How to Fix Climate Change & Biodiversity Loss at the Same Time
Release Date: 11/07/2024
(Part Two) 100th Episode Special: We Know the Risks. So Why Aren’t We Moving Faster?
Climate Risk Podcast
Part two of this three-part special looks back at seven years of climate policy to ask what has worked, what has fallen short, and whether the response is keeping pace with the risks. In the second part of our 100th episode miniseries, we turn from the science to the response. Over the past seven years, governments, regulators and markets have introduced a huge range of policies, frameworks and commitments aimed at accelerating the transition. But how effective have they really been? From the limitations of the COP process and the politics of carbon pricing...
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(Part One) 100th Episode Special: Seven Years of Climate Risk — What Have We Learned?
Climate Risk Podcast
Part one of this three-part special looks back at the seven years of the podcast to ask what we have learnt about the science, what surprised us, and what comes next. Seven years and 100 episodes after the Climate Risk Podcast began, we’re taking the opportunity to step back and ask what we have learned, what has changed, and what the years ahead may hold. In the first part of this special three-part miniseries, we return to the science. From climate tipping points and cascading risks to the role of oceans,...
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Unlocking Transition Finance: Policy, Credibility and the Flow of Capital
Climate Risk Podcast
Vanessa Havard-Williams OBE explores how the UK is building a credible transition finance market, from stronger policy and transition planning to public finance, insurance and investable projects. Financing the transition to a low carbon economy is often presented as a question of capital: how much money is needed, where it should come from, and which technologies or projects should receive it. But the reality is more complicated. Finance cannot drive the transition in isolation. Companies will only invest at scale where the economics make sense, investors still need an appropriate...
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Fire and Flood: Lessons from Britain’s New World of Extremes
Climate Risk Podcast
Hear from celebrated journalist David Shukman on why climate change is no longer a future risk, how extreme weather is exposing weaknesses in the systems we rely on, and why human stories are often the most powerful way to communicate climate risk. Climate risk is often discussed in terms of future scenarios, long-term projections, and abstract global targets. But for many people, the impacts are already here: in homes lost to wildfire, hospitals disrupted by extreme heat, transport systems buckling under rising temperatures, and supply chains exposed to droughts and other weather...
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The Serious Business of Climate Comedy: How to Engage New Audiences
Climate Risk Podcast
Matt Winning reflects on climate fatigue, corporate engagement, and what risk professionals can learn from the art of communicating difficult topics. Climate change is often communicated through data, models, targets and warnings. But as important as those tools are, they do not always reach people emotionally, or bring them into the conversation in a way that feels human. That raises an interesting question: can comedy help? Not by making light of the problem, but by making it more accessible, cutting through jargon, and creating space for people...
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Investor Climate Action: What Finance Can and Can’t Achieve
Climate Risk Podcast
Hear from Prof. Tom Gosling, Director of the Initiative in Sustainable Finance at the London School of Economics (LSE), as we examine the limits of investor-led climate action, the realities of stewardship and engagement, and why finance may need a more pragmatic approach to the transition. Over recent years, investors have been asked to play a central role in driving the net zero transition. Through targets, stewardship, portfolio commitments and engagement, the idea was that finance could help push the real economy towards decarbonization. But what if...
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The Electro-Tech Revolution: Why the Energy Transition Is Happening Faster Than You Think
Climate Risk Podcast
Hear from Kingsmill Bond, Senior Energy Strategist at Ember, as we explore why renewables and electrification are reshaping the global energy system faster than many realise. We talk a great deal on this podcast about the risks and the policy challenges of the climate transition. But if that transition is actually going to happen — and happen at the speed that the science demands — there is something that has to sit at its very centre. Not the frameworks, not the disclosure requirements, not the net zero targets. The actual physical transformation of how we...
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The Case for Adaptation: Heat Stress and the Built Environment
Climate Risk Podcast
Hear from Richard Flemmings, founder and CEO of Map Impact, as we explore why “dry perils” such as heat, drought and wildfire are emerging as critical climate risks for real estate and financial decision-making. When climate risks are discussed, the focus often falls on what we might call “wet perils”: things like flooding, storms, and coastal erosion. These risks are well studied, widely modelled, and increasingly embedded in financial decision-making. But another category of hazards is emerging: “dry perils” such as heat stress, drought, and wildfire, which are often less...
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Risk as an Enabler: How Development Banks Build Climate Resilience
Climate Risk Podcast
Hear from Søren Elbech, Chief Risk Officer at the Inter-American Development Bank, as we explore how development banks use risk to support countries facing climate and other systemic challenges. When we think about risk in banking, the focus is often on managing exposures, pricing credit, allocating capital, and ensuring resilience. But what happens when the mission of a bank is not just to manage risk, but to actively take it on in order to improve lives? In that context, risk becomes something to be deployed — carefully, deliberately, and often in...
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A Different Kind of Bank: How to Embed Impact in Finance
Climate Risk Podcast
Hear from Sian Williams, Chief Risk Officer at Triodos Bank UK, as we examine how values-led banking can generate positive impact for people, planet and the financial system. When we think about sustainable finance, the conversation often revolves around targets, disclosures and voluntary alliances. But what happens when sustainability is not an add-on, but the foundation of a bank’s entire business model? If sustainability is the starting point, lending decisions inevitably look different, and more complex. Not everything can be reduced...
info_outlineHear from Prof. Pete Smith of the University of Aberdeen, as we explore the overlap in the challenges from, and solutions to, climate change and biodiversity loss.
Climate change and biodiversity loss are often treated separately – in science, policy, and even risk management. But as the connections between these global crises come into sharper focus, it’s clear that understanding them together is essential for real progress.
In this episode, we break down those silos of climate and nature, exploring an integrated approach and how it might help us address these challenges simultaneously. We discuss:
- How climate and nature impact everything from our food systems to our economies, health and security;
- The work being done by intergovernmental bodies to connect these issues;
- And how this work can lead to positive outcomes for climate, nature and society.
To find out more about the Sustainability and Climate Risk (SCR®) Certificate, follow this link: https://www.garp.org/scr
For more information on climate risk, visit GARP’s Global Sustainability and Climate Risk Resource Center: https://www.garp.org/sustainability-climate
If you have any questions, thoughts, or feedback regarding this podcast series, we would love to hear from you at: climateriskpodcast@garp.com
Links from today’s discussion:
- The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IBPES): https://www.ipbes.net/
- IBPES’ upcoming Nexus report: https://www.ipbes.net/nexus
- The Joint IPCC-IBPES report on Biodiversity and Climate Change (2021): https://www.ipbes.net/events/ipbes-ipcc-co-sponsored-workshop-biodiversity-and-climate-change
- Soil: An Invisible Crisis and Massive Climate Opportunity: https://www.garp.org/podcast/soil-crisis-opportunity-cr-041323
Speaker’s Bio(s)
Prof. Pete Smith FRS, Professor of Soils and Global Change, University of Aberdeen
Pete is the Professor of Soils and Global Change at the Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of Aberdeen (Scotland, UK), and is Science Director of the Scottish Climate Change Centre of Expertise (ClimateXChange).
Since 1996, he has served as Convening Lead Author, Lead Author and Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. He is a global ecosystem modeller with interests in soils, agriculture, food security, bioenergy, greenhouse gases, climate change, greenhouse gas removal technologies, and climate change impacts and mitigation.
He was a Royal Society-Wolfson Research Merit Award holder (2008-2013), and is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (since 2008), a Fellow of the Institute of Soil Scientists (since 2015), and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (since 2009). He was awarded the British Ecological Society Marsh Award for Climate Change Research in 2014, and the European Geophysical Union Duchaufour Medal for ‘distinguished contributions to soil science’ in 2017.