

Climate Confident
Tom Raftery
Climate Confident is the podcast for business leaders, policy-makers, and climate tech professionals who want real, practical strategies for cutting emissions and building a resilient low-carbon future.Every Wednesday at 7am CET, I sit down with the people doing the work, executives, engineers, scientists, founders, and policymakers, to unpack what’s actually driving climate progress across energy, transport, industry, supply chains, food, finance, and more.This isn’t about vague pledges or greenwash. It’s about what’s working, what isn’t, and what leaders need to understand now to make better decisions faster.Expect conversations on:scalable solutions in energy, mobility, food, industry, and financethe politics, markets, and policies shaping the transitionthe technologies and tools improving climate accountability, resilience, and risk managementhard truths, hidden bottlenecks, bold ideas, and real-world success storiesSubscribers also get Bonus episodes, including highlight reels, analysis, emerging themes I’m seeing across conversations, and other subscriber-only extras.You can still listen to the most recent episodes for free, and if you want to go deeper, subscription gives you more Climate Confident in your feed.Want to shape the conversation? 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.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jul 13, 2022 • 27min
Using Machine Learning To Reduce Climate Emissions In The Physical World - A Chat With PlutoShift's Prateek Joshi
Send me a messageMachine Learning is great for helping us surface new series on Netflix, for helping us search through the thousands of photos on your phone to find that one of the cute cat you took a picture of all those months ago, or for things such as fraud detection by banks, but can it be used to impact the physical environment to help reduce climate emissions?Prateek Joshi, the founder of PlutoShift thinks so! PlutoShift uses Machine Learning to help Anhueser-Busch, Dow Chemicals, and others reduce their emissions, so I invited him on the podcast to hear more.We had a fascinating conversation covering why Prateek decided to tackle climate emissions using machine learning, some of the really interesting solutions they have come up with for their clients, and where they're headed next.I learned loads. I hope you do too.Links:Prateek's personal website is at PrateekJ.comAnd his weekly ML newsletter is available at https://prateekjoshi.substack.com/If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to leave me a voice message on my SpeakPipe page, head to the Climate 21 Podcast Forum, or send it to me as a direct message on Twitter/LinkedIn. Audio messages will get played (unless you specifically ask me not to).And if you want to know more about any of SAP's Sustainability solutions, head on over to www.sap.com/sustainability, and if you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover the show. Thanks.And remember, stay healthy, stay safe, stay sane!Music credit - Intro and Outro music for this podcast was composed, played, and produced by my daughter Luna JuniperSign up to Climate Confident+ for deep dive analysis of the major climate and energy stories of the day.Support the showPodcast subscribersI'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's amazing subscribers:Anita KrajncCecilia SkarupaBen GrossJerry SweeneyAndreas WernerStephen CarrollRoger ArnoldAnd remember you too can Subscribe to the Podcast - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent Climate Confident episodes like this one, as well as give you access to the entire back catalog of Climate Confident episodes.ContactIf you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - get in touch via direct message on LinkedIn. If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover the show.

Jul 6, 2022 • 28min
China - Climate Hero, Or Climate Villian? A Chat With EAC's Daniel Berger
Send me a messageThe climate news about China seems to be consistently contradictory. On the one hand, we hear how China is responsible for high levels of emissions, while on the other we hear how China is leaping ahead in its deployments of renewables. Where does the truth lie?I invited Daniel Berger of EAC who has been based in China for the last 20 years to come on the podcast to give his perspective.We had a fascinating conversation discussing all aspects of climate as it pertains to China, everything from its famous five-year plans through to what people on the ground think.I learned loads. I hope you do too.If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to leave me a voice message on my SpeakPipe page, head to the Climate 21 Podcast Forum, or send it to me as a direct message on Twitter/LinkedIn. Audio messages will get played (unless you specifically ask me not to).And if you want to know more about any of SAP's Sustainability solutions, head on over to www.sap.com/sustainability, and if you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover the show. Thanks.And remember, stay healthy, stay safe, stay sane!Music credit - Intro and Outro music for this podcast was composed, played, and produced by my daughter Luna JuniperSign up to Climate Confident+ for deep dive analysis of the major climate and energy stories of the day.Support the showPodcast subscribersI'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's amazing subscribers:Anita KrajncCecilia SkarupaBen GrossJerry SweeneyAndreas WernerStephen CarrollRoger ArnoldAnd remember you too can Subscribe to the Podcast - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent Climate Confident episodes like this one, as well as give you access to the entire back catalog of Climate Confident episodes.ContactIf you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - get in touch via direct message on LinkedIn. If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover the show.

Jun 29, 2022 • 44min
How Important Is Storytelling When It Comes To Climate? A Chat With Dan McDougall
Send me a messageCreating a narrative is all-important in any sphere.All the more so in the climate space where the stakes are perilously high, and as we heard in last week's episode, climate anxiety is becoming a very real thing. To explore the topic of storytelling, particularly as it pertains to climate I invited multiple award-winning journalist, British Foreign Correspondent of the Year, and filmmaker Dan McDougall to come on the podcast.We had a fascinating conversation discussing all aspects of climate storytelling. Check out the conversation.If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to leave me a voice message on my SpeakPipe page, head to the Climate 21 Podcast Forum, or send it to me as a direct message on Twitter/LinkedIn. Audio messages will get played (unless you specifically ask me not to).And if you want to know more about any of SAP's Sustainability solutions, head on over to www.sap.com/sustainability, and if you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover the show. Thanks.And remember, stay healthy, stay safe, stay sane!Music credit - Intro and Outro music for this podcast was composed, played, and produced by my daughter Luna JuniperSign up to Climate Confident+ for deep dive analysis of the major climate and energy stories of the day.Support the showPodcast subscribersI'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's amazing subscribers:Anita KrajncCecilia SkarupaBen GrossJerry SweeneyAndreas WernerStephen CarrollRoger ArnoldAnd remember you too can Subscribe to the Podcast - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent Climate Confident episodes like this one, as well as give you access to the entire back catalog of Climate Confident episodes.ContactIf you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - get in touch via direct message on LinkedIn. If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover the show.

Jun 22, 2022 • 31min
Climate Anxiety - A Chat With Grist's Kate Yoder
Send me a messageSo we're hearing more about Climate Anxiety these days - particularly among the younger generations who will have to live with the damage we have wrought on our climate far longer than the rest of us.To talk a little about this, I invited Grist Staff Writer Kate Yoder to come on the podcast to talk about it.We had a fascinating conversation discussing what climate anxiety is, how it is affecting people, and ways to overcome it.If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to leave me a voice message on my SpeakPipe page, head to the Climate 21 Podcast Forum, or send it to me as a direct message on Twitter/LinkedIn. Audio messages will get played (unless you specifically ask me not to).And if you want to know more about any of SAP's Sustainability solutions, head on over to www.sap.com/sustainability, and if you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover the show. Thanks.And remember, stay healthy, stay safe, stay sane!Music credit - Intro and Outro music for this podcast was composed, played, and produced by my daughter Luna JuniperSign up to Climate Confident+ for deep dive analysis of the major climate and energy stories of the day.Support the showPodcast subscribersI'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's amazing subscribers:Anita KrajncCecilia SkarupaBen GrossJerry SweeneyAndreas WernerStephen CarrollRoger ArnoldAnd remember you too can Subscribe to the Podcast - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent Climate Confident episodes like this one, as well as give you access to the entire back catalog of Climate Confident episodes.ContactIf you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - get in touch via direct message on LinkedIn. If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover the show.

Jun 15, 2022 • 38min
Reducing The Carbon Footprint Of Lithium Ion Batteries - A Chat With Nanoramic Laboratories John Cooley
Send me a messageCreating lithium-ion batteries is a hugely energy-intensive process and consequently, battery-electric cars take approximately 17,000km to repay their carbon debt. Nanoramic Laboratories has come up with a way to reduce by over 30% the amount of energy required to manufacture lithium-ion batteries, while at the same time making them more energy-dense, and increasing their expected lifespan. Sound too good to be true I invited Nanoramics Founder and Chief of Products and Innovation, John Cooley to come on the podcast to tell us more.We had a fascinating conversation talking about how Nanoramics technology works, how it can be used in virtually any currently operating battery plant, and John's thoughts on using this tech in stationary storage. I learned loads. I hope you do too.If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to leave me a voice message on my SpeakPipe page, head to the Climate 21 Podcast Forum, or send it to me as a direct message on Twitter/LinkedIn. Audio messages will get played (unless you specifically ask me not to).And if you want to know more about any of SAP's Sustainability solutions, head on over to www.sap.com/sustainability, and if you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover the show. Thanks.And remember, stay healthy, stay safe, stay sane!Music credit - Intro and Outro music for this podcast was composed, played, and produced by my daughter Luna JuniperSign up to Climate Confident+ for deep dive analysis of the major climate and energy stories of the day.Support the showPodcast subscribersI'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's amazing subscribers:Anita KrajncCecilia SkarupaBen GrossJerry SweeneyAndreas WernerStephen CarrollRoger ArnoldAnd remember you too can Subscribe to the Podcast - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent Climate Confident episodes like this one, as well as give you access to the entire back catalog of Climate Confident episodes.ContactIf you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - get in touch via direct message on LinkedIn. If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover the show.

Jun 8, 2022 • 30min
Plant-Based Tuna? A Chat With Jacob von Manteuffel From Bettafish
Send me a messageFollowing on from last week's episode of the podcast where I talked to Rebellious Foods about their plant-based chicken, in this week's episode I talk to Jacob von Manteuffel, co-founder of Bettaf!sh, a company making plant-based tuna (or Tu-Nah, as they call it!).We had a fascinating conversation talking about what plants Bettafish uses (seaweed), the reasons why, and their plans for expansion in this space. I learned loads. I hope you do too.If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to leave me a voice message over on my SpeakPipe page, head on over to the Climate 21 Podcast Forum, or send it to me as a direct message on Twitter/LinkedIn. Audio messages will get played (unless you specifically ask me not to).And if you want to know more about any of SAP's Sustainability solutions, head on over to www.sap.com/sustainability, and if you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover the show. Thanks.And remember, stay healthy, stay safe, stay sane!Music credit - Intro and Outro music for this podcast was composed, played, and produced by my daughter Luna JuniperSign up to Climate Confident+ for deep dive analysis of the major climate and energy stories of the day.Support the showPodcast subscribersI'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's amazing subscribers:Anita KrajncCecilia SkarupaBen GrossJerry SweeneyAndreas WernerStephen CarrollRoger ArnoldAnd remember you too can Subscribe to the Podcast - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent Climate Confident episodes like this one, as well as give you access to the entire back catalog of Climate Confident episodes.ContactIf you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - get in touch via direct message on LinkedIn. If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover the show.

Jun 1, 2022 • 32min
Plant-based Chicken? A Chat With Rebellyous Foods Founder and CEO Christie Legally
Send me a messageChicken makes up an increasing part of the food we eat. Chicken production is polluting, cruel, and causes significant emissions.One company looking to address this issue is Rebellyous Foods. They have come up with a way to produce plant-based meat, which looks like chicken, tastes like chicken, and is similarly priced to chicken.To find out more I invited Rebellyous founder and CEO Christie Legally to come on the podcast. We had a fascinating conversation. I learned loads. I hope you do too.If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to leave me a voice message over on my SpeakPipe page, head on over to the Climate 21 Podcast Forum, or send it to me as a direct message on Twitter/LinkedIn. Audio messages will get played (unless you specifically ask me not to).And if you want to know more about any of SAP's Sustainability solutions, head on over to www.sap.com/sustainability, and if you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover the show. Thanks.And remember, stay healthy, stay safe, stay sane!Music credit - Intro and Outro music for this podcast was composed, played, and produced by my daughter Luna JuniperSign up to Climate Confident+ for deep dive analysis of the major climate and energy stories of the day.Support the showPodcast subscribersI'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's amazing subscribers:Anita KrajncCecilia SkarupaBen GrossJerry SweeneyAndreas WernerStephen CarrollRoger ArnoldAnd remember you too can Subscribe to the Podcast - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent Climate Confident episodes like this one, as well as give you access to the entire back catalog of Climate Confident episodes.ContactIf you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - get in touch via direct message on LinkedIn. If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover the show.

May 25, 2022 • 42min
Is Climate Restoration Feasible? A Chat With Peter Fiekowsky
Send me a messageFor millennia we have had a stable climate with atmospheric CO2 levels at around 280ppm. Since the Industrial Revolution, the amount of CO2 in our atmosphere has rocketed up to now around 420ppm with the consequent climate chaos we're now witnessing.Can we reverse that? Can we bring atmospheric CO2 levels back down to 280 once more? Today's guest on the podcast, Peter Fiekowsky thinks we can. He has written a book called Climate Restoration which details how to do this - quickly and cheaply (relatively!). To find out more I invited him to come on the podcast this. We had a fascinating conversation. I learned loads. I hope you do too.If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to leave me a voice message over on my SpeakPipe page, head on over to the Climate 21 Podcast Forum, or send it to me as a direct message on Twitter/LinkedIn. Audio messages will get played (unless you specifically ask me not to).And if you want to know more about any of SAP's Sustainability solutions, head on over to www.sap.com/sustainability, and if you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover the show. Thanks.And remember, stay healthy, stay safe, stay sane!Music credit - Intro and Outro music for this podcast was composed, played, and produced by my daughter Luna JuniperSign up to Climate Confident+ for deep dive analysis of the major climate and energy stories of the day.Support the showPodcast subscribersI'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's amazing subscribers:Anita KrajncCecilia SkarupaBen GrossJerry SweeneyAndreas WernerStephen CarrollRoger ArnoldAnd remember you too can Subscribe to the Podcast - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent Climate Confident episodes like this one, as well as give you access to the entire back catalog of Climate Confident episodes.ContactIf you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - get in touch via direct message on LinkedIn. If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover the show.

May 18, 2022 • 36min
Financing The New Climate Economy - A Chat With Enduring Planet's Dimitry Gershenson
Send me a messageAnd we're back. I was off last week with Covid, hence the gap in the usual weekly cadence. But boy do I have an excellent episode for you this week to make up for it. Enduring Planet is a FinTech lender focused exclusively on the new climate economy. I invited Dimitry Gershenson, the company's CEO and Co-Founder to come on the podcast to tell me all about it.We had a fascinating conversation discussing the reason why Dimitri co-founded Enduring Planet, the kind of help they provide for climate companies, and what their plans for the future are.This was an excellent episode of the podcast and I learned loads as always, and I hope you do too.If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to leave me a voice message over on my SpeakPipe page, head on over to the Climate 21 Podcast Forum, or just send it to me as a direct message on Twitter/LinkedIn. Audio messages will get played (unless you specifically ask me not to).And if you want to know more about any of SAP's Sustainability solutions, head on over to www.sap.com/sustainability, and if you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover the show. Thanks.And remember, stay healthy, stay safe, stay sane!Music credit - Intro and Outro music for this podcast was composed, played, and produced by my daughter Luna JuniperSign up to Climate Confident+ for deep dive analysis of the major climate and energy stories of the day.Support the showPodcast subscribersI'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's amazing subscribers:Anita KrajncCecilia SkarupaBen GrossJerry SweeneyAndreas WernerStephen CarrollRoger ArnoldAnd remember you too can Subscribe to the Podcast - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent Climate Confident episodes like this one, as well as give you access to the entire back catalog of Climate Confident episodes.ContactIf you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - get in touch via direct message on LinkedIn. If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover the show.

May 4, 2022 • 27min
Making Low Income Housing Energy Efficient - A Chat With Ryan Cassidy
Send me a messageEnergy efficiency isn't nearly as sexy a topic as building out some shiny new solar farm, but it is equally important, and when this energy efficiency benefits low income families who have traditionally been disproportionately effected by issues such as climate change, and pollution, even better again.In this episode of the podcast I spoke to Ryan Cassidy. Ryan is the Director of Sustainability & Construction at RiseBoro Community Partnership in New York. We had a fascinating conversation discussing how Riseboro is making low income housing in New York City extremely energy efficient, how that benefits the health, as well as the financial wellbeing of the families living there, and how these benefits can be realised by other communities.This was an excellent episode of the podcast and I learned loads as always, and I hope you do too.If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to leave me a voice message over on my SpeakPipe page, head on over to the Climate 21 Podcast Forum, or just send it to me as a direct message on Twitter/LinkedIn. Audio messages will get played (unless you specifically ask me not to).And if you want to know more about any of SAP's Sustainability solutions, head on over to www.sap.com/sustainability, and if you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover the show. Thanks.And remember, stay healthy, stay safe, stay sane!Music credit - Intro and Outro music for this podcast was composed, played, and produced by my daughter Luna JuniperSign up to Climate Confident+ for deep dive analysis of the major climate and energy stories of the day.Support the showPodcast subscribersI'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's amazing subscribers:Anita KrajncCecilia SkarupaBen GrossJerry SweeneyAndreas WernerStephen CarrollRoger ArnoldAnd remember you too can Subscribe to the Podcast - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent Climate Confident episodes like this one, as well as give you access to the entire back catalog of Climate Confident episodes.ContactIf you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - get in touch via direct message on LinkedIn. If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it. It makes a big difference to help new people discover the show.


