Outrage + Optimism: The Climate Podcast

What happens when the world’s most powerful country walks away from the system it helped to build? This week, we examine the United States’ decision to withdraw not only from the Paris Agreement, but from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change itself - alongside dozens of other international bodies. Headlines declared the end of multilateral climate cooperation. But is that really what this...

The year has barely begun, and already the fault lines of global power are on full display. Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac and Paul Dickinson take stock of a moment that feels both shocking and revealing. The US abduction of Venezuela’s president raises urgent questions about sovereignty, international law, and the enduring grip of fossil fuels on geopolitics - even as the energy transitio...

As billions around the world mark the beginning of a new year, many are pausing to ask the same questions: what do we carry forward, and what do we leave behind, as we cross from the old into the new? And as headlines fill with predictions about the rise of artificial intelligence, could a different kind of AI - ‘ancestral intelligence’ - offer insights equal to the depth of the climate and biodiv...

At a moment when the world feels noisier, faster, and more demanding than ever, what role can beauty play in helping us slow down, reconnect, and remember what matters? As the year draws to a close, Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac and Paul Dickinson step back from targets, timelines and political headwinds to explore how craft, design and the quiet appreciation for our objects and spaces ca...

At the very moment we need clarity and trust, information integrity is being polluted. Disinformation is profitable and the impact on truth is dangerous. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the discourse around climate. This week, Outrage + Optimism steps into the murky, fast-moving world of climate disinformation. Not simply misunderstanding and confusion, but the deliberate shaping of narrative...

Ten years ago, a gavel dropped in a conference hall north of Paris. It was the moment the world agreed on a strategic plan for one of the most consequential transformations in human history. But, a decade later, what has the Paris Agreement truly delivered? Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac and Paul Dickinson pull back the curtain on the moment that changed global climate politics. The emotio...

This week, hosts Tom Rivett Carnac and Paul Dickinson delve into the rapidly emerging - and faintly surreal - world of solar geoengineering.  Politico journalist Karl Mathiesen joins us to unpack his investigation into Stardust, a VC-backed startup claiming it’s ready to spray particles into the stratosphere. Karl explains why this technology is suddenly attracting serious money, why scientis...

This week on Outrage + Optimism , we’re taking a breath. After two intense weeks of daily updates from COP30 in Belém, we’re returning to weekly programming with something different - a slower, deeper, more reflective conversation that felt too valuable to cut. While in the Blue Zone, we sat down with Kim Stanley Robinson , the acclaimed author of The Ministry for the Future , 2312 , The Mars tril...

This is our final episode of Inside COP. For two weeks we’ve tried to bring you as close as possible to the heart of COP30 - the pace, the pressure, the progress, and the perspectives of those working inside and around the process. The closing plenary on Saturday began amid unexpected tension. Already running a day behind schedule, the Presidency moved to adopt the final text, but proceedings were...

We recorded this episode across Friday afternoon and deep into the evening inside the Blue Zone at COP30. At the time of publishing, there is still no final deal . The negotiations are ongoing, positions are shifting, and the outcome remains uncertain. We know that by the time you listen, some of what we heard today may already have changed, but we decided there was value in sharing the day with y...

It’s Friday morning in Belém and COP30 is moving fast. After yesterday’s fire and the overnight closure of the venue, the Brazilian Presidency worked through the night and released a new draft text early this morning. It has immediately triggered significant pushback. In this emergency episode the team talks through what changed overnight, and why so many countries are unhappy. Christiana Figueres...

Today was not meant to be this episode. At around 2pm local time, a fire broke out near the country pavilions, triggering the full evacuation of the Blue Zone.  As COP30 entered its final stretch, we’d planned to bring you an update on the negotiations, and to share some of the many extraordinary stories of progress and perseverance that surface here every single day. As of Thursday evening,...

We’re approaching crunch time in Belém, and a long-running COP30 saga may finally have found its landing spot. After days of rumour, diplomacy and thunderous rainforest downpours, the question of who will host COP31 looks close to being resolved - and it all plays out over the course of our day’s recording. Paul Dickinson and Fiona McRaith trace the twists of the Australia-Turkey negotiations in r...

It’s the middle of week two at COP30, and the negotiations are entering their crunch phase. A draft cover text has finally landed, ministers are on the ground, and the presidency is pushing hard to close before Lula heads to the G20 in Johannesburg. Paul Dickinson and Fiona McRaith look at the issues still holding up progress - from finance and adaptation to trade, the global stocktake, and the lo...

It’s getting hot in the COP. Executive Secretary Simon Stiell turned up the pressure in Belém on Monday, sharpening his message as ministers arrived for what is often the most charged phase of the summit. He called for no more tactical delays, and no more dancing around the hardest issues.  And Pope Leo XIV weighed in with an appeal to moral responsibility and global solidarity. Fiona McRaith...

As ministers arrive in Belém for the crucial second week of COP30, forests move from the backdrop of the summit to the main stage. Protests began at dawn on Friday and have continued through the weekend - among them, several activists carried a giant Brazilian flag, emblazoned with the words “Amazȏnia Protegida” (“Protected Amazon”). From the streets outside to the plenary halls in the Blue Zone,...

It’s the mid-point of COP30 and all four of our hosts have gathered in Belém to take stock. In the Blue Zone, the mood is its usual blend of high-stakes and surreal. The Presidency is calling its consultations a “collective therapy session,” China would prefer “massage and yoga,” and delegates are deep in the weeds of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. To sift the signal from the noise, Chris...

Christiana Figueres takes us behind the scenes at the UNFCCC offices to speak to the man who now holds her old job as Executive Secretary. As week one of the negotiations nears its end, Simon Stiell explains the quiet but crucial difference between the COP Presidency, which sets the political direction, and the Secretariat, which guards the Paris process and connects it to the real economy. He als...

At a COP meant to centre the Amazon, some Indigenous voices have found themselves on the outside. On Tuesday night, what began as a vibrant street march ended in a dramatic breach of the Blue Zone, as Indigenous protesters passed through the barriers of the official venue. What does this moment tell us about who gets to shape the ‘Amazon COP’? From finance to flotillas, and from protest to partici...

Day three of COP30, and there’s one elephant not in the room. While there are plenty of United States citizens at this COP, for the first time, there are no US delegates. Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac and Fiona McRaith consider this notable absence, and ask: can a country that keeps flipping between progress and denial still claim climate leadership? In a conversation recorded live in the...

What is Brazil trying to achieve with COP30? It's Day Two in Belém and all eyes are on the host nation. Join Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac as they unpack how the country is shaping the first days of COP30 - and the quiet strategy behind Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago’s leadership. With the release of the Call of Belém for the Climate , they explore what may be a masterstroke of multil...

COP30 is here!  Day one dawns in the Amazon, and all eyes are on the host nation - and on the man tasked with steering the talks. On the eve of what could be the most consequential COP since Paris, Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac sat down with Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago, Brazil’s COP30 President, for an inside look at his priorities: the tone he hopes to set and the outcomes he...

Why hasn’t the UK contributed to Brazil's flagship Tropical Forests Forever Facility it helped design? With COP30 about to open in Belém, the UK’s absence from this major forest finance deal is raising eyebrows. Meanwhile, Prince William, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Energy and Climate Change Minister Ed Miliband have been in Brazil this week, demonstrating the country’s continued commitment...

As COP30 opens in Belém, world leaders have gathered for the first major moment of this Amazon-based summit in the shadow of growing doubts about global cooperation. With some major countries absent and others already signalling caution, the urgency of credible action is louder than ever. Brazil has launched it’s flagship Tropical Forests Forever Facility to fund the protection of the world’s trop...

Behind the national plans and global headlines, a quieter revolution is already underway. Almost 100 major cities - representing 23% of the world’s economy - are proving what local leadership can do. From clean-air targets and green-job creation to citizen-led adaptation, these C40 cities are already showing that climate action works for the planet and for their people. In this episode, Tom Rivett...