The Decarbonisation Dialogue

Hannah's guest this time is Kevin Anderson, Professor of Energy and Climate Change at the University of Manchester. He's also a visiting Professor at Uppsala University in Sweden. Formerly Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, Kevin engages extensively with governments and remains research active, with publications in climate policy, nature, and science. He has a decade of in...

Hannah's guest for this episode is Ric Casale, co-founder and trustee of UK climate action charity, Carbon Copy. He is known for his work, Civic Revolution - A Citizen's Guide, about the power of collective local action to address the climate and nature crisis. Enthusiastic about disruptive innovation for social and environmental good, Ric has also studied renewable energy with the European Instit...

Hannah's guest this time is Tudor Baker, director of Greater Manchester Community Renewables Limited (GMCR). It’s a community benefit society, set up and run by volunteers to install community-owned renewable energy across Greater Manchester. Its job is to raise funds to install solar panels on schools and community buildings, helping them save money, reduce their carbon footprint, and inspire chi...

Hannah's guest in this episode is Catherine Ross, sustainability at the British Library. Catherine has been in post since August 2023, focusing on the library’s own operations as well as its voice and influence. She is responsible for developing its sustainability and climate change strategy. The British Library holds one of the largest collections of printed material in the world featuring almost...

Hannah's guest this week is Gavin Johnston, associate director, BE-ST, Scotland. A Certified Passivhaus Designer, Gavin has contributed significantly to the design and refurbishment of numerous public buildings, along with strategic asset management and housing development. Gavin has led the retrofit of the BE-ST Innovation Campus (SNRC), transforming a 2000-era industrial unit into a living lab....

Mohammed Khan and Professor David Fairen-Jimenez join our podcast this time to tell us about their solutions to climate change. They are behind Cambridge-based Immaterial. It builds on monolithic metal organic frameworks combined with engineering design and machine learning to create solutions for carbon capture, hydrogen storage, water harvesting and energy reduction. As chief executive, Mohammed...

Hannah's guest this episode is Professor Myles Allen, an internationally renowned scientist, government adviser, sought-after commentator. Myles is Head of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics in the Department of Physics, and Professor of Geosystem Science in the School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford. In 2005, Professor Allen introduced the notion of a finite c...

Hannah's guest this episode is Dr Pancho Lewis, assistant professor at Durham University. He combines his career in academia with his work in grassroots politics. Pancho completed his Postdoctoral Fellow at Durham and is a PhD researcher at Lancaster University. His research looks at the politics of net zero transitions, focusing on people's affective experiences in the midst of a climate emergenc...

Hannah's guest for this episode is international artist Chris Gilmour. He's known for creating hyper realistic sculptures from cardboard and glue. He co-founded Vectar Sets during lockdown which is a Manchester-based company providing paper-based solutions for sustainable scenery for film and TV. In 2006 Chris won the Premio Cairo art prize and in 2012 the Premio Michetti. The Decarbonisation Dial...

Hannah's guests for this episode are Morgan Cartlidge and Oliver Couch from Here Now Films. The company was established in 2016 by Oliver and co-founder Ed Smit with a mission to bring the calibre of work typically reserved for big-budget TV advertising to a far wider audience. Oliver is now creative director and Morgan is head of production. Their work focuses on creating human-first documentarie...

Hannah's guest for this episode is Hilary Wood from EEVS. Hilary is an engineer by training and has experience working in the development of geothermal power and solid oxide fuel cells for sustainable energy generation applications. She currently works on all things measurement and verification, proving the performance of energy and carbon saving initiatives to global best practice standards. As a...

Our guest for this episode is Jon McGarrigle, an experienced leader in energy management, sustainability, and operational performance within the public health sector. He is currently head of energy and performance at NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership. This means he plays a crucial role in driving forward the organisation's carbon reduction initiatives, energy efficiency projects, and performan...

Hannah's guest in this episode is Vince Glover, group director of strategic projects at New City College in London. It’s his job to ensure that all strategic projects and initiatives – whether related to infrastructure, digital transformation or curriculum innovation – prioritise environmental and social responsibility. Vince talks about how the college is training students in green technology, cr...

Hannah's guest this episode is social entrepreneur, Pip Wheaton. Pip describes herself as a "perpetual questioner and aspiring systems changer". Pip has worked on climate change, both locally in Te-Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington) in Aotearoa New Zealand and globally. Her work is to support climate change-makers in their ventures, and research and write about what makes effective climate strategy. Sh...

Hannah's guest this time is Rachael Orr, chief executive of Climate Outreach. Her job is to deliver defining and the organisation’s overall strategy, goals and impact. Rachael has spent her career in the voluntary sector in leadership roles combining a deep commitment to social justice and to public engagement. She has run campaigns for Shelter, led programme and campaigning work at Oxfam and curr...

Hannah's guest in this episode is Nick Chadwick, chief executive of Mission Zero Technologies. Nick is an environmentally driven chemist and materials scientist enthusiastic about renewables, water, and semiconductors. He has experience scaling and building early-stage materials technologies in renewables, semiconductors, sensors, and carbon capture. Nick has a PhD in Materials Science from Univer...

In this episode, Hannah's guest is Asif Ghafoor, the chief executive of Be. EV. It is the largest electric vehicle charging network across Greater Manchester. Asif is also co-founder of Iduna, which develops new infrastructure in the mobility, telecommunications, and energy sectors. He is a natural innovator and business entrepreneur with a keen passion for all things green. He talks about why he...

In this episode, Hannah's guest is Isaac Beevor, policy lead at Climate Emergency. Isaac started working and campaigning in local climate policy in Vancouver, managing volunteers and working on campaigns to support Vancouver's low-emission buildings policy and introducing an annual measuring and reporting system. In our podcast he talks about how the UK is addressing climate action and what next n...

Our guest this time is John Savage, a Southampton city councillor and cabinet member for environment and net zero. John is a lifelong Labour supporter with membership since 1987. He has lived in Southampton for more than 13 years where he has raised his children. John talks about how we can protect our cities from the impacts of climate change and looks specifically at how Southampton is navigatin...

Presenter Hannah Walker's guest this episode is Professor AbuBakr Bahaj. He leads the Energy and Climate Change Division and the Sustainable Energy Research Group (ECCD) at the University of Southampton. For more than 30 years, Professor Bahaj has pioneered sustainable energy research and established the energy theme within the university where he also completed his PhD, progressing from a researc...

In this episode, we hear from Andrew Prag. He's the managing director for policy at the We Mean Business Coalition, driving climate action. Andrew and his team focus on the accelerating energy transition. He is a firm believer that strong leadership from progressive companies is a key and explores how stronger regulatory frameworks raise standards across industries. Andrew holds an MSc in Environm...

Hannah's guest in this episode is Paul Bushnell, estates works manager at the University of York. He is currently leading a hugely ambitious geothermal project on campus. The university hopes to cut its fossil fuel use and spearhead the city of York's net zero ambitions. The project is backed by £35 million in funding. The aim is to harness the earth's natural heat to decarbonise the campus, while...

Hannah's guest this time is Claire Parkinson, energy manager at the Carbon Trust. The trust is on a mission to decarbonisation the future for all of us. It partners with businesses, governments and financial institutions to accelerate their route to net zero. Claire’s role is to collaborate across the public and private sector to discover climate solutions, and how we can all better tackle our car...

Former BBC World Service journalist Celeste Hicks is Hannah's guest in this episode as she explains what is happening in our skies. Since 2024, Celeste has been a policy manager at the Aviation Environment Federation. Her background is in campaigning and communications, having previously worked as a journalist for 15 years and as a communications manager at Transport & Environment. Celeste has...

Our guest this time is Professor Neil Jennings, partnership manager at the Grantham Institute at Imperial College. One of Neil’s many jobs is to co-ordinate a cross-college group interested in the health benefits of climate action. As part of this work he supports the development of strategic partnerships with policymakers, business and non-governmental organisations. He has a specific interest in...