Here's the first podcast in our new mini-series at Decarbonisation Station, where I interview guest speakers in the energy transition space to tell us about the key developments they're seeing in the industry. 

For this episode, I was joined by George Brown, Sustainability Consultant at Satarla, to explore:

• 2026 policy developments - looking at CSRD, EU Green Claims Directive, CBAM, TCFD and other acronyms.
• Regulatory landscape - how reporting frameworks are expected to evolve to combat climate and nature risks, as well as carbon and climate.
• Decarbonisation trends - from nature markets and regenerative agriculture to biodiversity and much more.

It was a joy having George in the office to tell us about Californian almond farmers, Uruguay and how both businesses and individuals can join the movement to decarbonize our life… below are some of the key issues I took away from our discussion: 

• Geopolitical dynamics continue to be challenging, with climate policy being shaped by supply‑chain pressures, geopolitical tension and market uncertainty. Businesses must navigate greater regulatory scrutiny and geopolitical risk as energy security becomes a strategic and internationally contested priority.
• Businesses must rethink risk and reporting as we're increasingly seeing greater importance being placed on nature, biodiversity and social impact, beyond carbon and climate. This is being reflected in the regulatory landscape and George expects this to develop further given that the recent Global Risk Report highlighted that 5/10 of the long term risks are climate and nature-related.
• Climate adaptation and greenwashing claims are big topics on the agenda for 2026, with carbon transparency also becoming much more important in supply chains with the implementation of CBAM. I'm also looking forward to seeing how natural capital markets will develop and how private capital will be channeled to support natural capital investment.
• George affirmed that “there are numerous studies and reports that are unequivocally clear that the total savings made by investments into net zero over the long term are larger than the total cost”, and used Uruguay as a brilliant example of a country with a renewable energy grid that enjoys economic and cost benefits beyond the climate benefits.
• Businesses benefit from a systemic lens, and we need a more integrated approach to tackle the severity of these challenges. George informed us: “We're starting to see positive data around rewards for companies that are really taking climate, nature, and social risk management seriously and embedding that into business strategy.” If we can join the dots on the challenges, from climate ecosystems to social inequality, we can see the connections of these issues and start to address them accordingly.
• For individuals, George praised the power of community and coming together as individuals to share challenges, action and a little bit of optimism — a sentiment I'll personally be embracing for 2026!

A big thanks to George for his sharp professional insight. 

I hope you enjoy listening!

Sophie-Anne