Today’s guest is Professor Sam Fankhauser, Director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and Director of the ESRC-funded Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy, both at The London School of Economics and Political Science.

He is also an Associate Director at economics consultancy Vivid Economics and a Non-Executive Director of CDC Group, the UK’s development finance institution.

Previously, Sam worked at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility. From 2008 to 2016 he was a member of the UK Committee on Climate Change.

In today’s episode, we cover:

• Overview of Grantham Research Institute
• Nature of the research they do
• 'When and why Sam came to care about the environment'
• How urgent Sam thinks the problem is
• How settled is the science?
• 'Some causes for optimism
• Public perception in US vs Europe
• Committee on Climate Change (CCC)
• 'Free markets vs regulation
• 'Should we price carbon?
• The inequity of climate change
• Where Sam would allocate a big pot of money to maximize its impact in the climate fight
• Sam’s advice for others looking to find their lane

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• Grantham Institute: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/grantham/
• Committee on Climate Change: https://www.theccc.org.uk/
• Negative emissions technologies: https://qz.com/1416481/the-ultimate-guide-to-negative-emission-technologies/

You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at [email protected], where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

Enjoy the show!

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*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant