Should we stop flying?
In this session, we will test the idea that to go faster on aviation, we can’t rely on unproven tech. We have to make it more equitable.
Accelerating Net Zero
There has never been a more pressing target to hit than net zero carbon emissions. But we’re not getting there fast enough.
That’s why we launched the Accelerating Net Zero Coalition last year: a group of partners determined to make progress towards net zero. With the help of these organisations we’re hosting solution-focused discussions on how to get there together. We’d love you to join us.
Net Zero Sensemaker
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Catch up
Disappeared nations and flooded cities: what happens when a country drowns?
What happens when a town, city or nation sinks below the surface, and what does it mean for the people who live there?
Climate backlash: are we bored of climate change?
Are there different ways to talk about fighting climate change and make sure everyone is on board, or are we in danger of losing sight of what’s important?
How do we kick start the renovation revolution?
A Cop26 series ThinkIn assessing household carbon emissions: who should front the retrofit costs of draughty windows, tired boilers and poorly insulated walls?
Too slow, too many cars – can we change the electrification roadmap?
A Cop26 series ThinkIn about electric cars and their role in solving the climate emergency.
Talk is cheap. What should CEOs actually do about the climate crisis?
A Cop26 series ThinkIn where we asked, what is the CEO’s role in resolving the tension between the need for collective action to survive versus the need for competition to thrive?
How far can we go with the technology we already have?
A Cop26 series ThinkIn where we considered whether the technology we need to deliver our Net Zero commitments already exists.
Who should pay to save the rainforest?
A Cop26 series ThinkIn, looking at rainforest preservation and protection.
Deeds and words matter: how can we close the say-do gap?
A Cop26 series ThinkIn where we asked, how can we communicate the climate emergency without catastrophizing?
Goodbye Big Oil, hello Mega Oil?
A ThinkIn during Energy Day at Cop26 where we asked, what is to be done about the national oil companies (NOCs)? Are any of them serious about diversifying away from oil and gas?
Chain of command: how can we get businesses, governments, suppliers and customers to Net Zero?
A Cop26 series ThinkIn, in partnership with McDonald’s, where we considered the power of understanding – and acting upon – company supply chains.
Can soil save the planet?
How we can optimise natural-based solutions to slow, or even halt, global warming.
In conversation with Katherine Ainley, CEO, Ericsson UK & Ireland
An hour with Katherine Ainley, covering the critical role that 5G can play in enabling exponential change, building a resilience zero-emissions future, and diversity and inclusion in the ICT sector.
What are the economics of greening energy?
What is the financial cost and impact of a successful green transition? Join us to find out.
What does net zero actually mean?
As we obsess about the costs and obstacles, are we losing sight of the potential benefits? Join us for this Accelerating Net Zero ThinkIn.
Net zero jobs: are we prepared for the green collar revolution?
What does it take to retrain our labour market at scale to achieve net zero? Join us for this Accelerating Net Zero ThinkIn.
Countdown to Net Zero: what’s the plan for the next 12 months?
Join us for a special ThinkIn to mark the official launch of Tortoise’s Accelerating Net Zero coalition.
A ThinkIn with Keith Anderson, Scottish Power CEO
As part of Tortoise’s Accelerating Net Zero initiative, join James Harding in conversation with Keith Anderson.
The Tortoise Climate Summit: How can we accelerate net zero?
Join us to start writing a global to-do list before the world gathers in Glasgow to work out how to save itself.
COP26: who are they kidding?
Will COP26 really be a catalyst for meaningful global action on climate change? Join us to find out.
What are the glaciers telling us?
Join us for the first ThinkIn of our year long conversation on ‘Accelerating Net Zero’
Brand new podcast series
Inside the energy transition
Is a fair transition away from fossil fuels the stuff of dreams, or a genuine possibility?
Net zero and beyond
With John Browne
In this series of podcasts, Lord Browne, chairman of BeyondNetZero and former CEO of BP, meets experts from across society to look for practical solutions to climate change.
Can Asia kick its coal habit?
The world’s most populous continent, with its fastest-growing economies, depends on coal. We’ve mapped the data over the last 50 years to try and get a sense of this critical challenge for Asia – and the world.
Net Zero 2030: a Tortoise moonshot
The UK’s target to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050 isn’t nearly soon enough. So we set Tortoise members a task – to work out how to reach this goal by 2030.
thinkin
Feeding the world sustainably after Covid: how will we do it?
How do we get food to everyone who needs it at a price they can afford?
Catch up
thinkin
Net Zero: From talk to action – what really works?
Building back better requires consumers, corporates and governments all to do their part, but there is a serious risk of a missing link in the chain – businesses that opt for greenwash instead of change.
Catch up
More ThinkIns
What does net zero actually mean?
Net zero jobs: How do we decarbonise the labour market?
Countdown to Net Zero: what’s the plan for the next 12 months?
A ThinkIn with Keith Anderson, Scottish Power CEO
How do we radically decarbonise our world, while meeting vital human needs?
A ThinkIn with Ed Miliband
How will the climate crisis transform the Middle East?
Net zero by 2030 – what would it take?
What’s next for the climate change lawyers?
How to dress well and not ruin the planet
Can we invent our way out of the climate crisis?
Can we invest well and not ruin the planet?
Slow Views
Tortoise’s daily essays and editorials always have a point to make – and sometimes that point is about our planet.
Climate politics: Why the old diplomacy no longer works
Ahead of Cop26, the world’s two biggest superpowers, China and the US, have tried talking to each other about emissions. Nothing has been achieved
A planetwide horror story
Insects are crucial for the flourishing of life on Earth. We should be nurturing them. Instead we’re killing them off, wholesale
Lung health matters. And it ought to matter at Cop26
The government hasn’t done enough, either before or during the pandemic, to improve air quality. It can atone for that failure at next month’s climate conference
Getting to Net Zero: an Inuit perspective
Nobody understands what is happening in the Arctic better than its Indigenous people. Effective climate change adaptation means giving them more power over the resources on which they depend
Can capitalism save the rainforests?
The global fight against climate change depends on us protecting the natural resources we still have left. We should be prepared to pay for that
On Covid and climate, rich countries can’t afford to be selfish
Due to vaccine inequality, trust is breaking down ahead of the crucial Cop26 climate talks in Glasgow. Genuine solidarity is needed to solve both transnational crises
Our watery wasteland
Too little water is bad for both the planet and people. Too much water is bad for them, too. We’ve created a crisis in which both extremes are happening at once
The butterflies have a message for us
Their brief existence and their perceived fragility is a sermon on the nature of beauty and life. How sad that 76 per cent of the UK’s resident and migratory butterfly species are in decline – with all that has to say about the future of the planet
Extinction Rebellion
In 2019, the streets of London were blocked by protestors, so we decided to speak to them. We investigated XR, its strategy and why its raucous form of climate activism is suddenly so popular.
White gold rush
California’s largest lake was a giant mistake created by an accidental flood more than a century ago. Today, the Salton Sea is an environmental disaster. But could the communities around the shore of the dying lake be saved by the quest for green energy and the hunt for one of the most sought-after elements on earth?
Trees: saviours of the planet
Can the world’s wide open spaces deliver a solution to climate armageddon?
The greatest man on Earth
In early summer 2019, a Tortoise ThinkIn in Brighton considered whether the sea could be saved from mankind’s ceaseless abuse. Not all the conclusions we reached were cheering or unanimous but there was one thing our environmental experts did agree upon.
When asked what had made them interested in their subject, they all pointed to the same natural phenomenon: David Attenborough.
Simon Barnes on fracking
We asked the journalist Simon Barnes to put aside his pro-ecology views and find out whether we should accept hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, as the price of cheap energy.
The Climate100 Index
in partnership with
A firm commitment to divestment, decarbonisation and sustainability has never been more urgent for the FTSE 100. The latest update to Tortoise’s Responsibility100 Index, from October 2021, includes a special focus on climate goals. What is the difference between companies’ “talk” and “walk”?
For more information about the Climate100 Index, produced in partnership with Teneo, Read our report from April 2021 below.
We’re not cutting emissions fast enough.
In the run-up to Cop26 in Glasgow, Tortoise ran a programme of ThinkIns and journalism devoted to a single cause: Accelerating Net Zero. Now, we’re focusing on how we can build an agenda for climate action following the conference.
We’re doing this with our members and partners, and with industry leaders and policymakers who were part of the Cop debate in November. And we’ll bring to bear knowledge and data from the Tortoise Responsibility 100 Index, which measures the gap between “talk” and “walk” for some of the biggest companies on earth.
We’re building an agenda with a difference – one that tells us in numbers, as well as words, what Net Zero really means.
Let’s go faster.
“We won’t get to net zero alone. We need all businesses, governments and civil society to share ideas and solutions to transform the economy at the scale and speed we need – and that is why we are joining the Tortoise Accelerating Net Zero Coalition.”
Claire O’Neill, Managing Director, Climate & Energy, WBCSD
With thanks to our coalition members: a network of organisations similarly committed to achieving Net Zero.
If you represent a business and are interested in joining our network of coalition members, please get in touch with Gurjinder to find out more.