in some contexts, rooftop solar offers distributed generation and a tool for resilience. This week, we explore the debate between rooftop and utility-scale solar. Guests:Adam Browning, Co-Founder and Executive Director Emeritus, Vote Solar Bernadette Del Chiaro, Executive Director, California Solar and Storage Association Tom Beach, Principal Consultant, Crossborder EnergyEmily Sanford Fisher, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, Sr. Vice President, Clean Energy, Edison Electric Institute Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Since March 2020, the global community has grappled with an unprecedented pandemic. At first, most people were willing to do what it takes to keep themselves and others safe. Two years in, pretty much everyone feels exhausted by the effort and by the general anxiety of living with COVID. The global community simultaneously faces an even greater existential threat: climate change. For those fighting to stave off this slower-moving catastrophe, fatigue is a familiar feeling. What have we learned from two years of COVID disruption that can inform how we deal with climate fatigue? Guests:David Wallace-Wells, Editor-At-Large, New York MagazineBritt Wray, Human and Planetary Health Fellow, Stanford University Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The IPCC released its latest report the same day as the U.S. Supreme Court heard the most environmentally significant case in a decade, all while Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has rattled global energy markets. It’s a lot to take in all at once. Will the disruption of methane gas supplies to Europe give it the extra push it needs to decarbonize, or will some countries always be beholden to untrustworthy partners for the resources they need? What other options exist to power our economies more sustainably in the short and long term?Guests:Amy Myers Jaffe, Managing Director, Climate Policy Lab, Tufts UniversityErwin Chemerinsky, Dean, Berkeley Law Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It has been 3 million years since there’s been this much CO2 in the atmosphere. Even if we stop all burning of fossil fuels today, humans have already emitted enough CO2 that we’ll continue experiencing extreme weather events for years to come. Not only do we need to stop emitting greenhouse gasses, but according to the IPCC, we also need to accelerate the removal of CO2. With forests burning faster than we can grow them, nature-based solutions may not be enough. What role might tech-based solutions play? Can they be implemented in a just, equitable way that does not give license for fossil fuel interests to continue business as usual?Guests: Marcius Extavour, VP, Energy & Climate, XPRIZE Angela Anderson, Director of Industrial Innovation and Carbon Removal at World Resources InstituteRachel Glennerster, Associate Professor of Economics, University of Chicago Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Humans must dramatically rein in greenhouse gas emissions in order to slow the planetary warming caused by centuries of fossil fuel combustion. But even if we accomplish that through major reforms to our power supply, food systems, industrial industries and more, we still need to remove huge amounts of carbon already in the atmosphere to stave off the worst impacts of climate disruption. This is no easy task. We need to explore every option – both nature-based solutions and tech solutions. In a two-part series, we look at both categories. First up, the natural mechanisms for carbon capture and storage, from forests to peat bogs to kelp beds. Guests:Ugbaad Kosar, Deputy Director of Policy, Carbon180Edward Struzik, author, Swamplands: Tundra Beavers, Quaking Bogs and the Improbable World of PeatBren Smith, Co-Executive Director and Owner, Thimble Island Ocean FarmBenjamin Preston, Senior Policy Researcher, RAND Corporation Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices