This episode on The Impact Equation, we dive into one of the biggest tensions of the clean energy transition: the world wants an affordable, renewable future - yet achieving it requires a massive increase in critical minerals like copper, lithium, nickel and cobalt. So how do we mine what we need responsibly, safely and sustainably?

To explore this, we bring together Ro Dhawan (CEO, ICMM), Kirsten Hund (Director of Climate & Nature, Vale Base Metals), and Professor Tim Biggs (Camborne School of Mines). We discuss why the energy transition is impossible without new mines, the trade-offs around coal and critical minerals, the innovations reshaping the sector, the rise of nature-based and “circular” mining, and why trust and social licence will ultimately decide the industry's future. A challenging, timely, and essential conversation for anyone who cares about climate, energy or the materials that underpin modern life.

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Lord John Browne was born just after the war in Hamburg to a Hungarian mother who survived Auschwitz and a British father who was a professional soldier. His parents met because his father needed an interpreter; she spoke six languages because, as she said, “in Hungary no one spoke your language, so you learned many.” From that unlikely beginning came a child who travelled the world, was pushed into self-sufficiency, and absorbed the lessons of survival, resilience, and ambition. From that childhood, he rose from a university apprentice at BP to its Chief Executive - leading the mega-mergers that turned it into a global super-major. And in a defining moment, he became one of the very first oil CEOs to say publicly that climate change was real, urgent, and demanded action from his own industry.

Long before “net zero” entered the mainstream, he acknowledged the scientific risks, committed BP to measuring and reducing its emissions, and put Beyond Petroleum on the map - a deeply controversial move at the time that forced competitors, regulators, and investors to rethink the role of big energy in the transition.

Since leaving BP, Lord Browne has shifted from running hydrocarbons to funding the transition beyond them, co-founding BeyondNetZero to back high-growth companies in decarbonisation, efficiency, advanced materials, and climate technology.

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This is our second live podcast at EdCity, with our friends at Ark. Stephen Cowan, Leader of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham, has been a force in local public service since 1998, when he was first elected as councillor for Grove Ward. Since becoming Leader in 2014, he’s driven some of the most ambitious, people-centred policies anywhere in the UK - from free adult social care, to free breakfasts for every primary school child, to an industrial strategy that’s brought billions in investment into the borough. And where better to have this conversation than at EdCity - the £150 million regeneration project jointly shaped by Ark and H&F Council. EdCity blends new schools, affordable homes, community spaces and innovation hubs, standing as a living example of what bold public-third sector partnership can achieve. This is a fascinating, live, and candid conversation with a leader determined to change the world - starting with a small bit of West London.

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