The Sustainability Agenda

A deep dive with Timothée Parrique on degrowth thinking. In this fascinating interview, Timothee Parrique gives an overview of the latest research on degrowth economics, the compelling underlying logic-- and confronts some of the misunderstandings about degrowth, undermining some of the arguments used against degrowing the economy. Timothée highlights the growing adoption of degrowth ideas in the world of economics, and more importantly, by the IPCC itself—and he discusses the growing evidence that decoupling is not, and has not, taken place, notwithstanding the hopes that many have for green growth. “The new numbers we have tell us that that the decoupling we would need to see in order to make further economic growth in high income nations green…it just has not been delivered.”

Timothée Parrique is a researcher at the School of Economics in Lund University, Sweden. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Clermont Auvergne and Stockholm University. Titled “The political economy of degrowth” (2019), his dissertation explores the economic implications of degrowth. Tim is also the lead author of “Decoupling debunked – Evidence and arguments against green growth” (2019), a report published by the European Environmental Bureau (EEB). He blogs at https://timotheeparrique.com and tweets at @timparrique.

Professor Robert Eccles, one of the world’s leading authorities on ESG, discusses the growing importance of ESG factors in investment, with reflections on the corporate and investor response to the war in Ukraine. He shares his views on the importance of establishing effective corporate sustainability standards--which he recognises as a challenging, inevitably slow, sometimes polarising, but vitally important effort to reach consensus: “Standard setting has always been a contentious, fractious process. There are technical issues, there are ideological issues. It's never done… the debate continues.” Professor Eccles discusses the role  corporations play with respect to the SDGs--and how, and when, corporations can do good given pressures to grow and maximise profits. He also discusses the impact of investors’ changing attitudes to sustainability. A fascinating discussion focussed on some of the most important questions today in the world of corporate sustainability.

Professor Robert Eccles is a leading authority on corporate purpose and the integration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors in resource allocation decisions by companies and investors. He is Visiting Professor of Management Practice at Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford was previously a tenured professor at Harvard Business School. He is the Founding Chairman of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and one of the founders of the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC).

Sunrise co-founder William Lawrence looks back on his days at Sunrise and explores some of the lessons and insights from the organisation’s growth development—and makes the connection with wider trends in left politics in the United States. This interview explores key elements of Sunrise’s strategy, as well the organisation’s methods of organizing. William highlights some of the organisations key successes -- raising the importance of climate in American political discourse, making it a leading priority for the Democratic Party, as well as some of the work that remains to be done. A fascinating insight into the development, growth, and challenges faced by one of the most successful and inspiring youth driven climate change organisations in the world.

William Lawrence is an organizer and social movement strategist. He was a co-founder of Sunrise Movement, where he helped shape and popularize the Green New Deal. He currently works as a strategic advisor for Dream Defenders, a social change organisation fighting for a world without prisons, policing, surveillance and punishment--and he is developing a new popular organization in his hometown of Lansing, Michigan. William’s detailed analysis in Convergence magazine https://bit.ly/3vSYlCz and https://bit.ly/3FuJn9c -- what he calls an exercise in “practice of learning in public.”

Professor Kevin Gallagher and Richard Kozul-Wright discuss their new book The Case for a New Bretton Woods. They highlight the unmet promises for reforms to promote stability, social inclusion, and sustainability in the aftermath of the 2008–9 global financial crisis—and argue that in the wake of Covid there is now an opportunity to reform the financial system and deal with the inequality, volatility, and climate breakdown. Kevin and Richard outline a series of fundamental reforms to bring the Bretton Woods institutions, reforming international finance, aligning trade and investment rules with climate and development goals.

Kevin T Gallagher is Professor of Global Development Policy and Director of the Global Development Policy Center at Boston University, whose mission is to advance policy-relevant research for financial stability, human wellbeing, and the environment on a global scale. Richard Kozul-Wright is Director of the Division on Globalization and Development Strategies at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) He has worked at the UN in both New York and Geneva and published widely on economic issues.

Wide-ranging interview with the economist Ann Pettifor on the impact of an unstable financial system on the prospects of dealing with the climate crisis, the role and impact of private finance-- which she believes is ultimately designed to serve the interests of the 1%. Ann argues, however, that the real power of private finance is overstated, pointing to the various ways in which financial institutions consistently rely on public institutions to bail them out: how we are not actually living in time of free market capitalism. Rather than focus exclusively on the cost of decarbonization, Ann suggests that we think about a different kind of economy: living more simply, living with less carbon, living in an economy which is not based on fossil fuels.

Ann Pettifor is a British economist who advises governments and organisations. Her work focuses on the global financial system, sovereign debt restructuring, international finance and sustainable development. She was one of the leaders of the Jubilee 2000 debt cancellation campaign and is a member of the Green New Deal Group of economists, environmentalists and entrepreneurs actively working to shift the world away from fossil fuels. Her latest book is The Case for the Green New Deal.

Deep dive with Professor Ruth DeFries on her recent book What would Nature Do exploring how strategies from the natural world can help humanity weather many of the environmental crises we are now facing. DeFries explains how a small number of key strategies—investments in diversity, redundancy over efficiency, self-correcting feedbacks, and decisions based on bottom-up knowledge—enable life to persist through unpredictable, sudden shocks-and various ways in which we can apply these strategies to deal with current environmental challenges we are facing.

Ruth DeFries is a professor of ecology and sustainable development at Columbia University in New York co-founding dean of the Columbia Climate School and is a recipient of the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship and many other academic awards she is an author of over a 100 scientific papers related to how people are manipulating the planet and its consequences for humanity. Her most recent book is What would Nature do where she outlines a set of strategies from the natural world that she believes can help humanity deal with many of the environmental crises the world is facing.

Carbon Tracker Initiative’s Mark Campanale provides fresh insights into the dangerous phenomenon of stranded assets –according to the IEA: “ investments which have already been made but which, at some time prior to the end of their economic life, are no longer able to earn an economic return.” Mark explains why it is taking so long for capital markets to reflect the real value of fossil fuel companies—and what’s at stake here-- how we are funding climate chaos through our pension schemes and banking system.  Mark discusses the economics of investment in fossil fuel compared to renewables, the power and influence of the fossil fuel industry, and his latest work focus, including important work on the Fossil fuel Non Proliferation Treaty. 

Mark Campanale is the Founder of the Carbon Tracker Initiative, a non-profit think-tank launched to pin-point with clarity how global capital markets have failed to deal with climate risk. Mark developed the ‘unburnable carbon’ capital markets thesis – the idea that there are substantial fossil fuel energy sources which cannot be burnt if the world is to adhere to the necessary carbon budgets to limit global warming. Campanale also  co-founded Planet Tracker, another think tank, which provides in-depth financial analysis around natural ecological barriers to growth faced by financial markets. His work seeks to raise awareness of ‘value-at-risk’ to the financial community, and engages institutional investors and analysts to unlock and redirect the transformative power of capital markets to deliver on sustainable development objectives.

Wide ranging discussion on ESG ratings and how MSCI approaches identifying risks and opportunities arising from material Climate and ESG issues. Linda-Eling Lee is Global Head of ESG and Climate Research at MSCI the largest provider of ESG Ratings and analytics to global institutional investors. Linda-Elong leads one of the largest teams in the world dedicated to identifying risks and opportunities arising from material Climate and ESG issues.  She oversees all ESG- and Climate-related content and methodology and is also a member of MSCI’s Executive Committee.

Hard-hitting interview with outspoken Kenyan ecologist and conservation writer Dr Mordecai Ogada. Deep dive on key trends in Kenyan conservation. Mordecai criticizes of impact of large sums of money coming into conservation Kenya, from abroad, which he sees having an overtly commercial impact on conservation in Kenya. One impact: substantial growth in “protected areas”—which Mordecai sees as being “rooted in violence and eviction and disenfranchisement.” Mordecai calls for the philosophy behind protected areas has to be looked at afresh. “Humans have always used landscapes have always used natural resources. The key is finding sustainable and more resilient ways of using these natural resources.” 

Dr Ogada is a carnivore ecologist and conservation writer who has been involved in conservation policy and practice for the last 18 years in Kenya and other parts of Africa, mainly focusing on human wildlife conflict mitigation, and carnivore and community-based conservation Wildlife Policy and wetlands ecology. He is currently the Executive Director of Conservation Solutions Africa, and natural resource management consultancy. He is the co-author of The Big Conservation Lie.

In this wide-ranging and hard-hitting interview, pioneering American writer, activist, and Marxist environmentalist, Mike Davis speaks out about the dangers of this moment, politically, which he sees as similar to the late 1930s, and the relentless environmental destruction of the planet, and growing nuclear threats. Disappointed by the loss of momentum for street politics and protests in the US, following the inspiration of Black Lives Matter, Mike worries that protests have become predominantly a franchise of the far right, at a time of existential threats where young people need to take action and speak out. Mike is harshly critical of the way in which Western governments have dealt with Covid, drawing parallels with multilateral approaches to dealing with the climate crisis, particularly the prevailing ideology that finance capitalism is the only force that can save the world environmentally. 

Mike Davis is a pioneering American writer, political activist, urban theorist, and historian, best known for his seminal analysis of power and social class in his native Southern California. Over many decades, Davis has created a powerful body of work investigating a wide range of issues from urban development and globalisation to the impact of extreme weather systems, the growth of slums, pandemics, and the environment—all underpinned by a profound critique of capitalist social relations and a deep concern for the environment and all kinds of injustice. He was a 1996–1997 Getty Scholar at the Getty Research Institute and received a MacArthur Fellowship Award in 1998. He is the author of some two dozen works of fiction and non-fiction and won the Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction in 2007.