Inconvenient Chats

Is there a backlash against sustainability regulation? Professor Andreas Rasche joins Kaisa for a conversation about corporate sustainability regulation and unpacks the shift from voluntary CSR to today’s sustainability regulation and the current push for simplification. We discuss what makes sustainability regulation effective, whether good regulation is inevitably a little inconvenient if it is...

What does it take to make respect for human rights more than a corporate commitment on paper? Kaisa is joined by business and human rights expert Salma Houerbi to explore how the field has evolved from debating whether companies have responsibilities to the much harder question of how to turn them into meaningful outcomes for workers and communities. We discuss the role—and limits—of the business...

In this episode, I sit down with Professor Markus Kröger, who has spent the past two decades researching the political economy of deforestation, resource extraction and global development, with extensive fieldwork in the Amazon and Latin America. Scientists believe the Amazon may be approaching a tipping point — a threshold beyond which parts of the rainforest could gradually shift into a much dri...

Today's guest is Sakari Säynäjoki, a doctoral researcher in Interdisciplinary Environmental Sciences at the University of Helsinki who studies the interdependence between modern societies and fossil fuels. Sakari’s research revolves around how fossil fuels enable not only our material realities, but in addition, shape our culture, values and thinking. The consequence: the green transition is a cul...

In this week’s episode of Inconvenient Chats we are joined by Fred Baker, a sustainability strategy consultant here in Denmark. We delve into our personal relationships with flying and the guilt that often accompanies it. Both of us have made attempts to reduce our carbon footprints when it comes to air travel. However, the struggle remains, and we find ourselves questioning whether we should feel...

Inconvenient Chats is back after a break! We are continuing in a new format with guests, and in this first episode we discuss geopolitics and climate with Benjamin Gibson, the senior manager for geopolitics at the Danish wind energy developer Ørsted. Is geopolitics taking all attention away from climate action, and do businesses just need to deprioritise the climate agenda in order to keep themsel...

Last episode for now! Have you ever wondered how much our society is built on oil and gas besides electricity? Will we actually ever manage to transition away from it? Is it possible for all our consumption of plastic, polyester, nylon, helium, and so much more that one does not think of immediately? It feels like an impossible mountain to climb. But we're here for the conversation, with a little...

Unfortunately, this week the audio quality is a little wonky. Better next week! This week, we dive into one of the key scientific topics in climate change: attribution science. So basically, the science that helps us make statements such as "this flood has been made X times more likely and Y times more severe because of climate change". That's event attribution. But then, there's also trend attrib...

If the moral argument of ‘doing the right thing’ is outdated, should we switch to differently appealing argumentation in the way we talk about climate change with some audiences? In this episode, we discuss ‘selfish’ arguments for climate action, i.e. effects on health and money.

This week is special. We say hello to our first (of hopefully many) interview guests. And it’s a privilege that it’s Christian Sparrevohn. Christian lives and breathes sustainability. Having made it his life’s work not least by founding a leading sustainability consultancy in the Nordics. But also apart from that he is outspoken and listened to on the topics of sustainability, chairing the non-pro...

Firstly, wars are horrible for countless reasons, carbon emissions are certainly not on top of the list of the terrible things that result from armed conflicts. Today, we try to zoom into the carbon emissions that come out of wars and leave the humanitarian aspects of them to proper experts in that field to discuss. Did you know that emissions from the military are exempted from reporting? That le...

Today, we pick up a topic recommendation from a listener: a carbon value added tax. This tax aims to encourage environmentally friendly consumer behaviors while generating financial flows for sustainable transitions. We unpack arguments for and against this policy, and explore its potential impact on society and the economy, e.g., recent studies have found significant benefits from a meat VAT for...

This time it's a full wizard episode. Geoengineering! What is it? What's the latest? And is it a viable alternative to climate mitigation or just science fiction to keep researchers busy? Also, why did a think-tank see the need to define some global catastrophic risks for, in particular, solar radiation management? If you want to give feedback you can write to **kaisa@inconvenientchats.com** or **...

In this episode, we ask whether human rights should have a business case. In a world where competitiveness and security agendas seem to take priority while sustainability regulation is being rolled back, we look at what research says about how protecting human rights can benefit companies’ bottom line. But is it dangerous to frame human rights as a business case, as they should be respected at no...

This week, we talk about arguably the most successful climate regulation in the EU: the emissions trading schemed and how a few political comments managed to drop the price of CO2/ton nearly 10%. We discuss what happened, what the ETS has achieved so far (and why it will still not be enough), and what the planned review later this year promises. If you want to give feedback you can write to **kais...

In this episode, we ask ourselves why we personally care about climate and sustainability more broadly. From exploring personal values and what makes “sacrifices” worth it - and why sacrifice is perhaps the wrong word to begin with - we reflect on values and personal connections that make climate-friendly choices more meaningful and thus easier. Understanding and framing the conversation about sus...

This week we discuss small bit of feedback on our IC 17. Then for the main question we look at the battery industry in the EU all with the previously discussed strategic autonomy in mind. We explore the EU's dependency on raw materials and its cost disadvantage and ultimately look at whether the current regulatory framework around batteries can be a blueprint for sustainable strategic autonomy goi...

In this episode, Kaisa brings back last week’s discussion about geopolitics taking over from sustainability. We go through several ways how climate action makes sense from a geopolitical perspective, i.e. protecting state interests from external pressure (did anyone say ‘strategic autonomy’?). Green energy fits the bill well, but how do human rights and biodiversity protection fit under the “geopo...

This week, we take a first stab at probably one of the biggest topics we have discussed so far: geopolitics and how it currently overshadows sustainability. The problem is clear as public perception shapes political urgency, climate action has clearly taken a step back. We look at the World Economic Forum in Davos and take it as an example of where currently the spotlight in the public debate is....

In this episode, we explore the complexities of balancing personal responsibilities with global issues, particularly in the context of climate change. We discuss cognitive bandwidth, the challenges of staying engaged with climate activism, and the evolving nature of political engagement as we grow older. If you want to give feedback you can write to **kaisa@inconvenientchats.com** or **jan@inconve...

This week we try to take a blind eye to the "in" in "inconvenient" and try to look at a few positives that happened in climate action in 2025, including the integration of climate education in school curricula., significant advancements in renewable energy, and a landmark advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice emphasising climate protection as a human right. If you want to give f...

This week, we look into two recent decisions from Ecosia, a really great not-for-profit search engine that make every Euro they earn available for climate action. We focus on their recent proposal and funding for a Climate Nobel Prize and their decision to integrate AI capabilities in their search engine by buying them from OpenAI. For both we look into what this is costing the immediate climate a...

Welcome 2026! Inconvenient Chats kicks off the new year with a primer conversation about the challenges of growth - or de-growth - and explore its implications for sustainability. If growth requires resources, but we’re running out of them, shouldn’t we be considering all available options? We discuss the lack of mainstream conversation of de-growth and post-growth world, why that may be, and why...

Last episode before the winter break. In this week's Inconvenient Chats, we explore the complex relationship between artificial intelligence (AI) and climate change. We discuss the significant energy consumption of data centres, the environmental impacts of AI, and the challenges of balancing technological advancement with sustainability. How big of a problem is our use of AI for the climate? Has...

This time, we discuss Bill Gates' recent essay on climate change, which sparked significant debate and controversy ahead of COP30. We analyse Gates' main points, the public's reaction, and the implications of his statements. The essay has been irritating (inconvenient, even) for the climate community for obvious reasons, though the fuel among climate denialists was probably an unplanned outcome an...