Wicked Problems | Eija-Riitta Korhola | Negotiator 73

Summary

Doctor of philosophy and long-serving MEP Eija-Riitta Korhola sets out what wicked problems are and why simple solutions to them so often create further problems. The conversation works through the twists of climate policy, the fight against the waste incineration directive on behalf of the Finnish forest industry, the swinging regulation of biofuels, and the consequences of Germany’s Energiewende and its nuclear decisions. Korhola also describes giving up the vice-chairmanship of the National Coalition Party so that she could criticise the wind power subsidy decision, and she criticises the recovery package and the sidestepping of the EU treaties. The tension runs between identity politics and open intellectual debate, because labelling people’s motives poisons decision-making. The episode closes on the nature of science, no-regret policy, and why one must be able to change one’s mind when the facts change.

Chapters

• 00:00 — Breaking wicked problems into parts
• 01:11 — Guest Eija-Riitta Korhola and the book
• 01:38 — What is a wicked problem
• 02:18 — Why there are more and more wicked problems
• 03:23 — Climate change as an example of a wicked problem
• 05:00 — Identity politics poisons the climate debate
• 05:45 — Matti Virtanen and listening to sceptics
• 06:09 — Pöyry Capital and a background in pulp mills
• 07:18 — The waste incineration directive threatened black liquor
• 07:56 — A first-term MEP unlocked a closed situation
• 08:24 — Measurement requirements with no environmental benefit
• 09:41 — Second reading and the rapporteur’s opposition
• 10:52 — A Dutch book opened the way to trust
• 11:53 — A transfer of credibility settled the negotiation
• 12:12 — Neste, biofuels and the Rotterdam plant
• 13:56 — The Greens first demanded quantitative targets
• 14:37 — Quality before quantity in biofuels
• 15:40 — Swinging legislation blocks investment
• 16:07 — Impact vectors and the most effective emissions cut
• 17:08 — Fukushima and Germany’s Energiewende
• 18:07 — Europe’s lurching policy
• 19:02 — Nobody died of radiation at Fukushima
• 19:55 — Olkiluoto 3 and Finland’s wind turbines
• 20:19 — Germany’s emissions five times Finland’s
• 21:00 — Greenpeace’s monument to selfishness at Töölönlahti
• 23:09 — Labelling motives poisons the debate
• 23:34 — The Greens follow 10 years later
• 24:21 — Petri Roininen’s message to the National Coalition
• 25:40 — Intellectual honesty lost in the party
• 26:43 — The recovery package and the party’s grassroots
• 27:18 — Walking over the EU treaties
• 27:37 — A dual currency and solving the Greek crisis
• 28:34 — Päivi Räsänen blocked Schengen enlargement alone
• 29:29 — Is there an opposition in the EU
• 30:24 — The freedom to vote as you think
• 30:56 — Giving up the vice-chair over the wind subsidy
• 31:16 — The Greek debt package and changing her mind
• 33:22 — Tuomas Malinen and criticism of the recovery package
• 34:52 — Labelling people as good or evil
• 36:19 — Means are exchangeable, values are not
• 36:25 — Favourite philosophers: Socrates, Plato and Aristotle
• 38:20 — A straightening of Western thought
• 39:01 — A doctorate as a philosophy and environmental policy hybrid
• 40:13 — Covid as a new wicked problem
• 41:10 — No-regret policy and scenario analysis
• 41:43 — The Spanish flu and the lessons of history
• 42:07 — Compensation and effective altruism
• 42:32 — “Science is settled” is an unscientific claim
• 44:14 — Climate science as a cross-discipline, and advocacy
• 44:42 — A cognitivist ideal of science and a cool head
• 45:10 — The Wicked musical and changing your mind

Watch

The recording lives on the Neuvottelija channel: Ilkeät ongelmat | Eija-Riitta Korhola | Neuvottelija 73. A Finnish edition of this episode is published at www.neuvottelija.fi.