In the 3rd episode of Planet A’s third season, Dan Jørgensen talks with Inger Andersen, the Under-Secretary-General of the UN and Executive Director of UNEP (the United Nations Environment Programme).UNEP recently published this year’s “Emissions Gap Report: The Heat Is On”. The Gap Report is a science-based assessment of the gap between countries’ climate pledges and the reductions required to deliver a global temperature increase of below 2°C by the end of this century.UNEP also publishes two related reports that are discussed in this episode. Firstly, the “Production Gap Report” that tracks the discrepancy between governments’ planned fossil fuel production and global production levels consistent with the Paris Agreement’s goals. Secondly, the “Adaptation Gap Report” that looks at progress in planning for, financing and implementing adaptationIn this episode, Andersen focuses on the “Emission Gap Report” and its conclusion that the new national climate pledges combined with other mitigation measures put the world on track for a global temperature rise of 2.7°C by the end of the century.Andersen also explains how the annual reports are prepared and why it is pivotal to have a scientific, factual and apolitical assessment of the gap between pledged and required reductions.  She underlines that it is well above the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement and would lead to catastrophic changes in the Earth’s climate. To keep global warming below 1.5°C this century, the aspirational goal of the Paris Agreement, the world needs to halve annual greenhouse gas emissions in the next eight years.Furthermore, Jørgensen and Andersen discuss what role the report will play at COP26 and how net-zero targets can play in bridging the emissions gap.

In the 2nd episode of Planet A’s third season, Dan Jørgensen talks with David Livingston and Varun Sivaram.Livingston and Sivaram serve as Senior Advisers to President Biden’s Special Envoy for Climate, John Kerry. Thus, they play a key role in fulfilling President Joe Biden's climate policy on the world stage.In this episode, Livingston and Sivaram discuss the US priorities and expectations for COP26. They argue that COP26 can act as an accelerator for more ambitious climate targets, while they are keenly aware that the window of opportunity to stem climate change is closing.Thus, the US is not merely pursuing climate action at the COP, but at a wide range of international fora such as the G20, the Major Economies Forum and at President Biden’s Leaders Summit on Climate.They also discuss the question of finance by the developed countries and the goal of jointly mobilizing $100 billion dollars a year by 2020 which is key to a successful COP26.Beyond COP26, Livingston and Sivaram argue, two things are imperative to limit global warming. Deployment of renewable energy and other existing sustainable technologies will only provide 50 percent of the needed emission reductions. The remaining 50 percent will have to come from technologies that are not yet developed or matured.Accordingly, innovation in long-term energy storage, heavy industry, shipping, aviation and agriculture will be essential to tackle the climate crisis. To promote innovation, the Biden administration is encouraging companies to make pledges that will promote demand for sustainable products such as green concrete or hydrogen.

In the 1st episode of Planet A’s third season, Dan Jørgensen talks with Dr. Juergen Voegele, the World Bank’s Vice President for Sustainable Development.Dr. Voegele is one of the world’s leading experts on the interplay between food production, agriculture and climate change. In his current capacity, he oversees the World Bank’s entire efforts on agriculture, food, climate change and the environment. In recent years, Dr. Voegele has emerged as a thought leader on the challenges that the growing global population and changing climate will pose for humanity in the coming decades. Most notably, he has applied his expertise as co-chair for the World Economic Forum’s sustainability network “Global Future Councils”.In this episode, Dr. Voegele talks about the challenges posed by the expected global population growth from 7.7 billion people in 2019 to 9.7 billion in 2050. Firstly, we have to increase food production. Secondly, we have to make agriculture more resilient to a changing climate. Thirdly, we have to do it without drastically increasing land-use.Dr. Voegele also lambasts the agricultural sector for failing to produce game changing innovation that can stem climate change. Not only, in terms of advancing crops and plants that can re-absorb more carbon. But also for failing to mass produce sustainable crops such as algae or inventing a viable fertilizer.To Dr. Voegele, the international community needs to look at the entire food system. On the consumption side, a major problem is not merely diets based on carbon intensive stables such as beef, but also food waste. Today, food waste makes up 8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions – more than the total emissions of India and its 1.4 billion people.Another question is whether – and how – we can transform agriculture into “carbon farms”; that not only feeds more people, but also serves as a carbon sink by growing crops that can capture and store CO2.

In the 10th episode of Planet A’s second season, Dan Jørgensen talks with Jason Bordoff, the Director of Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy and the Dean of the University’s Climate School.They touch upon the lessons learned from the COVID-19 crisis and the temporary decline in global energy consumption, the Biden administration and climate politics in the US. And they discuss the geopolitics of climate change, where Bordoff argues there is a difference between the influence that “electro states” such as China will have in the future and “petro states” such as Saudi Arabia have had in the past, which means that the transition to a zero-carbon world will shift power in very unexpected ways.Last year Bordoff wrote a comment in Foreign Policy magazine on this very subject:“Everything You Think About the Geopolitics of Climate Change Is Wrong - The transition to a zero-carbon world will shift power in very unexpected ways”.Over the last eight years, Bordoff has made the Center on Global Energy Policy one of the world’s leading institutions on energy and climate issues.The Center has not only attracted scores of high-profile speakers, but also covers a wide range of issues from carbon taxation to technology development and the role of geopolitics.Before joining academia, Bordoff served as Special Assistant to President Barack Obama. And, prior to that, he held several other senior positions at the White House. He has also worked in President Bill Clinton’s Administration, the consultancyMcKinsey & Company and the renowned think tank, the Brookings Institution. Moreover, Bordoff is a regular columnist for Foreign Policy magazine and a frequent commentator for the BBC. Furthermore, he has been writing on energy and climate politics for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times.

In the 9th episode of Planet A’s second season, Dan Jørgensen talks with Jennifer Morgan, the Executive Director of Greenpeace International. Over the last twenty years, Morgan has worked with climate change at leading NGOs such as World Resources Institute (WRI) and World Wildlife Foundation (WWF).Moreover, she has participated in every single COP and served as Review Editor for the 5th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. During the interview, they discuss the importance of climate activism and how NGOs can influence policy decisions. Morgan starts out by explaining what Greenpeace hopes to achieve at COP26; More ambitious climate targets, increased support for the world’s poorest countries and to stop what it perceives as “false solutions”, such as using offsets.Furthermore, Morgan explains how Greenpeace works to advance its causes. The NGO’s campaigns to raise consciousness about environmental issues such as curbing commercial whaling are known around the world. However, campaigning it is not the only tool that Greenpeace has in its armory – it is also litigating both corporations and countries. Just last month, it achieved a landmark victory, when the German Supreme Court ruled that the government’s national climate protection measures were insufficient. Further still, Greenpeace investigates corporate corruption and takes to social media platforms to inform the public. For instance, it has successfully exposed corruption in Indonesia’s coal mining sector and logging.Finally, Morgan and Jørgensen talk about how the transition to carbon free societies can be just and equitable.

In the 8th episode of Planet A’s second season, Dan Jørgensen talks with Microsoft’s Chief Environmental Officer, Dr. Lucas Joppa. Dr. Joppa has worked at the nexus of data and sustainability throughout his career and is now leading Microsoft’s efforts to become a carbon negative company. Furthermore, he leads the company’s work on data and tech solutions that can help decarbonize the entire world.Perhaps unbeknownst to many, the use, storage and processing of data emit as much  CO2 as the global airline industry.While Dr. Joppa is keenly aware of the fact that data is contributing to the problem of climate change, he is also a strong believer in its ability to create sustainable solutions. During the conversation, Dr. Joppa also talks about Microsoft’s investment in carbon removal through both “nature based solutions” and mechanical carbon capture and storage (CCS).Through Microsoft’s partnerships with NGOs and start-ups, he has also pioneered the use of data solutions and artificial intelligence to advance sustainable solutions. Most notably, Dr. Joppa founded “AI for Earth” - a computing platform that can predict and thereby help prevent environmental threats. To him, the global community has not focused enough on how technology and data can help promote sustainability. In order to create an efficient carbon market, we need to have more data and measurements. For instance, no one knows exactly how many trees there are in the United States, which would be a prerequisite to analyze the price of both nature based and technological CCS solutions.

In the 7th episode of Planet A’s second season, Dan Jørgensen talks with the journalist and author, Elizabeth Kolbert. Kolbert first achieved international prominence when her bestselling book “The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History” was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2014 and the Guardian named it the best non-fiction book of all time. She has worked for the New York Times and the New Yorker magazine since the early 1980’s. A recurring theme in her writing has been the consequences of environmental degradation.On the podcast, Kolbert speaks about the prospect for a mass extinction on Earth, due to the climate and biodiversity crises - and the large-scale interventions that could help turn the tide. Kolbert has explored the issue in her latest book “Under a White Sky: The Nature of The Future”, which was published just a few months ago. She studied “solar geoengineering”, the idea of injecting sulfate into the stratosphere to limit how much direct sunlight that would hit the Earth. This would emulate a volcanic eruption and could lower the global temperature. However, it can also lead to new problems and raises grave ethical questions. For instance, it would make the sky appear whiter.The book makes for gloomy reading and Kolbert is certainly no optimist when it comes to the future of the planet. Nonetheless, she finds some hope in community driven approaches to the climate crisis and is very fond of the Danish Island of Samsø that has been pioneering the green transition through a bottom-up-approach.

In the 6th episode of Planet A’s second season, Dan Jørgensen talks with the American economist and Nobel Laureate, Joseph Stiglitz.Stiglitz explains why he is a strong supporter of a “Cross Border Adjustment tax”, which adds the cost of carbon emissions to the price on imported goods and thus prevents carbon leakage. The economist underlines the importance of imposing a higher social cost of carbon and believes it should be upwards of 100 US dollars per emitted ton CO2. Stiglitz and Jørgensen precedes to discuss the benefits and disadvantages of different tools to price carbon, including carbon taxation and “cap and trade” systems such as the European Union Emissions Trading System (ETS).While Stiglitz is a strong proponent of a carbon tax, he advocates for a parallel implementation of political regulation and the use of public investments on research and development, if we are to meet the climate goals enshrined in the Paris Agreement.Stiglitz currently works as a professor at Columbia University but has also taught at several other institutions of higher education including Cambridge, Oxford, Princeton, Stanford and MIT.Aside from his academic career, he has worked as President Bill Clinton’s Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers in the White House and as the Chief Economist of the World Bank. He is also the author of numerous scholarly articles, op-eds in the New York Times and several best-selling books. Most notably, he has authored “Globalization and its discontents”, “The Price of Inequality” and “People, Power and Profits”.

In the 5th episode of Planet A’s second season, Dan Jørgensen talks with the British writer, activist and environmentalist, George Monbiot. Monbiot has been a regular columnist for The Guardian since 1996 and authored ten books on social justice, climate change and other environmental issues. He achieved global acclaim for his award-winning book “Feral: Searching for Enchantment on the Frontiers of Rewilding”. In the book, Monbiot advocates that humanity must “rewild”; that society must free nature from human intervention and allow it to resume its natural ecological processes.In the interview, Monbiot uses the example of how the introduction of wolves into the Yellowstone National Park helped regenerate the park’s ecosystem and in turn changed the flow of its rivers.To Monbiot, it is pivotal to promote what he calls “positive environmentalism”. That we need to show how environmental action can make the world a better place, not just “a little less rubbish”.He argues that we should double down on natural climate solutions, such as the flooding of peatlands and restoration of oceans, to help mitigate climate change. Furthermore, Monbiot points to the deployment of offshore wind as an example of how renewable energy can promote ecological reserves for fish and marine life. The offshore wind farms not only creates artificial “reefs”, but also protects the seabed and thus sequesters carbon.

In this 4th episode of the 2nd season of Planet A, Dan Jørgensen talks with the American writer Jonathan Franzen. Franzen is the author of numerous short stories and essays, but is most widely known for his novels “The Corrections”, “Freedom” and “Purity”. Furthermore, he has been a contributor to “The New Yorker” Magazine since 1994 and written seminal essays on climate change and environmentalism.During the interview, Franzen talks about his essay “What if We Stopped Pretending?” that sparked controversy due to its argument that humanity may no longer be able to stop climate change. The essay attracted vocal criticism and Franzen was accused of being a climate denier.Franzen also explains how he first got interested in environmental conservation and what his love for birds has meant for his approach to life. He expands on his views described in another essay; “Has climate change made it harder for people to care about conservation?” explaining how concerns about climate change can overshadow other environmental issues.Furthermore, the discussion explores the narratives that surround climate change. Franzen argues that climate action should be motivated by a moral imperative, love for nature and the hope of a better future – not by fear mongering.During the interview Franzen mentions Jem Bendell, a British professor of sustainability leadership and founder of the Institute for Leadership and Sustainability (IFLAS) at the University of Cumbria. He is founder of the Deep Adaptation Forum to support responses to hypothetical societal disruption from the perceived dangers of climate change - also called climate anxiety in more popular terms.Franzen’s upcoming novel “Crossroads” will be published in October 2021 as the first installment in a trilogy entitled  “A Key to All Mythologies?”