Power to the People: A Political Perspective on Sustainability

We talk to a lot of researchers and businesspeople about sustainability, now bring on the politician!

On our 100th episode, we welcome Nik Nazmi bin Nik Ahmad, the former Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability in the Malaysian government, to tell us about his career, and how he has seen governments around the world tackle sustainability challenges.

Nik has gone from the self-professed school geek to being an elected legislator in his homeland, a minister in government, and a part of major international climate meetings such as COP. Now he gets to take part in our podcast centenary celebrations.

Discover how the environment sits in the political world; how the youth voice and voters can be influential on politicians – and the risk for government of ignoring them and climate change issues; and the power of the people in making an impact in saving the planet.

Niks tells us about the major issue of waste – both plastic and electronic – in Malaysia, and how the world contributes to the issue; the attitudes across ASEAN to waste, and the challenges of finding a common voice; and his views of the attitudes of some leading global politicians that climate change is hokum.

We discuss whether Jan is the Kevin Bacon of the sustainability world – and discover Jan’s shocking lack of knowledge of Mr Bacon’s career; the parallels between BBC sitcom Yes Minister and real life; and how Nik has learned a lot from groundbreaking politicians from around the world.

Discover Nik’s book Saving the Planet here: https://www.penguin.sg/book/saving-the-planet/

And Nik even has his own Wikipedia page, so you can find out more about him here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nik_Nazmi