Outrage + Optimism

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95. Sounds of Action! The Stubborn Optimist's Playlist Vol. 1 Apr 01, 2021

Show notes

Welcome to the very first Volume of The Stubborn Optimist’s Playlist!

Every week on the podcast we feature an artist who is thoughtful about the role of art and artists in the climate crisis. This week, we celebrate all the artists we have had on the show so far with 2 separate volumes for your listening enjoyment!

So without further ado, Vol. 1.

Enjoy the music!

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The Stubborn Optimist’s Playlist Vol. 1:

(4:12) Ellie Goulding - Speaking

(5:18) She Drew The Gun - Trouble Every Day

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(8:37) Blackout Problems - Dark

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(12:14) Jelani Blackman - Pretty World

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(15:42) Toukan Toukan - Konowoulen

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(19:49) Billy Bragg - King Tide and The Sunny Day Flood

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(22:49) Robert 3D Del Naja - Speaking

(25:01) Massive Attack ft. Christiana Figueres - Eutopia

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(28:32) Gaeya - Contact

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(32:32) Cosmo Sheldrake - Speaking

(34:15) Cosmo Sheldrake - Cuckoo Song

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(36:56) Nick Mulvey - Begin Again

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(41:54) Baaba Mal - Leke

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(44:44) AURORA - Speaking

(46:00) AURORA - The Seed

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(50:43) Millie Turner - Underwater

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(54:34) Ayoni - The Patriots

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(58:47) Too Many T’s - Speaking

(01:01:18) Too Many T’s Not Enough Bees

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(01:04:50) OK GO - All Together Now

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(01:09:18) Aaron Taylor - Get Through This

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(01:12:06) AJR - Speaking

(01:14:02) AJR - Burn The House Down

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Christiana + Tom’s book ‘The Future We Choose’ is available now!

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Keep up with Christiana Figueres here:

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Tom Rivett-Carnac:

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Paul Dickinson is on LinkedIn!

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94. The Risk of Living Under a White Sky with Elizabeth Kolbert Mar 25, 2021

Show notes

With CO2 in the atmosphere now reaching levels 50% higher than when humanity began large-scale burning of fossil fuels during the industrial revolution, time is running out and some ecosystems are on the brink of collapse.

In light of this, some scientists and engineers are asking the question, can we act in time to save them? What do we do if we cannot reduce emissions in time? What tools will we have to save humanity?

This week we talk to Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer-Prize winning author, activist, The New Yorker journalist, about her latest book Under a White Sky, a fascinating work that is asking the big questions: having meddled so much in our natural ecosystems, are we now able to save them and ourselves from the devastating effects of climate change? What form will these interventions take? Are the proposals such a genetically modified coral or solar geoengineering even possible? Will our sky be white?

Join us for a delightfully sobering conversation.

And stick around later in the show for a musical performance from Saunder Jurriaans!

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Christiana + Tom’s book ‘The Future We Choose’ is available now!

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Thank you to our guest this week, Elizabeth Kolbert!

Elizabeth Kolbert

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In 2015, Elizabeth wrote a phenomenal article on Christiana in The New Yorker. Highly recommended reading!

Grab a copy of Elizabeth’s new book, Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future!

Elizabeth is a Pulitzer-Prize winning author, and her books are available for purchase here:

Books by Elizabeth Kolbert

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Our musical guest this week is Saunder Jurriaans!

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Check out Saunder Jurriaans’ debut album ‘Beasts’

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Keep up with Christiana Figueres here:

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Tom Rivett-Carnac:

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Paul Dickinson is on LinkedIn!

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Follow @GlobalOptimism on social media and send us a message!

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BONUS: What The Hale Does This Mean? with Thomas Hale: Net Zero Goals Mar 22, 2021

Show notes

A bonus episode for you this week!

With science demanding that in order to stay below 1.5C we must reach “net zero” greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 at the absolute latest, how do we get there?

We know we can’t keep emitting as we currently are and just offset to balance it out. We need radical cuts and that means a complete reshaping of the global economy and most business models. Arguably, anyone could shape their net zero goals differently, unless we can compare these (literally) hundreds of commitments that have been made - and hundreds, even thousands more that will continue to come.

So here’s a question - what does :net zero” actually mean? Is it the same as carbon neutrality, or any of the other terms we hear and read about?

This week, Tom Rivett-Carnac dials up for a quick chat with Dr. Thomas Hale, Associate Professor in Global Public Policy at Oxford University. He’s part of a team that has just released a report - Taking Stock: A global assessment of net zero targets. The report is the first quantitative analysis of the robustness of the different types of net zero targets and provides a baseline against which we can compare country, city, or company level net zero commitments.

Heard something about climate change you don’t understand, or a term that isn't clear to you? Tweet us @GlobalOptimism starting your question with 'What the Hale', tell us what you want to know and we'll get the answer directly from Dr. Thomas Hale for you!

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Dr. Thomas Hale

Associate Professor of Global Public Policy, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford

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Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford

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Keep up with Christiana Figueres here:

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Tom Rivett-Carnac:

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Paul Dickinson is on LinkedIn!

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93. The Race To Zero! Extreme Electrification with Nico Rosberg and Sara Price Mar 18, 2021

Show notes

This is the second episode in our Race To Zero series!

All evidence points to the tipping point for electrification of road transport, and the end of the internal combustion engine. But will this happen fast enough?

One of the key pillars of the Race to Zero is to accelerate the adoption of Zero Emissions Vehicles. Today, transport accounts for about 16% of global emissions, but is a much higher share of total emissions in industrialized countries. For example in the United States, transport accounts for nearly 30% of emissions and globally is a major source of the pollution causing one in ten deaths.

If we’re going to succeed in this, it’s going to take everyone. So how do we bring in new people to take action on climate change? And how do we reach and inspire a new generation to never purchase an internal combustion engine? We ask Nico Rosberg and Sara Price whether the innovative impact of Extreme E and its exciting partnership with citizen action campaign, Count Us In, can bring the power of sport and the excitement of motor racing, to inspire the public to apply pressure that spurs industry and government policy to accelerate the race to zero carbon.

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Check out everything Extreme E!

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Thank you to our guests this week!

Nico Rosberg

Sustainability Entrepreneur | Founder & CEO of Rosberg X Racing

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Rosberg X Racing

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Sara Price

Driver of the No. 99 Hummer EV

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Nigel Topping High Level Climate Action Champion for COP26

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Race to Zero

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COP26 - UN Climate Change Conference

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Marina Guião will be taking over our social media channels on Friday, March 19th!

You can follow her on Instagram.

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Keep up with Christiana Figueres here:

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Tom Rivett-Carnac:

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Paul Dickinson is on LinkedIn!

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Follow @GlobalOptimism on social media and send us a message!

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92. Vicki Hollub Thinks Oil Has a (Low Carbon) Future Mar 11, 2021

Show notes

This week we get into Republicans and climate change, faith and climate change, and some exciting news in climate philanthropy!

And our guest for this episode is President & CEO of Occidental Petroleum, Vicki Hollub. Not only is she the first and currently only female CEO of a major oil and gas company, but Occidental - or Oxy as the company is fondly known - is the first US oil and gas major to announce their strategy to reach Net Zero across emissions scopes 1,2 and 3.

We explore with Vicki the process of capturing carbon for enhanced oil recovery and why this has translated into plans to build the largest Direct Air Capture facility in the world, how they see their new DAC business venture beyond Oxy’s own fields, a vision of the energy future with oil and how they think they will contribute to a Net Zero carbon world.

But with the complicated history between oil and gas majors and the public, will the public trust needed to ensure Oxy’s success be rebuilt in time?

And stick around later in the show for a musical performance from Alex Serra!

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Thank you to our guest this week!

Vicki Hollub

President & CEO, Occidental Petroleum

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Our musical guest this week is Alex Serra!

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As Christiana mentioned early in the episode, check out #Faiths4Climate

SacredPeopleSacredEarth:

Homepage | Sign + share the statement

Greenfaith:

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Keep up with Christiana Figueres here:

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Tom Rivett-Carnac:

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Paul Dickinson is on LinkedIn!

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Follow @GlobalOptimism on social media and send us a message!

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91. The Race to Zero! Road to COP26 Mar 05, 2021

Show notes

Welcome to the first episode of our new Race To Zero series!

With COP26 as the vital milestone for climate action in November 2021, the promises and pledges made by governments must be converted into meaningful action beginning today. We know the EU, the UK and many other countries have net zero pledges but can they achieve them without a global collective effort?

And it’s not just up to governments - history has shown that political actors need the real economy to place wind in their sails. So with everything on the line and the clock ticking, the Race to Zero has no separation between winners and losers, and failure is NOT an option.

Joined this week by Rt Hon Alok Sharma MP, President-Designate of COP26, Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of UNFCCC, Mary Anne Hitt, National Director of Campaigns for The Sierra Club, and Nigel Topping, High Level Climate Action Champion for COP26, we get a first hand look at what is at stake, who is stepping up, and how everyone can join the race to a better future.

And we’ll find out why COP26 is not just a 2 week event in November, but a race that has already begun.

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Guests this week

Alok Sharma

Rt Hon Alok Sharma MP, COP President Designate

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Patricia Espinosa

Title: Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC

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Mary Anne Hitt

National Director of Campaigns, Sierra Club

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Nigel Topping

High Level Climate Action Champion for COP26

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UNFCCC

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Race to Zero

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Sierra Club

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COP26 - UN Climate Change Conference

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Keep up with Christiana Figueres here:

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Tom Rivett-Carnac:

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Paul Dickinson is on LinkedIn!

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Follow @GlobalOptimism on social media!

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90. Ferocious Love with Katharine Wilkinson Feb 25, 2021

Show notes

With a deep freeze in Texas leaving a wake of devastation, a UN Security Council Meeting weakly addressing climate change as the planet’s “gravest threat”, and massive investment for offshore wind in Denmark to produce green ammonia, there’s no shortage of things to be outraged by or optimistic about this week!

We are at a new political moment where we are seeing the ambition for a cleaner world, and we are seeing the economics weigh more and more towards phasing out fossil fuels. We’re even seeing the political winds shift toward championing racial, social, and economic justice! And at the heart of the climate movement that is deeply committed to making all of this possible is a ferocious love for our planet, nurtured and activated by a ‘feminist climate renaissance’ as our guest, Katharine Wilkinson, phrases it.

This week we talk to Katharine Wilkinson, author, teacher and former Editor-in-Chief at Project Drawdown, about her latest book co-edited with Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, ‘All We Can Save’, an anthology of women’s voices in the climate movement, and what is giving her a “fire in the belly and the heart” in tackling the climate crisis.

Our interview with Katharine gets into why she believes the climate crisis is ultimately a leadership crisis, and explores the idea of transformative leadership and emerging voices at the core of the climate movement which she describes as, “characteristically feminine, but also more committedly feminist in its commitment to equality and justice.”

And stick around later in the show for a musical performance from Desirée Dawson!

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Thank you to our guest this week, Katharine Wilkinson.

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Project Drawdown’s Website

The ‘All We Can Save Project’

Buy a copy of “All We Can Save”!

A Matter of Degrees Podcast

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@degreespod - Twitter

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Our musical guest this week is Desirée Dawson!

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Watch Desirée’s CBC Searchlight 2016 Finale Performance Here

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Go check out Science Moms!

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Moms Clean Air Force

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Keep up with Christiana Figueres here:

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Tom Rivett-Carnac:

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Paul Dickinson is on LinkedIn!

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Follow @GlobalOptimism on social media and send us a message!

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89. The Ministry for the Future with Kim Stanley Robinson Feb 18, 2021

Show notes

On Friday, The United States will officially be back in the Paris Climate Agreement!

*cue appropriate volume of fanfare*

And while in a week where Dallas, Texas is colder than Anchorage, Alaska - our co-host Paul Dickinson takes us on a short list of topics discussing the social cost of carbon recently updated by Joseph Stiglitz and Lord Nicholas Stern to match the severity of the climate crisis, as well as a listener question regarding the unregulated growth and steadily growing emissions of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.

But all of this in context, with the US “still in” as it’s being promoted - We anxiously await the United States’ Nationally Determined Contribution which should be announced anytime between now and late April. Once that number comes through, the race to COP 26 will be at full speed where the very first 5 year check in of global accountability and ambition towards a net-zero 2050 and beyond will happen.

So with the world’s largest economy on track to boost the global coalition of nations dedicated to this collective goal, will we be able to achieve emission reductions fast enough to avoid catastrophe? This week our guest is legendary science fiction writer, Kim Stanley Robinson, whose prolific career includes the international bestselling Mars trilogy, and more recently Red Moon, New York 2140, Aurora, Shaman, Green Earth, and 2312. Stan joins us for an exclusive look into the themes of his latest book: The Ministry for the Future, which offers an unflinching look at what our future may hold even in 2025 if we do not address runaway climate change. Optimistically he says, “We are all living in a science fiction novel we are coauthoring together.”

So, what future will we write?

Sci-Fi Pop Music this week from French duo, Toukan Toukän!

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Thank you to our guest this week, Kim Stanley Robinson.

Grab a copy of his latest book - ‘The Ministry For The Future’

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Our musical guest this week is Toukan Toukän!

Music video for ‘Konowoulen’

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Keep up with Christiana Figueres here:

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Tom Rivett-Carnac:

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Paul Dickinson is on LinkedIn!

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Follow @GlobalOptimism on social media and send us a message!

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Don't forget to hit SUBSCRIBE so you don't miss another episode of Outrage + Optimism!

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88. Living on Planet Earth with Oliver Jeffers Feb 11, 2021

Show notes

According to new research by a team of U.S. and U.K. scientists published in Environmental Research, Fossil fuels alone are responsible for more than 8 million premature deaths annually. That’s 1 out of 5 deaths.

Let that sink in for a moment. 1 out of 5.

This figure underscores a fact absent from much public debate and discussion about climate change. While the fight to stop greenhouse gas pollution by curtailing fossil fuel use is framed in terms of how it would improve the future, it’s also true that fossil fuels are killing millions of people right now. And right now is the time to change our thinking.

But when Climate scientists and activists are continuously imploring us to ‘look at the bigger picture’ to address climate change right now, what does this mean? How do we do it?

These are questions that our Outrage + Optimism guest, Oliver Jeffers tackles in this week’s interview with Christiana, Tom and Paul, as he delves into how he performs this perspective shift by ‘simple optics’ in his award winning picture books and visual art.

Whether brought on by an experience of art, science, religious practice, grief, love or parenthood, there is a need for us all to undergo a change in perspective and see beyond our day to day concerns and routines to grow an awareness of ourselves as a human family with a shared duty to protect our Earth, our home, from growing climate catastrophe. Art like Oliver’s, provides the perfect vehicle for this transformational and necessary journey which we hope you will all join us on.

Music this week from the incredible Presidio. Listen in!

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Thank you to our guest this week, Oliver Jeffers.

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Oliver delivered a series of free art classes for children (and adults) in partnership with Harrods in which he demonstrates how to draw some of his best loved characters from his books. His website also includes more free activities for children and their families.

An Ode to Living on the Earth is Oliver’s fantastic Ted Talk.

The Moon, The Earth and Us is Oliver Jeffers 2019 art installation.

This Way Up is the upside down map that Oliver Jeffers referenced in the interview. More of Oliver Jeffers’ art work is available here.

These are the temporary tattoos that Clay wants.

Here is the Dipped Painting Project.

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Our musical guest this week is Presidio!

Stream their latest EP - ‘Telepathy’ - Listen to “Unwind”

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Keep up with Christiana Figueres here:

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Tom Rivett-Carnac:

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Paul Dickinson is on LinkedIn!

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Follow @GlobalOptimism on social media!

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87. The Future of Urban Transport Feb 04, 2021

Show notes

This is our fourth and final episode of an Outrage + Optimism investigative series on The Future of Transport.

In 2019, UN Secretary General stated that “cities are where the climate battle will largely be won or lost” and he couldn’t be more right. With seven out of ten people expected to live in urban areas by 2050, and cities currently consuming ⅔ of the world’s energy, the need to transition off of fossil fuel based urban transport has never been more urgent.

But how do we solve deadly air pollution, traffic congestion, overcrowding while securing racial justice and a just transition for marginalized communities? The answer might surprise you. From flying taxis and high speed pods, to better bus routes and bike lanes, the urban transport solutions of the future look as unique and varied as the cities they might one day serve.

The future of sustainable cities will mean that billions of citizens can safely get around and enjoy healthy, equitable lives in our urban spaces. From Sao Paulo to London, Montreal to Kampala, Our hosts Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac, and Paul Dickinson speak to transport planners, pioneers and professors, all rising to the challenge of creating more sustainable cities.

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Listen to the previous episodes of our miniseries here - The Future of Transport

This series is sponsored by NESTE

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Guests this week:

Kevin Manaugh: Associate professor in the Department of Geography and The Bieler School of Environment at McGill University

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Pia Heidenmark Cook: Chief Sustainability Officer, Ingka Group

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Robin Chase: Co-founder of Zipcar, Veniam, NUMO

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