Outrage + Optimism
Global climate conversations combining policy, leadership, advocacy and constructive pathways for action.
- Host
- Christiana Figueres & Tom Rivett-Carnac & Paul Dickinson
- Published by
- Global Optimism
- Topic
- Climate & Climate Resilience
- Format
- Conversation / Roundtable
- Orientation
- Systems Change
- Themes
- Resilience, Just Transition, Net Zero
- Made for
- General Public, Corporate Leader, Policymaker / Public Sector
Listen now
Latest episodes
Newest first
- Listen
1 Oct 2026 · 41 min
The Easy Wins Are Gone. What's Actually Next for Net Zero?
Net Zero was once a radical idea. Now it’s both an accepted global target, and an increasingly toxic political faultline. This week, Tom is back from the UN General Assembly and New York Climate week, where António Guterres used his last speech as UN Secretary-General to call for every country to set a timeline for quitting fossil fuels. But around the world, politicians are turning against the very idea. In Britain, a committee of MPs now wants the government to stop saying "net zero" altogether. Should the climate movement let the phrase go, or will its opponents simply come for whatever rep
- Listen
24 Sept 2026 · 59 min
Who Runs the World?: Inside the UN’s Secret Leadership Race
The news cameras may be following rising tensions between President Trump and President Pezeshkian of Iran, but deep in the bowels of the United Nations, fifteen countries are about to choose, in private, the person who speaks for 8 billion people. It’s a process so opaque that even the candidates can't see who is voting for or against them, and - bizarrely - rumours are spreading that the eventual winner could be someone who hasn't yet entered the field. This week, Tom Rivett-Carnac and Christiana Figueres are together in New York for the UN General Assembly and Climate Week NYC, joining the
- Listen
17 Sept 2026 · 44 min
Inside the New Security Thinking: The Weaponisation of Disaster?
This summer, extreme heat killed tens of thousands of people across Europe. The number killed by terrorism was, as our guest puts it, very very small. So why are the institutions built to keep people safe still organised almost entirely around the second one? Erin Sikorsky is the Director of the Center for Climate and Security, a former deputy director on the US intelligence officer who led long-range strategic analysis at the National Intelligence Council, and now sits on the UK's climate security task force. She tells Tom Rivett-Carnac, Christiana Figueres and Paul Dickinson that we are movi