Steve Metcalfe
@stevemetcalfe.bsky.social
Interested in global development, inequality, the climate crisis. And cycling. Head of communications at the Institute of Development Studies @ids.ac.uk / www.ids.ac.uk
Reposted by Steve Metcalfe
In response to news of 25% staff cuts at FCDO
@petertaylor-uk.bsky.social, IDS Director says:
“We strongly urge the Government to pause these cuts, set out a coherent vision for UK development leadership, and ensure that decisions are driven by evidence rather than urgency."
shorturl.at/5XUVZ
@petertaylor-uk.bsky.social, IDS Director says:
“We strongly urge the Government to pause these cuts, set out a coherent vision for UK development leadership, and ensure that decisions are driven by evidence rather than urgency."
shorturl.at/5XUVZ
Government must pause FCDO staffing cuts or risk exodus, Committee Chair says - Committees - UK Parliament
Plans to cut 2,000 UK staff at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) may breach the department’s obligations to its workforce and cause an exodus of staff, the Chair of the Int...
committees.parliament.uk
November 28, 2025 at 2:29 PM
In response to news of 25% staff cuts at FCDO
@petertaylor-uk.bsky.social, IDS Director says:
“We strongly urge the Government to pause these cuts, set out a coherent vision for UK development leadership, and ensure that decisions are driven by evidence rather than urgency."
shorturl.at/5XUVZ
@petertaylor-uk.bsky.social, IDS Director says:
“We strongly urge the Government to pause these cuts, set out a coherent vision for UK development leadership, and ensure that decisions are driven by evidence rather than urgency."
shorturl.at/5XUVZ
One of our students has written a brilliant piece about escaping war in Sudan and the impact, particularly, of the conflict on women.
"The deepest silence, however, surrounds the plight of Sudanese women...who is speaking about what is happening to women in Sudan?"
www.ids.ac.uk/opinions/fro...
"The deepest silence, however, surrounds the plight of Sudanese women...who is speaking about what is happening to women in Sudan?"
www.ids.ac.uk/opinions/fro...
From Khartoum to IDS: How living the war shapes how I study it - Institute of Development Studies
As the 16 Days of Activism gets underway, an IDS student shares a powerful account of escaping war in Sudan through a feminist lens.
www.ids.ac.uk
November 27, 2025 at 8:56 AM
One of our students has written a brilliant piece about escaping war in Sudan and the impact, particularly, of the conflict on women.
"The deepest silence, however, surrounds the plight of Sudanese women...who is speaking about what is happening to women in Sudan?"
www.ids.ac.uk/opinions/fro...
"The deepest silence, however, surrounds the plight of Sudanese women...who is speaking about what is happening to women in Sudan?"
www.ids.ac.uk/opinions/fro...
Reposted by Steve Metcalfe
BREAKING 🚨: The government has just announced that they are ending new oil and gas exploration in the UK and have started a plan for workers and communities to transition away from fossil fuels.
🧵
🧵
November 26, 2025 at 5:55 PM
BREAKING 🚨: The government has just announced that they are ending new oil and gas exploration in the UK and have started a plan for workers and communities to transition away from fossil fuels.
🧵
🧵
Beautiful wintery morning today in west Sussex
November 26, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Beautiful wintery morning today in west Sussex
Another nail in the coffin for US hegemony www.ft.com/content/79ea...
G20 defies Trump as leaders press on without the US
Agreements at G20 and COP30 show how America’s absence has not demoralised world leaders
www.ft.com
November 24, 2025 at 9:31 AM
Another nail in the coffin for US hegemony www.ft.com/content/79ea...
Reposted by Steve Metcalfe
🌏 NEW: The UK government is failing to tackle global heating – so we’re forcing it to take action with Global Legal Action Network.
Help fund the fight 👇
https://goodlaw.social/h5ik
Help fund the fight 👇
https://goodlaw.social/h5ik
November 6, 2025 at 1:44 PM
🌏 NEW: The UK government is failing to tackle global heating – so we’re forcing it to take action with Global Legal Action Network.
Help fund the fight 👇
https://goodlaw.social/h5ik
Help fund the fight 👇
https://goodlaw.social/h5ik
Reposted by Steve Metcalfe
Nowhere in the hysterical pile-on against the BBC in the British press has anyone mentioned that BBC News now has 77 million viewers & listeners in the US and has established itself as the second most trusted news source there.
November 11, 2025 at 8:37 AM
Nowhere in the hysterical pile-on against the BBC in the British press has anyone mentioned that BBC News now has 77 million viewers & listeners in the US and has established itself as the second most trusted news source there.
Reposted by Steve Metcalfe
Deadline extended!
Are you a US-based public health academic working on issues of health equity? If your work is under threat, the Sanctuary for Health Justice initiative at IDS could help.
You now have until 30 November to apply 👇
https://ids.pulse.ly/otlnmngso3
#PublicHealth #HealthEquity
Are you a US-based public health academic working on issues of health equity? If your work is under threat, the Sanctuary for Health Justice initiative at IDS could help.
You now have until 30 November to apply 👇
https://ids.pulse.ly/otlnmngso3
#PublicHealth #HealthEquity
November 6, 2025 at 1:59 PM
Deadline extended!
Are you a US-based public health academic working on issues of health equity? If your work is under threat, the Sanctuary for Health Justice initiative at IDS could help.
You now have until 30 November to apply 👇
https://ids.pulse.ly/otlnmngso3
#PublicHealth #HealthEquity
Are you a US-based public health academic working on issues of health equity? If your work is under threat, the Sanctuary for Health Justice initiative at IDS could help.
You now have until 30 November to apply 👇
https://ids.pulse.ly/otlnmngso3
#PublicHealth #HealthEquity
"our presence in Global North institutions was not just about what we could learn but equally about what we could contribute"
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-afri...
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-afri...
Global south scientists call for rethink of ‘brain drain’ narrative - Research Professional News
Researchers argue overseas training strengthens, rather than weakens, home-country research capacity
www.researchprofessionalnews.com
October 30, 2025 at 9:46 AM
"our presence in Global North institutions was not just about what we could learn but equally about what we could contribute"
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-afri...
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-afri...
Cuts in US and European development spending risk undoing the progress we've made on tackling malaria. This could cost millions of lives, and billions in lost economic growth
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
Anti-malaria funding cuts could lead to ‘deadliest resurgence ever’, study warns
Expected reduction in contributions by wealthy countries likely to cost millions of lives and billions in lost growth
www.theguardian.com
October 28, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Cuts in US and European development spending risk undoing the progress we've made on tackling malaria. This could cost millions of lives, and billions in lost economic growth
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
"the Tutor will be someone qualified to support the educational and developmental needs of children from ultra-high-net-worth and royal families" 🤮🤮 www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...
Family seeks £180,000 tutor for toddler to help him become ‘an English gentleman’
Parents hope immersion in a ‘comprehensive British cultural environment’ will help prepare their son for Eton or Harrow
www.independent.co.uk
October 23, 2025 at 7:57 AM
"the Tutor will be someone qualified to support the educational and developmental needs of children from ultra-high-net-worth and royal families" 🤮🤮 www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...
Super excited by this new IDS initiative!
US researchers working on health justice are under attack.
In response, IDS launches the new Sanctuary for Health Justice initiative, offering the opportunity to temporarily relocate to the UK.
Apply now!
https://ids.pulse.ly/cposngzpnn
In response, IDS launches the new Sanctuary for Health Justice initiative, offering the opportunity to temporarily relocate to the UK.
Apply now!
https://ids.pulse.ly/cposngzpnn
IDS offers sanctuary to US health researchers amid academic restrictions - Institute of Development Studies
American academics facing threats to their work on health equities can apply to temporarily relocate to the UK to continue their research, in a new initiative announced today. The Sanctuary for Health Justice, set up by the Institute of Development Studies, provides US researchers with an open and w...
ids.pulse.ly
October 18, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Super excited by this new IDS initiative!
Sums up #WorldFoodDay rather well
As we celebrate the 80th World Food Day, we can certainly reflect and acknowledge that our people are being betrayed by their own selfish leaders and by big corporations. Let us honour this year's theme: Hand in hand for a better foods and a better future.
World Food Day 2025
www.dailymaverick.co.za
October 16, 2025 at 8:05 AM
Sums up #WorldFoodDay rather well
Reposted by Steve Metcalfe
It's Prime Day so here's your regular reminder that:
- Amazon has been exposed for throwing away millions of unused products each year
- Amazon emits MORE CO2 than Hong Kong & Denmark
- Jeff Bezos earns more in 1 MINUTE than many of his workers do in a year
Overconsumption is KILLING our planet
- Amazon has been exposed for throwing away millions of unused products each year
- Amazon emits MORE CO2 than Hong Kong & Denmark
- Jeff Bezos earns more in 1 MINUTE than many of his workers do in a year
Overconsumption is KILLING our planet
October 7, 2025 at 11:27 AM
It's Prime Day so here's your regular reminder that:
- Amazon has been exposed for throwing away millions of unused products each year
- Amazon emits MORE CO2 than Hong Kong & Denmark
- Jeff Bezos earns more in 1 MINUTE than many of his workers do in a year
Overconsumption is KILLING our planet
- Amazon has been exposed for throwing away millions of unused products each year
- Amazon emits MORE CO2 than Hong Kong & Denmark
- Jeff Bezos earns more in 1 MINUTE than many of his workers do in a year
Overconsumption is KILLING our planet
Excellent series on overshooting 1.5°C warming.
First 2 episodes VERY gloomy (1.5°C much worse than we thought and we're going well past that; collapse of Atlantic AMOC current looking more likely; and the follies of carbon capture tech).
Dare I hope for some optimism in the final 2 episodes?
First 2 episodes VERY gloomy (1.5°C much worse than we thought and we're going well past that; collapse of Atlantic AMOC current looking more likely; and the follies of carbon capture tech).
Dare I hope for some optimism in the final 2 episodes?
Overshoot Episode 1: Uncharted Territory
If the world didn’t win, has it lost?
We meet the underdog diplomats who helped the world set the 1.5°C goal, and the champion sailors who can help us set a course for navigating what comes next
Listen to episode one now: open.spotify.com/episode/1bJl...
If the world didn’t win, has it lost?
We meet the underdog diplomats who helped the world set the 1.5°C goal, and the champion sailors who can help us set a course for navigating what comes next
Listen to episode one now: open.spotify.com/episode/1bJl...
PART 1: Uncharted Territory
open.spotify.com
October 8, 2025 at 8:16 AM
Excellent series on overshooting 1.5°C warming.
First 2 episodes VERY gloomy (1.5°C much worse than we thought and we're going well past that; collapse of Atlantic AMOC current looking more likely; and the follies of carbon capture tech).
Dare I hope for some optimism in the final 2 episodes?
First 2 episodes VERY gloomy (1.5°C much worse than we thought and we're going well past that; collapse of Atlantic AMOC current looking more likely; and the follies of carbon capture tech).
Dare I hope for some optimism in the final 2 episodes?
Reposted by Steve Metcalfe
NEW | Solar and wind OUTPACED global electricity demand growth in the first half of 2025, leading to a fall in fossil fuels compared to this time last year ☀️🌪️
Record solar and steady wind growth is reshaping global power as renewables OVERTAKE coal for the first time.
https://loom.ly/c-MNZSk
Record solar and steady wind growth is reshaping global power as renewables OVERTAKE coal for the first time.
https://loom.ly/c-MNZSk
October 7, 2025 at 8:01 AM
NEW | Solar and wind OUTPACED global electricity demand growth in the first half of 2025, leading to a fall in fossil fuels compared to this time last year ☀️🌪️
Record solar and steady wind growth is reshaping global power as renewables OVERTAKE coal for the first time.
https://loom.ly/c-MNZSk
Record solar and steady wind growth is reshaping global power as renewables OVERTAKE coal for the first time.
https://loom.ly/c-MNZSk
Critical thinking on development is under threat!
Please sign this petition and show your support for the Institute of Development Policy (IOB), which has been hit by a sudden EU2.6m funding cut from the Flemish government.
Please sign this petition and show your support for the Institute of Development Policy (IOB), which has been hit by a sudden EU2.6m funding cut from the Flemish government.
🌍 1,555 voices for IOB — but we need more! Every day counts: sign the petition and share it widely so our message to policymakers grows stronger. 💙
👉 https://chng.it/8DhtrFSBpm
#SaveIOB #StandWithIOB #IOBCommunity #GlobalEducation #GlobalSolidarity
👉 https://chng.it/8DhtrFSBpm
#SaveIOB #StandWithIOB #IOBCommunity #GlobalEducation #GlobalSolidarity
October 1, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Critical thinking on development is under threat!
Please sign this petition and show your support for the Institute of Development Policy (IOB), which has been hit by a sudden EU2.6m funding cut from the Flemish government.
Please sign this petition and show your support for the Institute of Development Policy (IOB), which has been hit by a sudden EU2.6m funding cut from the Flemish government.
10 years since the Sustainable Dev Goals were agreed: impossible to imagine that kind of consensus in today's world.
The SDGs are damaged but still important, and new international alliances can bring new approaches
Valuable insights from @petertaylor-uk.bsky.social, Director of @ids.ac.uk
The SDGs are damaged but still important, and new international alliances can bring new approaches
Valuable insights from @petertaylor-uk.bsky.social, Director of @ids.ac.uk
September 25, 2025 at 9:42 AM
10 years since the Sustainable Dev Goals were agreed: impossible to imagine that kind of consensus in today's world.
The SDGs are damaged but still important, and new international alliances can bring new approaches
Valuable insights from @petertaylor-uk.bsky.social, Director of @ids.ac.uk
The SDGs are damaged but still important, and new international alliances can bring new approaches
Valuable insights from @petertaylor-uk.bsky.social, Director of @ids.ac.uk
Reparations are about justice, not just money. "If you don’t change the actual power dynamics, it’s little more than charity."
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...
‘It goes beyond getting a cash refund for slavery’: Lenny Henry and Marcus Ryder on the case for reparations
With their new book, Henry and Ryder are determined to start a discussion about compensation for the descendants of slaves. But how would any scheme work? And why is it yet to happen?
www.theguardian.com
September 24, 2025 at 9:09 AM
Reparations are about justice, not just money. "If you don’t change the actual power dynamics, it’s little more than charity."
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...
Great video. No mean feat to make jokes out of the arcane world of climate finance, and the myth that the private sector alone can fill the adaptation finance gap
As climate adaptation needs increase, is this the solution to closing the finance gap?
September 18, 2025 at 11:19 AM
Great video. No mean feat to make jokes out of the arcane world of climate finance, and the myth that the private sector alone can fill the adaptation finance gap
Reposted by Steve Metcalfe
After anti-corruption #GenZprotests and a deadly uprising forced the prime minister and government to resign, #Nepal searches for a new politics that can jettison its failed establishment. Commentary by Himal EIC @romangtm.bsky.social
Nepal’s horrific reckoning with its failed political class
Nepalis don’t often pay attention to the politics of their Southasian neighbours beyond India. But when Sri Lankans rose up in 2022 to boot out the Rajapaksa re
buff.ly
September 10, 2025 at 12:30 PM
After anti-corruption #GenZprotests and a deadly uprising forced the prime minister and government to resign, #Nepal searches for a new politics that can jettison its failed establishment. Commentary by Himal EIC @romangtm.bsky.social
Great thread.
I think the majority of public understand risks of climate change and are crying out for a vision that is not 'pragmatic' (i.e. stuck in the past) but is ambitious, forward-looking and shows how we can create jobs and prosperity through the shift to a low-carbon economy.
I think the majority of public understand risks of climate change and are crying out for a vision that is not 'pragmatic' (i.e. stuck in the past) but is ambitious, forward-looking and shows how we can create jobs and prosperity through the shift to a low-carbon economy.
Happy to share our new research on UK climate politics 🚨
We found Members of Parliament (MPs) use the language of climate "pragmatism" to avoid rapid change. It risks becoming a new discourse of delay.
More detail below and in 🧵
1/
theconversation.com/politicians-...
We found Members of Parliament (MPs) use the language of climate "pragmatism" to avoid rapid change. It risks becoming a new discourse of delay.
More detail below and in 🧵
1/
theconversation.com/politicians-...
Politicians now talk of climate ‘pragmatism’ to delay action – new study
Politicians talk about being pragmatic on climate change to avoid hard decisions.
theconversation.com
September 8, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Great thread.
I think the majority of public understand risks of climate change and are crying out for a vision that is not 'pragmatic' (i.e. stuck in the past) but is ambitious, forward-looking and shows how we can create jobs and prosperity through the shift to a low-carbon economy.
I think the majority of public understand risks of climate change and are crying out for a vision that is not 'pragmatic' (i.e. stuck in the past) but is ambitious, forward-looking and shows how we can create jobs and prosperity through the shift to a low-carbon economy.
Why does the US - and presumably the UK? - support Israel's crimes? Because "economic sovereignty in the periphery threatens capital accumulation in the core".
Jason Hickel on how Israel acts as a military proxy for the US:
jasonhickel.substack.com/p/why-does-t...
Jason Hickel on how Israel acts as a military proxy for the US:
jasonhickel.substack.com/p/why-does-t...
Why does the US support Israel's crimes?
Why does the US support Israel’s genocidal crimes against the Palestinian people, even in the face of overwhelming international condemnation, at massive expense, and to the point of totally debasing ...
jasonhickel.substack.com
September 3, 2025 at 11:11 AM
Why does the US - and presumably the UK? - support Israel's crimes? Because "economic sovereignty in the periphery threatens capital accumulation in the core".
Jason Hickel on how Israel acts as a military proxy for the US:
jasonhickel.substack.com/p/why-does-t...
Jason Hickel on how Israel acts as a military proxy for the US:
jasonhickel.substack.com/p/why-does-t...
UK public debate on migration is divorced from reality.
Any right minded person would think - from barrage of news - that its spiraling out of control.
Yet data shows its falling dramatically.
How did we allow far-right to manipulate facts like this?
Any right minded person would think - from barrage of news - that its spiraling out of control.
Yet data shows its falling dramatically.
How did we allow far-right to manipulate facts like this?
August 28, 2025 at 12:25 PM
UK public debate on migration is divorced from reality.
Any right minded person would think - from barrage of news - that its spiraling out of control.
Yet data shows its falling dramatically.
How did we allow far-right to manipulate facts like this?
Any right minded person would think - from barrage of news - that its spiraling out of control.
Yet data shows its falling dramatically.
How did we allow far-right to manipulate facts like this?