Is climate action stalling—and if so, what should we do next?
Lindy Fursman, policy lead at the Tony Blair Institute and author of its much-discussed report The Climate Paradox, joined me to dig into whether the current net zero strategy is still fit for purpose.
Fursman, a former climate advisor to the New Zealand government, doesn’t hold back. She says emissions keep rising despite good intentions, and the climate debate has become polarised and paralysed.
“We need some new strategies to go alongside the action we’re already seeing,” she says, warning that without visible impact, public trust is slipping.
One of the sharpest insights? People care about climate—but they’re tired of being asked to sacrifice without seeing results. Climate protestors like Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion have also affected the narrative, with their direct action campaigns causing real tensions that have caused a public backlash.
“It seems to be the public have split as well… there’s so many doom sayings about climate change that they’ve kind of firmly pressed for an answer and all the direct action, although in some ways it’s been good because it’s raised the profile, has drawn the public into a kind of ‘this is just stopping our lives’. Right. And so there’s been a backlash.”
Ms Fursman calls for a reset that makes the green choice the best choice—not the most expensive or most difficult.
She also raises concerns that poorer nations are being left behind in the conversation, even though they’ll bear the brunt of the climate crisis.
And she doesn’t shy away from criticising COP, arguing that while the multilateral process is important, it must be paired with “smaller, faster, focused solutions” to actually deliver change.
From tech to geopolitics, economics to communication failures, this episode cuts through the noise and asks the big questions: can we reboot climate action before trust and time run out?
To hear the full conversation with Lindy Fursman, download The Net Hero Podcast now on your usual channel.
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