Prospect Podcast

Ed Miliband and Bill McKibben: The solar revolution is here—and it isn’t going anywhere

The UK’s climate minister and a leading American environmentalist on why the future of climate is brighter than it appears

January 07, 2026
article header image

What hope is there for the future? Global greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise and right-wing populists rage against net zero. But, according to the UK’s climate minister and a leading American environmentalist, though, the economics of electrification will make the future brighter than it first appears.

Ed Miliband, secretary of state for energy security and net zero, and Bill McKibben, an environmentalist and author, joined Wolfgang Blau, Prospect editorial board member and cofounder of the Oxford Climate Journalism Network, to discuss political strategies, positive tipping points and the fight that’s still to come.

To read an edited transcript of this conversation, which featured on the cover of Prospect’s winter double issue, click here.