Episode Details

Professor Mike Berners-Lee is the internationally renowned bestselling author of How Bad Are Bananas?, The Burning Question (co-authored with Duncan Clark), There Is No Planet B, and most recently A Climate of Truth. He's a professor at Lancaster University and works on carbon footprinting through his company Small World Consulting, which has worked with companies like BT, Microsoft, and all 15 UK national parks. A couple of weeks ago, Mike chaired the National Emergency Briefing in Westminster Hall to hundreds of political, business, faith, culture and media leaders.

In this episode, we dive into:

Why the "energy transition" is actually an "energy addition" - we've grown renewable energy by 2.5x since the first COP, but fossil fuel use has grown 60% in the same period

The three things actually needed for energy transition: grow renewables, constrain fossil fuel supply through carbon pricing, AND reduce total global energy demand

Why individual carbon footprints don't directly cut global emissions (it's like squeezing a balloon - it pops out elsewhere) - but why they still matter for creating ripple effects and cultural change

The psychology of climate denial - from grief transition curves to "disavowal" (when you understand the evidence but live as if you don't) - and how to move past protective mechanisms

Why carbon accounting is broken - most companies use random system boundaries that make numbers incomparable, and why we need to count everything in supply chains once and once only

The dishonesty crisis: how a "broken trinity" of politics, media and business is dragging each other down instead of raising the game - and why we need a "me too moment" for political deceit

Media ownership matters - who owns what you read, their track record, and how subtle influence shapes thinking over time (including a taxonomy of deceit techniques)

The week Mike spent investivating Bjorn Lomborg's book The Skeptical Environmentalist that exposed hundreds of errors and scientific dishonesty

Bill Gates has "gone bonkers" on climate - from claiming to invent a decades-old formula to missing tipping points entirely, plus his recent memo saying climate isn't the most pressing issue

The journey from How Bad Are Bananas? (individual action) to A Climate of Truth (systemic change) - and why we need humanity to undergo "urgent evolution" to become Anthropocene-fit

Why narrative is everything right now - this is NOT the time to go quiet on climate action, it's time to stand up, be brave, and talk even louder

——

This podcast is brought to you 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

——

Find Mike’s latest book A Climate of Truth

Sign the letter for a National Emergency Briefing broadcast: https://www.nebriefing.org/open-letter-keir

Subscribe to the Climate Unf*cked podcast at https://climateunfucked.substack.com/

And connect with me on LinkedIn at:

Listen Now