The Land & Climate Podcast

In a controversial decision this week, the UK government approved development of a huge new oil and gas field in the North Sea. The Rosebank oil and gas field is majority owned by the Norwegian state-owned energy company Equinor. Following this news, Alasdair talked to Professor Jonas Fossli Gjersø (University of Stavanger) about the history of Equinor - previously Statoil - and the way it has shaped Norway's economy, history, and environmental policy.Audio production by Vasko Kostovski. Further reading: 'Britain approves huge, controversial oil and gas field in the North Sea', CNN, 27/9/23'The Great Leap Offshore: Sino-Norwegian Relations and Petro-Knowledge Transfers, 1976–1997'  by Jonas Fossli Gjersø in Enterprise and Society, 2022Commerce and politics: Statoil and Equinor 1972-2001, Eivind Thomassen, 2022'Norway wants to lead on climate change. But first it must face its legacy of oil and gas', Vox, 15/1/21'A greener shade of black? Statoil, the Norwegian government and climate change, 1990—2005' by Ada Nissen in Scandinavian Journal of History, 2021Det svarte skiftet, Eivind Trædal, 2018 [Norweigan]'A Short History of the Norwegian Oil Industry: From Protected National Champions to Internationally Competitive Multinationals' by Helge Ryggvik in Business History Review, 2015Click here to visit The Future Unrefined, our curated collection of articles and podcasts on raw materials and extraction. Find more podcasts and articles at www.landclimate.org

 American agrochemical firm Monsanto was the world’s largest maker of genetically engineered seeds until merged with German pharma-biotech giant Bayer in 2018. Its Roundup Ready® seeds, introduced twenty-five years ago, are still reshaping farms, landscapes and ecosystems all over the world.  Bart Elmore is a professor of environmental history at Ohio State University, as well as an award-winning author. Alasdair spoke to him about his 2021 book on the history of Monsanto, Seed Money: Monsanto's Past and Our Food Future. Further reading:Click here to buy Seed Money: Monsanto's Past and Our Food Future Click here to buy Bart's latest book, Country Capitalism: How Corporations from the American South Remade Our Economy and the Planet'The herbicide dicamba was supposed to solve farmers’ weed problems – instead, it’s making farming harder for many of them', The Conversation, January 2022'Coca-Cola’s biggest challenge in greening its operations is its own global marketing strategy', The Conversation, May 2023Baptized in PCBs: Race, Pollution, and Justice in an All-American Town, Ellen Griffith Spears, 2014Genetically Engineered Crops: Experiences and Prospects, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, 2016Click here to visit The Future Unrefined, our curated collection of articles and podcasts on raw materials and extraction. Find more podcasts and articles at www.landclimate.org

At the beginning of August, hundreds of NGOs signed a letter to Kenyan President William Ruto, alleging that US and European governments and companies had "seized" the inaugural Africa Climate Summit due to begin in Nairobi on Monday 4th September, in order to "hijack Africa’s just energy transition".  Their criticism paid particular mention to international management consultancy McKinsey & Company, who were removed from the summit website and events calendar shortly after. Bertie spoke to one of the campaign leaders, Omar Elmawi, about these issues.  President Ruto has denied that the summit has been "hijacked by foreign interests", telling the BBC that "African people will truly be represented" at the summit. McKinsey declined to comment, or answer our questions, but directed us to this press conference, and the question at 0:57. Further reading:You can find the 'Real Africa Climate Summit' campaign website here, which includes the original letter.'Africa Climate Summit: Kenya’s green growth pitch sparks justice concerns', African Arguments, 21/08/23'Why fury has met McKinsey’s return in Nairobi summit', Daily Nation, 15/08/23'Omar Elmawi Believes In an Africa Free From Fossil Fuels', Sierra, 27/4/23The Big Con: How the Consulting Industry Weakens our Businesses, Infantilizes our Governments and Warps our Economies, Mariana Mazzucato and Rosie Collington, 2023On the Trail of Capital Flight from Africa, Léonce Ndikumana and James K. Boyce, 2022Click here to visit The Future Unrefined, our curated collection of articles and podcasts on raw materials and extraction. Find more podcasts and articles at www.landclimate.org

 A new investigation has revealed that a biofuel company called System Ecologica scammed the International Sustainability Carbon Certification, petrol companies, and EU governments, in a biofuel fraud case totalling tens of millions of euros. Regulators are increasingly worried that other companies may similarly be passing off unsustainable, imported vegetable oil as used cooking oil (UCO). This would have severe implications for emissions, deforestation, and the viability of a key EU climate initiative.The findings were reported by Eli Moskowitz from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and Mira Sys from Follow the Money, along with Mubarek Asani from the Bosnian Center for Investigative Reporting. Bertie caught up with Eli and Mira to get the full story. Further reading: Read Eli, Mira and Mubarek's story on OCCRP here.'Multimillionaire convicted of tampering with biodiesel', Follow the Money, 22/7/23 (Dutch) 'Europe Battles Flood of Green Fuel Suspected to Be Fraudulent', Bloomberg, 27/4/23'Industry suspects fraud as flood of Chinese biodiesel destabilises market', Euractiv, 8/6/23Click here to visit The Future Unrefined, our curated collection of articles and podcasts on raw materials and extraction. Find more podcasts and articles at www.landclimate.org

Last week, after intense debate between member states, the UN's International Seabed Authority decided not to fast-track licences to start mining the deep ocean floor. But while waters have calmed for now, nothing is set in stone: talks renew in 2024. Ahead of the conference, Alasdair spoke to Professor Mats Ingulstad, who is leading the TripleDeep research project at the Norweigan University of Science and Technology. They discussed the history of extraction in Norway & the development of discussions around deep sea mining, as well as the risks and rewards of this new frontier.Audio editing by Vasko Kostovski.  Further reading: 'Deep sea mining: Here’s which countries oppose and support the controversial practice', Euronews, 2/8/2023'Experts agree – deep sea mining is not worth the risk', Land and Climate Review, 13/7/2023'A historical perspective on deep-sea mining for manganese nodules, 1965–2019', Ole Sparenberg'The Mining Industry: Expanding, Deepening, and Widening since the 1750s', Ingulstad et al., 2023'Marine minerals' role in future holistic mineral resource management', Ingulstad et al., 2022Click here to visit The Future Unrefined, our curated collection of articles and podcasts on raw materials and extraction. Find more podcasts and articles at www.landclimate.org

Copa Cogeca is the largest agricultural lobbying group in Europe, claiming to be "the united voice" of 22 million farmers. But a new investigation from Lighthouse Reports suggests the true size of their membership is far smaller than this - and that the group uses its unrivalled influence to block climate and environmental reform, and lobby for industrial farmers at the expense of smallholders. Bertie spoke to award-winning journalist Thin Lei Win, Lighthouse's Lead Food Systems Reporter, about the story.Audio editing by Vasko Kostovski. Further reading: 'Europe’s Potemkin Lobby' - Lighthouse Reports 'The truth behind Europe’s most powerful farmers lobby' - Politico View Copa-Cogeca's specific figures on lobbying spending on lobbyfacts.eu here.Greenpeace's Out of Balance report, mentioned in the interview.'EU Investigating Agribusiness Lobby Group Copa-Cogeca Over Potential Transparency Breach', DeSmogRomanian language reporting on the story from Libertatea here and here.Danish language reporting on the story from Danwatch here.Polish language reporting on the story from OKO.press here.Click here to visit The Future Unrefined, our curated collection of articles and podcasts on raw materials and extraction. Find more podcasts and articles at www.landclimate.org

Alasdair speaks to Professor Ángela Vergara about the history, economics, and environmental impact of mining in Chile. Ángela Vergara is a member of the history faculty at California State University. Her books include Fighting Unemployment in Twentieth-Century Chile (Pittsburgh, 2021), and Copper Workers, International Business and Domestic Politics in Cold War Chile (Penn State, 2008). Podcast Editing by Vasko Kostovski.Further reading: 'The ‘Alterlives’ of Green Extractivism: Lithium Mining and Exhausted Ecologies in the Atacama Desert', International Development Policy | Revue internationale de politique de développement. Stay tuned for our upcoming collection on www.landclimate.org, The future unrefined, coming next week - including content about Chilean mining!Click here to visit The Future Unrefined, our curated collection of articles and podcasts on raw materials and extraction. Find more podcasts and articles at www.landclimate.org

Joëlle Gergis (@joellegergis) is an award-winning climatologist and writer based at the Australian National University. Her latest book, Humanity's Moment: A Scientist's Case for Hope, is a passionate and unsparing look at what has been lost but also what can still be saved - and why should still have hope. Dr Gergis draws on her experience as the lead author of Working Group 1, of the IPCC's latest assessment report (AR.6), as well as on her own experiences of facing up to the scale of the challenges posed by a rapidly warming natural world. She speaks to Edward Robinson. Podcast editing by Vasko Kostovski.  You can read more about Joëlle, including about her new podcast series at the Conversation, here and you can her order Humanity's Moment from Island Press, here. Click here to visit The Future Unrefined, our curated collection of articles and podcasts on raw materials and extraction. Find more podcasts and articles at www.landclimate.org

Following US Climate Envoy John Kerry's latest remarks on overpopulation, Bertie spoke to Diana Ojeda, Associate Professor in sustainability, environment and development at the Universidad de los Andes' Interdisciplinary Center for Development Studies, about why many scholars and activists are wary of populationist narratives in climate planning. Audio editing by Vasko Kostovski.Further reading: 'A feminist exploration of ‘populationism’: engaging contemporary forms of population control''Confronting populationism: Feminist challenges to population control in an era of climate change''Malthus’s specter and the anthropocene'Anne Hendrixson and Diana Ojeda's article on population for Uneven Earth Betsy Hartmann’s webpage PopDev’s short documents series'For reproductive justice in an era of Gates and Modi – the violence of India’s population policies' by Kalpana Wilson Libby Lunstrum’s work'Angry Young Men, Veiled Young Women: Constructing a New Population Threat' by Anne Hendrixson Jade Sasser’s workClick here to visit The Future Unrefined, our curated collection of articles and podcasts on raw materials and extraction. Find more podcasts and articles at www.landclimate.org

Alasdair speaks to Thomas Pellerin Carlin, Director of the EU Programme at the Institute for Climate Economics, about France's relationship with nuclear energy, growing support for legislation focused on sufficiency, and how party politics shapes these issues. Audio editing by Vasko Kostovski.Click here to visit The Future Unrefined, our curated collection of articles and podcasts on raw materials and extraction. Find more podcasts and articles at www.landclimate.org

Bertie speaks to Professor Laura Murphy about international supply chains and forced labour in China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region, where more than a million Uyghur people have been detained in concentration camps.The solar panel industry has been disentangling itself from the Uyghur genocide for several years, since researchers publicised how much polysilicon was produced by Uyghur forced labour. Professor Murphy's work has now found that the electric vehicle industry is risking a similar path, and that China uses Xinjiang as a production zone exempt from climatic or environmental regulation.Podcast edited by Vasko Kostovski.Read Professor Murphy's reports: Driving Force: Automotive Supply Chains and Forced Labor in the Uyghur Region (2022)Built on repression: PVC building materials' reliance on forced labor and environmental abuses in the Uyghur region (2022)Financing & Genocide: Development Finance and the Crisis in the Uyghur Region (2022)In broad daylight: Uyghur forced labour in global solar supply chains (2021)And more on the Helena Kennedy Centre website.Click here to visit The Future Unrefined, our curated collection of articles and podcasts on raw materials and extraction. Find more podcasts and articles at www.landclimate.org

The UK was the first major power to sign net zero into law in 2019, and was once considered a global leader on climate policy. After Brexit and a change of government, is the country failing to live up to its promises? Alasdair speaks to Dr. Doug Parr, Greenpeace UK's Chief Scientist, about the UK's place on the global stage, how its net zero policies are progressing, and how the country is taking dangerous risks with nuclear and aviation. Podcast editing by Vasko Kostovski. Click here to visit The Future Unrefined, our curated collection of articles and podcasts on raw materials and extraction. Find more podcasts and articles at www.landclimate.org

Bertie speaks to Wijnand Stoefs, Carbon Market Watch's policy lead on Carbon Removal, about how EU policy is developing around greenhouse gas removals. They discuss the Carbon Removal Certification Framework, along with other legislation like the Innovation Fund and the Sustainable Carbon Cycles Communication, as well as talking about risks with bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, and failures of France's Label Bas-Carbone. Futher reading: Read Carbon Market Watch's position paper on the Carbon Removal Certification Framework here. 'Environmental stewardship yes, ‘carbon farming’ no', Social Europe'EU’s carbon farming plan comes under fire', Politico'EU’s Carbon Removals Certification Framework is certifiably problematic', Carbon Market Watch'EU member states’ haphazard approach to carbon removals puts climate goals and nature at risk', Carbon Market WatchLe Label Bas-Carbone : outil d’optimisation ou de transition? , Le Réseau Action Climat [French]'What are the European Commission’s plans for negative emissions?', Land and Climate ReviewClick here to visit The Future Unrefined, our curated collection of articles and podcasts on raw materials and extraction. Find more podcasts and articles at www.landclimate.org

In this next installment in our oil series, we have Professor Paul Stevens, Emeritus Professor at the University of Dundee and senior research fellow at Chatham House. Professor Stevens is a world leading expert on global petroleum policy. We spoke about the history of energy transitions and the fallacy of ‘peak oil’. Covered in this episode are: the current “energy establishment”, forecasts of the speed of the energy transition, and oil exporter’s dominance at climate talks. Recommended reading: Handbook on Oil and International Relations. (2022). eds. R. Dannreuther, W. Ostrowski. United Kingdom: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd. Gustafson, T. (2012). Wheel of Fortune: The Battle for Oil and Power in Russia. United Kingdom: Harvard University Press.Blas, J., Farchy, J. (2021). The World for Sale: Money, Power, and the Traders Who Barter the Earth's Resources. United States: Oxford University Press.Helm, D. (2017). Burn Out: The Endgame for Fossil Fuels. United Kingdom: Yale University Press.Click here to visit The Future Unrefined, our curated collection of articles and podcasts on raw materials and extraction. Find more podcasts and articles at www.landclimate.org

Bertie speaks to fashion journalist and sustainability consultant Lucianne Tonti about her new book Sundressed: Natural Fabrics and the Future of Clothing.They discuss issues with sustainability indexes and modern fibres created from crude oil and trees, vs the benefits of clothes made from natural materials produced through regenerative agriculture. Podcast editing by Vasko Kostovski. Futher reading: Buy Sundressed from Island Press.Read Lucianne's column in The Guardian.Preorder To Dye For from Penguin.'There is so much to say about plastic pollution. Why are we not talking about it?' on Land and Climate Review.Click here to visit The Future Unrefined, our curated collection of articles and podcasts on raw materials and extraction. Find more podcasts and articles at www.landclimate.org

Alasdair speaks to Professor Mike Norton, Environment Programme Director at the European Academies Science Advisory Council, about newly published research on neonicotinoid pesticides. In 2013, the European Commission severely restricted the use of several 'neonics' due to emerging research showing they had wide ranging harfmul environmental impacts on insect populations and ecosystems. But last month, the European Court of Justice ruled that Belgium had abused emergency authorisations to continue using them. Many Member States have similiarly authorised their continued usage since 2013, and the EU is now considering stricter legislation to prohibit the substances. Further reading: - Read the full EASAC report here, or the press release here. - 'EU Court puts end to emergency use of bee-toxic pesticides', EURACTIV, Jan '23- 'Commission’s verdict still out on EU court ruling on bee-toxic pesticides', EURACTIV, Feb '23- 'Neonicotinoids in Africa' - a 2020 article by Mike for Chemistry WorldClick here to visit The Future Unrefined, our curated collection of articles and podcasts on raw materials and extraction. Find more podcasts and articles at www.landclimate.org

In this episode, Lauren Sneade speaks to Professor Thane Gustafson for a second instalment on how the Russian oil industry affects the country's attitudes towards climate change, given the country's distinguished history of climate science. They cover how climate change has affected the country so far, and how Russian policymaking has responded, raising questions around the political will of Russian political figures to tackle the crisis. Further reading: Igor Makarov, Henry Chen & Sergey Paltsev (2020) Impacts of climate change policies worldwide on the Russian economyThane Gustafson, Klimat: Russia in the Age of Climate Change. Harvard University PressTynkkynen, V. (2019). The Energy of Russia: Hydrocarbon Culture and Climate Change. United Kingdom: Edward Elgar Publishing.Gordon, D. (2021). No Standard Oil: Managing Abundant Petroleum in a Warming World. United States: Oxford University Press.Click here to visit The Future Unrefined, our curated collection of articles and podcasts on raw materials and extraction. Find more podcasts and articles at www.landclimate.org

Alasdair talks to Roger Smith, Japan Director for Mighty Earth, about Japanese biomass imports and the risks of the country's coal power stations switching to wood-burning. Further reading: SMOKESCREEN: SUMITOMO’S “CARBON NEUTRAL” FAILURES SUMITOMO CORPORATION’S DIRTY ENERGY TRADE: Biomass, Coal and Japan’s Energy FutureBiomass cofiring loopholes put coal on open-ended life support in Asia, MongabayAs biomass burning surges in Japan and South Korea, where will Asia get its wood?, MongabayFossil Free JapanBiomass Info, a resource library  (Japanese) Click here to visit The Future Unrefined, our curated collection of articles and podcasts on raw materials and extraction. Find more podcasts and articles at www.landclimate.org

The Antarctic Treaty System (ATS) was signed in 1959, and will not be modified until 2048. Climate diplomacy expert Dhanasree Jayaram tells Bertie about the environmental risks that could threaten Antarctica before then, including illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, militarisation, bioprospecting, increased tourism, and resource extraction. Dr. Jayaram is Assistant Professor at the Department of Geopolitics and International Relations, and Co-Coordinator of the Centre for Climate Studies, in Manipal Academy of Higher Education, and an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation International Climate Protection Fellow. Further reading: In 30 years the Antarctic Treaty becomes modifiable, and the fate of a continent could hang in the balance, The Conversation By Dr. Jayaram:'Geopolitics, Environmental Change and Antarctic Governance: A Region in Need of a Transformative Approach to Science Diplomacy', Assessing the Antarctic Environment from a Climate Change Perspective'Geopolitical and geoeconomic implications of climate change in the Arctic region: the future of contestation and cooperation', Understanding Present and Past Arctic Environments 'Geopolitics, Science and Climate Diplomacy in the Indo-Pacific: An Assessment', Science Diplomacy ReviewClimate Diplomacy and Emerging Economies: India as a Case StudyClick here to visit The Future Unrefined, our curated collection of articles and podcasts on raw materials and extraction. Find more podcasts and articles at www.landclimate.org

Long before Elon Musk's takeover drew accusations of increased disinformation on the platform, there was already a rapid growth of climate scepticism and denial on Twitter, according to research by The IRIS Academic Research Group.Their analysis studied climate discourse during the annual UN Climate Change Conferences (COPs), and found that criticism of climate action had grown from 1% of influential accounts during COP20 in 2014, to 16% of accounts during COP26. Bertie spoke to two of the researchers, Professor Andrea Baronchelli and Dr. Max Falkenberg, to discuss this trend, and what might be driving it. Futher reading: Read the paper in Nature Climate ChangeRead Andrea and Max's commentary about the research on the LSE blogRead the IRIS blog about misinformation'Climate-sceptic tweets surge after Musk’s Twitter takeover', The Times, 2/12/22Click here to visit The Future Unrefined, our curated collection of articles and podcasts on raw materials and extraction. Find more podcasts and articles at www.landclimate.org