Last month I was asked to contribute to Carnegie’s ‘Taking the pulse’ series. The question was Has Europe Given Up its Leadership on Climate Change? December 12, 2025 will mark the tenth anniversary of the Paris Agreement adopted at COP21. Rather than celebrating the birth of this landmark climate treaty, …
A hotter more dangerous world demands new thinking about the climate crisis Recently I’ve been DJing at events and playing R.E.M.’s It’s the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine). Most people in the crowd have either never heard it before, or think of it as …
People’s inability to see past net zero shows it is no longer fit for purpose “Be flexible, find common ground, come forward with solutions and achieve consensus and never lose sight of our north star of 1.5°C, that’s what I’m going to stay laser-focused on.”President of COP28, Dr. Sultan Ahmed …
On the 11th March I gave a talk to a group of students from across the University of Exeter as part of a careers in sustainability & environment week. In many ways, this was a long time coming. I’ve been giving public lectures, seminars, talks about climate change for over …
I’ve started a Substack for a number of reasons, one of them being a place to publish articles that for one reason or another never seem to quite fit anywhere else. Yes I could put them up as posts here, but having a Substack just for articles means that, perhaps, …
In 2021, Robert Watson, Wolfgang Knorr and I wrote the article “Concept of net zero is a dangerous trap“. Three years later we concluded that the jaws of this trap are starting to close with climate policy increasingly being framed in terms of what we call “The overshoot myth“. In …
James Dyke, University of Exeter; Robert Watson, University of East Anglia, and Wolfgang Knorr, Lund University Record breaking fossil fuel production, all time high greenhouse gas emissions and extreme temperatures. Like the proverbial frog in the heating pan of water, we refuse to respond to the climate and ecological crisis …
inews 11th April 2024 For more than 30 years governments have been wrestling with the climate problem. While we may or may not get the politicians we deserve, what seems abundantly clear is that no mainstream political party has demonstrated the sufficient gumption to keep humanity safe from dangerous climate …
Carbon removal is in the news again today. This story has been prompted by new research that suggests Direct Air Capture could be carried out using new chemistries that could results in a three-fold increase in efficiencies. There are quite a few “coulds” in that this is very early days …
Earlier this year I discussed net zero, 1.5, the Paris Agreement and much more with Tom Rivet-Carnac. This was captured in a recording that has now been made available as a podcast via Outrage & Optimism, a project created by Tom, Cristina Figueres, and Paul Dickinson. The discussion was part …
This week, the University of Exeter announced a new net zero collaboration with Shell. This five-year deal represents a significant amount of income to the University. This money will pay for research in the UK and Brazil that “is part of a wider Shell-led research programme focussed on carbon sequestration, …
The term “net zero” features in every climate policy. Why? Kevin Anderson gives his explanation in this short clip from the climate documentary film The Race is On (carry on watching to hear Kate Raworth diagnose some of the central dysfunctions of mainstream policy). Today, I and 40 other scientists …
