The Climate Pod

The Paris Reckoning: How Far Off Track Are We?

The Climate Pod

Show Notes

Become a paid subscriber to our newsletter/podcast, The Climate Weekly, to help support this show! It's fun. All the cool kids are doing it! ------------- It's the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement. In this new series from The Climate Pod, we're looking back on the global pact to determine: how have things changed since 2015 and what has the Paris Agreement accomplished? Our first two episodes were on extreme heat and adaptation. This week, we're looking at the massive gap that exists between the goals of the Paris Agreement and the current state of progress. In the decade that has past since the Paris Agreement was signed, what has changed with the biggest causes of emissions? How far off track are global efforts today? Where are the biggest gaps? To answer these questions, we're joined by Clea Schumer and Sophie Boehm, two of the lead authors on the Systems Change Lab's latest report, State of Climate Action 2025. As they note in the report, "although more than three-quarters of indicators are heading in the right direction, progress is alarmingly inadequate, exposing communities, economies and ecosystems to unacceptable risks." We look at all these indicators to determine what needs to happen now and how we understand the complexity of the current moment. We talk about the state of energy, land use and agriculture, transporation, carbon dioxide removal, and much more. You can read State of Climate Action 2025 here Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to our newsletter/podcast, The Climate Weekly, to help support this show. Your contributions will make the continuation of this show possible. Mentioned in the show: Oliver Milman's article on "Coalie" Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

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Become a paid subscriber to our newsletter/podcast, The Climate Weekly, to help support this show! It's fun. All the cool kids are doing it! ------------- In 2004, Princeton professors Stephen Pacala and Robert Socolow published a paper in Science Magazine called "Stabilization Wedges: Solving the Climate Problem for the Next 50 Years with Current Technologies". This paper gained wide popularity for its proposed solutions that it claimed were a comprehensive strategy to reduce emission levels over the next 50 years. Even though the goal of this paper was a pathway to reduced emissions, it didn't call for the complete phase out of fossil fuels, but rather proposed fossil fuels play a significant role in our energy system for decades. If that seems strange to you, you're not alone. Drilled and ProPublica have teamed up to release a new series titled "Beyond Denial", which examines the influence of fossil fuel industry funding on climate research and its subsequent impact on policy, public debate and our approach to environmental solutions. Series reporters Maddie Stone and Katie Worth join The Climate Pod to discuss what they found in their reporting intob who was funding the 2004 "Wedges" paper, the unfulfilled promises of Carbon Capture and Sequestration, and the critical need for climate journalism in 2026. Read: Beyond Denial: How Oil Execs Shaped a Landmark Climate Study Read: Why Carbon Capture Can't Solve Climate Change Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to our newsletter/podcast, The Climate Weekly, to help support this show. Your contributions will make the continuation of this show possible. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

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Become a paid subscriber to our newsletter/podcast, The Climate Weekly, to help support this show! It's fun. All the cool kids are doing it! -------------

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Become a paid subscriber to our newsletter/podcast, The Climate Weekly, to help support this show! It's fun. All the cool kids are doing it! -------------------------------------------------------------- This week, MS NOW anchor Jacob Soboroff is on the show for a wide-ranging conservation. We discuss his long reporting career covering the climate crisis, immigration, elections, and much, much more. I've been a longtime fan of Jacob, which you can hear about in this interview. He will anchor Connect with Jacob Soboroff on Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET on MS NOW. Jacob is the author Firestorm: The Great Los Angeles Fires and America's New Age of Disaster. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to our newsletter/podcast, The Climate Weekly, to help support this show. Your contributions will make the continuation of this show possible. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

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Become a paid subscriber to our newsletter/podcast, The Climate Weekly, to help support this show! It's fun. All the cool kids are doing it! ------------- It's the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement. In this new series from The Climate Pod, we're looking back on the global pact to determine: how have things changed since 2015 and what has the Paris Agreement accomplished? Our first three episodes were on extreme heat, adaptation, and the state of climate action. This week, we look at the transformative change in clean energy and electrification technology over the last decade, Our guest today, Kingsmill Bond (along with the team at Ember Energy) are championing this change as the "Electrotech Revolution." As they note, "humanity is graduating from burning fossil commodities to mastering manufactured technologies—from hunting scarce fossils to farming the inexhaustible sun, from consuming Earth's resources to merely borrowing them. This isn't a marginal climate substitution. It's an energy revolution. Kingsmill Bond, CFA is an energy strategist for Ember. He has worked as a financial market analyst and strategist for over 30 years, including for Deutsche Bank and Citibank. Bond and I talk about the decade's technological advances, geopolitical implications of the changing energy system, and the future opportunities he sees. We also talk about the role of China and emerging markets in global energy transition and the economic implications of real energy independence around the globe. Check out Ember Energy's full report here. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to our newsletter/podcast, The Climate Weekly, to help support this show. Your contributions will make the continuation of this show possible. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

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