Chris Stark: CEO UK's Climate Change Committee; climate policy, NetZero, adaptation, innovation, cost-benefit and what we should be doing

Ben Yeoh Chats

Chris Stark is the Chief Executive of the UK’s Climate Change Committee. The committee is an independent statutory body which advises the UK and developed governments on emissions targets and preparing for and adapting to the impacts of climate change. I think he is one of the most important and thoughtful thinkers on climate change policy today.

We discuss what is most misunderstood about climate policy, the likely co-benefits and the scale of investments needed especially in the UK in replacing “old inefficient stock”.

What positives/negatives came out of COP26 (recent international climate conference) and what to hope for in COP27 and beyond. Why COP26 might have been considered a corporate COP as a criticism but why that might not be bad.

Why sector specific strategies might be a better plan than a focus on carbon tax.

Why adaptation or resilience has been a bit of a “Cinderella” in climate discussions. What the science suggests is already baked into 2050 scenarios and so what we should be thinking about adaptation as well as mitigation.

The complexities and challenges around “behaviour change” and why it’s not a great term. Why we might not need a complete culture change (in the sense of changing lifestyles) but the intersection of behaviour and technology. (For instance, still driving cars but electric cars on a decarbonised grid.)

Why a sense of fairness is one the most important climate policy (political economy) considerations and what we should think about in terms of climate impacts falling unequally across countries and peoples.

What role finance has to play. Chris references the work of Nick Robins here.

We discuss:

• Climate assemblies (and why Chris changed his view on them)
• Divest/engagement strategies
• Carbon offsets
• Carbon taxes
• The role of nuclear
• Land use
• Road charging

And we end with advice Chris has for people.

Transcript and video is available here, along with links to the CC and Nick Robins work.