Politics & Negotiations
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“Net Zero is costly and difficult and Ed Mibiland should slow down the transition” has been a common refrain in UK political circles recently, from Tony Blair to Rory Stewart to Kemi Badenoch. So we thought we’d write a bit of an explainer on where this fossilised argument goes wrong.
The first casualties of wars are the people directly affected; the killed, the wounded and the displaced. Without diminishing that in any way, this article considers some of the impacts of past and present oil shocks on the world’s addiction to fossil fuels, and whether this can finally be a turning point in the energy transition.
This is our attempt to summarise where COP30 has left global climate talks, following our mini-series of blogs during the COP on; Implementation, Citites, South Korea’s Coal Phaseout, and Fossil Fuels.
In our penultimate COP30 Focus blog we dive into how Fossil Fuels have been treated in this and previous COPs, how non-COP roadmaps to their phase-out are emerging, and how the energy transition is steaming ahead anyway, especially in China.
In the latest of our COP30 focus series, we look at one of the potential highlights of COP30 so far, that of the Republic of Korea signing up to the Powering Past Coal Alliance.
In this, the second of our miniseries on the topics at COP30 that we should be focused on, we look at the role of cities in tackling climate change.
The first in our series of blogs on the ongoing COP30 process in Brazil. This article focuses on the topic of Implementation.
In this blog we interview Lt. General Russel Honoré, who led the federal response to Hurricane Katrina 20 years ago. While many local, state and federal leaders in charge during Katrina emerged with badly damaged reputations, Honoré became famous for getting stuff done and not mincing his words. Since retiring in 2008 he has taken that no-nonsense approach into environmental advocacy in Louisiana.
On 8 July 2025 at the Royal Society in London, an event was held to mark the 70th anniversary of the Russell-Einstein Manifesto which calls on scientists, governments and all of mankind to be aware of the critical dangers of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, and to choose peace and prosperity rather than war.
What has Donald Trump done on energy and climate since taking office? What have been the effects of these actions? And are there any glimmers of hope in the chaos?
The Borrowed Earth Project’s Zahra Sarfraz Chattha attended the 16th Biodiversity COP (COP16) in Cali Columbia in October.
In this comprehensive assessment of the talks, Zahra sums up the overall feeling at the end of the COP, and takes us through the ten key accomplishments and obstacles that remain on the agenda for future Biodiversity COP
On the 11th Nov COP29 begins in Baku, Azerbaijan. A COP of contrasts, on the one hand a petrostate with reports of O&G lobbying scandals the hosts for the second year in a row, and the COP is overshadowed by election of Trump in America pre-empting the USA’s retreat from Paris in 2025. On the other hand this year temperatures breached 1.5C, and climate financing needs to be agreed.
With the Biodiversity COP (COP16) in Cali Colombia underway, we wanted to share portions of a previous blog covering the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, agreed by the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Montreal, Canada in 2022, as a reminder on what has already been agreed by the 196 parties to the convention.
William Wilson recounts a recent vist to see the play Kyoto at the Swan Theatre. The play dramatises the negotiations over COP3 that resulted in the famous Kyoto Protocol - a driving force behind climate negotiations ever since.
The UK has announced it will leave the controversial Energy Charter Treaty. We explain what it is and why it matters.