Episode 51: The geopolitics of critical raw materials

The 2025 edition of the June climate meetings in Bonn (formally ‘the sixty-second sessions of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation of the UNFCCC’, or ‘SB62’) took place 16 to 26 June. These meetings, which take place every year, constitute the only formal space for negotiations ahead of the COP, and are therefore very important.   In this episode of the Climate Briefing, Anna and Ruth speak to Alden Meyer (Senior Associate at E3G) and Catherine Abreu (Director of the International Climate Politics Hub) about what the main outcomes of the conference were, what the key sticking points were, and what it all means for COP30.

Climate litigation is both a strategic tool for climate action and an increasingly common part of the litigation landscape. Recent legal rulings have huge potential implications for the accountability and financial liability of big emitters, including both corporations and national governments.   Anna and Ruth talk to Joana Setzer, climate litigation and global environmental governance expert at London School of Economics’ Grantham Research Institute. Joana explains the growth in climate litigation, describes landmark cases and tells us what we might expect from climate litigation in the future.

From plastic pollution to overfishing and climate change: the ocean is facing many severe threats. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 is focused on conserving and sustainably using the ocean and its resources. But what progress has been made in implementing this goal? Ahead of the 3rd UN Ocean Conference, Anna speaks to Ambassador Peter Thomson (the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean) about the state of the ocean, progress made in implementing SDG14, key next steps, and the potential of the UN conference to accelerate action.

Donald Trump’s return to the White House poses serious challenges to climate change action and governance, but even before his second term began not nearly enough was being done to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.  In a series of conversations, Anna and Ruth interview thought leaders in the climate world about what the future of climate diplomacy should look like.   Their first guest in this new mini-series is Simon Sharpe (Managing Director of S-Curve Economics and author of ‘Five Times Faster: Rethinking the Science, Economics and Diplomacy of Climate Change’, with a previous career working on climate change issues within the UK Government).

Food systems contribute to around a third of global emissions and have a substantial impact on a range of other areas too, including biodiversity and human health. Transforming food systems is critical for meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement. But how should this be done in practice? To find out, Anna and Ruth speak to Emma Williams (Head of the Secretariat of the Alliance of Champions for Food Systems Transformation, ACF) and Richard King (Senior Research Fellow in the Environment and Society Centre of Chatham House). To learn more about food systems transformation and related areas, please see the following Chatham House outputs: The research paper ‘Aligning food systems with climate and biodiversity targets’, available here. The report ‘The emerging global crisis of land use’, available here. 

Increasingly severe climate change impacts are wreaking destruction across the world, with disastrous implications for human health, wellbeing, livelihoods, culture and security. How to deal with ‘loss and damage’ caused by climate change was for long a controversial topic within the UN climate negotiations, but at COP27 in 2022 governments agreed to establish a dedicated fund to assist developing countries in responding to the challenge.   In this episode of the Climate Briefing, Anna Aberg and Nina Jeffs (standing in for Ruth Townend) speak to Ibrahima Cheikh Diong, the Executive Director of the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage, about what progress that has been made in operationalizing the fund, what lies ahead, what some of the main challenges are and how the fund interacts with the wider economic architecture.   To learn more about how loss and damage finance has featured in the climate negotiations, please see the Chatham House research paper ‘Loss and damage finance in the climate negotiations: key challenges and next steps’ (available here) and the expert comment ‘The historic loss and damage fund’ (available here).

Critical raw materials - like rare earths, cobalt and lithium - play a central role in the energy transition and profoundly influence geopolitical dynamics. Their extraction may also amplify conflict and fragility risks in host countries. In this episode of the Climate Briefing, Ruth and Anna speak to Olivia Lazard (Fellow at Carnegie Europe) and Sophia Kalantzakos (Global Distinguished Professor, Environmental Studies and Public Policy, NYU Abu Dhabi) about the interlinkages between critical raw materials and geopolitics, the challenges associated with extraction, and what a ‘good’ strategy for securing future access might look like.

Brazil is presiding over the next UN climate change conference, COP30. In this episode, Anna and Ruth are joined by the Chief Executive Officer of COP30, Ana Toni, to discuss what the aims of the conference are, what Brazil’s COP30 diplomatic strategy looks like, and what the UNFCCC's post-negotiation phase’ means.

China is the world’s largest emitter and dominates the production of low-carbon technologies worldwide. It thus plays a key role in global efforts to address the climate crisis.   How has China obtained its leading position in the production of green technologies? What role does China play in international climate negotiations? How important has the US-China relationship been in global efforts to reduce emissions, and what will happen now when Donald Trump is back in the White House?   To discuss this and more, Ruth and Anna are joined by Li Shuo (Director of China Climate Hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute) and Chris Aylett (Research Fellow at the Environment and Society Centre at Chatham House).   To read Chris Aylett’s report on UK-China cooperation on climate, please click here

Former US Climate Envoy Todd Stern and Director of Chatham House's Environment and Society Centre Ana Yang join hosts Ruth Townend and Anna Aberg to talk about prospects for climate action in 2025. Following Trump's inauguration, what are the likely consequences for climate diplomacy, and how will Brazil balance domestic demands against international obligations as COP30 and BRICS president this year?