Outrage + Optimism: The Climate Podcast

We used to be shocked by this. Hundreds of thousands displaced, millions affected, whole communities washed out. But somewhere along the way, extreme weather events have become background noise.

This week, Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac and Paul Dickinson explore what it means to live in a world where extreme rainfall, displacement and repeated flood damage are no longer rare shocks but part of a rapidly changing climate reality. Last year alone, Southern Africa, Pakistan, Brazil, South Sudan, and many other countries were devastated by catastrophic flooding. We reflect on the scale of the global crisis, the lives upended, and the huge economic losses that too often go uninsured.

Then Paul speaks with Louis Ramirez, co-founder of Flooded People UK, about what happens when flooding stops being just a weather event and becomes a political force. They discuss the growing toll of flooding in the UK, from mental health impacts to rising insurance costs and falling property values, and ask what collective action looks like when communities are forced to confront climate damage on their own doorsteps.

As the front lines of climate change move ever deeper into the Global North, will governments finally respond with the urgency this crisis demands? And can the devastation that flows from climate impacts help rally a social movement for change?

Learn More:

About flooding in the UK…
🌧️ Explore Flooded People’s resources on the state of flooding in the UK
🏠 Read about the government-backed Flood Re insurance programme mentioned in this episode
📍 Check the long-term flood risk for your area (England only, with links to other UK nations)

About flooding internationally…
🌍 Read more about worldwide flood risk from the World Bank
🔎 Explore how extreme weather events are being attributed to climate change at World Weather Attribution
🚨 Understand how flooding is displacing people across the globe at the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre

🎤 Leave us your voice notes and questions for upcoming episodes on SpeakPipe

Join the conversation:
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Or get in touch with us via this form.

Producer: Ben Weaver-Hincks
Edited by: Miles Martignoni
Planning: Caitlin Hanrahan
Exec Producer: Ellie Clifford

This is a Persephonica production for Global Optimism and is part of the Acast Creator Network.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

War in Iran has triggered another global energy shock. Once again, conflict has exposed the deep instability built into the fossil fuel system. And once again, the world is reminded that these fuels are not only polluting, but precarious.

In this episode, Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac and Paul Dickinson unpack why the threat to oil infrastructure and the Strait of Hormuz matters so much, and why these moments keep repeating. What does it mean to build an economy around fuels concentrated in a handful of volatile places, and transported through fragile choke points? And why are many responding to that insecurity by calling for more drilling?

They’re joined by Bruce Douglas, CEO of the Global Renewables Alliance and Chief Growth Officer at the Global Wind Energy Council. Bruce argues that although this is not the first energy crisis of its kind, it may be the first in which the alternatives are ready at scale. Renewables are available now - and, in many cases, cheaper, faster and more secure than doubling down on fossil fuels.

Together they explore the fork in the road now facing governments. In a moment of insecurity, do countries try to squeeze more out of declining oil and gas reserves? Or do they use this as the push they need to invest in a more resilient system? That decision may determine whether this will be remembered as just another oil crisis - or as the moment political leaders finally started to absorb the lesson.

Learn More:

⚡ Read the Global Renewable Alliance’s Renewables Action Plan to break the energy crises cycle
☀️ Learn more about Pakistan’s people-led solar revolution
🌍 Understand why the Strait of Hormuz matters so much to global energy supply
📈 Explore the IEA’s report on the status of renewables today and their forecasts to 2030

🎤 Leave us your voice notes and questions for upcoming episodes on SpeakPipe

Join the conversation:
Instagram @outrageoptimism LinkedIn @outrageoptimism
Or get in touch with us via this form.

Producer: Ben Weaver-Hincks
Edited by: Miles Martignoni
Planning: Caitlin Hanrahan
Exec Producer: Ellie Clifford

This is a Persephonica production for Global Optimism and is part of the Acast Creator Network.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The climate crisis is not one problem. It is a crisis of water, food, energy, language, justice and power - all colliding at once. So how do we respond when climate solutions create new trade-offs of their own? And are we even using the right words to describe what is happening?

In this episode, Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac and Paul Dickinson take on some of the knottiest questions in climate. From water stress and biodiversity loss, to geoengineering, public understanding, and the language of urgency itself. What gets overlooked? What gets simplified? And how do we navigate increasing complexity in the middle of a worsening crisis?

We don’t have all the answers. But as our choices grow harder, these are some of the questions that demand our attention.

Learn More:

💧 Dive into Why Water Matters from the UNFCCC
🦅 Explore how solar and wind energy producers can mitigate impacts on biodiversity
🎧 Listen back to last year’s episode unpacking some of climate’s most common acronyms
☁️ … or return to our most recent episode on geoengineering with Politico’s Karl Mathiesen

🎤 Leave us your voice notes and questions for upcoming episodes on SpeakPipe

Join the conversation:
Instagram @outrageoptimism LinkedIn @outrageoptimism
Or get in touch with us via this form.

Producer: Ben Weaver-Hincks
Edited by: Miles Martignoni
Planning: Caitlin Hanrahan
Exec Producer: Ellie Clifford

This is a Persephonica production for Global Optimism and is part of the Acast Creator Network.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we acknowledge the US strikes on Iran and the escalation that has followed. The immediate human cost is what matters most right now. But this crisis is unfolding within a global system still shaped by oil markets and fossil fuel dependence - a dependence that amplifies regional instability and turns into global vulnerability.

The same structural tensions sit at the heart of this week’s conversation, recorded before these events. Indonesia is the world's fourth most populous country, one of its largest coal exporters, and a nation with every natural resource it needs to transition to clean energy. The problem isn't will, it’s money. Who it's available to, and on what terms.

Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac and Paul Dickinson are joined by Sri Mulyani Indrawati - Indonesia's former Finance Minister under three different presidents, former Managing Director of the World Bank, and one of the most credible voices in the world on exactly this set of challenges. She walks through what it actually costs to retire a single coal plant years ahead of schedule, why developing countries find themselves trapped by contracts they signed in good faith, and why the international finance system is making the transition harder, not easier.

Countries like Indonesia borrow at far higher rates than wealthier economies, even as they face greater exposure to climate impacts. When that exposure feeds into credit ratings, the cost of capital rises, making clean energy investment more expensive precisely where it is needed most.

In a system that makes decarbonisation harder for the countries most vulnerable to climate impacts, who pays?

Learn More:

🏭 Explore Global Energy Monitor's coal plant tracker for Indonesia's existing and planned capacity
🎧 Listen to our interview with Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados.
🏦 Learn about the Bridgetown Agenda and its proposals to reform international development finance

🎤 Leave us your voice notes and questions for upcoming episodes on SpeakPipe

Join the conversation:
Instagram @outrageoptimism LinkedIn @outrageoptimism
Or get in touch with us via this form.

Producer: Ben Weaver-Hincks
Edited by: Miles Martignoni

Planning: Caitlin Hanrahan
Exec Producer: Ellie Clifford

This is a Persephonica production for Global Optimism and is part of the Acast Creator Network.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Climate concern is not the problem. Most people have it. What's missing is everything that turns concern into action - and understanding that gap turns out to be a lot more complicated than it looks.
This week, Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac and Paul Dickinson sit down with Lorraine Whitmarsh, Professor of Environmental Psychology and Director of the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations at the University of Bath.
Together they dig into the psychology behind catastrophe apathy: why understanding an existential threat doesn't always lead to action, and what the research says actually moves people.
Lorraine shares real-world evidence - including renewable energy tariffs that shifted 90% of customers onto green power simply by making it the default - and explains why trusted everyday messengers, from hairdressers to taxi drivers, employers to community figures, often have more influence than expert voices in reshaping what feels normal.
The conversation also revisits an uncomfortable history: how the personal carbon footprint, popularised by BP in the early 2000s, reframed climate responsibility around individual choices rather than systemic change. A framing so powerful that even environmental organisations adopted it. Who benefited most from that shift is a question the movement is still grappling with.

If systemic change requires public consent, and public consent requires political will, and political will requires behaviour change - how do you break the climate Catch-22?

With thanks to the University of Bath.

Learn More:
🧠 Explore Lorraine Whitmarsh's research at the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations, University of Bath
🔌 Read about the Swiss renewable energy default study — the experiment that moved 90% of customers to green energy by changing a default setting
🗳️ Learn more about citizens' assemblies on climate and deliberative democracy in practice
🌍 Read the IPCC's work on demand-side solutions and behavioural change in its Sixth Assessment Report

🎤 Leave us your voice notes and questions for upcoming episodes on SpeakPipe

Join the conversation:
Instagram @outrageoptimism LinkedIn @outrageoptimism
Or get in touch with us via this form.

Producer: Ben Weaver-Hincks
Edited by Miles Martignoni
Planning: Caitlin Hanrahan
Exec Producer: Ellie Clifford

This is a Persephonica production for Global Optimism and is part of the Acast Creator Network.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.