Category Archives: Writing

I wrote an article on derailment risk for the Conversation, co-authored with Dr James Dyke at the University of Exeter. The original article is here. — It is a common refrain to say that geopolitics gets in the way of climate action. From the war in Ukraine to trade tensions, each year seems to bringContinue reading “A ‘doom loop’ of climate change and geopolitical instability is beginning”

As part of the Strategic Climate Risks Initiative, we launched a new Substack blog: the New Climate Reality. Here is the first post. — The climate crisis is entering a new chapter.  It has two central features, two accelerating but conflicting trends. On the one hand, climate action is speeding up. Decades of clean energy investmentsContinue reading “Welcome to the New Climate Reality”

I wrote an article for the UK National Preparedness Commission about the blind spots in security assessment and management, with a particular focus on the potential collapse of Atlantic Ocean circulations. You can read the original article here. — Recently, something extraordinary happened in the House of Lords. In September, Baroness Jenny Jones, a GreenContinue reading “Blind spots on climate tipping points reveal complacency on climate change security threats”

My research with Michael Jacobs on ‘moving beyond neoliberalism’ was mentioned in this article in Byline Times: https://bylinetimes.com/2024/10/18/keir-starmer-investment-summit-growth-environment/

I was quoted in Farming UK’s coverage of our report on the blind spot in national security assessment and management of climate risks. “[Climate change] already poses severe threats to our security – this is not widely appreciated. But like Covid, severe climate impacts can come out of nowhere, with effects that cascade across society,”Continue reading “Coverage: Farming UK”

I wrote an article for the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) on priorities for climate change and national security facing the incoming UK government, co-authored with Matt Ince, associate fellow at RUSI. The original article is here. — The new UK government faces a world being made more volatile by climate change. In response, theContinue reading “Keeping the UK Secure in a Climate-Changed World”

The hidden twin to Biden’s green economic agenda The Biden administration’s climate agenda is a watershed moment. The fiscal powerhouse of the American federal government is being mobilised to invest hundreds of billions, if not trillions, of dollars into accelerating the transition to a cleaner economy.1 This represents by far the most significant action on theContinue reading “Climate change as a national security threat”

Joint action is essential for planetary and human health Over 200 health journals call on the United Nations, political leaders, and health professionals to recognise that climate change and biodiversity loss are one indivisible crisis and must be tackled together to preserve health and avoid catastrophe. This overall environmental crisis is now so severe asContinue reading “Time to treat the climate and nature crisis as one indivisible global health emergency”

Supercharged by record carbon emissions and an emergent El Niño, the world temporarily passed 1.5C of global heating this year. This doesn’t mean the goal to limit the rise in average global temperature to within 1.5C above the pre-industrial era average set by the Paris Agreement has been lost. That only happens when the temperatureContinue reading “Global warming: Why focusing on 1.5C is flawed “

Success, failure, and the imperative for justice in climate negotiations Recent United Nations Conferences of the Parties (COPs) have demonstrated that health professionals are playing an increasingly prominent role in calling for rapid action to address the climate crisis.[1] COPs take place in the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, theContinue reading “Comment: WHO Bulletin”