Climate Scientist: Why Net Zero 2050 is a Dangerous Delusion | Kevin Anderson

Check out the UK’s most trusted climate action platform, Ecologi at: https://tinyurl.com/kfswnxth

Kevin Anderson is one of the world's leading climate scientists and Professor of Energy and Climate Change at the University of Manchester's Tyndall Centre. A former oil and gas engineer turned academic, he's advised governments across the UK and Wales, worked closely with Greta Thunberg, and spent three decades arguing that the gap between what climate science demands and what policymakers actually do isn't accidental — it's a choice.

In this conversation, we get into the raw numbers behind our climate commitments, why the people who know the most tend to say the least, and why Kevin believes the real agents of change aren't the experts or politicians. They're us.

We cover:

• The three numbers everyone needs to understand about climate change
• Why 1.5°C is almost certainly already gone
• Why net zero 2050 is a moving goalpost that nobody's updating
• The academic "delusion" — why experts say one thing on microphones and something very different over a pint
• Carbon capture, blue hydrogen and SAF
• How climate change is a continuation of colonialism
• Why we are absolutely not "all in this together" — and why pretending we are suits exactly the people it should embarrass
• What he learned fromGreta Thunberg
• Where hope actually lives (hint: it's not renewable energy stats)

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This podcast is sponsored by Ecologi, the UK's most trusted climate action platform. They help businesses reduce their emissions, restore our planet and report their progress for every step of their climate journey. Check them out here: https://tinyurl.com/kfswnxth

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Find Kevin's writing and talks at climateuncensored.com

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Chapters

00:00 3 things everyone needs to understand about climate

04:50 Why 1.5 degrees is gone

08:21 Should China’s declining emissions be celebrated?

11:11 Why we should talk about impacts, not temperature

13:41 Where is the communication breaking down?

17:06 Why Kevin believes his field has been deliberately dishonest

19:54 What climate models hide

24:24 How do you find the truth when the whole system is delusional?

29:09 What happens when you challenge academics off the record?

32:28 Why Kevin won't spin the cheery yarn

36:50 How does Kevin know Greta Thunberg?

42:19 How is our approach to climate colonial?

47:03 "We are not all in this together" — emissions inequality within the UK

52:56 Private luxury, public squalor — and who's really paying

57:37 The 4.5x gap between high and low income households

1:05:15 If we could start again, how would we talk about climate differently?

1:10:07 What actually gives Kevin hope?

1:16:36 The questions he wishes people would ask

1:17:42 The question he's tired of being asked

1:19:27 What he wants to leave you with

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