ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Dr. Sam Stephenson has just completed his PhD in Energy, Climate, and Net Zero Policy in the Department of Engineering, Cambridge University.
In this episode, Sam describes a benchmark report from the UK government-funded research group he worked with at Cambridge, known as UK FIRES. The report, Absolute Zero, and others from UK FIRES can be downloaded here:
https://ukfires.org/impact/publications/reports/
Absolute Zero has been downloaded 178,000 times since it was published in 2019, and was written by more than a dozen researchers drawn from five universities: Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial, Bath, and Strathclyde.
The top line finding in the report is that the UK should begin to reduce energy demand to 60% of the current usage in order to match the predicted available supply from zero carbon sources. This transition can be completed by 2050 in compliance with the net zero goal that is part of UK law without depending on carbon capture technologies that don’t yet exist (and may not yet exist at scale by 2050), but requires an immediate public discussion about a reduction in energy use. Reducing demand makes the zero carbon target more achievable. Missing the target impairs global cooperation that makes reducing emissions possible, and thus causes an increase in climate impacts.
In brief: continuing to miss emission reduction targets will cause an increase in preventable climate impacts.
Sam also describes his current research and how he initially chose climate change as his focus, which first led to a masters in environmental economics and now to his PhD.
We’re at an inflection point in history; at the time we post in August, 2025, a heat wave hovers over Europe, where southern France is expected to reach 109°f/43°C, and the northeast United States remains under a summer-long plume of smoke from wildfires in Canada. IPCC co-chair Robert Vautard reports that extreme heat waves are doubling in frequency on a ten-year basis, meaning 2035 will experience double the number of this year.
Pierce Siegel, a rising high school senior in New York City, Cindy Ye, about to begin her first year of college, and Ahana Pairee, moving from India to begin graduate school in the UK, each draw Sam out with questions about what the future is likely to hold and how to make it work best for everyone: with collective understanding, realism, optimism and determination.
Additional references for this interview are included at the foot of the transcript at this URL:
https://newyork.thecityatlas.org/people/sam-stephenson/
Pratibha Priya, David Case, and Helena Rambler also contributed to the questions for Dr. Stephenson; moderation and post production by Cindy Ye.
Send us your thoughts about Bridging the Carbon Gap at podcast@thecityatlas.org.
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