Ahead of the Curve

Exploring positive climate tipping points

The Mainstreaming of Activism (Ep #6)

Are we, the average citizen, the most powerful trigger of tipping points? With the public fast acknowledging that climate change is a grave and imminent threat, can this awareness coupled with activism trigger rapid changes in government policy and to markets to the benefit of people and planet? 19-year-old Jerome Foster II is an environmental activist, voting rights advocate, and emerging technology engineer. He sits on President Biden’s White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council and joins Paul van Zyl to talk about social justice, environmental justice, and creating movements.

Nature, Land Use, and Food (Ep #5)

Global transformation of food and land use systems is needed now more than ever to improve food security, ensure healthier diets, and safeguard biodiversity. Central to achieving this – and unlocking trillions in society returns each year – is protecting nature and addressing food and land use systems’ contribution to the climate crisis. Social entrepreneur and writer Jeremy Leggett is joined by Talia Smith (Co-Director of Knowledge Generation at the Food and Land Use Coalition) to tell us how food and land use systems can accelerate towards positive tipping points.

Reducing the Cost of Capital – Part II (Ep #4)

As finance starts to move towards clean solutions, the cost of capital will decrease. Are financial institutions being consistent in what they say and what they do? And how can the boards of these institutions be encouraged – or forced – to ensure that climate competency is embedded at every level. Katherine Stodulka (Partner, Sustainable Finance for SYSTEMIQ and Director, Blended Finance Taskforce) and Anne Simpson (Managing Investment Director, Board Governance and Sustainability CalPERS) speak on boardroom leadership, walking the talk, and the flow of investment to emerging markets in this episode of ‘Ahead of the Curve’.

Reducing the Cost of Capital – Part I (Ep #3)

As finance starts to move towards clean solutions, the cost of capital will decrease. Are governments and financial institutions doing enough to incentivise this and make investing in old industries less attractive? And what is preventing capital from flowing to developing economies, where it's needed most urgently, fast enough and at the scale previously promised? Nick Stern (Chairman of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change) considers where finance is flowing and explain the economic, political, and societal conditions that will pivot capital towards green businesses whilst also directing capital to the world's developing economies.

Leadership in the Transition to Net-Zero (Ep #2)

Bold and visionary leadership is essential to accelerate action towards an economy that is aligned with the objectives of the Paris Agreement. Where are we seeing examples of leadership that can help create positive tipping points – the ones we need to pull ourselves from the fossil-intensive, socially unjust system, into a net-zero and resilient world? Faustine Delasalle (Director, Energy Transitions Commission, Co-Executive Director, Mission Possible Partnership) describes how the landscape has changed over the past few years, with new coalitions creating a space for dialogue and radical collaboration. Gonzalo Munoz (COP25 High-Level Champion and Co-Founder, TriCiclos, SistemaB and Polkura) discusses the leadership he has seen in his role as High-Level Climate Champion**, the rise of B-Corps and the importance of increasing the resilience of communities across the world.

Pursuing Positive Tipping Points (Ep #1)

In the context of climate action, what do we mean by positive tipping points, and why is it important to recognise and work towards them? We speak with SYSTEMIQ Co-Founder Jeremy Oppenheim and Sandrine Dixson-Decleve, Co-President of the Club of Rome, about the potential that can be unleashed through positive tipping points and how to engineer them in our pursuit of net-zero.