the rings

The rings are ordered deliberately, but they’re not a rigid hierarchy. Like a tree, you can grow understanding from the inside out. You can also enter at any point and build understanding from wherever the issue interests or touches you.

Each ring builds on the last – moving roughly from (i) what we know, to (ii) how climate change is experienced and contested, to (iii) what societies and individuals can do about it.

A new infographic arrives each week, so the rings will become more coherent over time. They are:

1. Science: What we know about the climate system, how we know it and where uncertainties remain.
2. Impacts: How climate change is affecting people, ecosystems and the natural world.
3. Economics: The incentives, costs, markets and capital flows that shape the pace of the transition.
4. Political Economy: How interests, incumbents and competing priorities determine what gets done, and what gets delayed.
5. Governance: The rules, institutions, diplomacy and accountability mechanisms that seek to coordinate action.
6. Solutions: How the net zero transition happens: cutting emissions, removing carbon, scaling clean technologies, adapting to impacts and building resilience.
7. Energy: From fossil fuels and renewables to grids, electrification and transport – and the shift from molecules to electrons.
8. Life: How our choices, voices and influence can shape climate action and the systems around us.

Whether the rings are ordered correctly or internally consistent is ultimately subjective. I’ve been wrestling with their structure for years, and think about it almost every day. For now, this is where I’ve landed.

There is a strong case for adding other rings – Nature and Health, for example – but for this first Big Picture series, the above represents the best balance I’ve found between parsimony and comprehensiveness.

Please watch this space. The rings are likely to grow and evolve, as of course they should.

If you think a ring is missing, or have feedback, please drop the Trunk an email.