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Climate Confident is the podcast for business leaders, policy-makers, and climate tech professionals who want real, practical strategies for slashing emissions, fast.
Every Wednesday at 7am CET, I sit down with the people doing the work, executives, engineers, scientists, innovators, to unpack how they’re driving measurable climate action across industries, from energy and transport to supply chains, agriculture, and beyond.
This isn’t about vague pledges or greenwashing. It’s about what’s working, and what isn’t, so you can make smarter decisions, faster.
We cover:
- Scalable solutions in energy, mobility, food, and finance
- The politics and policies shaping the energy transition
- Tools and tech transforming climate accountability and risk
- Hard truths, bold ideas, and real-world success stories
👉 Climate Confident+ subscribers get full access to the complete archive, 230+ episodes of deep, data-driven insights.
🎧 Not ready to subscribe? No worries, you’ll still get the most recent 30 days of episodes for free.
Want to shape the conversation? I’d love to hear from you. Drop me a line anytime at Tom@tomraftery.com - whether it’s feedback, a guest suggestion, or just a hello.
Ready to stop doomscrolling and start climate-doing? Hit follow and let’s get to work.
241 Episodes
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Send me a message In 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 what’s good for people is, quite literally, good for the planet. We discuss how Elior has cut food waste by 64% ...
Send me a message In 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 management challenge. We explore his powerful framework: abate, adapt, or suffer. These are, he argues, the only three...
Send me a message In 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, Pacific and Indian Ocean, contribute less than 1% of global emissions yet face the most existential threats, ...
Send me a message When 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, retirement savings, and even our everyday bank accounts may be the largest single drivers of greenhouse gas emissions f...
Send me a message In 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–politics gap” - the dangerous disconnect between what climate science tells us and how slowly politicians respond....
Send me a message In 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 that offsets, once seen as a solution, have become a dangerous distraction. Instead of reducing their own emission...
Send me a message In 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 exploration and extraction are still expanding at a pace that locks in climate chaos. Tzeporah explains why climate pol...
Send me a message In 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 isn’t just about climate, it’s driven by the simple economics of cheaper, better technologies. Solar, wind, and ...
1Send me a message Shipping 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 the century-old Flettner rotor to deliver real-world fuel savings of 5–25%, with some transatlantic routes target...
Send me a message In 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 drive real policy change. He brings insider perspective on what’s happening behind the headlines in Washington, an...
Send me a message In 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 and using gravity, not high-energy processes, to sink captured CO₂ to deep-sea sediment for thousands of years. ...
Send me a message Is 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 shift to clean tech isn’t about idealism, it’s about basic economics. When renewables are cheaper and more reliabl...
Send me a message In 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 the potential to sequester 2–5 gigatonnes of CO₂ annually, making it a key lever for companies aiming to meet ne...
Send me a message Most 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 trying to cut demand. Tzeporah explains how the Paris Agreement never once mentions the words “oil,” “gas,” or...
Send me a message Most 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 & Sustainability at Equativ (formerly Sharethrough), about the often-overlooked climate impact of digital ads. We broke down...
Send me a message In 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 infrastructure, unreliable grids, and a historic reliance on cheap fossil fuels. Stuart leads a $1.4 billion division with ...
Send me a message Hi 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 action and innovation. In the meantime, if you’re missing your climate fix, remember there’s a massive back c...
Send me a message In 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. Ciaran shares how data centres in Ireland, despite consuming up to 20% of national electricity, are driving econo...
Send me a message In 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 lifelong commitment. We also dig into how indigenous knowledge can fill crucial gaps in scientific data, and how ...
Send me a message In 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, designed to help policymakers, researchers, and business leaders navigate the chaos of climate targets, national clima...
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