The Land & Climate Podcast

The day before 80 countries meet in Palau to discuss ocean governance, Bertie talked to Dame Meg Taylor DBE about the changes the Pacific Elders' Voice are campaigning for, including pollution of plastics and nuclear waste, illegal and unsustainable fishing, and loss and damage.
Pacific Elders' Voice is a group of diplomats, academics, and creatives who work together to platform issues important to the future of the Pacific Islands. Meg Taylor's distinguished career includes serving as the Ambassador of Papua New Guinea to the United States, Mexico and Canada (1989-1994), Vice President of the International Finance Corporation (1999-2014), and most recently, Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum (2014-2021). She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2002.
Further Reading:

• Read more about the Our Ocean Conference 2022
• Read the Pacific Elders' Voice Statement on Oceans
• 'UN ocean treaty summit collapses as states accused of dragging out talks', The Guardian, 21 Mar 2022
• 'Nations commit to develop a legally binding agreement': press release announcing the proposed treaty on plastic pollution, with links to the full text.
• 'This dome in the Pacific houses tons of radioactive waste – and it's leaking', The Guardian, Fri 3 Jul 2015
• Follow Pacific Elders Voice here on Twitter, and here on Facebook.

Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

2023 was expected to be a big year for Europe in reducing harm from agrochemicals. But in a surprise move in November, European Parliament rejected a law to halve pesticide use. That same month, The European Commission stated it would renew the controversial approval of glyphosate for another 10 years.
What happened?
Alasdair talks to Dr Martin Dermine, Executive Director of Pesticide Action Network Europe, about why EU regulation of agrochemicals is moving so slowly.
Further reading:

• 'Glyphosate, the active ingredient in the weedkiller Roundup, is showing up in pregnant women', The Conversation, December 2023
• 'EU Commission hosts a secret 3-day meeting with the pesticide industry as their exclusive guest', Pesticide Action Network, December 2023
• 'Green Deal is dead', Pesticide Action Network, November 2023
• 'Beneath the orange fields: Impact of Glyphosate on soil organisms', Pesticide Action Network, November 2023
• 'Conservative backlash kills off EU’s Green Deal push to slash pesticide use', Politico, November 2023
• 'EU to renew herbicide glyphosate approval for 10 years', Reuters, November 2023
• 'Long-term evidence for ecological intensification as a pathway to sustainable agriculture', Nature Sustainability, 2022
• Listen to our previous episodes on Monsanto, EU lobbying, and Neonics.

Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

Alasdair talks to Associate Professor Wim Carton of Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies about offset markets, carbon removal technologies, and IPCC modelling.
They wade into some tricky questions: are scientists watering down recommendations to make them politically palateable? How are neoclassical economics affecting the world's approach to climate mitigation? Why do the IPCC working groups have contradictory messages on saviour tech?
Further reading

- Carbon Unicorns and Fossil Futures: Whose Emission Reduction Pathways Is the IPCC Performing?
- Seize the Means of Carbon Removal: The Political Economy of Direct Air Capture
- Undoing Equivalence: Rethinking Carbon Accounting for Just Carbon Removal
- The meaning of net zero and how to get it right
- Social Science Sequestered

Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

Liz Carlisle talks to Bertie about her new book, soon to be published by Island Press: 'Healing Grounds - Climate, Justice, and the Deep Roots of Regenerative Farming'.
The agroecologist, Environmental Studies Professor and award-winning author has spent the last year talking to Indigenous communities & farmers of colour across North America about their approaches to land, crop cultivation and livestock. Originally looking to learn more about soil sequestration, she was confronted with bigger picture issues about the relationships between climate policy, social justice, and agriculture.
Liz's further reading:
· HEAL Platform for Real Food
· Soul Fire Farm
· Vox’s coverage of Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren’s farming legislation
· IPES Food reports
· Adam Calo’s work on Scottish low carbon farming
· You can order Liz Carlisle’s previous books on agroecology on her website

Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.

In this episode Alasdair caught up with Rachel Rose Jackson, director of climate research and policy at campaign organisation Corporate Accountability to discuss their new research with the Guardian which found considerable flaws in the 50 most used offset projects. He asked about the recent research and what value offset projects might actually have.
The Land and Climate podcast is produced by Vasko Kostovski

Recommended reading:

• ‘Revealed: top carbon offset projects may not cut planet-heating’, The Guardian, September 2023
• ‘Gas-Lit: No, the Dubai Climate Talks Did Not Save the Planet’, Newsweek, December 2023
• '10 myths about net zero targets and carbon offsetting, busted’, Climate Home News, December 2020
• ‘Action needed to make carbon offsets from forest conservation work for climate change mitigation’, Science, August 2023
• ‘Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) Carbon Crediting’,Berkeley Public Policy, September 2023
• ‘The Verra Scandal Explained: why avoid deforestation credits are hazardous’ London School of Economics Blogs, January 2023
• ‘The Land Gap Report’, Various, 2023
• 'The Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets'

Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces.