Outrage + Optimism: The Climate Podcast

We’re handing the mic over to you on this week’s Outrage + Optimism: The Climate Podcast.

In this special Q&A episode, Christiana Figueres, Paul Dickinson and guest host Fiona McRaith (Director of The Climate Pledge at Global Optimism) respond to thought-provoking questions from listeners around the world. They consider the future of the COP model, whether the Pacific concept of vā may offer a better way to think about our l...

In a world-first, the International Court of Justice is preparing to deliver an advisory opinion on climate change and human rights - all thanks to a youth-led campaign that began thousands of miles from The Hague, in the Pacific Islands.

This week, we look inside that extraordinary campaign, and hear the story of Cynthia Houniuhi, who - as a young law student from the Solomon Islands - helped launch the movement that would ulti...

Last episode, we explored the urgent connection between climate and health, and brought you a powerful and timely conversation with Julia Gillard, former Australian Prime Minister and Chair of the Wellcome Trust.

Today, we want to recommend a show that those who enjoyed that episode are likely to love. When Science Finds A Way is a brilliant podcast from the Wellcome Trust that highlights how science is changing lives around the...

Scientists warn that the world could breach its 1.5°C emissions limit within just 2-3 years. It’s a scary thought, but across the globe, many are grappling with an even more immediate and visceral reality: the climate crisis is already a health crisis.

From deadly heatwaves to worsening air pollution and climate-related trauma, the health impacts of climate change are escalating. In this episode, Christiana Figueres and Paul Dic...

While climate diplomacy grapples with global uncertainty, there’s a quiet revolution happening that may be just as important - thousands of breakthrough technologies and creative applications that are emerging to tackle the climate crisis in new and unexpected ways.

Around the world, figures from business, government and civil society come together at climate weeks to share ideas, showcase solutions, and accelerate action. Ahead...

World leaders, scientists and ocean advocates are gathering in Nice for the 3rd UN Ocean Conference (UNOC) and hopes are high that progress can be made on some of the many pressing issues facing our seas - from acidification to pollution, and from biodiversity loss to deep sea mining. 

Reporting from the summit, Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac ask: can this moment become a true turning point for ocean governance? ...

This November, Brazil will host COP30 in Belém, on the edge of the Amazon rainforest, in what is bound to be a moment packed with symbolism, high expectations, and global significance. This week, Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac, and Paul Dickinson explore what’s at stake, what Brazil wants to achieve, and whether the world is ready to move from ambition to implementation.

Back from his recent trip to the country, Tom shar...

How far would you go to protect your home?

In this week’s special episode, Christiana Figueres brings us a deeply personal and political dispatch from Vanuatu - a country on the frontlines of the climate crisis and at the heart of one of the most significant climate justice initiatives of our time.

In conversations with voices from government (Minister Ralph Regenvanu), climate diplomacy (Christopher Bartlett), youth leadersh...

As the US federal government drifts further into anti-climate rhetoric and abandons its national and international commitments, can non-state actors hold the line?

With Christiana Figueres away in Vanuatu, Tom Rivett-Carnac and Paul Dickinson take the reins to explore how climate progress is increasingly being driven by - or being left to - businesses and non-profits. They unpack the mounting challenges facing climate-aligned co...

On April 28th, millions of people across Spain, Portugal and beyond were plunged into darkness in one of Europe’s most severe blackouts in decades. Was it a cyberattack? A renewables failure? Or might things be a little more complex?

This week, Tom Rivett-Carnac, Christiana Figueres, and Paul Dickinson dig into what we know, what we don’t, and ask what this blackout really tells us about the transition to renewables. They speak ...

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair says that net zero is politically unachievable without radical rethinking: a shift away from reducing consumption and toward technologies that can remove carbon both at the source and from the atmosphere. So, are carbon capture and carbon removal really viable - and more palatable - alternatives to a rapid fossil fuel phaseout? And is our net zero strategy failing, or simply failing to be explain...

Australia heads to the polls this weekend - with climate firmly on the ballot. Is the country ready to lose its reputation as the battleground of the climate wars? And are we about to see a lasting shift in a nation that has for years been torn between its sunlight and its coal?

As a pivotal election looms, Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac and Paul Dickinson examine what’s at stake for one of the world’s highest per-capita...

Are we witnessing the beginning of the end for fossil fuels?

This Earth Day, Outrage + Optimism explores a seismic shift in global energy: the possibility that major oil and gas companies are entering a self-managed decline. Have fossil fuel companies been overvalued for decades? And are they now quietly winding themselves down? 

For years, analysts and campaigners have questioned why these companies are valued as if the...

In the wake of this morning’s sad announcement about the death of Pope Francis, Christiana Figueres reflects on his important legacy as a champion for environmental and justice causes, and shares some of the late Pope’s own words, reflecting on the landmark Paris Agreement.

Learn more 

🌍 Pope Francis’s words in Profiles of Paris

📜 Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home

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As the US retreats from international climate leadership and looks increasingly inwards, can China step up and steer the global energy transition? And if it can, what shape will that transition take?

In the latest of our country deep-dives, Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac and Paul Dickinson explore China’s pivotal and complex role in decarbonising our world. At home, the nation is a technology superpower, the driver behin...

What happens when the US tears up the rulebook on global trade? And what does that mean for the planet? Plus: what on earth is happening in Greenland? And does it really signal an unlikely MAGA embrace of climate science?

In this urgent and wide-ranging episode, Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac and Paul Dickinson explore the fallout from Trump’s new global tariffs, reflect on the environmental movement’s complex relationsh...

How have fossil fuel lobbyists become so embedded in the COP system, and how can we disrupt their involvement in domestic and international politics? This is our second episode inspired by the RSC and Good Chance Theatre’s production of Kyoto.

In this episode, Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac and Paul Dickinson explore the history of this often unseen influence, ask why fossil fuel lobbyists have become so embedded in the ...

What did it take to get nearly 200 nations to agree on tackling climate change in 1997? And what have we learned in the decades since?

In this episode, we reflect on the drama, the impact and the legacy of the Kyoto Protocol, and go behind the scenes of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s powerful and acclaimed production of Kyoto, currently playing in London’s West End.

After watching a performance of the play this week, Christi...

Is Canada a climate leader or a fossil-fueled dinosaur? And what will the recent ascension of Mark Carney as Prime Minister mean for the country’s climate agenda - both domestically and on the world stage?

In the second of our country deep-dives, Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac speak with Catherine McKenna, Canada’s former Minister of Environment and Climate Change, to discuss the mixed history, uncertain present and p...