Writing
Series · LinkedIn · November 2025
Three essays written from inside the UNFCCC negotiations, tracing the concept of transparency — from Newton's optics through Bourdieu's Habitus and Foucault's Panopticon — to argue that what climate governance needs is not more transparency, but clarity.
"The least parts of almost all natural Bodies are in some measure transparent…"
In 1704 Newton set out to describe the fundamental nature of light. He thought of transparency in a material sense. In the following centuries this merely physical attribute began to absorb meaning — conveying notions of moral and today forming an integral part of international institutions. A perspective that could benefit today's policy makers.
Performing Openness: Transparency and the Reproduction of Norms
The ideal of transparency is a unifying factor, but its pursuit appears to divide those creating it. Bourdieu's Habitus: the more visible our actions become, the more carefully we adhere to unwritten rules — reproducing rather than revealing the structures that shape what can and cannot be done.
"Transparency […]: A simultaneous perception of different spatial locations."
When perfectly transparent, those being ruled upon appear to be one with those ruling. Transparency promises a state of perfect oneness. But separation serves a purpose. What we need is not more transparency. What we need is clarity — and clarity does not come with being one. It comes from clearly written rules. Clearly drawn lines.
Policy
COP · Carbon Markets · Trust
SmallCOP Mid Air
Written from Bonn during SB58. The global south is blocking progress — not from obstruction but from leverage. They have been promised 100 billion USD. The promise remains just that. Without the means, implementation is an empty commitment. And the developed world needs what only the south can provide: Article 6.4 emission reductions. Conditional trust is the only path forward.
Policy · Markets
Carbon Credits · COVID-19 · Voluntary Markets
Offsets in Lockdown: Why COVID-19 Calls for Social Global Carbon Credits
Written during the collapse of the Clean Development Mechanism and the COVID-forced postponement of COP26. The mosaic of national compliance systems was widening the gap between capital and the communities most able to sequester it. A unified standard, built on participation and local partnership, was the only workable path — and still is.
Field · Ecology
Panama · Agroforestry · Bioindicators
When Espresso Blends and Mildew Meet
From a remote farm near Jaqué, Panama. A leaf of Caffea canephora covered in Erysiphales — two organisms that have never shared a continent until now. What the mildew reveals about the microclimate, and what it might mean for the farmers whose livelihoods depend on what happens next.
Essay · Nature
Morocco · Ecosystem Restoration · Skin Care
How Skin Care Tackles Climate Change: A wrinkled tree analogy
It is millions of years of experience that allows Ceratonia siliqua — the carob tree — to lead by example simply through its existence. Two wrinkly old arms stretching into the hot air of a Moroccan summer. A tree that sequesters carbon, enriches eroded soil, feeds livestock, and contains compounds that treat wrinkled skin. The dichotomy between caring for people and protecting the environment is fictional.