Why, despite decades of climate summits, sustainable goals, and our smartest minds working on solutions, our climate reality worsens?
Yes, we can blame our leaders and corporations, but, why do we also struggle in our choices of who we elect or how we consume?
Where does the roots of our climate crisis really lie?
In this episode, we go on a long walk in the Light Forest with Dr. Naresh Singh, who shares a master-class like diagnosis and perspective that helps us get to the root of the ‘Wicked’ policy problems like Climate Change.
Introducing Naresh Singh
Naresh has spent many decades in the belly of the beast, working with Shell Oil Corporation, the UNDP, the federal government of Canada, walking the halls with decision makers at all levels of governance. He has been working on Sustainable Development and Climate Change since 1992, engaged in the creation of Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development Goals, all the way to COP 21 in Paris 2015.
Naresh is now dedicated to renewing our institutions by through an approach he calls “applied spirituality” and complexity economics. He holds several roles as professor and executive dean at the Jindal School of Government and Public Policy in India, director of the Center for Complexity Economics, Applied Spirituality and Public Policy, and co-director of the Center for Legal Empowerment of the Poor. He is also building a network called Spirituality, Science, and Policy (SSP). More links to his work below.
So when Naresh speaks he brings a profound depth of knowledge, lived experience, and wisdom. Watch or Listen now:
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'Wicked Problems'
‘Wicked’ Problems are complex challenges like climate change, poverty, and gender inequality, that appear to get worse the more we try to fix them, because the solutions often make some of the causes worse, and are not really truly solvable. Climate Change is the perfect example of a ‘Wicked’ policy problem.
Naresh patiently walks us through the attempts to mitigate the effects of climate change from the MDGs to the SDGs and Carbon commitments. He draws a root cause analyses to show that these policies are aimed at Greenhouse gas emissions which are symptoms of overconsumption, which is tied to beliefs we hold about quality of life and well-being. He explain how our policy responses are aimed at symptoms, not roots. As he puts it:
'We have not, as a global community, spent enough time to understand the inner challenge - our relationship to the psyche, our understanding of who we are and how we make decisions, and for what purpose.'
“Institutions not fit for purpose”
Our present institutions, built on 400-year-old assumptions of linear, reductionist thinking about human nature, are not fit for purpose of addressing the ‘wicked’ problems of our time. Our institutions worship the rational mind and we have forgotten our gift of the intuitive mind.
99% of our energy goes to the apparent solutions through which the world thinks it can act and transform and almost zero energy goes to the "ultimate solutions" i.e. the way we relate to all living beings and the planet as a whole. Total mismatch
Applying Spirituality
How do we approach the Wicked policy problems of the world which are at the root level is one of inner fragmentation? How do we balance the rationale mind with the intuitive mind?
This is the core work of “Applying Spirituality” i.e. translating the spiritual traditions of mystical Christianity, Sufism, Buddhism, Vedanta Advaita, Daoism, Confucianism into academia and policy making. This is not about dogma or religion but direct experience.
Naresh’s approach is primarily through education and academic research. He is working with educators and designing programs for children, with policy makers, and publishing research in academic journals to translate spirituality based perspectives on our contemporary challenges into academic literature. Naresh is bridging worlds that have been severed for many centuries.
“An Unplanned” Life
Naresh shares his own journey that started as a 4th generation Indian diaspora child in Guyana in the Carribean. His grounding that began with the Arya Samaj philosophy and Yoga at a young age, to being recruited to work for Shell Oil and working in agriculture and industrial, and pivots to Academia and global policy, fuelled by realizations that scientists like him were studying symptoms not the root causes.
He also opens up on the "schizophrenic and painful" aspects of living a dual life for many years, working in a world that did not recognise “inner” dimensions, and how it sometimes made him feel backward. Eventually many paths led him to bridging the worlds of spirituality and policy.
Naresh holds faith that despite our present reality of worsening outcomes, our reality is not linear, and there remains opportunities for ‘emergence’, through unexpected breakthroughs and shifts, that our rationale mind may not be capable of seeing or grasping. The power of community and network building with academics and experts across the world holds a lot of power.
A Joyful walk in the Forest
This was one of those conversations that could have gone on for hours. There are so many more areas I never got to speak to Naresh about such as AI ethics, the role of stories, macro history, speculations on his Light Forest world, especially the future of bodies such as the UN and global governance. The hunger for more knowledge is insatiable, especially when we get to learn directly from someone that has walked the forest for much longer than we have.
I had the fortune to meet Naresh in person in Chiang Mai just a couple months ago, thanks to another podcast guest Ora-orn. I was struck by his background and mastery to explain complex, often esoteric topics, both simply and academically. But also the resonance we shared, his warmth and generosity to support my work, and the presence and awareness he brings when he speaks and listens.
We are grateful to intersect our pathways and have Naresh share his Light with all of us.
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
01:50 - ‘wicked’ policy problems
07:32 - Climate change as the perfect example of wicked problem
15:14 - Are our solutions actually designed for the problems we face?
20:23 - A root cause analysis: from greenhouse gases to consciousness
27:55 - Why our institutions are not fit for purpose
39:00 - Spiritual poverty at the root
48:15 - Naresh’s life journey from scientist to academic to policy maker to conscious policy pioneer
1:05:00 - ‘Applied spirituality’ and wisdom in policy making; intuitive vs. rational mind
1:10:30 - Building community and networks for emergence
1:15:07 - Meeting people where they are: advice for frustrated academics and practitioners
Recommended Readings & Sources
Books Mentioned:
Applied Spirituality by Swami Agnivesh
Applied Spirituality and Sustainable Development Policy edited by Naresh Singh (Emerald Publishing, 2024)
Handbook on Global Philosophies for AI Ethics edited by Naresh Singh (Routledge, August 2025)
The Politics of Being by Thomas Le Grand
