BONUS: What The Hale Does This Mean? with Thomas Hale: Net Zero Goals
Outrage + Optimism: The Climate Podcast
Persephonica
4.7 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 22 March 2021
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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!
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn
__
Dr. Thomas Hale
Associate Professor of Global Public Policy, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford
Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford
__
Keep up with Christiana Figueres here:
—
Tom Rivett-Carnac:
Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn
—
Paul Dickinson is on LinkedIn!
—
Don't forget to hit SUBSCRIBE so you don't miss another episode of Outrage + Optimism!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Tom Rivet-Karnak and today we've got a special bonus episode of Outrage |
| 0:28.2 | Optimism for you. |
| 0:35.2 | Now as part of our Race to Zero series we'll be talking to leading figures in |
| 0:39.6 | diplomacy, politics, business, finance, activism, entrepreneurship to |
| 0:44.2 | understand exactly how we can move the global economy to mobilize faster |
| 0:49.1 | in pursuit of a net zero future. The Paris Agreement has of course been adopted |
| 0:53.5 | by more than 190 countries and is the North Star also for many cities, regions, |
| 0:59.1 | companies and financial institutions and the heart of it is the goal of the net |
| 1:03.2 | zero global greenhouse gas emissions and a deadline that guides how deeply we |
| 1:08.8 | need to cut those emissions to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. |
| 1:12.9 | Science demands that to stay to 1.5 degrees we have to reach net zero greenhouse |
| 1:17.6 | gas emissions as quickly as possible and certainly before 2050. But how do we |
| 1:23.1 | get there? We can't just keep emitting all the way to those dates and then |
| 1:26.8 | drop off precipitously. We need to have a smooth descent reducing at least by |
| 1:31.3 | 50% by 2030. What role do nature-based solutions play? We absolutely need to |
| 1:36.8 | restore nature, restore the biosphere. But how do we integrate that with our |
| 1:41.3 | net zero climate goals? Is it okay to offset a proportion if so? What |
| 1:46.2 | proportion and at what time? At the moment we're in a situation where there |
| 1:50.6 | isn't that much standardisation around what a net zero goal is and that can be |
| 1:55.3 | good in some ways because it provides innovation and momentum and interest but |
| 1:59.6 | it can be bad because how do we know that everybody is measuring them in the |
| 2:03.4 | same way in a manner that is comparable? What does net zero even mean? Is it the |
... |
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.