TRACK CHANGES - chats with climate change and sustainability experts

The world's newest environmental treaty will protect the high seas - those parts of the ocean that belong to no nation. These marine waters extend over about half the planet.

This ambitious treaty recently won the world's most prestigious environmental prize - the Earthshot prize for reviving our oceans.

The prize was accepted on behalf of the treaty by the director of the High Seas Alliance - Rebecca Hubbard. In this episode, Track Changes hosts Franziska and Murray do a virtual 'trip' to Rio to recreate that well-deserved prize-winning moment at the 2025 Earthshot prizes. And then we chat with Rebecca, who explains how the treaty was developed and what it will do.

It's an inspiring episode - enjoy!

The proposed Melanesian Ocean Reserve is an ambitious proposal to protect more than six million square kilometres of incredibly biodiverse ocean, centred on the waters of Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, and New Caledonia.

In this episode, we talk to globally renowned politician Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu's Climate Change and Environment Minister, who is playing a leading role in bringing the Reserve into being.

Ralph was a leading figure in securing UN General Assembly support to seek an International Court of Justice advisory opinion on the climate change obligations of nation states.

And he is now spearheading efforts to make that landmark ICJ opinion the baseline for policy-making and decision-making on climate change.

Enjoy the episode!

Will the UN COP30 climate summit in Belem, Brazil, be a success?

Will it be a COP that explicitly aims for 'Tropical Forests Forever' and tacitly leaves the world in a 'fossil fuels forever' mindset? Or will it be a COP where there is action across the board?

And what is likely to happen on the crucial issue of providing finance to developing countries to help them reduce emissions and adapt to climate change and disruption?

In this episode, two senior journalists from the Carbon Pulse news service - Allison Gacad and Mark Tilly - share their insights about this make-or-break COP.

It's important to face up to the destructive nature of the Queensland LNP's so-called energy roadmap, and related LNP moves that make it much harder for renewable energy projects to get assessed, let alone approved.

The LNP has gone rogue on energy, barely maintaining any pretence of treating the renewables sector fairly. And if there is to be an energy transition in Queensland, it will be despite the LNP state government, not because of it.

In this special episode, Queensland Opposition Leader Steven Miles discusses the LNP's roadmap, and talks about what it means for the state, and for the nation.

Some industry groups have for years succeeded in undermining effective climate policies. And there's no sign of them stopping.

In this episode, Christian Downie discusses his impressive work on how these industry associations operate - and his findings on the eye-watering amounts of money they spend. Plus we do a deep dive on some of them - including the Australian Energy Producers, and the Minerals Council of Australia. And we also discuss Manufacturing Australia's current fossil gas campaign.

Christian is a Professor in the School of Regulation and Global Governance at the Australian National University, and he's also director of the ANU's Governing Energy Transitions Lab. As well as teaching at ANU, he's taught at the University of Cambridge and the London School of Economics. Christian has also been an advisor to several government departments, and he's co-edited a new book called Climate Obstruction - A Global Assessment.

And particularly relevant to today's chat, he has a strong research interest in how some business associations have stymied good climate policy. Enjoy!