A catalogue of possible discussion topics that can be used by u3a climate groups. The Second Nature newsletter is another source of things to talk about.
For a list in a more concise format see Topics. For interactive things to do, see Activities and Games. For talks, see Talks.
Please send feedback on this page to Subject Adviser - do you find it useful, or not useful? If you would like to suggest topics for this list please send them on.
- The Seventh Carbon Budget Recommendations to UK Government on GHG emissions for the years 2038-2042.
- Less Stop Buying So Much Rubbish: How Having Fewer, Better Things Can Make Us Happier. A book by Patrick Grant.
- Solar or Food Production? Farmers are divided over land use.
- Nuclear Power What part should it play in our future?
- Carbon Capture and Storage What part should it play in our future?
- Energy from Waste Are you for or against?
- Zero Carbon Britain It implies significant changes to the lifestyle of the average Brit. Would we vote for something like this?
- Disruptive Protests Are they effective?
- Don't Talk About Climate How to change minds.
- Geoengineering What part should it play in our future?
The Seventh Carbon Budget
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) has published its Seventh Carbon Budget (CB7), a set of recommendations to UK Government on GHG emissions for the years 2038-2042. The target is to achieve an 87% reduction in emissions by 2040, setting the budget for 2038-2042 at 535 MtCO2e. CB7 is a big document, but the Climate Evidence Unit (CEU) of the University of Leeds has provided a useful review. 2040 is of course 15 years away (or to put it in terms that politicians understand, three general elections away). You can download the CEU's review as a 19-page PDF. In this format it would I think prove useful source material for a group discussion.
There is a summary of the review in The Conversation and in Second Nature 032.
Less
I had a good discussion with my Environmental Sustainability group around the book ‘Less’ by Patrick Grant of The Great British Sewing Bee fame. I read the book first, came prepared with some highlights and interesting facts and others chipped with thoughts and examples of items that have lasted years, things that fell apart quickly, where we can get clothing repairs locally, repairing techniques and overcoming mental barriers to shopping secondhand. The book is well worth a read and the theme of buying less, buying better and buying local seemed to chime.
From HH. Source: Climate Group Leaders Facebook group.
- Patrick Grant on his fight against fast fashion Guardian 19 May 2025
Solar or food production?
Here's a balanced article on the 'Land for Solar or Food' controversy. Very useful for a group discussion. Take a vote before and then after!
Click on the image.
From GM. Source: Climate Group Leaders Facebook group.
Nuclear Power
See Second Nature 013 for a braindump on this. There is follow-up comment in SN014 and SN015, or google for press coverage of Sizewell C.
Carbon Capture and Storage
CCS features in the UK's plans for net zero. George Monbiot argues against government policy, saying that it will increase UK emissions rather than reducing them. Prof Myles Allen has a different view. Read both of them and decide if you are for or against.
Energy from Waste
See Second Nature 014 for a briefing on this. Are you for or against?
Zero Carbon Britain
Zero Carbon Britain is a description of what the country might look like if we achieve zero emissions (zero rather than net zero I think: there is no CCS in here). The document is available online and is summarised in Second Nature 017. It implies significant changes to the lifestyle of the average Brit. Would we vote for something like this?
Being hated worked for Just Stop Oil
So argues George Ferns in The Conversation. "Disruptive protests may be unpopular, but they are effective at attracting media attention and public awareness". A great topic for groups to discuss I think.
Don't Talk About Climate
In The Guardian Sarah Stein Lubrano argues that our understanding of how political persuasion (and, by extension, climate persuasion) works is wrong: debating and providing information has little effect on people's beliefs. It is our friends that have the power to change our beliefs and behaviour - not by arguing with us, but by being around and showing us new ways of living. People are most likely to engage in climate-
friendly action if their friends do - far more likely than if they are given cash incentives. That has obvious implications for what we do.
This Article Won't Change Your Mind Sarah Stein Lubrano
Don't Talk About Politics: How to Change 21st-Century Minds / Bloomsbury 2025
Geoengineering
It's time to talk about geoengineering ...
Reflecting 1% of the sunlight that Earth currently absorbs may be enough to counteract all the warming caused by the increase in CO2 above preindustrial levels … however these different mechanisms affect the climate in very different ways. Even if an increase in global mean temperature were fully compensated … interventions could lead to a variety of changes in regional- scale temperature, precipitation patterns, and other impacts, effects that are at present poorly understood and difficult to predict … our ability to estimate climate responses and the downstream effect of those responses is currently climate responses and the downstream effect of those responses is currently very limited.
Source: Reflecting Sunlight | US National Academy of Sciences, June 2021. This report recommended that research should be undertaken into solar geoengineering for mitigating climate change. Others disagree, sometime vehemently.
Also: Can pumping chemicals into the ocean help stop global heating? Olive Heffernan in the Guardian, 10 March 2026
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