200. Lifelines VS Deadlines: The Need For Science Based Policy (Part One)
Outrage + Optimism: The Climate Podcast
Persephonica
4.7 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 18 May 2023
⏱️ 83 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome to another episode of Outrage + Optimism, where we examine issues at the forefront of the climate crisis, interview change-makers, and transform our anger into productive dialogue about building a sustainable future. This week Paul Dickinson introduces the first of his two-part series on Lifelines vs Deadlines: The Need for Science Based Policy by delving into some of the big, underlying and often nefarious causes currently blocking the implementation of meaningful science-based policy which would accelerate our collective transition to a net zero world. Paul kicks off the episode by outlining the enormity of the net zero target that businesses have set themselves in line with scientific targets and expresses his belief (which is share by many) that these goals are not achievable without meaningful government policy to derisk, regulate, set a level playing field and penalise persistent offenders. Why then, instead of governments swooping in with these regulatory lifelines, are we seeing at best antipathy or at worst active disinformation campaigns to block regulation that might aid businesses to make the necessary transitions to align with Net Zero strategies and investments? What are the forces at play? Why aren't governments stepping up to the challenge? These are a few of the questions Paul and Dylan will be exploring over Part One of this mini series with a range of expert guests including:
-
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
-
Naomi Oreskes
-
Amita Chaudhury
-
Steve Waygood
-
Chris Skidmore MP
NOTES AND RESOURCES
Dylan Tanner, InfluenceMap Website | Twitter | LinkedIn Senator Sheldon Whitehouse Twitter | Instagram | Facebook Naomi Oreskes Twitter | LinkedIn Amita Chaudhury LinkedInAIA Group Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn Steve Waygood Twitter | LinkedIn Aviva Investors LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube Chris Skidmore MP Twitter Credits: Series Producer: Catherine Harte Exec Producer: Sarah Thomas Producer/Sound Design/Editor: Clay Carnill Production Coordinator: Mandy Clark Social Media Manager: Kam-Mei Chak Communications Manager: Zoe Tcholak-Antitch Operations Manager: Katie Bradford It’s official, we’re a TED Audio Collective Podcast - Proof! Check out more podcasts from The TED Audio Collective Please follow us on social media! Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Outrage an Optimism. I'm Paul Dickinson and today with my friend |
| 0:18.8 | Dylan Tanner, we'll be kicking off the first in a two-part series lifelines versus deadlines, |
| 0:25.4 | looking at the need for science-based policy to help us deliver net zero by 2050. |
| 0:31.5 | Now Dylan is my co-host for this episode. Next week my co-host is Fiona McLean and she |
| 0:37.4 | came up with this phrase lifelines versus deadlines. And what she means by that is that we have |
| 0:44.8 | serious deadlines reaching us on climate change. We have to take those seriously, but we also |
| 0:50.2 | need lifelines. And she, like me, like Dylan, fundamentally believe that it's government policy |
| 0:56.4 | that's going to give us that hope that we can get out of this problem because you know the laws, |
| 1:01.4 | the law, and everyone's got to follow it. I mean we've seen huge increases in net zero target set |
| 1:06.2 | by banks and businesses and organisations in recent years. But without government stepping into |
| 1:12.6 | support this voluntary action, many say delivering on a net zero strategy by 2050 won't be possible. I |
| 1:18.4 | certainly believe that. Now in fact in the US right now there's an active campaign to stop |
| 1:23.2 | businesses coming together in support of net zero targets. So what's going on here? What are the |
| 1:29.2 | forces at play? Why aren't policymakers stepping up to this challenge? Now to help make sense of this, |
| 1:35.7 | we have a great line up of guests from government, business, and academia. So thanks for being here. |
| 1:48.4 | It's a real pleasure to spend some time digging into a subject that I think builds on the |
| 2:05.1 | momentum versus perfection mini series that Tom recently produced with Fiona McGrath. |
| 2:10.0 | I think Tom and Fiona brilliantly captured the frustration and agony in the climate change |
| 2:16.1 | in this two-part series. We want to dig a little bit into where that pain comes from. I'm going |
| 2:21.2 | to start by quoting Hobbes from 1650 who explained what the state was all about. And he said it was |
| 2:29.3 | designed to protect us by representing the power of all of us through loyalty to that power. |
| 2:37.2 | But he warned that the obligations of the subjects, the citizens, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Persephonica, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Persephonica and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.