Welcome to this ClimateGenn episode recorded during COP29 in Baku, a conference unashamedly hijacked by the fossil fuel industry. John D. Liu is a renowned ecologist, filmmaker, and environmental advocate. Liu's later career has been dedicated to large-scale ecosystem restoration, emphasising the profound impact of natural regeneration in combating climate change. His pioneering work with the Ecosystem Restoration Camps and his advocacy for the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration have made significant contributions to global environmental efforts. This discussion offers profound insights into reimagining our future through the lens of ecological restoration and sustainability.

If you are concerned about the future then why not travel with me through every COP conference from COP21 in Paris to COP28 in Dubai, by ordering my book ‘COPOUT - How governments have failed the people on climate’. In COPOUT you’ll gain insights into what actually is going on in these supposed world saving conferences and how we have ended up in this dire era of dangerous consequences. You can order COPOUT via the link in the notes or on any online bookstore worldwide in paperback and audio version.

2025 has opened with terrifying wildfires in Loss Angeles demonstrating that climate catastrophe is not only here but that it is tearing great holes in the fabric of our societies. I will be posting many more interviews and also adding many more archive interviews on key topics to the members area.

Thank to you for listening, sharing and also to all subscribers for support.

Order COPOUT: https://amzn.to/4gSAU19

As Gabriel says in the interview, if the AMOC collapses then we can expect much harsher weather in Europe (especially in UK & Ireland) as less heat is transported via the Atlantic circulation. Less heat means less moisture leading to less rain and more drought. In these conditions, food production is impossible and, with concurrent food crashes around the globe, famine is likely. What an AMOC collapse means for us all should be understood by citizens and policymakers alike. Averting it, if possible, a primary collective goal.

From Climate Genn host Nick Breeze:

Welcome to this ClimateGenn Episode. That opening clip was recorded on the Cryosphere Pavilion at COP29 in Baku. It shows IPCC Deputy Chair, Diana Urge-Vorsatz asking Professor Stefan Rahmsdorf about the latest research on the potential halting of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation – known as AMOC –  the ocean currents that transport heat from the tropics to the north Atlantic. 

In this following interview with researcher Gabriel Pontes, we expand on his recent AMOC research and what this means for places like the UK and Ireland, identifying key components of the AMOC puzzle. We also consider whether policymakers should be weighing this kind of climate risk more seriously.

If you are interested in how the COPs have been manipulated and rendered unfit for purpose by successive governments then you can order my book ‘COPOUT’ from any online retailer. COPOUT traces my own footsteps documenting the failures that have led us to where we are now in the era of severe consequences.

In the next episode I speak with Camilla Gjerde about her recently published book, Natural Trailblazers, about the authors travels in search of .

Welcome to this episode of ClimateGenn recorded at the end of COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan. The question we are putting to Norwegian MP for Oslo, Ola Elvestuen is:

Should Norway’s Equinor energy company cease new oil and gas production to avoid irreversible climate catastrophe?

A quick note that if you want to come with me into the COPs from COP21 Paris to COP28 in the UAE, meeting lots of experts, and digesting the layers of complexity and eye-popping contradictions, over a beer or glass of wine, then order my book ‘COPOUT - How governments have failed the people on climate’, from any online retailer. COPOUT has been commended as ‘A Must Read’ and ‘Essential Reading’, taking the reader up close to the worlds largest summit to try to change our current disastrous trajectory for climate breakdown.

Norwegian fossil energy company, Equinor, formerly Statoil, has been widely criticised for not aligning with the Paris Agreement. Equinor continues to plan for expanded oil and gas production, maintaining a dangerously high 95% reliance of fossil fuel revenue by 2026.

Critics argue that Equinor must halt new fossil fuel exploration and stop developing pre-final Investment Decision (FID) projects outside Norway to avoid 67% of emissions from unapproved projects. Equinor’s capital expenditures conflict with essential climate goals, raising concerns about greenwashing and inadequate short-term emission reduction targets.

This next excerpt from Professor Kevin Anderson is taken from the last ClimateGenn episode and was recorded the day before this interview with Ola Elvestuen. Thank you for your attention:

Welcome to ClimateGenn. I recorded this interview with Professor Kevin Anderson via Zoom from Baku in the last days of COP29. Kevin provides some critical insights into how the headlines we often see reported breakdown from a numerical standpoint. 

Although the COPs remain an important component of our overall global diplomatic approach to this complex existential problem, there are no signals that the promise of the Paris Agreement will be kept by the nations who repeatedly pledge to hold to it.

So what do we do? Here Kevin offers a range of his insights. With the clock ticking, and human greed still in charge of the agenda, our collective agency and actions matter much more than we can ever imagine.

Thank you for listening. There are many more episodes on the way. Please subscribe to support this work, or you can order my book COPOUT and join me on the journey from COP21 to COP28 to see how we have ended up in this mess and why we urgently need to break the pattern.

Thank you.

In this Climategenn episode we hear two committed voices non different sides of the climate engineering debate, make their cases as to why we should or should not research geoengineering with the intention of deployment to cool the Earth.

Dr Heidi Sevestre is an internationally renowned polar scientist making the case against climate engineering (also known as geoengineering) and Herb Simmens is the founder of an international group called the Healthy Planet Action Coalition (HPAC). Both interviews were recorded at COP29 and reflect entrenched positions on both sides of the debate. There are many more voices and we urgently need to hear them - not least from the vulnerable communities who maybe severely impacted by such cooling schemes.

The last word goes to Professor Diana Ürge-Vorsatz, Vice Chair of the IPCC, where she comments on how climate engineering is moving into the main literature advising the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Thanks for listening. Subscribers can preview the episode recorded during week 2 with Professor Kevin Anderson ahead of its as yet unknown publishing date.

If you have been following the UN Climate Summit and want to go inside the talks, accompanied by countless expert insights, then order my book COPOUT from all online outlets worldwide, in paperback and audio formats.

In this interview with the Vice Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Professor Diana Ürge-Vorsatz, gives her perspective on a range of critical issues - in part presenting a glass-half-full perspective, despite so many mounting challenges.

This was recorded on Saturday 16th Nov at the midway point through COP29. Since the COP has ended, countries have finalised a $300 billion dollar pledge to vulnerable nations set against a required $1.3 trillion by 2035. Trust between so-called developed and developing or vulnerable nations remains stubbornly low. But meeting the $1.3 trillion required funding is not a charity gift, but rather a collaborative investment in all our futures. Until we collectively realise the only way forward is with all hands seen as equal, the fate for us all remains entirely bleak.

More COP29 interviews are on the way as well as an interview this week with the author of a new study on the state of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) that risks up-ending all our climate rhetoric to date. 

If you want a fast paced journey through the last eight COPs from Paris to the UAE then order my book COPOUT online, in paperback or audio, from all main retailers. This was my 9th COPOUT experience and I’ll be writing a supplementary chapter in the coming weeks that will include astonishing in-person admissions from delegates of fossil fuel producing nations as well as forays into the north of Azerbaijan through decimated landscapes and threadbare ecosystems. 

Thanks to all subscribers!

Summary:

COP29 Baku series of interviews - also consider buying Nick's book, COPOUT - How governments have failed the people on climate. Available online worldwide in paperback ebook and audio formats.

Key Points from Ina-Maria Shikongo:

In this ClimateGenn episode, Professor of Climate Risk at University of Newcastle, Hayley Fowler, and Professor Paul Davies, Chief Meteorologist at the UK Met Office, explain how the mega storm events we are now seeing so frequently, are generated and why they are going to get more intense and more widespread.

This was recorded just after the incredible central European flooding in the 1st half of September. Since then the media has been filled with images of Hurricane Milton and now we see the area around Valencia in Spain is lying in ruins. 

With the UN Climate Summit only days away, we are witnessing a decisive US election where one of the nominees denies we have an existential climate problem in favour of taking money from the fossil fuel industry and enacting policies that amplify the impact.

Will COP29 be another washout like COP22 in Morocco in 2016? Only time will tell. I will be reporting from the COP publishing a range of interviews across key topics.

<-- DOWNLOAD Nick's book 'COPOUT - How governments have failed the people on climate' a tour of the UN Climate Summits (or COPs) from Paris to the UAE. -->

The collaboration between senior climate scientist Hayley Fowler and chief meteorologist Paul Davies is increasing our understanding of extremes, so that we can be better prepared in the face of these life threatening storms. A link to their recent research paper on this topic is here.

As both scientists warn, new technology, such as warning systems, can help us save lives but it will not cure the problem. We urgently need global emissions reductions at rates of around 43% by 2030 to avoid the very worst of a wide range of impacts.

It is obviously too late to avert a new era of climate disasters, including large-scale damage to infrastructure, accelerating tipping points and huge loss of life. Our food systems and supply chains are also at risk. Despite the threats we must strive to create the changes at every level of society and within our communities.

Thanks for supporting this channel. I am in the midst of finishing a large project which has caused a delay in publishing interviews. This should soon be remedied.

Thank you.

In this ClimateGenn episode I am speaking with Extinction Rebellion cofounder, Gail Bradbrook, about the role of activism today and the inner world of those taking action that can and does result in severe imprisonment, and in some countries, even death.

Intro with clips - Prof. Jason Box (Geological Survey of Denmark & Greenland), Prof. Kevin Anderson (Tyndall Centre for Climate Research), Prof. Heidi Sevestre (AMAP, Arctic Council), Joshua Aponsem (Green Africa Youth Organization, Ghana), Anni Pokela (Operatatio Arktis, Finland) Lord Rowan Williams (Fmr. Archbishop of Canterbury).

I started recording interviews on geoengineering over ten years ago and the thought back then that in the mid 2020’s nothing would have been achieved in global emissions reduction, would have been too depressing to contemplate. Yet here we are.

The Paris Agreement was meant to steer the world towards a cleaner brighter future but it has been ignored. Emissions from forest fires and melting permafrost are way beyond their thresholds and extreme weather impacts are testing infrastructure and ecosystems all over the planet. 

Climate activists are even being locked up with cruel prison sentences for trying to act for the collective good. I discuss this in my next episode with XR cofounder, Gail Bradbrook.

The UN Climate summit, COP29 will be held in one of the most significant cradles of the fossil fuel industry - Baku in Azerbaijan. There is no expressed intention to reduce emissions but instead the the COP29 President-Designate Mukhtar Babayev has a (quote) a ’vision to enhance ambition and enable action.’ - whilst the widespread extraction of fossil fuels continues unabated.

With all this in mind, the conversation of engineering interventions to try and delay the most destructive impacts of extreme climate, is moving along. It is controversial and divisive and yet voices from across the world, including in the Global South are saying that we need to take the research seriously. 

In this interview with Dr Shaun Fitzgerald, Director of the Centre for Climate Repair at the University of Cambridge, we discuss the controversy and the viability of schemes. The news broke during our recording that the UK government agency, ARIA, have put out a call for proposals, offering £56.8m in grant funding for geoengineering projects. The largest government funding of it’s kind.

The failure of the global negotiations is discussed in my book COPOUT - How governments have failed the people on climate that is available worldwide in paperback and audiobook format. Sadly, the failure of the 3 decades of global climate summits means we are getting much deeper into the era of consequences. Central Europe is experiencing deathly storms and flooding while the smoke from Portugal’s forest fires are spreading a toxic blanket over Spain and beyond. From the Amazon to Asia, ecosystems and infrastructure are being pummelled by natures response to carbon pollution. Next week I will be recording a 3 way interview with Dr Paul Davies from the UK Met Office and Dr Hayley Fowler from Newcastle University about their recent research paper titled 'A new conceptual model for understanding and predicting life-threatening rainfall extremes’ - which is both important and fascinating.

Thank you to all subscribers - there is extra content being uploaded for Patreon and Youtube subscribers.