Climate Confident - Practical Climate Solutions That Cut Emissions
Climate Confident is a weekly podcast for business leaders, climate professionals, and policymakers who want to understand what is actually cutting emissions and how to scale those solutions. Host Tom Raftery speaks with executives, engineers, scientists, founders, and policymakers about turning climate ambition into measurable progress. Episodes examine technologies, business models, policies, and implementation strategies across energy, transport, industry, supply chains, food, and finance. Rather than distant targets or vague pledges, the show offers candid discussions about what is working, what is failing, where bottlenecks lie, and how leaders can make better decisions on decarbonisation, resilience, investment, and risk. It provides practical ideas and hard-earned lessons for turning climate commitments into action.
Episodes
Generation Is Not Delivery: The Grid Problem Behind Decarbonisation
Get in touch - leave me a messageBuilding more renewable generation is not enough if the grid cannot carry the electricity to where it is needed. Curtailment, connection queues and delayed infrastructure are turning grid capacity into a climate and competitiveness constraint.My guest today is Niklas Persson, CEO of Grid Integration at Hitachi Energy, with nearly three decades in electrification. W
Solar, Batteries and EVs Are Turning Delay Into an Investment Risk
Get in touch - leave me a messageSolar, batteries and EVs are moving fast enough to change the risk calculus for energy investment. The bigger mistake may now be assuming today’s system, and its customers, will still be there tomorrow.I speak with Professor Ray Wills, Managing Director of Future Smart Strategies, who has been modelling technology adoption curves for years. We examine what accelera
Long-Duration Energy Storage Is Ready. The Energy Markets Aren’t
Get in touch - leave me a messageLong-duration energy storage is increasingly ready to deploy. The harder problem is that electricity markets still struggle to value what duration actually provides - flexibility, reliability and power when the sun sets, the wind drops and demand peaks.My guest is Julia Souder, CEO of the Long Duration Energy Storage Council. She works across the policy, finance an
Buyer Pressure Helped Avoid 2 Million Hectares of Deforestation
Get in touch - leave me a messageTwo million hectares of avoided deforestation is not a theoretical climate benefit. It is what Priscillia Moulin says can happen when companies stop treating supply-chain risk as somebody else’s problem. ClimateEpisode291.srtSRTPriscillia is Director of Strategy at MosaiX, working on deforestation-free commodity supply chains across palm oil and other high-risk mat
98% of a Construction Firm’s Emissions Sit in Its Supply Chain
Get in touch - leave me a messageAt John Sisk & Son, up to 98% of company emissions sit in the supply chain. That changes the decarbonisation problem completely: the biggest levers are often not on the construction site, but in what gets bought.I speak with Keith O’Flynn, Group Supply Chain Sustainability Manager at Sisk, about what that means in practice for one of Ireland’s largest contracto
Soil Is Becoming Infrastructure, and Finance Is Starting to Notice
Get in touch - leave me a messageSoil health is starting to look less like an environmental side issue and more like infrastructure. The real question is whether regenerative agriculture can improve resilience and economics without asking farmers to absorb years of financial pain.My guest is Tim Weaver of Holganix, working at the intersection of soil health, regenerative agriculture and measurable
Cheap Solar, Batteries and EVs Are Breaking Fossil Fuel Economics
Get in touch - leave me a messageCheap solar, batteries and EVs are no longer merely cleaner alternatives. Their falling costs are undermining fossil-fuel economics, and leaders may be misjudging the speed of that shift.My guest is Peter Newman, Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University and a long-time IPCC contributor whose work has focused on cities, transport and automobile dependence. W
Measure First: Stop Spending on the Wrong Carbon Fixes
Get in touch - leave me a messageCarbon accounting can send companies straight at the wrong problem. A visible sustainability initiative may feel productive while the real emissions hotspot sits in raw materials, product design or the supply chain.My guest is John Beath, CEO and Chief Technical Director of John Beath Environmental, whose work in lifecycle assessment helps companies test assumption
Battery Storage’s Biggest Risk Is Inaccurate Data
Get in touch - leave me a messageBattery storage is getting cheaper, but the data used to trade and operate it may be badly wrong. When forecasts miss, penalties stack, warranties get messy, and returns can quietly unravel.My guest is Ash Vats of 3E, who works on battery intelligence for utility-scale assets. We look at the gap between what a battery management system reports and what the hardware
The Battery Isn’t the Bottleneck: Why Hydraulics Are Blocking Heavy Equipment Electrification
Get in touch - leave me a messageHeavy machinery can waste three quarters of the energy fed into it. The battery may not be the real electrification bottleneck.In this episode, I speak with Hiten Sonpal, CEO of Rise Robotics, about a neglected part of the energy transition: the hydraulic systems inside construction, mining, and port machinery.You’ll hear why conventional hydraulics are only around
AI Is Infrastructure: Its Water, Power, and Governance Costs Can’t Be Deferred
Get in touch - leave me a messageAI isn’t weightless. Every model, token, and workflow sits on land, water, power, heat, and governance choices.In this episode of Climate Confident, I’m joined by Sophia Mendelsohn, who leads SAP’s Global Sustainability Platform. We look at AI not as abstract software, but as physical infrastructure with real consequences for climate tech, decarbonisation, the ener
Australia’s Diesel Risk Is Turning Electrification Into Energy Security
Get in touch - leave me a messageWhat if electrification is no longer just a climate solution — but an energy security strategy?In this episode of Climate Confident, I’m joined by Gavin Mooney, an independent energy transition advisor working across utilities, electrification, and energy markets. We look at Australia as a live test case for the energy transition: a country rich in coal, gas, sunsh
AI’s Energy Paradox: More Compute Could Cut Industrial Emissions
Get in touch - leave me a messageWhat if AI’s biggest climate impact isn’t chatbots, but cutting real energy waste in buildings, grids, and factories?In this episode of Climate Confident, I’m joined by Philippe Rambach, Chief AI Officer at Schneider Electric, to unpack one of the sharpest tensions in climate tech today: AI is increasing electricity demand, but used well, it may also be one of the
Animal Agriculture’s Stranded Asset Risk, and Why ESG Keeps Missing It
Get in touch - leave me a messageWhat if one of the biggest climate risks in your portfolio is hiding in plain sight — in food, land, methane, and animal-dependent industries?In this episode of Climate Confident, I’m joined by Claire Smith, founder and CEO of Beyond Investing, to unpack why climate finance cannot stop at fossil fuels. Claire has spent years building investment products that screen
No One Wants to Ship Water: The Energy Security Case for Flow Batteries
Get in touch - leave me a messageNo one wants to ship water around the world. That one line says a lot about the next phase of energy storage.In this episode of Climate Confident, I’m joined by Min Tang, Director of International Business at Rongke Power, one of the world’s leading vanadium flow battery companies. We get into why long-duration storage is moving from climate tech side-story to core
Traditional Sustainability Marketing Is Creating Greenwashing Risk
Get in touch - leave me a messageWhat if the biggest greenwashing risk isn’t bad intent, but business-as-usual marketing?In this episode of Climate Confident, I’m joined by Helen Neal, founder of HN Communications, to dig into one of the most under-discussed risks in decarbonisation: how companies talk about sustainability when regulation is tightening, public trust is fragile, and every net zero
AI Disinformation Is Becoming a Bottleneck for Clean Energy Projects
Get in touch - leave me a messageFake people. Fake comments. Real clean energy projects killed.This is what climate delay looks like in the AI era.In this episode of Climate Confident, I’m joined by Leah Qusba, CEO of GoodPower, an organisation working at the intersection of climate tech, culture, policy, and decarbonisation. We explore a hard truth about the energy transition: solar, wind, batter
Carbon Data Is Becoming Permission to Sell, Not Just Something to Report
Get in touch - leave me a messageCarbon data is no longer just something companies report. Increasingly, it may decide whether products can be sold at all.In this episode of Climate Confident, I’m joined by Stephen Jamieson, Chief Marketing Officer for SAP Sustainability, to explore why sustainability is moving from the ESG report into the systems businesses use to run supply chains, finance, prod
Solar Streetlights Are Resilience Infrastructure, Not Just Cheap Power
Get in touch - leave me a messageStreetlights sound boring. Until the grid fails and they’re the only lights left on.In this episode of Climate Confident, I’m joined by Liam Ryan, CEO of Streetleaf, a climate tech company rethinking one of the most overlooked pieces of public infrastructure: the streetlight. And yes, I know. Streetlights. Hardly the sexiest corner of the energy transition. But thi
Passive House Isn’t Niche Green Design. It’s Resilience Infrastructure
Get in touch - leave me a messageWhat if better buildings are one of the most practical climate resilience tools we already have?In this episode of Climate Confident, I’m joined by Darren Macri, Co-CEO of Wythe Windows and rising president of the Passive House Network. We talk about why passive house is not just a building standard, but a practical climate tech pathway for decarbonisation, emissio
The Physics Problem Behind Decarbonising Flight
Get in touch - leave me a messageJet fuel isn’t just dirty. It is astonishingly good at its job. That is what makes aviation decarbonisation so hard.In this episode of Climate Confident, I’m joined by Dan Sutton, co-founder and CEO of Syntholene Energy, a climate tech company working on clean, drop-in synthetic aviation fuel, or eSAF. We talk about one of the thorniest challenges in the energy tra
As Grids Get Cleaner, Building Materials Become the Real Climate Problem
Get in touch - leave me a messageConcrete alone accounts for around 7-8% of global emissions. So what happens when the real climate problem in buildings is no longer just energy, but the materials themselves?In this episode of Climate Confident, I’m joined by Alexander Sexsmith, architect and founder of Sexsmith Architects, to unpack what regenerative architecture means when stripped of the fluff.
Why the War on Iran Is Accelerating the Shift to Renewables and EVs
Get in touch - leave me a messageWhat if fossil fuels aren’t energy security at all, but exposure dressed up as realism?This war is making that harder and harder to ignore.In this bonus episode of Climate Confident+, I unpack why the US and Israel’s war against Iran is forcing a faster rethink of fossil fuels, renewables, EVs, and electrification. This is a solo episode with me, Tom Raftery, and t
Food Waste Starts Before the Plate - and So Must the Solution
Get in touch - leave me a messageWhat if one of the most effective climate tech moves in hospitality isn’t flashy at all, but simply wasting less food with far better data?In this episode, I’m joined by Olaf van der Veen, co-founder of Orbisk, to unpack a climate tech story that sits right at the intersection of decarbonisation, operational control, and the energy transition. We talk about food wa
The Infrastructure Was Built for the Climate We Had. Not the Climate We’re Getting
Get in touch - leave me a messageHeat is becoming a business risk in plain sight. And if cooling demand is set to soar, the energy transition has a problem most people still aren’t talking about. In this episode, I’m joined by Rob Atkin, co-founder and CEO of Pirta, a climate tech company developing passive cooling coatings and additives. We dig into a part of decarbonisation and the energy transi
Why Fossil Fuel Dependence Is a Terrible Business Model
Get in touch - leave me a messageWhat if fossil fuels aren’t just polluting, but a standing threat to economic stability?This episode makes the case that the energy transition is now as much about security and cost as it is about climate.In this solo Climate Confident+ episode, I dig into a brutal truth too many policymakers and business leaders still avoid: fossil fuels don’t merely drive emissio
Carbon Markets as Outsourced Mitigation: Smart Climate Strategy or Convenient Fiction?
Get in touch - leave me a messageWhat if voluntary carbon markets are either a vital climate tool... or a polished excuse to delay real decarbonisation?In this episode of Climate Confident, I’m joined by Dr Jennifer Jenkins, Chief Science Officer at Rubicon Carbon, to unpack one of the most contested questions in climate tech and net zero strategy: what role, if any, should voluntary carbon market
Why Turbine Shortages Could Slow AI, Data Centres, and Decarbonisation
Get in touch - leave me a messageAI may be booming, but the real bottleneck to it's growth may be turbines. And if firm power can’t scale fast enough, parts of the energy transition hit a wall.In this episode, I’m joined by Brad Hartwig, Co-founder and CEO of Arbor Energy, to unpack a part of the climate tech and energy transition story that gets far too little attention: the physical machine
The Iran War, the Strait of Hormuz, and the Real Cost of Fossil Dependence
Get in touch - leave me a messageWar doesn’t just kill people. It also blows up energy security, drives up emissions, and exposes fossil fuels for the liability they’ve always been.In this first Climate Confident+ bonus episode, available exclusively to subscribers, I unpack the unnecessary, illegal, and profoundly ill-advised war being waged by the US and Israel on Iran, and why its fallout matte
Geothermal Isn’t Just HVAC. It’s Grid Infrastructure
Get in touch - leave me a messageWhat if one of the biggest climate problems in our buildings isn’t power generation, but the fact we’re still burning fuel in the basement?In this episode, I’m joined by Dan Yates, CEO of Dandelion Energy, to unpack why geothermal may be one of the most overlooked tools in climate tech today, and why building decarbonisation deserves far more attention in the wider
Why Science Alone Won’t Deliver Climate Action
Get in touch - leave me a messageWhat if the real barrier to climate action isn’t a lack of science, but a lack of pressure? And what happens when climate risk collides with political instability, fossil fuel dependence, and public anger in real time?In this episode, I’m joined by Professor Dana Fisher of American University, author of Saving Ourselves and one of the sharpest thinkers on climate a
Fashion’s Emissions Problem Starts With Clothes We Barely Wear
Get in touch - leave me a messageWhat if the biggest climate lever in fashion isn’t better materials, but simply wearing clothes longer?The fashion industry accounts for roughly 10% of global carbon emissions and 20% of industrial water pollution. In this episode of Climate Confident, I’m joined by Phoebe Tan, co-founder of Taelor, a menswear rental subscription service using AI-driven styling and
You Can’t Photograph CO₂: The Visual Bias Distorting the Energy Transition
Get in touch - leave me a messageCoal produces 4,000–8,000x more waste per MWh than wind.But you can’t take a photo of CO₂, so we ignore it.In this episode, I’m joined by climate futurist and long-term decarbonisation modeller Michael Barnard. We cut through headlines to examine where the energy transition is actually heading - from electrification and maritime shipping to mass timber, industrial
AI’s Power Demand Is Colliding With Grid Decarbonisation
Get in touch - leave me a messageAI’s energy demand isn’t a future problem. It’s straining grids today. And most companies aren’t ready.In this episode, I’m joined by Beatrice Clark, Vice President of Sustainability and Social Impact at Turtle and Hughes, a North American electrical distributor and systems integrator working at the sharp edge of the energy transition. We unpack what surging AI and
Designing Buildings for a Climate That No Longer Exists
Get in touch - leave me a messageWhat if the biggest mistake in climate action is that we’re still designing buildings for a climate that no longer exists?In this episode of the Climate Confident Podcast, I’m joined by David Sellers, principal architect at Hawaii Offgrid Architecture & Engineering. David designs net-zero and off-grid buildings on Maui, not as an experiment, but because the cli
Why Heat Pumps, Not Cars, Will Cut Urban Emissions Fastest
Get in touch - leave me a messageHeating cities by opening windows is not a joke. It’s how many buildings still control temperature in winter, and it’s a climate disaster hiding in plain sight.In this episode, I’m joined by Drew Maggio, Technical Director at Highmark Building Efficiency, to unpack why buildings are one of the biggest, most underestimated levers in the climate transition, especiall
Long-Duration Storage Tackles Clean Energy’s Reliability Gap
Get in touch - leave me a messageEurope is drowning in cheap clean power, and still wasting it.The problem isn’t renewables. It’s what happens when the grid can’t cope with abundance.In this episode of the Climate Confident Podcast, I’m joined by Oonagh O’Grady, Vice President of International Origination at Hydrostor, a global leader in long-duration energy storage. We dig into one of the most un
Solar Isn’t Breaking the Grid. Our Grid Is Breaking Solar.
Get in touch - leave me a messageEurope doesn’t have a clean energy problem. It has a grid problem.Solar is cheap. Batteries are scaling. Demand is exploding. The system in the middle is cracking.In this episode, I’m joined by Rob Stait, Managing Director of Alight’s behind-the-meter business, to unpack why the energy transition is now being held back less by technology and more by infrastructure,
Decarbonising Concrete With Carbon-Neutral Materials
Get in touch - leave me a message8% of global emissions come from the material we barely talk about.Concrete. Cement. The literal foundations of modern life, and one of the hardest climate problems we face.In this episode, I’m joined by Ana Luisa Vaz, VP of Product at Paebbl, to unpack why construction is such a stubborn emissions hotspot, and what it would take to genuinely change that.Ana explai
LEED v5, Embodied Carbon, and Real Emissions Cuts
Get in touch - leave me a messageWhat if the biggest barrier to decarbonising buildings isn’t technology, cost, or ambition - but sheer complexity?The built environment produces nearly 40% of global emissions, yet we still make low-carbon construction harder than it needs to be.In this episode, I’m joined by Tommy Linstroth, founder of Green Badger, to unpack why construction remains one of the mo
Why Bad Data Is Blocking Scope 3 Emissions Reduction
Get in touch - leave me a messageMost companies say they’re tackling Scope 3. Then they rely on averages and hope for the best. That’s not decarbonisation. That’s denial with spreadsheets.In this episode, I’m joined by Paul Byrnes, CEO of Mavarick AI, to dig into one of the most stubborn blockers to real emissions reduction: bad data across global supply chains. Paul brings a rare mix to the table
Food Supply Chains Can’t Cut Emissions Without Better Data
Get in touch - leave me a messageWhat if the biggest lever for food-system decarbonisation isn’t factories or fleets, but soil you’ll never see on a corporate balance sheet?In this episode, I’m joined by Rhyannon Galea and Kristjan Luha from eAgronom to unpack one of the hardest climate problems to solve: Scope 3 emissions in food and agriculture.This conversation was originally recorded for my Re
Waste-Based Fuels Could Cut Shipping Emissions Without Replacing Engines
Get in touch - leave me a messageWhat if the fastest way to decarbonise shipping isn’t a shiny new fuel, but the waste it’s already throwing away?Shipping moves 90% of global trade, yet it’s still one of the hardest sectors to decarbonise. In this episode, I’m joined by Nicholas Ball, CEO and founder of XFuel, to unpack why cost, physics, and adoption matter more than climate theatre when cutting
The Deep-Sea Mineral Trade-Off Behind Clean Technology
Get in touch - leave me a messageWhat if the clean energy transition depended on potato-sized rocks four miles under the Pacific, and we’ve barely started talking about it?In this episode I’m joined by Oliver Gunasekara, CEO and co-founder of Impossible Metals, to tackle one of the most uncomfortable truths in climate tech: there is no net zero without mining. We dig into how deep sea polymetallic
Perovskite Solar at 30% Efficiency: More Power From Less Land
Get in touch - leave me a messageWhat happens when solar stops being just “cheap” and becomes game-changingly efficient as well, pushing past 30% and reshaping global power economics?In this episode, I sit down with Aaron Thurlow, a 25-year solar veteran and commercial lead at Caelux, to unpack how perovskite-silicon tandem modules could transform not just clean energy - but the resilience, cost b
Inside the Solar PPA Model Driving Clean Energy Growth
Get in touch - leave me a messageWhat if the real disruption in solar isn’t the technology — but the business model behind it?This week I’m joined by Scott Therien, Director of Strategic Partnerships at REC Solar, to unpack one of the most important, and least discussed, shifts in the energy transition: the move from one-off construction projects to long-term, risk-bearing power-purchase agreement
The Regeneration Mindset for Climate Action
Get in touch - leave me a messageWhat if cutting emissions isn’t enough, and never was?And what if the real lever we’ve been ignoring is regeneration, not reduction?This week I’m joined by Chad Frischmann, co-creator of Project Drawdown and founder of Regenerative Intelligence, for a conversation that goes right to the core of what the climate movement keeps getting wrong. We dig into why stopping
Decarbonising Heat: Why Half of Industrial Energy Is Ripe for Reinvention
Get in touch - leave me a messageMost people never think about industrial heat. Yet half of all manufacturing emissions come from it. My guest this week, Addison Stark, CEO and co-founder of AtmosZero, is on a mission to electrify one of the dirtiest, most overlooked pieces of infrastructure on Earth: the steam boiler.In this episode, Addison and I uncover how a technology unchanged since the 1860
Microgrids, Hydrogen, and the End of Fossil Fuels
Get in touch - leave me a messageWhat if business, not politics, held the real key to ending the climate crisis?In this week’s episode, I sit down with Rinaldo Brutoco, founder and CEO of the World Business Academy, to explore a radical but beautifully simple idea: that stakeholder capitalism - where companies serve people and planet, not just shareholders, can actually outperform the old profit-o
Electrifying 60 Million US Homes Without Overloading the Grid
Get in touch - leave me a messageWhat if upgrading your home to be climate-friendly was as simple as scanning it with your phone?In this week’s episode of the Climate Confident Podcast, I talk with Grant Gunnison, founder and CEO of Zero Homes - a former NASA and MIT engineer who’s now tackling one of climate tech’s toughest challenges: decarbonising existing homes. His company uses smartphone sca
Why Traditional VC Is Failing the Climate, and What Comes Next
Get in touch - leave me a messageIn this week’s episode of Climate Confident, I sat down with Johanna Wolfson, co-founder and general partner at Azolla Ventures, to talk about how we can rethink climate-tech investing - not as a game of chasing returns, but as a mission to fund what truly matters.Johanna’s firm takes a bold approach using catalytic capital, money that embraces higher risk to bring
How Lignin Could Replace 40% of the World’s Plastics, and Cut Emissions Fast
Get in touch - leave me a messageIn this week’s episode of Climate Confident, I sat down with Christopher Carrick, founder and CTO of Lignin Industries, to explore a game-changing innovation in the fight against plastic pollution, turning waste from the paper industry into carbon-negative bioplastics.Christopher’s story starts in his kitchen, where curiosity (and a Star Wars ice-cube tray) led to
Food for the Planet: How Elior North America Cut Food Waste by 64% and are Decarbonising Food
Get in touch - leave me a messageIn this week’s episode of Climate Confident, I’m joined by Sherie Nelson, Senior Director of Responsibility & Wellness at Elior North America, a food service company serving millions of meals daily across schools, hospitals, universities, and businesses. Sherie sits at the fascinating intersection of nutrition, sustainability, and systems change - proving that
The Economics of Climate Risk: Gary Yohe on Abating, Adapting, and Surviving
Get in touch - leave me a messageIn this week’s episode of the Climate Confident Podcast, I sit down with Dr. Gary Yohe, one of the world’s leading climate economists, long-time IPCC author, and a member of the Nobel Peace Prize, winning IPCC team of 2007. Gary has spent over four decades shaping how we understand climate change, not just as an environmental issue, but as a fundamental risk manage
Turning Vulnerability into Innovation: The Climate Solutions Emerging from Small Islands
Get in touch - leave me a messageIn this week’s episode of Climate Confident, I sit down with Emily Wilkinson, Principal Research Fellow at ODI Global and Director of the Resilient and Sustainable Islands Initiative (RESI), to explore one of the most pressing and least discussed frontlines of the climate crisis: small island developing states (SIDS).These 39 nations, scattered across the Caribbean
How Your Pension Could Be the Biggest Climate Lever You’re Ignoring
Get in touch - leave me a messageWhen people think about tackling the climate crisis, they often talk about energy, food, or transport. But what about money? In this week’s episode of Climate Confident, I sat down with Scott Ryan, founder and CEO of Investature, to unpack one of the biggest blind spots in corporate climate strategies, the financial supply chain.Scott argues that pensions, retireme
Why Civil Disobedience Matters in the Climate Fight - Jonathon Porritt
Get in touch - leave me a messageIn this week’s episode of the Climate Confident podcast I sat down with one of the true veterans of climate activism, Jonathon Porritt. For over five decades Jonathon has been a leading voice on sustainability, from his early days in the Green Party and Friends of the Earth to his most recent book Love, Anger, and Betrayal.We explored what he calls the “science–pol
Big Tech Emissions and the Truth About Corporate Climate Pledges
Get in touch - leave me a messageIn this episode of the Climate Confident Podcast, I sit down with Tom Day from the NewClimate Institute to unpack one of the thorniest issues in corporate climate action: credibility. Over the past few years, big tech companies and multinationals have rolled out bold net zero pledges, but how much of it is substance, and how much is smoke and mirrors?Tom argues tha
Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation: Constraining Supply is The Missing Link in Global Climate Policy
Get in touch - leave me a messageIn this replay episode of the Climate Confident podcast, I revisit one of the most urgent and eye-opening conversations I’ve hosted - my conversation with Tzeporah Berman, Chair and Founder of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative.We dig into the uncomfortable truth: while governments champion renewables and set emissions targets, fossil fuel explorat
What the Energy Transition Is Still Getting Wrong
Get in touch - leave me a messageIn this week’s replay episode of the Climate Confident Podcast, I bring back one of my favourite conversations from earlier this year - my discussion with Jarand Rystad, founder and CEO of Rystad Energy, about the global energy transition and whether we’re truly moving fast enough to meet climate targets.Jarand makes a compelling case that the shift to renewables i
Rotor Sails Could Cut Shipping Fuel Use by Up to 50%
Get in touch - leave me a messageShipping moves 90% of global trade – and yet it’s one of the hardest sectors to decarbonise. In this episode of Climate Confident, I sit down with Heikki Pöntynen, CEO of Finnish cleantech pioneer Norsepower, to explore a solution that’s both elegantly simple and radically effective: modern rotor sails.Heikki explains how Norsepower has revived and re-engineered th
Inside the Fight: Clean Energy’s Path Through Political Headwinds
Get in touch - leave me a messageIn this episode of Climate Confident, I sit down with Chris Moyer, President of Echo Communications Advisors, to unpack the tension at the heart of today’s clean energy movement: how do we keep momentum when federal politics try to slam the brakes?Chris has spent nearly 20 years advising senators, campaigns, and climate leaders on shaping public narratives that dri
Cheaper, Cleaner, Deeper: Can the Ocean Deliver Durable Carbon Removal?
Get in touch - leave me a messageIn this episode of Climate Confident, I spoke with Ori Shaashua, Co-founder and CCO of Gigablue, a marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) company taking a radically scalable approach to the carbon challenge.Gigablue’s MCFS (Marine Carbon Fixation and Sequestration) method taps into the ocean’s natural carbon cycle by cultivating phytoplankton in floating substrates a
The Case Against Climate Doom: Economics, Policy, and Real Progress
Get in touch - leave me a messageIs climate doomism stopping us from acting? In this episode, I speak with climate economist Michael Jakob, author of The Case Against Climate Doom, about why despair is not just unhelpful, it’s inaccurate.We explore the real economic tipping points that are accelerating decarbonisation: plummeting costs for solar, wind, storage, and EVs. Michael argues that the shi
How Regenerative Agriculture Unlocks Climate, Nature, and Food System Wins
Get in touch - leave me a messageIn this episode of Climate Confident, I sat down with Kanika Chandaria, Climate Lead at Agreena, to explore one of the most overlooked yet high-impact climate solutions: soil.We talked about why regenerative agriculture is gaining traction, not just as a nature-based solution, but as a scalable, economically viable climate strategy. Kanika broke down how soil has t
The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty: Why Climate Policy Must Tackle Supply, Not Just Demand
Get in touch - leave me a messageMost climate policies focus on cutting emissions. But what if the real issue is what’s being left off the table, fossil fuel production itself?In this week’s episode of Climate Confident, I speak with Tzeporah Berman, Chair of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, about why global climate goals are doomed if we keep expanding fossil fuel supply while
Digital Advertising Has an Emissions Problem Few Brands Measure
Get in touch - leave me a messageMost people don’t think about carbon emissions when they think about the internet—let alone digital advertising. But here’s the kicker: the ad tech ecosystem is responsible for roughly the same emissions as the global aviation sector. Yes, really.In this episode of the Climate Confident podcast, I spoke with Frank Maguire, SVP of Product Marketing & Sustainabil
How to Decarbonise Industry Without Breaking the Grid (or the Bank)
Get in touch - leave me a messageIn this episode of the Climate Confident podcast, I sat down with Stuart Thompson, President of ABB Electrification Service, to unpack one of the most overlooked but critical fronts in the climate transition: industrial decarbonisation.Industry accounts for around a quarter of global energy-related carbon emissions, and much of that stems from outdated infrastructu
Short Break, Big Plans - Back Next Week with More Climate Confidence
Get in touch - leave me a messageHi folks, Tom Raftery here.Just dropping into your feed to let you know there’s no new Climate Confident episode this week - I’m taking a short break to recharge and get ready for some brilliant conversations I’ve got lined up in the coming weeks.But don’t worry, the podcast will be back next Wednesday at 7am CEST, as always, with another inspiring story of climate
The Future of Sustainable Data Centres: Grid Stability, Digital Twins and AI
Get in touch - leave me a messageIn this episode of the Climate Confident podcast, I sit down with Ciaran Flanagan, who leads Siemens’ Global Data Centre business, to unpack the evolving role of data centres in our energy and climate systems.We dig into the data centre’s journey from a “sausage machine” of power-hungry servers to a potential hero in grid stability and renewable energy adoption. Ci
The Climate Legacy Question Most Leaders Avoid
Get in touch - leave me a messageIn this episode of the Climate Confident podcast, I sit down with Sangeeta Waldron, a communications professional and author of What Will Your Legacy Be?, to explore how our personal choices and narratives shape the climate fight.We cover a lot of ground. Sangeeta shares how her time in the Himalayas revealed the harsh realities of climate change and sparked her li
Inside the AI Lab Taking on Climate Misinformation
Get in touch - leave me a messageIn this episode of the Climate Confident podcast, I’m joined by Angel Hsu, associate professor at UNC Chapel Hill and founder of the Data-Driven EnviroLab. We dive deep into how AI can be used to combat climate misinformation and bring real accountability to climate pledges.Angel and her team have built two domain-specific AI tools, ChatNetZero and ChatNDC, designe
Turning Moths and Biochar Into Climate Solutions: Zespri’s Agri-Tech Playbook
Get in touch - leave me a messageIn this week's episode of the Climate Confident podcast, I’m joined by Bryan Parkes, Head of Innovation Acceleration at Zespri, the world’s largest marketer of kiwifruit. Bryan shares how Zespri is taking a bold, practical approach to climate resilience through its Zespri ZAG Innovation Fund - an annual US$2 million commitment to agricultural innovation fundin
Can Forests Save Us? How Tech and Trees Are Scaling Carbon Removal in Europe
Get in touch - leave me a messageHow do we scale nature-based carbon removal without greenwashing or over-promising? That’s exactly what I explore in this episode with Lisett Luik, co-founder of Arbonics.We all know forests are powerful carbon sinks. But turning that into credible, measurable climate action is harder than it sounds. Lisett shares how Arbonics is using satellite data, digital twins
Perovskite Solar Cells Explained: Less Land, Lower Costs, More Power
Get in touch - leave me a messageIn this episode of the Climate Confident podcast, I spoke with Laura Miranda Perez, Chief Communications & Sustainability Officer at Oxford PV, about one of the most important developments in solar tech today: perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells.We unpacked how Oxford PV’s approach improves solar panel efficiency from the typical 20–22% to over 30%, and why t
Decarbonising Planes Without Batteries or Hydrogen? For Now, Here’s How
Get in touch - leave me a messageIn this episode of the Climate Confident podcast, I speak with Alexei Beltyukov, co-founder of Universal Fuel Technologies, about a new approach to producing Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), using a process they call flexiforming.Unlike traditional methods like HEFA or Fischer–Tropsch, flexiforming allows producers to use a much wider range of feedstocks, from mixe
Why Replacing Kerosene May Be One of Climate’s Easiest Wins
Get in touch - leave me a messageIn this episode of Climate Confident, I speak with Alice Chun, inventor of the world’s first inflatable, origami-inspired solar light and founder of Solight Design. Alice shares how a career in material technology and a deeply personal experience with her son’s asthma led her to tackle energy poverty, disaster relief, and carbon emissions with a single, deceptively
From Filing to Patent in 6 Months: The Untold Story of the USPTO’s Climate Program
Get in touch - leave me a messageIn this episode of the Climate Confident podcast, I spoke with Ryan Schermerhorn, a US-based patent attorney who’s been helping clean tech innovators navigate the IP maze - until recently with the help of a now-suspended fast-track programme.We discussed the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) Climate Change Mitigation Pilot Program, which allowed i
Grid Decarbonisation at Scale: Can a Whole Country Go Net Zero?
Get in touch - leave me a messageIn this episode of the Climate Confident podcast, I sat down with John Sturman, Managing Director at NatPower UK, to dig deep into the realities of grid decarbonisation and energy transition at nation scale.John pulled back the curtain on how NatPower is scaling up battery storage and renewable projects not just in the UK, but across the globe. From developing Euro
Unlocking $1 Trillion: The Bankability Challenge in Industrial Decarbonisation
Get in touch - leave me a messageIn this episode of the Climate Confident podcast, I sat down with Faustine Delasalle, CEO of the Mission Possible Partnership (MPP), to delve into the real challenges, and opportunities, of decarbonising heavy industry and transport.Faustine and I explored the current state of industrial decarbonisation, including the progress made over the last five to six years i
Recommended
Lines of Enquiry
The Blindboy Podcast
Insights with Sean O'Rourke
The Brian Keane Podcast
RTÉ Brainstorm
Drummer Seeks Musicians: The Making of U2
Eamon Sheerin’s Pirate Radio
The Póilíní Podcast
Is It Just Us?
This House Will Devour You
The Learning Signal Podcast
The Social Media Takeaway - Louise McDonnell
