Britain needs a climate reset, not a climate culture war.
Repealing the Climate Change Act would be a mistake. So would treating the 2008 framework as immutable.
Keep the destination. Modernise the machinery.
bencaldecott.substack.com/p/britain-ne...
UK intelligence agencies say nature destruction is a national security threat. We need to rapidly scale environmental deterrence: raising detection probability and violation costs of nature destruction until the expected penalty exceeds the gain. bencaldecott.substack.com/p/towards-en...
Registration is now open for the @ox.ac.uk Sustainable Finance Summit 2026. 29th June, Rhodes House, Oxford. Geopolitics, the agentic economy, silicon boundaries, transition finance, nature, heat risk, and more. Register: sustainablefinance.ox.ac.uk/summit-2025/... @smithschool.ox.ac.uk
The new #SiliconBoundaries report is accompanied by a podcast where we talk through the core arguments: why societies have thresholds for absorbing AI, how those differ from planetary boundaries, and what happens if we act to stay within them. Listen: open.spotify.com/show/0Z2kU9t...
New report: #SiliconBoundaries. Societies have preconditions for stability. AI and compute can erode them. Unlike planetary boundaries, these thresholds move, which is both the opportunity and the risk. See: bencaldecott.substack.com/p/silicon-bo...
Coming soon: This Thursday, the Oxford Sustainable Finance Group in partnership with Theia Finance Labs, will release the first report from our new joint programme: Silicon Boundaries. Find out more here: substack.com/@bencaldecot...
At The Villars Institute Summit I argued we have a nature proposition problem. We've built extraordinary frameworks but not enough investable, place-based propositions at a scale institutional capital can back. Time to shift from complexity to delivery. Remarks here: substack.com/@bencaldecot...
New article: The agentic economy will need finance: credit, settlement, risk management, prudential rules. The policy debate is almost entirely focused on compute and talent. Nobody is asking who finances the agents. The UK has a window to build this. It is closing. open.substack.com/pub/bencalde...
Delighted to host Emmanuel Faber, Chair of the @ifrsfoundation.ifrs.org ISSB, @ox.ac.uk for a public lecture on “Future Proofing Capital Markets with Sustainability Disclosures”, as part of him winning the Oxford Prize for Greening Finance. See: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKqC...
Oxford Sustainable Finance Group & Theia Finance Labs are working together on an exciting new initiative. 'Silicon Boundaries' are thresholds where the benefits of AI and related technologies are outweighed by their contributions to societal instability: mailchi.mp/cgfi/invitat...
It was wonderful to host Ruth Davis, the UK’s first nature envoy, at the University of Oxford on Friday where she gave a wonderfully thoughtful and expansive speech on nature that was simultaneously challenging and inspiring, as well as deeply personal. A treat! Recording and transcript to follow.
The world needs a strong Japan, and Japan’s Green Transformation programme (“GX”) can be a cornerstone of that strength: www.nikkei.com/article/DGKK...
Geological storage needs to be stewarded wisely, more wisely than this research implies. A fraction of that estimated will be accessible at a price society is willing to pay. Carbon removal budgeting is needed to optimise the use of this scarce resource. on.ft.com/4nigq4Z
Delighted to be hosting Ruth Davis, the first UK Special Representative for Nature, for a lecture @UniofOxford on 3 Oct 2025. Opportunity to hear directly from Ruth on the UK's priorities for nature ahead of COP30 and following UNGA week. Register here: www.smithschool.ox.ac.uk/event/lectur...
Yet more inflation statistics show that the UK is more vulnerable to the drivers of inflation than peer economies. This report, from a project I chaired, had some excellent supply side proposals to fix the problem: ukonward.com/reports/targ...
Delighted to be confirmed as an @ipcc.bsky.social Coordinating Lead Author for the Finance Chapter of AR7 WGIII. Looking forward to working as part of the IPCC and with members of the wider climate finance community who will contribute over the next few years www.ipcc.ch/assessment-r... @ox.ac.uk
Over 2 days we interrogated polarisation and populism, litigation risk, the promise and perils of AI, and the future of carbon markets, among many other things. Each of the summit sessions is available to watch here: sustainablefinance.ox.ac.uk/summit/video...
A recalibration of sustainable finance is underway. We hosted our third Oxford Sustainable Finance Summit on the theme of reinvention and renewal. If you missed #OSFS25, you can check out some highlights here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_AY...
We mapped all 117,116 of England’s farms – here’s why that matters for transition finance and net zero www.smithschool.ox.ac.uk/news/we-mapp...
Excited to welcome participants to our 3rd Oxford Sustainable Finance Summit this week. Theme is Reinvention & Renewal. Progress is not linear or assured. Our task is to confront realities head-on and identify practical pathways that make progress. sustainablefinance.ox.ac.uk/summit/
Climate impacts will worsen - it is a question of whether they are terrible, really bad or just bad. It is a no brainer to scale up investment in adaptation. This will save money and spur economic activity. Climate resilience is a competitive advantage. www.theccc.org.uk/2025/04/30/t...
"State Street loses £28bn of assets to Amundi and Invesco over ESG goals. US asset manager previously managed all of The People’s Pension’s £33bn in assets" www.ft.com/content/541c...
The next Oxford Sustainable Finance Summit is taking place on Wednesday 16th and Thursday 17th July 2025. Registration is now open! Find out more here: sustainablefinance.ox.ac.uk/summit/
“…while China added a record 356GW of wind and solar electricity-generating capacity in 2024, it also began building coal power plants with 94.5GW of capacity…” on.ft.com/4jUZyQQ
