

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

Apr 14, 2021 • 30min
Reducing Google’s Carbon Footprint - Michael Terrell, Director of Energy at Google
Send me a messageLast week's episode of the podcast with Sandra Pallier and Hannah Smith from ClimateAction.tech looked at the issue of reducing IT's carbon footprint taking a bottom up approach so, I wanted to have a follow-up episode looking at reducing IT's emissions issue with a more top-down perspective.With that in mind I invited Michael Terrell, Director of Energy at Google to come on the podcast to talk about some of Google's initiatives in this space. Google have long been leaders in reducing the carbon intensity of their electricity and compute, so I was really looking forward to this chat, and Michael didn't disappoint.We had a fascinating conversation, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I hope you enjoy it 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.

Apr 7, 2021 • 30min
How do we reduce IT's carbon footprint? A chat with Sandra Pallier and Hannah Smith of Climate Action Tech
Send me a messageTechnology has a large and growing carbon footprint. Everything from when you open Google on your phone, to browsing your Instagram feed, to sending an email has climate emissions implications (by the way, speaking of Google, next week's episode features a senior Google exec sharing what they're doing to reduce their emissions!).How can we address that issue? That is the challenge being taken up by Climate Action Tech (CAT for short). Climate Action Tech is a grassroots organisation crowdsourcing best ways to reduce emissions in tech, and actively sharing that information.To learn more about this I invited Sandra Pallier (@TweetsofSandra on Twitter) and Hannah Smith (@HanOpcan on Twitter) to come on the podcast to talk all about it.We had a fascinating conversation, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I hope you enjoy it 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.

Mar 31, 2021 • 8min
Easter vacation 2021 episode
Send me a messageI'm on vacation this week, so I recorded a short episode where I talked about three things:Ratings and reviews for the podcastSome of the recent episodes I published (in case you missed them ,now's a good time to catch-up!) andI previewed some of the upcoming episodes including an incredible episode which I'm hoping will go live April 28th. Listen to the podcast to find out who I'm referring toAnd that's it. A short episode this week, but as I mentioned you can take that as an opportunity to catch up on some of the back catalog you might have missed. Have a good one and I'll catch you back here again next Wednesday when I'll have a great episode talking to some of the good people in ClimateAction.tech.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 JuniperSupport 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.

Mar 24, 2021 • 31min
The business of sustainability - a chat with Frank Omare
Send me a messageI wanted to have an episode of the podcast where we level set on the importance of sustainability for organisations, so I invited Frank Omare to come on the podcast to frame sustainability from a business perspective.We had a fascinating conversation, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I hope you enjoy it 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.

Mar 17, 2021 • 31min
Using concrete as a carbon sink? A chat with Prof Volker Sick
Send me a messageStopping global emissions is not enough. We have to also find ways to remove CO2 from the atmosphere and sequester it.One of the biggest contributors to global emissions is the production of concrete. Imagine if concrete production could be turned from a carbon emitting process into a carbon sink... That is one idea the Global CO2 initiative is looking into. They have come up with a new way to make concrete that uses CO2 as an ingredient. It is an exciting idea, so I reached out to the Director of the Global CO2 Initiative Prof Volker Sick to come on the podcast to talk about this idea.We had a fascinating conversation, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I hope you enjoy it 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.

Mar 10, 2021 • 34min
Impossible Foods quest to reduce the impact of agriculture - a chat with Rebekah Moses
Send me a messageThe first time I came across Impossible Foods was when I read an article about them in Techcrunch back in 2016 and I was immediately sold on the idea - making protein for people cutting out the animal middle-man is such an excellent concept, and such a win for the planet in terms of land use, energy use, and water use!So when I kicked off this podcast, I was keen to talk to someone from Impossible Foods to hear the story from their perspective. To that end, I reached out and invited Impossible Foods' Head of Impact Strategy Rebekah Moses to join me on the show, and she very graciously agreed.We had a fascinating conversation, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I hope you enjoy it 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.

Mar 3, 2021 • 30min
The potential of big data and environmental sustainability - a chat with IBM's Jacob Dencik
Send me a messageData is the new currency we're told (some people call it the new oil, I refuse to use that expression given the negative connotations of being associated with oil!).Given that, I'd be remiss not to have an episode of the podcast dedicated to talking about how data, and big data can help with the climate crisis.To that end, I invited Jacob Dencik to come on the podcast. Jacob is the Economic Research Leader at the IBM Institute for Business Value, so who better to discuss this with...?We had a fascinating conversation, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I hope you enjoy it 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.

Feb 24, 2021 • 35min
Can Indoor Vertical Farming help reduce our emissions? A chat with &ever CSO Mark Korzilius
Send me a messageI'm a big fan of the concept of Indoor Vertical Farming, so when I came across the company &ever I reached out to their CSO, Mark Korzilius and asked him to come on the podcast to tell me more about their operations.&ever is a startup in the vertical farming space with a large operation in Kuwait, some interesting hyperlocal operations in Germany, and a larger plant (sorry, bad pun!) opening in Singapore.I loved that in this interview with Mark, he was very realistic about the advantages of vertical farming - not promising that it will save the world, but rather giving a sober, studied view of its advantages, and the huge advantages they bring.As you can probably tell, I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation. I hope you enjoy listening to it 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.

Feb 17, 2021 • 43min
Climate, geopolitics, and supply chain risk - a chat with Jacob Shapiro
Send me a messageSo much of what's happening in the climate space revolves around geopolitics that I thought it might be interesting to bring an expert in to talk about that.So, I invited Jacob Shapiro to come on the podcast to talk about these issues. Jacob is the Founder and Chief Strategist at Perch Perspectives, as well as the host of the Perch Pod podcast.As we covered the supply chain risk implications of geopolitics in the podcast, I published a lightly edited version of this conversation (less climate info, more supply chain data) on the Digital Supply Chain podcast. But we covered off its of other climate related topics in this chat too.As you can probably tell, I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation. I hope you enjoy listening to it 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.

Feb 10, 2021 • 39min
BCG's path to net zero - a chat with Michel Frédeau and Daniel Weise
Send me a messageBoston Consulting Group is one of the most prestigious management consulting firms in the world.In September 2020 BCG committed to going Net Zero by 2030, and carbon negative thereafter. And they are committing "$400 million over the next decade to enable BCG teams to drive climate and environmental impact across industries and countries".Then in late January of this year (2021) BCG CEO Rich Lesser wrote a post on the World Economic Forum blog titled "Supply chains can be a climate game-changer. Here's why"Intrigued and wanting to know more, I reached out to Michel Frédeau and Daniel Weise at BCG. Michel is a Managing Director and Senior Partner at BCG and is their Global Leader, Climate & Environment. While Daniel, a Managing Director and Partner is BCG's Global Topic Leader Procurement.We had an excellent wide-ranging conversation covering not just BCG's Net Zero commitments, but also how they help their clients with their carbon commitments.As you can probably tell, I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation. I hope you enjoy listening to it 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 Sign 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.


