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Understanding Climate Tipping Points With Stephen Smith | Wicked Problems Climate Tech Conversations

In this episode of Wicked Problems Climate Tech Conversations, host Richard Delevan dives into the pivotal and pressing subject of climate tipping points with guest Stephen Smith. They discuss the warnings from the recent Global Tipping Points Conference in Exeter, where nearly 200 scientists urged immediate action to prevent irreversible climate changes. The conversation explores both negative and positive climate tipping points, the challenges policymakers face in addressing them, and the importance of storytelling in climate advocacy. Stephen Smith also highlights the potential of renewable energy and the steps needed to accelerate the global transition to a low-carbon economy. Tune in for an insightful discussion on the critical actions required to address the climate crisis and the hopeful pathways forward.

00:00 Introduction and Opening Remarks

00:26 Urgent Climate Crisis Call

01:29 Understanding Tipping Points

03:44 Negative Tipping Points

04:18 Positive Tipping Points

05:12 Policy Makers and Tipping Points

06:02 Interruption and Resumption

07:03 Immediate Action Required

11:20 Real-World Example: Tuvalu

14:16 Challenges in Policy Making

17:21 Positive Social Tipping Points

18:54 Renewable Energy Revolution

22:12 Barriers to Change

27:54 Accelerating Positive Change

35:10 Hope and Final Thoughts

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Will Nigel Farage's Reform party succeed in demonising climate action? Or will adaptation change the conversation? Are the Tories cooked? And does Gaza create an opening big enough for Jeremy Corbyn's new party to cut into Labour support?

Richard Delevan talks to More in Common's Ed Hodgson about Shattered Britain, how Britain's "Tribes" will shape the future - and why you need to understand them if effective climate communicators are going to win.

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Climate Justice: ICJ's Historic Ruling and Its Global Impact

In this episode of Wicked Problems, host Richard Delavan is joined by Professor Elizabeth Holland from Brown University to discuss a historic advisory opinion handed down by the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The ruling, initiated by Pacific Island students, declares climate science as a binding element under customary international law, obligating states to take stronger climate action. Elizabeth shares insights from her role as a science negotiator for Palau and the significance of the court's ruling for vulnerable nations and future generations. This episode also features voices from those who played pivotal roles in making this judgment a reality, emphasizing the binding nature of climate obligations and the need for continuous global cooperation.

00:00 Introduction: Climate Science as Law

00:16 The Court's Advisory Opinion

00:54 Human Impact and Cultural Struggles

01:14 End of Impunity and Legal Obligations

02:03 Interview with Professor Elizabeth Holland

02:43 Reactions to the ICJ Ruling

05:22 The Role of Small Island States

05:50 Challenges in Climate Negotiations

08:01 Legal Frameworks and Obligations

09:43 Implications for the United States

12:33 Personal Reflections and Contributions

14:34 Celebrating the Youth Movement

18:17 Art and Culture in Climate Advocacy

21:21 Generational Promises and Songs

26:38 Conclusion and Call to Action

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The Intersection of Climate Change and National Security with Rear Admiral Neil: A Deep Dive

In this episode of 'Wicked Problems,' host Richard Delevan speaks with Rear Admiral Neil, former Royal Navy officer and current Professor of Climate and Resource Security at UCL, about the growing recognition that climate change is a strategic challenge impacting national security. They discuss the expanded definition of national security to include climate adaptation, various international and interdisciplinary efforts to mitigate climate impact, and how the military is adapting its strategies. The conversation covers past and present policies, the importance of societal involvement, and the role of technological advancements. Rear Admiral Neil emphasizes the need for strategic, long-term solutions, cooperation across sectors, and raises concerns about the potential for a significant crisis to wake global leadership from complacency.

00:00 Introduction to Climate Change and Security

00:26 Guest Introduction: Rear Admiral Neil

00:57 National Security and Climate Change

02:06 Impact of Climate Change on Society

03:49 Military's Role and Adaptation

04:44 Evolving Conversations on Climate Policy

09:48 Technological Innovations in the Military

19:02 International Cooperation and Policy

24:49 Challenges and Future Prospects

31:52 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

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In this episode, two parts:

Jenny Chase, a solar market analyst at BNF, about the dramatic rise of solar power in Pakistan. Despite scant government support, Pakistan has rapidly adopted solar energy, moving from importing a few gigawatts of solar modules in 2022 to becoming one of the largest markets. This development has led to economic and infrastructural challenges, such as grid reliability and pricing issues, and raises important questions about the future of energy systems globally.

The episode also features a conversation with Australia-based climate journalist Royce Kurmelovs, who writes for Drilled and Reneweconomy as well as many others, about a recent significant legal ruling in Australia where indigenous Torres Strait Islanders sued the government over climate change threats to their homeland. While the court recognized climate change as an existential threat, it ruled against the plaintiffs due to current legal limitations, highlighting the ongoing legal and moral challenges in climate responsibility.

00:00 Introduction to Pakistan's Solar Energy Surge

00:09 Global Perspectives and Future Trends

00:33 Australia's Energy Ambitions vs. Reality

02:24 Unreported Solar Installations in Pakistan

03:37 Economic Implications of Solar Adoption

04:49 Government Contracts and Energy Prices

16:07 Global Perspectives and Future Trends

19:39 Discussion on Pakistan's Progress

19:44 Jenny Chase's Upcoming Leave

20:41 Introduction to Climate Cases in Australia

21:42 Details of the Torres Strait Case

23:29 Impacts on Torres Strait Islands

25:14 Legal and Cultural Implications

28:37 Global Context and Comparisons

40:42 Australia's Climate Policy and Politics

Follow Jenny:

🔗 solarchase.bsky.social

🔗 Jenny Chase on LinkedIn

🌐 Follow Royce:

“Court agrees climate change is real, but throws out Torres Strait Islanders’ claim anyway” (RenewEconomy)

Also check out his most recent book: Slick: Australia’s Toxic Relationship with Big Oil

🔗 roycerk2.bsky.social

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Thick ice caps topping some dormant volcanoes may be acting like a champagne cork. Research released earlier this month suggests that by speeding up the melt of those ice caps through human-caused climate change, we’re removing the foil and the little wire cage on some trapped liquid that will taste a bit more acidic than champagne when it gets out as the cork tries to free itself.

Bob Berwyn has reported for a decade for Inside Climate News - the OG climate outlet that in 2015 broke the story of the biggest corporate scandal in history: a nine-part investigative series demonstrating how much #ExxonKnew about the effects that burning oil and other fossil fuels would have on the future climate, and then doing everything in its power to prevent anyone from stopping it.

Bob’s piece on the volcano research stopped me in my tracks. As he said in this conversation:

“the most profound thing about a study like this volcano study … is how profoundly we're changing fundamental parts of the global Earth system. I mean, we're sitting here talking about things like, ‘wow, could our activities actually cause more volcanoes?’ I mean, just the fact that we're asking this question is, ‘wow, what have we done?’ You know?”

In This Conversation

01:33 Scientific Insights on Volcanic Activity

05:20 Challenges in Climate Research

12:09 Global Climate Negotiations

20:12 Heatwaves and Public Health

23:54 Legal and Ethical Responsibilities

24:36 The Reality of Heat Waves and Their Deadly Impact

26:13 The Political Project Against Climate Science

27:07 Social Science and Climate Action

28:58 The Anti-Autocracy Handbook for Scientists

31:02 Free Speech and Authoritarianism

34:25 The Role of Legal Obligations in Climate Justice

37:05 Public Perception and Managed Retreat

40:37 Final Thoughts and Upcoming Stories

Keep Up With Bob

Bob is an essential follow on BlueSky, and his journalism for Inside Climate News does not quit. Here are links to just some of the stories we touched on:

Melting Ice Caps Could Bring Dormant Volcanoes to Life

Human-Caused Global Warming Spiked the Death Toll of Europe’s Early Summer Heatwave

New Handbook Aims to Protect Scientists From Autocratic Threats

Bonn Climate Talks Rife With Roadblocks and Dead Ends

If you think these conversations are worth listening to, share them with a friend or make an offering to the volcano gods to spare your town.

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In this Wicked Problems – Climate Tech Conversations, we’re joined by Gaia Vince, author of Nomad Century, a landmark work on climate-driven migration. From the existential realities of climate displacement to the politics of denial and adaptation, it’s about what happens when we stop pretending everyone will stay where they are.

It Bad

Last week, a catastrophic flood hit Kerr County, Texas. 30 cm of rain—four months' worth—fell in hours. The Guadalupe River rose 8 metres in under an hour, swamping the area around Camp Mystic. Over 90 are dead, many of them young girls at the camp. Some are still missing.

Cue the blame game. Officials who refused to fund early warning systems claimed the event was unpredictable. Trump-era cuts had gutted the National Weather Service, yet some still pointed fingers at the agency. Others called it karmic justice or MAGA-targeted weather warfare. Conspiracy theorists went further, blaming imaginary geoengineering attacks. Marjorie Taylor-Greene tweeted: “We must end the dangerous and deadly practice of weather modification and geoengineering.”

Right-wing extremists, already attacking Doppler radar sites, turn tragedy into paranoia. In past hurricanes, conspiracy-fueled threats forced rescue crews to withdraw.Rapid attribution studies confirm what should be obvious: climate change makes these once-rare floods far more likely.

OK Doomer

In a now-notorious quote, Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki said “it’s too late.” Critics pounced, accusing him of defeatism. But, as we discuss with Gaia Vince, the real issue isn’t optimism vs pessimism—it’s whether we’re brave enough to face what’s actually happening.

After decades in media and PR, I can tell when people are dodging the truth—even for good reasons. In climate comms, there’s a lot of that. But we try something different here: saying what we think is true, even if it’s hard to hear.

On the Move

Gaia Vince has been writing about climate and migration for over a decade. In Nomad Century, she argues:

• Migration is a natural response to climate change—always has been.
• By 2070, up to 3 billion people may need to move as habitable zones shrink.
• Governments that prepare for this now will fare better than those that deny it.

The book isn’t dystopian; it’s clear-eyed and pragmatic. It insists we have a choice: chaos, or planned adaptation.

In This Conversation

01:54 Climate Change’s Global Reach

04:24 The Reality of Climate Migration

09:24 Political Responses to Climate Change

10:44 Economic Implications and Adaptation

21:57 Innovative Solutions and Future Outlook

26:10 Australia and Tuvalu

27:06 UN, Sovereignty, and Vanishing Nations

29:00 Climate Refugees

30:05 Early Agreements

30:56 Adaptation and Relocation

34:21 Facing the Climate Reality

46:55 Can Global Governance Step Up?

Get the Book

Nomad Century: How to Survive the Climate Upheaval remains one of the most honest, practical guides to climate adaptation out there. Listen to the conversation—and get the book.

Tips, Bribes, and Abuse

Guest idea? Want to help us do more of this? Or just dying to tell us how crap we are? Reach out on Bluesky or email us at [email protected]—and maybe stand us a pint.

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Is the “Abundance” discourse - and you can fit most iterations of it in a spectrum from Aaron Bastani and Zohran Mamdani to Ezra Klein to Elon Musk - an inspiring vision of the future or a dangerous delusion? Is insisting on “limits” just realism or is it pathological pessimism? And where does climate tech fit into all that?

We think the answers to these questions are kind of important. So we were excited to talk it through onstage at Extreme Hangout during London Climate Action Week at Ladbroke Hall; with climate tech entrepreneur Yasmine Abdu, co-founder of Fridays for the Future Michael Spiekermann, and BP exec to sustainability strategist Charles Perry.

Enjoy!

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02:27 Michael Speakman's Journey from Activism to Policy

03:36 Yasin Abdu's Carbon Track Initiative

04:51 Discussion on Abundance vs. Limits

15:19 Charles Perry on the Stellar Vision

24:30 Debating the Future of Energy and Policy

28:18 Reconciling System Change and Longevity

28:44 Building an Ecosystem of Corporate Support

29:39 Avoiding Venture Capital for Mission-Driven Impact

30:58 Choosing Entrepreneurship Over Activism

32:18 The Power of Bottom-Up Movements

37:31 Identifying the Villain in Climate Narratives

50:29 Hope and the Global Sustainability Revolution

52:45 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

All the Outros

Many thanks to our panel and our partners at Extreme Hangout for bringing us on to their stage!

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How am I gonna be an optimist about this? This conversation’s official exit music is from Bastille. But stick around for a twist.

Turns out it’s not just men who think about the Roman Empire.

Polymath raconteuse Solitaire Townsend - sustainability consultant, co-founder of Futerra, UN envoy, award-winning author of the non-fiction The Solutionists - wasn’t just thinking about Rome. She’s wondering, ‘what if I combine some Roman Empire stuff with climate fiction in an alt-history universe in a novel featuring a kick-arse heroine?’ And gets herself a two-book deal.

Pre-order Godstorm from our Bookshop.org site or wherever you get good books.

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As a cli-fi/alt-history nerd with shelves stuffed with riffs on Rome from Gibbon to Mary Beard with stops for Asimov’s Foundation series, I cannot tell you how pleased I am to be the first to introduce Solitaire Townsend as “novelist” on a podcast.

We talk about her turn to fiction, why now, why the alt-history genre, kick around ideas about alt-history from Philip K. Dick to Star Trek (with some Ursula le Guin because why not), and how she deploys the form to tell a cautionary tale about a world that could have been a lot worse off in its climate breakdown — where Rome never fell, because of the 2nd-century CE invention of the combustion engine.

As Solitaire says, if we started burning oil under Marcus Aurelius, climate change would have started much sooner. The warming and rising seas fuel extreme weather events called “God-storms”, caused - according to the Imperial version of Fox News - by lack of piety.

Most of that is in the background only creating the more personal, intimate world in which her characters struggle - including a gladatrix-turned-governess seeking to rescue her charge from nefarious clutches and kicking serious arse along the way.

In Conversation

00:28 First Podcast as a Novelist

00:56 Pitching 'Godstorm'

02:18 Background and Career of Solitaire Townsend

02:37 Solitaire, Sustainability Caesaris

04:01 Nonfiction Writing Journey

05:49 Role of Storytelling in Social Change

07:22 Transition to Fiction Writing

08:14 Discovering a Passion for Writing

10:24 Exploring Alternate History

14:05 Speculative Fiction and Personal Interests

17:26 Themes and Inspirations for 'God Storm'

20:14 Character Development and Empathy

22:14 Reflections on Ursula Le Guin and Sci-Fi

27:21 Conclusion and Book Pre-Order Information

Pre-order Godstorm from our Bookshop.org site.

Exit Music

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In 2024, Wim Carton and Andreas Malm released Overshoot - How the World Surrendered to Climate Breakdown. It was praised and critiqued in various quarters - but we included it in our books of the year because it’s a) beautifully written - with plenty of lateral-thought LOLs and b) was perfectly timed to come out just as the data was increasingly at odds with the “Keep 1.5 Alive” stuff of “incantatory governance” - the magical thinking that seems to be a really complicated way of avoiding some obvious, but difficult, choices. But Overshoot was just the first half of a 2-parter.

In the final part, out in October, The Long Heat - Climate Politics When It’s Too Late, Carton and Malm take up the challenge about what to do about it. Will adaptation, carbon dioxide removals, and geoengineering be topics seriously engaged with? Or will they just be a new version of finding ways to avoid the fossil fuels “stranded assets” conversation we’ve avoided having for 35 years of climate politics?

In this conversation, we spend a lot of time talking about carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies, revealing their roots in extending fossil fuel use, and argues for the necessity of political change to make meaningful progress.

But we ended up in an unexpected place. The book, surprisingly to me when I read it, concludes (however reluctantly) that CDR is going to be necessary. But that it needs to be decoupled from a system full of perverse incentives and moral hazard on meth and towards a re-framing of CDR as a public good.

What’s in the Conversation

00:00 Introduction and Opening Remarks

00:17 Host Introduction and Upcoming Events

02:27 Guest Introduction: Wim Carton

04:48 Discussing 'Overshoot' and Climate Politics

06:13 The Role of Fossil Fuel Companies

16:38 Adaptation Strategies and Challenges

18:43 Technological Solutions and Their Limits

20:07 Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR)

20:51 The Concept of Negative Magic

21:41 Problematizing Reversibility

22:43 Political Economy of Carbon Dioxide Removal

24:08 Klaus Lachner and Carbon Removal

28:05 Startups and the Political Economy

31:07 Challenges in Carbon Removal Market

35:36 The Role of the State in Carbon Removal

40:12 Concluding Thoughts and Future Discussions

Get the Books

Like the authors we’re speaking with? Want to get their books, support the author, independent booksellers, and this show?

Come get em at our Bookshop.org shop!

Next episode out very soon is with Solitaire Townsend - talking about her debut novel - a cli-fi/alt-history/Roman-Empire mashup - Godstorm. What if Rome invented the combustion engine, so it never fell?

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