A Kaleidoscopic End To 2025
The year to date has left me keen to catch my breath before the New Year dawns
There are kaleidoscopes—and then there are kaleidoscopes.
Typically, the toy ones create pretty patterns by shuffling fragments of coloured glass in the visual field, but the one I remember best from my younger years used the scene one was viewing and broke it up into flowing geometrical patterns.
Variously fascinating, beautiful and great fun, no question, but not wildly helpful if you were trying to navigate your way through a complex landscape.
As 2025 blurred to an end, recent months have forcefully reminded me of that optical instrument. Partly because of the blurring effect of so much travel. So maybe a New Year’s resolution for 2026 could be to keep my feet on the ground more? And partly because of the blur of interesting people and conversations.
Trump’s entirely unintended gift
But, through it all, I have kept largely calm, while assuring my various audiences that Trump 2.0 could prove to be an entirely unintended gift to the sustainability sector.
A delusional conclusion, perhaps, but built around the reality that our assumptions and thinking are now being shaken to their roots—at a time when that is precisely what is needed.
My last long-haul trip of the year was to Florianópolis, Brazil, via São Paulo. There I spoke to something like 2,000 people from the world of Brazil’s courts of accounts, at the International Congress of Courts of Auditors.
The role of these courts is to hold the public administration to account. The system aims to ensure that public money is used efficiently and for the benefit of society. Its core functions include: auditing public accounts; investigating irregularities; imposing penalties for wrongdoing by public administrators; promoting good governance; and risk management—including preventative auditing and risk management of large infrastructure projects and bidding processes.
So I was intrigued that the UN Sustainable Development Goals are being used to benchmark progress—or at least in the documents I saw.
Washed away
The last time I was in this neck of the woods was back in 2008, as we were struggling to get Volans airborne in the teeth of the financial crisis of 2007-9. And I was reminded that on that long-ago trip I only just got out of Florianópolis airport before the road was washed away. A flight or two after mine got off the ground, the airport was shut down for weeks.
Pacing a Florianópolis stage that felt rather like the deck of an aircraft carrier, I sensed a real connection with the audience—even though, and early on, I broached the thorny subject of politics, bribery and corruption.
The organizers later noted that the reaction they got from participants ran along the following lines:
“John touched a very sensitive subject in a delicate and beautiful way. [Participants] thought his presentation was brilliant.”
Reassuring, particularly given how fine the line is that I often find myself treading when advancing the system change version of the sustainability cause in very different cultures and political contexts around the world.
Insurance deserts
Among the events I spoke at in London as the year wound down was the Airmic Leadership Masterclass on sustainability, a 2.5-hour fireside chat I did alongside Peter Carter, Head of Captive and Insurance Management and Head of Climate Practice at our hosts, WTW. I enjoyed it immensely—and my sense was that the participants did, too.
Thought the session was subject to the Chatham House Rule, it is breaking no confidences to say that we discussed the growing risk of so-called “insurance desserts.”
The insurance and reinsurance sectors are in the eye of the storm, as participants acknowledged. Earlier in 2025, for example, Günther Thallinger, on the board of Allianz SE, one of the world’s biggest insurance companies, warned that: “The world is fast approaching temperature levels where insurers will no longer be able to offer cover for many climate risks.”
He also warned that “without insurance, which is already being pulled in some places, many other financial services become unviable, from mortgages to investments.” So, whatever know-nothing politicians may choose to do, or not do, the polycrisis is surging into the financial mainstream—with likely consequences for most of us.
Between and after the sessions I was delighted to sign a stack or two of copies of Tickling Sharks—and had delightful conversations with those queuing so patiently as I wrote extended, tailored messages to each purchaser.
Happy Holidays
On the margins of all of this, meanwhile, I have been developing various projects for 2026—including a masterclass for a major law firm and working on a new book with my longtime friend and colleague, Charmian Love. But more of that in the New Year, I hope.
Meanwhile, Happy Holidays to you all—and my very best wishes for the New Year.
Happy holidays, John, sounds like a well-deserved break, for you (and your passport). What might 2026 look like for the sustainability community, one wonders?
This reflection is increadibly grounding. The insurance desert point connecting to mortgage viability shows how climate consequences cascade through systems most people assume are stable. I found myself thinking about my own industry last quarter when a supplier casually mentioned they couldnt get coverage anymore for coastal warehouses, which totally reshaped our logistics planning.