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 local and global relationships, what a multipolar world might mean ...
Jul 10, 2025•56 min•Season 11Ep. 27
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 ultimately unite over 130 countries behind a single goal. Now, six years...
Jul 03, 2025•56 min•Season 11Ep. 26
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 world. In the short clip here, we hear how something as simple as a...
Jul 01, 2025•6 min
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 Dickinson explore how growing awareness of these challenges is beginnin...
Jun 26, 2025•39 min•Season 11Ep. 25
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 of London Climate Action Week , where many of these innovations wil...
Jun 19, 2025•55 min•Season 11Ep. 24
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? Central to the agenda is the High Seas Treaty: a long-awaited internationa...
Jun 12, 2025•45 min•Season 11Ep. 23
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 shares conversations with COP CEO Ana Toni and Gustavo Westmann from the...
Jun 05, 2025•59 min•Season 11Ep. 22
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 leadership and advocacy ( Litiana Kalsrap ), and the arts ( Jean-Pascal Wah...
May 29, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Season 11Ep. 21
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 companies, the promise and complexity of existing voluntary initiative...
May 22, 2025•54 min•Season 11Ep. 20
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 with energy strategist Kingsmill Bond of Ember and hear an on-the-gr...
May 15, 2025•45 min•Season 11Ep. 19
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 explained? Hosts Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac, and Paul Dickin...
May 08, 2025•53 min•Season 11Ep. 18
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 emitters. After months of polling ahead, the opposition Coalition n...
May 01, 2025•44 min•Season 11Ep. 17
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 they'll pump oil forever. With rising climate risks, tightening regulation, and ...
Apr 24, 2025•55 min•Season 11Ep. 16
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 Follow us on social media for behind the scenes moments and to watch our videos: Instagram @outrage...
Apr 21, 2025•6 min
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 behind the renewables and EV revolutions, and dominates the world in sola...
Apr 17, 2025•54 min•Season 11Ep. 15
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 relationship with free trade, and ask what this moment tells us about democrac...
Apr 10, 2025•52 min•Season 11Ep. 14
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 COP system, and consider what levers are emerging to disrupt their i...
Apr 03, 2025•48 min•Season 11Ep. 13
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, Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac and Paul Dickinson introduced a live e...
Mar 27, 2025•53 min•Season 11Ep. 12
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 possible futures of the nation’s climate record. As Canada’s represen...
Mar 20, 2025•49 min•Season 11Ep. 11
How can the law be used to champion human rights, drive progress and fight for climate justice? Paul Dickinson is joined by Laura Clarke, CEO of ClientEarth, the non-profit lawyers for the planet working to protect life on Earth. Laura shares how ClientEarth has successfully challenged corporate greenwashing, from the Dutch courts ruling against airline KLM for misleading customers , to forcing a Polish company to change the misleading name of its ‘eco-pea coal’ . And beyond corporate accountabi...
Mar 13, 2025•44 min•Season 11Ep. 10
Are women the key to solving the climate crisis? Why are they - and children - so disproportionately affected by the issue? And how can men step up to support change? To mark International Women’s Day, Christiana Figueres is joined by top climate scientist Dr Katharine Hayhoe. As well as being Distinguished Professor and Endowed Chair at Texas Tech University, Katharine is an influential voice in communicating science at the ‘kitchen table’ level. She and Christiana reflect on the barriers women...
Mar 06, 2025•50 min•Season 11Ep. 9
Development programmes across the world are still reeling from the swingeing cuts to USAID, whilst other western nations such as the UK and Germany have announced plans to scale back their own aid commitments. With Mike Bloomberg agreeing to fill the gap in climate funding left by the US's withdrawal from Paris, is it up to wealthy philanthropists to fill the hole of state funding? Is it realistic or appropriate for them to do so? And do competing interests from funders compromise work on the gr...
Feb 27, 2025•42 min•Season 11Ep. 8
How does a nation transform its forest coverage from 21% to 60% in half a century? What are the policies that can place nature at the very heart of political thinking? And why does Christiana Figueres see a picture of her dad when she visits an ATM? Christiana is joined in her home country by co-hosts Tom Rivett-Carnac and Paul Dickinson as they explore Costa Rica’s remarkable history and constitutionally guaranteed environmental safeguards. Our resident expert explains her very deep personal bo...
Feb 20, 2025•39 min•Season 11Ep. 7
What is the future of climate action? Having previously interrogated the failures of multilateralism in the years since the Paris Agreement was signed, Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac and Paul Dickinson look to the future and the alternative ‘levers of change’ that will tackle the climate crisis. These avenues are needed now more than ever after a whirlwind of executive orders and policies passed by President Donald Trump’s administration. These have placed climate action firmly in its cr...
Feb 13, 2025•46 min•Season 11Ep. 6
Christiana Figueres, the driving force behind the groundbreaking Paris Climate Agreement, reflects on the high-stakes negotiations that reshaped the global fight against climate change in the year that marks its ten-year anniversary. With the fate of the planet hanging in the balance, she reveals the relentless pushback from the fossil fuel lobby, and the ever-shifting geopolitical tensions that threaten progress. Will the world stay on course, or are we teetering on the edge of climate catastro...
Feb 06, 2025•48 min•Season 11Ep. 5
What’s an NDC? What does El Niño tell us about global temperatures this year? And why could a landmark ICJ ruling unlock a wave of climate legal cases? Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac, and Paul Dickinson break down the climate acronyms and buzzwords you need to know in 2025. With a crucial year ahead for climate action, this podcast is your essential guide to the key terms shaping global discussions. From breaking down BRICS to how President Donald Trump’s return to the White House will c...
Jan 30, 2025•38 min•Season 11Ep. 4
What will a Trump presidency mean for the climate movement? Hours after Trump takes office for the second time, Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac and Paul Dickinson regroup to take stock and share their reactions to the US withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement. Guest Greg Bertelsen, chief executive of the Climate Leadership Council, offers his perspective on positive ways in which to engage with the Trump presidency on climate and Paul Dickinson shares what business leaders will be di...
Jan 23, 2025•35 min•Season 11Ep. 3
The devastating fires in LA have dominated the headlines in a dramatic start to 2025. Christiana Figueres,Tom Rivett-Carnac and Paul Dickinson discuss their link with climate, as the newly-released Copernicus report confirms the world has exceeded 1.5 degrees of warming. And, in the year that marks halfway in the decisive decade for world emissions, our hosts are here with your definitive guide to the biggest climate moments coming up in 2025. What solutions will technology, AI and business peop...
Jan 16, 2025•33 min•Season 11Ep. 2
Outrage + Optimism is for anyone who is not ready to give up on making the world a better place. Feeling exhausted at the thought of keeping up with climate news ahead of this pivotal year? Join Christiana, Tom and Paul in their weekly conversations to make sense of it all, bringing you expert insight, analysis and inspiring conversations with some of the world’s most visionary thinkers and influential decision makers. Subscribe to Outrage + Optimism: The Climate Podcast . Follow us on LinkedIn ...
Jan 15, 2025•7 min•Season 11Ep. 1
How can you reduce the environmental impact of your cat or dog? What’s the best way to prepare for climate breakdown? And how should you talk to children about climate? Christiana, Paul and Tom wrap up the year by answering an eclectic and insightful selection of your questions. Plus: they digest the fourth and final COP of the year, known as the Desertification COP, which took place in December in Saudi Arabia and reflect on their own feelings at the end of a challenging year for the climate mo...
Dec 19, 2024•43 min•Season 10Ep. 23
