The Land & Climate Podcast

After being "stonewalled" by his bosses over concerns about decarbonisation claims, Finlay Asher quit his job as a senior aviation engineer at Rolls Royce to found Safe Landing, an organisation that campaigns against growing the aviation sector. Alasdair spoke to him about this journey, the reasons technological and market-based solutions to aviation emissions are not going to get us to net-zero, and what the sector should be doing instead. Further reading: Check out Finlay's Youtube channelStay Grounded’s greenwashing fact sheet seriesT&E’s EU Aviation 2050 roadmapICCT’s ‘Aligning Aviation with the Paris Agreement'Send us Fan MailClick here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

On 23 May 2022, the Australian Labor Party entered government for the first time since 2013, under the leadership of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Alasdair spoke to Dr. Marija Taflaga, Director of the Australian National University's Center for the Study of Australian Politics, to talk about shifting climate politics in the county, and what the new government could mean for the green transition. Further reading: 'The frontline: Inside Australia's climate emergency' in The Guardian. Read here. Superpower: Australia's Low-Carbon Opportunity by Ross Garnaut. Read more and purchase here. How to Talk About Climate Change in a Way That Makes a Difference by Rebecca Huntley. Read more and purchase here. The Carbon Club: How a network of influential climate sceptics, politicians and business leaders fought to control Australia's climate policy by Marian Wilkinson, Allen and Unwin, 2020Send us Fan MailClick here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

Lauren talks to Tania Li, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Toronto, about the sustainability of the oil that's in 50% of supermarket food products - and the issues with labour and land rights in Indonesia's palm oil industry. Further reading: Tania's books and other publications can be found on her website, taniali.org Oil palm development in Thailand: economic, social and environmental considerations, by Jonas DallingerRainforest Alliance:  Our Response to the EU Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products Chain Action Research:  EU Deforestation Regulation: Implications for the Palm Oil Industry and Its Financers Chain Action Research:  Indonesian Moratoria: Loopholes, Lack of Sanctions Fail to Stop Palm Oil-Linked Deforestation Send us Fan MailClick here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

Sri Lanka is in the midst of an acute economic, energy, and political crisis. With fuel, food and electricity shortages, protestors have taken to the streets and are now being arrested in the thousands. On June 8, Bertie spoke to Melani Gunathilaka, an activist with Extinction Rebellion and Climate Action Now who has become a leading voice in the Gotagogama protests. They discussed the role of climate policy in the cascading crises and corruption allegations that have recently plagued the country. Further reading: Is organic farming really to blame for Sri Lanka's ongoing food crisis?What is the financial cost of loss and damage from climate change? Watch: 'Inside Sri Lanka's economic crisis'Melani shared a list of demands made by Gotagogama protestors. You can read page one of the demands here, and then page two here. Send us Fan MailClick here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

Bertie talks to Drew Pendergrass, coauthor of Half Earth Socialism, recently published by Verso books. They discuss geoengineering, population scaremongering, climate colonialism, and the big question for many on the left: will we be able to mitigate the climate crisis under capitalism?Further reading: Buy Half Earth Socialism from Verso, currently at a discount.Read Bertie's review of the book on Land and Climate here. Play Troy and Drew's climate simulation game here.Find more from Troy and Drew on their website. Send us Fan MailClick here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

Lauren talks to Assaad Razzouk, host of the Angry Clean Energy Guy podcast and British Lebanese clean energy entrepreneur. They talk about the recent elections in Lebanon, systemic problems with climate finance, and the ways a clean energy transition could help struggling economies. Send us Fan MailClick here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

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 InsightsSend us Fan MailClick 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. Send us Fan MailClick 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 ClimateSend us Fan MailClick 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.Send us Fan MailClick here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.