Meet Matt Kean – the politician who chose the planet over party

In this episode, we speak with Matt Kean. The former NSW state politician was once deputy Liberal leader, treasurer, and minister for energy and environment – but he’s now chair of the national Climate Change Authority. That means Kean helps set the Australian agenda in the fight against global warming, shaping federal policies on every hot-button green issue imaginable. Taking on the job was seen in some quarters – by conservative commentators, mostly – as a traitorous move by a “climate communist” now known to some as “Green Kean”. Our new climate change tsar is the subject of a feature profile this week – “Force of Nature” – and hosting this conversation about the powerful enemies Kean now faces, and the fight to save our natural world, is the acting editor of Good Weekend, Greg Callaghan.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.