Matrix Podcasts

In this episode, Suzanne Rab explores how ESG considerations are reshaping regulation across UK network and utility sectors. As ESG rises in prominence in energy, water, transport, telecoms and financial services, regulators face an increasingly complex balancing act: ensuring resilience and fairness while maintaining affordability and driving long-term sustainability. The discussion highlights how the UK Regulators Network (UKRN) provides a unique platform for regulators to collaborate, share lessons and address common challenges in this evolving landscape.

Suzanne is joined by three speakers who each bring deep cross-sector regulatory experience. Barbara Perata-Smith, Lead on UKRN’s Net Zero Programme, discusses her work coordinating decarbonisation efforts across sectors, drawing on her background in sustainability and environmental policy at the Civil Aviation Authority. Sital Patel, on secondment from the Financial Conduct Authority, reflects on her 25-year legal and regulatory career and her commitment to public protection, including her work on the FCA’s Motor Finance Review and her advisory role with Ofcom. Kev Smith, who has spent four decades in financial services and regulation, outlines UKRN’s cross-cutting networks and the value of shared regulatory understanding. Together, the speakers examine how collaboration can drive more effective, future-ready regulation in the ESG era.

In this episode, Jamas Hodivala KC discusses with Nick Dale (former Superintendent at West Midlands Police and now Director of Intelligence at Stop the Traffik) and Sian Lea (Head of UK and European Advocacy at Anti-Slavery International) the role of Governments, companies and NGOs when conducting forced labour due diligence in supply chains.

In this second episode of Season 2 of the ESG: Global podcast, Jamas Hodivala KC celebrates the 10th anniversary of Mark Carney’s “Tragedy of the Horizon” speech with his guest Dr Ben Caldecott, a sustainable finance expert.

They discuss the origins of the speech, the adequacy of leadership regarding climate-related investment, the supervisory role of the Bank of England in climate-related finance, the impact of the recent collapse of the Net Zero Banking Alliance, the UK’s implementation of climate transition plans and the future role of China in sustainable finance.

In this episode of A Common Concern, Kate Cook talks to Greg Muttitt, Honorary Research Fellow at UCL and Senior Associate at the International Institute for Sustainable Development. Pushing back on current 'necessitarian' arguments against the phase out of fossil fuels, they explore what transition would look like. What are the comparative costs of transition versus retaining fossil fuels and what does transition mean for developed and developing country producers? How do we ensure that transition is genuinely just, equitable and orderly?

In this first episode of Season 2 of the ESG: Global podcast, Jamas Hodivala KC looks back a the 10 year anniversary of Mark Carney’s "Tragedy of the Horizon" speech, which considered the links between climate change and financial stability. His guest, Professor Iain Clacher, is a pensions expert and they discuss the effects of the speech on the pensions sector, including exploring the role that long-term investment decisions made by pension funds can have on climate change.

In this episode of A Common Concern, Kate Cook speaks to Dr Patrick Toussaint of African Futures Lab about the international legal response to climate related loss and damage. Kate and Patrick discuss the climate regime's Loss and Damage Fund and Warsaw International Mechanism, climate reparations and their connection to racial and postcolonial justice and the implications of the ICJ's Advisory Opinion on state responsibility. One common theme throughout their discussion is the gross mismatch between what is needed and what is currently available to address catastrophic impacts that are already occurring.

In this episode Florence Iveson discusses the implications of the International Court of Justice's much anticipated Advisory Opinion on Climate Change with Kate Cook and Toby Fisher. Their wide-ranging discussion looks at issues including the role of the temperature goal in the climate regime, the limited discretion in relation to NDCs and what we now know about state responsibility, and what still remains to be determined...

In this episode, Emma Foubister discusses the right to peaceful protest in the context of climate change and climate protests with Carol Day and Anirudh Mathur.

In Part 2 of "Smoke and Mirrors: Geoengineering and International Law", Kate Cook and Mary Church of CIEL look more closely at the legal implications of these technologies including current international restrictions on their deployment, adopted under a number of different treaty regimes, as well as the implications of human rights law and the climate regime.

Advocates of geoengineering claim that these technologies provide a potential solution to climate change, but many question their feasibility and harmful impacts and see them simply as a means to prolong the life of the fossil fuel industry. This two part episode looks at the evidence and the law in relation to geoengineering. In the first part of this episode, Kate Cook and Mary Church of CIEL discuss the specific potential environmental, economic and social impacts of the various technologies referred to as geoengineering and the approach taken by the IPCC.