Richard Delevan
- Co-Founder and Editor, Freelance
- Owner, Wicked Problems
Covers:
Climate tech, climate science, finance, politics, economics, scifi
Climate (wickedproblems.earth) in the streets, crime fiction in the sheets. delevan.bsky.social
Solvitur ambulando. RT ≠ endorsement.
Articles by Richard Delevan
Pope Leo vs AI: Can Popes Move Markets?
In one of his first speeches after being elected, Pope Leo XIV told cardinals he had chosen the name Leo because he felt the Catholic Church needed to update its social teaching in the age of artificial intelligence, in the same way that Pope Leo XIII wrote about the role of labour in the factory age of industrial capitalism - 135 years ago, called Rerum Novarum.
Everybody Wants to Rule a Warmer World: Arthur Snell on his new book Elemental
You may not believe in geopolitics. But geopolitics believes in you. Seven weeks ago most people would have struggled to find the Strait of Hormuz on a map. But if you worked in energy or geopolitics you’d know it for what it was: an exposed jugular of the global economy for the past 50 years. 20% of the world’s exported oil and natural gas and 25% of the world’s fertilisers have to travel through that 33 km-wide mouth of the Gulf (1 km more narrow than the English Channel).
For Ukraine, Renewables are Resistance. Svitlana Romanko, 'Repairer of the breach'
More than four years after Russian troops invaded Ukraine, like many of her compatriots Svitlana Romanko may have lost faith in the multilateral system. “ There is no hope in multilateralism, unfortunately, left in the country where I live because as been we’ve been witnessing so far over three and a half years, the international order has been quite outdated and it needs complete renewal,” she told a conference in Rome I attended last October.
A Perfect Storm: Green Party CEO Harriet Lamb & Dr. Dana R. Fisher
America and Britain: two countries separated by a common language but united by an authoritarian undertow that threatens to drown both in an anti-migrant, anti-climate, pro-Christian Nationalism dystopia. So which country is winning Fash Gold? In a few hours Donald Trump will deliver what promises to be a State of the Union that will make Fidel Castro crawl out of his grave to scream, ¡BASTA! ¡NO MAS! Wicked Problems is a reader-supported publication.
Confessions of Awe and Awkwardness
Today is the feast day of Bishop Saint Francis de Sales, patron saint of writers, comms folk, and educators. So it felt like a good day to get back in the habit after a hiatus of several weeks. Starting before then, ramping up through having an opportunity to visit Rome for Pope Leo presiding over an event marking the 10th anniversary of Laudato Sì, and reflecting through the dark weeks since COP30, it would seem I’ve become one of those people I found slightly off-putting when I was young.
The Rumble in the Jungle COP
Welcome to Belém, where the world has gathered to talk about saving the Amazon as if it weren’t already on fire. Cataloguing the chaos leading up to COP30 Ben Cooke of The Times. His team’s reporting makes clear why the mood isn’t exactly jubilant: the clean-power alliance with zero members, the rainforest pledges with little progress, and the renewed swagger of fossil petrostates.
Goodfellas vs. The Shipping Forecast: Trump nukes the IMO
Shipping is one of those things that’s just supposed to work. Post-Titanic, people decided they didn’t want maritime transport to be particularly sexy or interesting (also known as ‘dramatic’).
How to survive 1.5: Laurie Laybourn on his new documentary series, 'Overshoot'.
We are not ready for what’s coming. Worse than that, we’re deliberately making sure we don’t think about what’s going to be required to adapt to the climate we’ve created and is becoming clear. No amount of tax revenue will be sufficient to build flood defences high enough to prevent some towns washing away.
Confessions of a Climate Pilgrim at the Vatican
If you’d told me two years ago that Wicked Problems would one day involve hanging out at the Vatican with the Pope, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bill McKibben – talking climate politics – I’d have asked what you were smoking.
24/7/365 Dispatchable Solar Is Real. w/ EMBER's Kostantsa Rangelova & Dave Jones
Today’s exit music is nearly as unhinged as Cheez-Whiz Mussolini after walking up a United Nations escalator but considerably more fun, and 52 minutes less time to make better points, thanks to Post Malone. It is, if anything, underappreciated how cheap batteries are radically changing the game for renewables.
Laudato Sì at 10, Pope Leo & COP30, w Dr Lorna Gold
The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity. That feels true lately, more of the time than we’d like.
Apocalyptic Authoritarianism is Here
These violent delights have violent ends. So it’s a bit heavy today. That said, in our interview with author Hanna E. Morris we do try to keep it a bit lighter. The imagery we use, the stories we tell, especially the ones we get caught up in without even realising why — have a lot more power than we often consider. And when we see them wielded so crudely, they’re easy to dismiss.
EXCLUSIVE: Climate Change Killed More People Than Murder. In Zürich. Yes, that Zürich.
It’s been a long summer and a delayed re-entry into what passes for reality these days. We’re well used to being slightly out-of-phase, and we’ve tried to make it a strength to let us look at things from that slightly different POV. So we’re already waiting for The Fall, that feeling of being in the interstices between seasons.
Back to School Ennui
This year I did something I almost never do - I really unplugged for most of the last two weeks, spent in the Provence-Alps bit of France. And that’s kept us away for a bit. Actual time spent with family - flanneuring around brocantes. Reading Graham Greene books by the small pool in a priory-turned-flats, in an unassuming working-class village a few miles from St Remy-in-Provence.
Tipping Points. But not all bad. w/Steve Smith
We’ve been off air the past week due to the death of my mother-in-law, Patricia. She was 82 and much loved by her family and pretty much everyone else who knew her. Liked a drink. Loved another. But never needed one to offer a welcoming smile and twinkle that made people want to be around her. She’d walk (or later, take a mobility scooter) to the local butcher 100 yards from her house in their Devon seaside village, and take an hour to get back because she’d be stopped for a chat by everyone she met.
Does "Shattered Britain" Crave Chaos?
This episode’s outro is brought to you by MIA. The reasons may become clear. Is Britain broken? Yes, say apocalyptic NatCon-adjacent once and future Conservative stars like Neil O’Brien MP. Poppycock, retorts FT columnist Janan Ganesh.
ICJ Climate Ruling and the Crisis of Legitimacy
Last week the International Court of Justice - the world’s highest court - issued its advisory opinion on the obligations of states under international law to prevent harms to the climate system.
No National Security Without Climate Security. w/ Rear Admiral Neil Morisetti
Been a roller-coaster of a month, and we haven’t slept on it - even if we’ve felt a bit at sea. Who can sleep when you’re toggling between existential doomscrolling and manic moments of hope like the International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion? Tacking between those may be the best we can do right now. Fortunately today’s guest has exactly the requisite experience to help. Wicked Problems is a reader-supported publication.
đ”đ°Cheap Solar is Great - But What if it Kills the Grid? Plus đŠđș Climate Court Clash. w/Jenny Chase and Royce Kurmelovs
In this double-header ep, weâre looking at what happens when people and technologies move faster than the systems meant to support themâand what happens when governments are told the truth, but decide they donât have to act on it. Sometimes we do a Marvel bonus ending, but not this time. But today each block gets its own outro.
Climate Change Is Waking Up Volcanoes. Yes, Really.
Today’s outro is brought to you by The Presidents of the United States of America. Not that one. Thick ice caps topping some dormant volcanoes may be acting like a champagne cork. Research released earlier this month suggests that by speeding up the melt of those ice caps through human-caused climate change, we’re removing the foil and the little wire cage on some trapped liquid that will taste a bit more acidic than champagne when it gets out as the cork tries to free itself.
Climate changed. For many, it will be move or die. w/ Gaia Vince
Today’s outro track, after our conversation with Gaia Vince - author of the landmark Nomad Century, is brought to you by Led Zeppelin. Because it’s aged a lot better than most of my friends from high school. Wicked Problems is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Last week witnessed a flood in Texas as biblical as the ones studied by the young girls at Camp Mystic.
Abundance v Activism at London Climate Week
PJ Harvey needs no explanation of why one of her songs is worth listening to, at least from me. The idea of subverting a system from the inside chimes with this conversation. But if it hits different for you, tell us in the comments. Is the “Abundance” discourse - and you can fit most iterations of it in a spectrum from Aaron Bastani and Zohran Mamdani to Ezra Klein to Elon Musk - an inspiring vision of the future or a dangerous delusion?
The Long Heat, with Wim Carton
Exit music for this conversation is brought to us by Glass Animals, which seemed appropriate for a baking mid-June weekend when discussing burning questions about climate change - and what is to be done? Wicked Problems is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. London Climate Action Week is kicking off and we’ll be moderating a few events around town - we’d love to see you.
Covering climate in India (w Rishika Pardikar)
NB: We recorded this conversation before the crash of London-bound Air India Flight 171, in which at least 274 people have died. Our thoughts are with the families grieving their loss. I just want to make clear why it did not feature in our conversation. I spoke with a couple of people who suggested delaying the episode’s release further. But the best time to include the perspectives of people outside the Western climate narrative ‘bubble’ would be forever ago; the second best time is now.
A Peruvian farmer may have just saved us. Even though he lost in court, we all won.
Exit music for this epsiode is “david & goliath” by the Houston indie outfit bug bites. The lyrics pack a punch: “but karma takes a while / I could work much faster”. Because we need a bit of a pick-me-up, here’s some good news for once. Although you have to look past the headline to find it. Because on paper, Goliath got the W. For nearly a decade, a court in Hamm, Germany has been considering a case brought by a Peruvian farmer, Saul Luciano Lliuya, against the giant German utility RWE.
The True Story of Limits to Growth
Exit music is brought to you by The Kills, with their moody 2011 indie belter, Future Starts Slow. I have a confession to make. Even with a self-image as a world-weary cynic, I’m as vulnerable to manipulation as anyone else, especially for stories I grew up with. Wicked Problems is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. The Limits to Growth came out the year I was born. I grew up in the US in the 80s.
Climate Diplomacy Is Doomed. Unless... (w Jessica Green)
Exit music for this episode is “Oil Money” by Graham Barham. Because, well, it’s a bit obvious this time, no? Wicked Problems is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. If insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result, global climate institutions like the annual COP meetings are definitionally loopier than Elon Musk deep down a K-hole.
Does 'climate tech' need (another) re-brand?
Exit music today is “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” by They Might Be Giants, from their 1990 album Flood. A song about, among other things, the weirdness of name changes. All will become clear. Wicked Problems is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. How do things get names? Who decides? What happens if they’re contested? Does it matter?
Who Pays for the AI Power Surge?
Today’s exit music is the moody 1976 classic “Year of the Cat”: Al Lewis’ spellbinder that AI would never have come up with - a sung tale of a visitor in a strange, upside-down land with a certain amount of menace. Absolutely unrelated to covering American energy in the Trump era. “More clean energy. More affordable energy.
Michael Barnard on climate solutions that are full of sh*t.
Today’s outro track is Blame Canada, by Trey Parker, Primus, Ween and Matt Stone. “We're not gonna hit 1.5. We're not gonna hit 2.0. We'll probably hit 2.5 to 2.7. And that’s not because I’m a pessimist — it’s because I can do math.” — Michael Barnard Welcome back to Wicked Problems. In this episode we talk about climate tech in the age of AI, state failure, and the occasional aircraft powered by poop.
Cara Maesano: Can Heavy Industry Scale CDR?
Today’s outro track is the 1971 soul classic “Clean Up Woman” by Betty Wright - the reasons will become clear. Wicked Problems is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. As we talked about with folk from Carbon Technology Research Foundation and last week, Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) is going through some things.
How Journalism Can Survive AI and Bothsidesism (w Mic Wright)
You lucky ducks. We are replete - nay, verily, festooned - with a content cornucopia just for you. “Actin like life is a big commercial” seemed like a line worth nicking for today’s outro. And if you hate the Beasties you’re in the wrong parish, friendo. Pass the Mic is the outro track for this conversation. Answers on a postcard about why - best answer gets a set of steaknives pint on us. is the madman media survivor behind one of this show’s second-favourite newsletter, .
Cara Maesano: The Clean Up Woman
Today’s outro track is the 1971 soul classic “Clean Up Woman” by Betty Wright - the reasons will become clear. Wicked Problems is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. As we talked about with folk from Carbon Technology Research Foundation and last week, Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) is going through some things.
They Blame it on the Sun
Today’s outro track is “Blame it on the Sun” by Stevie Wonder. A bit on the nose but a solid track. Wicked Problems is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Why is it, every time the lights go out, anywhere in the world, there are ten influencers with pre-written posts about how it’s the fault of wind and solar on the grid?
Is DAC dead? Will other CDR pathways get a second look? And will watercress save the world?
Why the intro theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey - a meditation on how the fate of humanity is bound up with making good decisions about technology? Is that really a question? We’re on a bit of a carbon dioxide removals kick this week. The Climeworks ‘headwinds’ we spoke about with in our previous episode continue to blow. RIP Norm(s), in CDR, American energy, and Cheers Richard Delevan, Maeve Allsup, and Robert Höglund · May 22 Wicked Problems is a reader-supported publication.
RIP Norm(s), in CDR, American energy, and Cheers
“It'll be between a scalpel and a sledgehammer,” was how Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House in the US, described how his Republican majority would approach stripping clean energy programmes in the Inflation Reduction Act. Based on what happened last night, it’s more like a wrecking ball. Wicked Problems is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Elon Musk v Mishal Husain = Frost v Nixon
Imagine if David Frost had gotten Richard Nixon - or at least Haldeman or Ehrlichman - to sit for an interview in the middle of Watergate. Well, yesterday the equivalent happened at the Bloomberg-organised Qatar Economic Forum. First, context. Musk was beaming in remotely from Austin to the event in Doha. These events, particularly when hosted in gleaming Gulf cities, are not typically news-making affairs.
How will Pope Leo XIV handle climate?
Remember when a multi-racial guy from Chicago who’d spent a chunk of his life in the Global South became the most important American in the world? And many of us projected onto him all our hopes that he’d do the radical transformations needed to fix our biggest problems? And then were disappointed? Wicked Problems is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Is it better to know? Or, after 500 years of discovery, have we decided it’s better not to know? Last month, as we discussed with earlier this week, the Council on Foreign Relations put “geoengineering” on the agenda as part of its much broader Climate Realism initiative. Climate "Realism" = Giving Up Last week ARIA, the UK government agency sorta modelled on DARPA in the US, announced they would support 21 research teams studying methods for cooling the climate.
Climate "Realism" = Giving Up
Hey it’s Richard Delevan. Welcome back to Wicked Problems. If historians look back at this period – if there are still historians – will they pick a key moment when the world moved from optimism to defeatism? From optimism, since 2015 – after the Paris Agreement, Laudato Sì, solar and battery crushing the cost curve - that climate change could be addressed with win/wins involving innovations in tech, in finance, in global diplomacy. Wicked Problems is a reader-supported publication.
Does apartheid South Africa offer a warning against fossil fuel "indoctrination"?
Today’s outro track is the COVID-era reboot of a classic Peter Gabriel track, featuring Yo-Yo Ma, Angelique Kidjo, and many more. The reason will become clear. In this episode of Wicked Problems, we sat down with Charles Perry, director of Sustainable Future for All, at the Conduit Club in London. A veteran in the climate and sustainability space, Charles has changed his views from evolution to revolution - a climate revolution akin to the Industrial Revolution.
State of Climate Tech 2025
Welcome back to Wicked Problems - Climate Tech Conversations. We’ve been out and about this week to get a sense of the state of climate tech, so we snuck into the Climate Impact Summit at the symbolic Royal Institution - where a big chunk of the Industrial Revolution was invented - to listen to dozens of conversations. Has the “vibe shift” killed off “climate tech”?
Tony Blair. Climate vampire. Will Morgan McSweeney choose the Renfield Option?
Remember. It’s darkest before…things go totally pitch black. Whether originating with the late Senator John McCain, Paul Newman, Mao, or John McCain quoting Mao, we love that line. Embrace the dark. When you stop being afraid of the dark, your eyes get pretty good. You might even spot some undead types who are back from the grave and up to no good. And I think there might be some types up to no good, here in Britain.
Is Britain in a climate tailspin?
Do you want the good news or bad news first? Good news: here in the UK it’s a sunny Friday on the cusp of a bank holiday weekend. Bad news: Shiz cray. Could go either way: this is one of 3 holiday weekend episodes. Definitely good news: Lydia Collas of UK think tank Green Alliance and Rupert Read of Climate Majority Project have incisive analysis of what we’re seeing over here.
Iberian Blackout: One-off Fiesta or Climate Warning?
Welcome back to Wicked Problems. We’ve been busy making mischief in various ways so it’s been a bit between episodes. Today’s exit track is Fiesta by The Pogues - with Tunbridge Wells’ least-known and best-loved frontman, Shane MacGowan. We’re finishing a long-read and when we say long we mean LONG.
What Does Elon Musk Want? Abundance. It Makes Strange Bedfellows.
This is Part Two of a Whole Thing You don’t have to, but you might want to check out Part I: More years ago than I care to count I found myself in a boss-level-nerd summer course on “futurism”. If you want to judge the likelihood of any future scenario, the lesson plan said, there are only three basic questions: Is it possible? Is it preferable? Is it profitable? Even aged 13, my annoying question to the teacher was, “for who?” And even if Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Imagination Deficit Disorder
Counter-revolutions aren’t usually source of drama. If in the 23rd century someone makes a Lin Manuel Miranda-type musical to explain this moment, instead of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, it will need to feature Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. They keep meeting. Sometimes they are on the same side, though not always at the same time. They may see themselves as fellow “immigrants [who] get the job done”.
Survive the Trumpocene: w Dana R Fisher
All will become clear. NGL. It’s not great, Bob. That said, if you have even a smidge of privilege at the moment, spending a bit of your time paying attention not just to the moment-to-moment spectacle but what it means - so as to inform how you spend your future time and resource - feels kinda important. Wicked Problems is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Solar Geoengineering: Climate Chemo or Ozempic?
Welcome back. Are you Zen now or still want more winning? All will become clear. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that passing 1.5C would result in previously-taboo ideas like scaling carbon removals and solar geoengineering would rapidly get traction in the mainstream discourse. I know it doesn’t take a genius because I wrote that >18 months ago. And as my bank manager and inlaws will (eagerly) tell you – “wait you’re quitting corporate...
Do you need some Zen? I need a bit of that or something, just to get my head right. So we spoke with LaUra Schmidt, one-half of the dynamic duo of climate psychology along with her Good Grief Network co-founder and wife Aimee Lewis Reau, who wrote How to Live in a Chaotic Climate that was published a little over a year ago. And blimey we need more of their coping strategies than we ever thought we would when the book first came out. Wicked Problems is a reader-supported publication.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Richard
Contact Richard, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack