Climate Confident - Practical Climate Solutions That Cut Emissions

Hosted by Tom Raftery

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Episodes

298

Latest episode

Oct 2026

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EN-IE

About the show

Climate Confident is for business leaders, climate professionals and policymakers who need to understand what is actually cutting emissions—and what it takes to make those solutions work at scale. Each Wednesday, technology and sustainability analyst, keynote speaker and former SAP Global VP Tom Raftery speaks with the executives, engineers, scientists, founders and policymakers turning climate ambition into measurable progress. Together, they examine the technologies, business models, policies and implementation strategies reshaping energy, transport, industry, supply chains, food and finance. These are not conversations about distant targets, vague pledges or greenwash. They are candid discussions about what is working, what is failing, where the real bottlenecks lie, and how leaders can make better decisions about decarbonisation, resilience, investment and risk. You will hear: Proven approaches to reducing emissions Hard-earned lessons from real-world implementation Analysis of the markets, technologies and policies driving the transition Honest examination of costs, trade-offs, setbacks and unintended consequences Practical ideas for turning climate commitments into action New episodes are published every Wednesday at 7am CET. Subscribers also receive bonus episodes featuring highlights, analysis and emerging themes from across the series. Follow Climate Confident for practical climate solutions, informed debate and the insights you need to turn ambition into measurable progress. Guest suggestions and feedback are welcome at Tom@tomraftery.com .

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60 recent

October 21, 2026Episode 29942 min

The Lithium Isotope Bottleneck Between Nuclear Breakthroughs and Power Plants

Get in touch - leave me a message Advanced nuclear could have a lithium isotope problem long before it has a commercial power plant. Promising reactor designs need specialist materials that are barely produced at industrial scale. John Elling , CEO of Molten Salt Solutions , joins me to explain why isotope separation matters to both advanced fission and fusion. Getting enough of the right lithium, at a price developers can plan around, is an engineering and investment challenge - not simply a procurement exercise. We explore the surprising reason some fission reactors want to avoid lithium-6 while many fusion designs depend on it. We also examine how material prices can change reactor design, and the dilemma facing suppliers asked to invest in production capacity before customers can commit to buying it. Listen now to understand what needs to happen between a nuclear breakthrough and a power plant delivering electricity to the grid. Sign up to Climate Confident+ for deep dive analysis of the major climate and energy stories of the day. Support the show Podcast subscribers I'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's amazing subscribers: Anita Krajnc Cecilia Skarupa Ben Gross Jerry Sweeney Andreas Werner Stephen Carroll Roger Arnold And 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. 🎤 Looking for a keynote speaker on climate, energy, AI, or sustainability? I help executive audiences understand the technologies, trends, and decisions shaping the low-carbon transition. Download my Speaker Pack: https://tinyurl.com/spkrpck And a quick note before you go: I’ve started a new Reddit community for serious, evidence-led discussion on climate solutions, clean energy, decarbonisation, policy, technology, and what actually works in practice. If you’d like to suggest future guests, challenge ideas from the show, or share climate reports and solutions worth discussing, join us at r/ClimateConfident

October 14, 2026Episode 29836 min

AI’s Power Boom Could Pull Factory-Built Nuclear Down the Cost Curve

Get in touch - leave me a message AI data centres are creating an extraordinary new demand for electricity. The harder question is whether clean, firm power can be built quickly enough to meet it, without falling back on gas. My guest in this episode is Matt Loszak , co-founder and CEO of Aalo Atomics , which is developing small, factory-built nuclear reactors initially for AI data centres. The bet is that nuclear can move from bespoke megaprojects to repeatable manufactured products, cutting deployment time while preserving the reliability these facilities require. We examine what that shift would actually demand: why standardisation changes nuclear construction, why data centres may provide the high-paying early market needed to bring costs down, and why reaching criticality is very different from proving a commercially viable power plant. We also get into the harder engineering test - operating reliably at high capacity factor, and whether SMRs can scale without recreating the problems of conventional nuclear. Listen now to hear what factory-built nuclear still has to prove, and why AI’s appetite for power may give it an unusually significant opportunity to do so. Sign up to Climate Confident+ for deep dive analysis of the major climate and energy stories of the day. Support the show Podcast subscribers I'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's amazing subscribers: Anita Krajnc Cecilia Skarupa Ben Gross Jerry Sweeney Andreas Werner Stephen Carroll Roger Arnold And 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. 🎤 Looking for a keynote speaker on climate, energy, AI, or sustainability? I help executive audiences understand the technologies, trends, and decisions shaping the low-carbon transition. Download my Speaker Pack: https://tinyurl.com/spkrpck And a quick note before you go: I’ve started a new Reddit community for serious, evidence-led discussion on climate solutions, clean energy, decarbonisation, policy, technology, and what actually works in practice. If you’d like to suggest future guests, challenge ideas from the show, or share climate reports and solutions worth discussing, join us at r/ClimateConfident

October 7, 2026Episode 29738 min

Enhanced Rock Weathering’s Scaling Bottleneck Is Proof, Not Rock

Get in touch - leave me a message Enhanced rock weathering looks deceptively simple: crush suitable rock, spread it on farmland and let chemistry remove CO₂. The harder question is whether you can prove that removal reliably enough to make the economics work. I speak with Chris Zair , Director of Partnerships at UNDO , about what happens when enhanced rock weathering moves from controlled trials into real fields. For buyers, investors and policymakers, the stakes are practical: measurement and verification can account for roughly half the cost stack, and weak data can stop credible carbon removal from becoming financeable infrastructure. We look at why disappearing rock creates an unusual MRV problem, what changes when carbon-credit contracts pay only on delivery, and why having plenty of rock and farmland still does not guarantee scale. We also examine the trade-off between durability, cost and speed - including why particle size can radically alter how quickly CO₂ is removed. Listen now to understand what is really holding back enhanced rock weathering - and what has to change for carbon removal to become measurable, financeable and repeatable at scale. Sign up to Climate Confident+ for deep dive analysis of the major climate and energy stories of the day. Support the show Podcast subscribers I'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's amazing subscribers: Anita Krajnc Cecilia Skarupa Ben Gross Jerry Sweeney Andreas Werner Stephen Carroll Roger Arnold And 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. 🎤 Looking for a keynote speaker on climate, energy, AI, or sustainability? I help executive audiences understand the technologies, trends, and decisions shaping the low-carbon transition. Download my Speaker Pack: https://tinyurl.com/spkrpck And a quick note before you go: I’ve started a new Reddit community for serious, evidence-led discussion on climate solutions, clean energy, decarbonisation, policy, technology, and what actually works in practice. If you’d like to suggest future guests, challenge ideas from the show, or share climate reports and solutions worth discussing, join us at r/ClimateConfident

September 30, 2026Episode 29625 min

The 15-Litre Engine Opens Heavy-Duty Trucking to RNG—Economics Decide What Scales

Get in touch - leave me a message For years, renewable natural gas had a basic problem in heavy-duty trucking: it lacked a 15-litre engine capable of doing the work fleets expect from diesel. That barrier is disappearing. The harder question now is whether the economics and infrastructure stack up. My guest is Scott Brinner , Executive Vice President of RNG Solutions at NoPetro Energy , who works across RNG production, fuelling and fleet deployment. We look at the real decision facing operators: can fuel savings overcome a $70,000–$90,000 truck premium without creating new operational risk? We examine why high-mileage, return-to-base fleets may be the strongest early fit, what fuelling and maintenance infrastructure can quietly derail adoption, and why the climate case depends on feedstock, methane leakage and lifecycle accounting—not the label on the pump. We also test where RNG belongs alongside battery-electric trucking rather than treating every route as the same problem. Listen now to understand where renewable natural gas can genuinely work in heavy-duty trucking—and what fleets need to prove before scaling it. Sign up to Climate Confident+ for deep dive analysis of the major climate and energy stories of the day. Support the show Podcast subscribers I'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's amazing subscribers: Anita Krajnc Cecilia Skarupa Ben Gross Jerry Sweeney Andreas Werner Stephen Carroll Roger Arnold And 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. 🎤 Looking for a keynote speaker on climate, energy, AI, or sustainability? I help executive audiences understand the technologies, trends, and decisions shaping the low-carbon transition. Download my Speaker Pack: https://tinyurl.com/spkrpck And a quick note before you go: I’ve started a new Reddit community for serious, evidence-led discussion on climate solutions, clean energy, decarbonisation, policy, technology, and what actually works in practice. If you’d like to suggest future guests, challenge ideas from the show, or share climate reports and solutions worth discussing, join us at r/ClimateConfident

September 23, 2026Episode 29535 min

Carbon Removal’s Real Bottleneck Isn’t Technology. It’s Demand.

Get in touch - leave me a message Carbon removal is often framed as a technology problem. But what if the harder constraint is demand, and what if waiting decades to remove a tonne of CO₂ carries a climate cost of its own? My guest is Barclay Rogers , founder and CEO of Graphyte , a durable carbon removal company using agricultural and timber residues in a process it calls Carbon Casting. He brings a practical operator’s view of what it takes to move carbon removal from credible tonnes to meaningful scale. We examine the “time value of carbon”, challenge the assumption that removals should wait until every possible emissions cut has been exhausted, and look at what really constrains scale once the underlying process works. We also get into measurement and verification, project finance, community acceptance, wildfire mitigation, and the uncomfortable question of where biomass carbon removal stops making sense. Listen now to understand what could turn durable carbon removal from an emerging market into infrastructure — and what still stands in the way. Sign up to Climate Confident+ for deep dive analysis of the major climate and energy stories of the day. Support the show Podcast subscribers I'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's amazing subscribers: Anita Krajnc Cecilia Skarupa Ben Gross Jerry Sweeney Andreas Werner Stephen Carroll Roger Arnold And 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. 🎤 Looking for a keynote speaker on climate, energy, AI, or sustainability? I help executive audiences understand the technologies, trends, and decisions shaping the low-carbon transition. Download my Speaker Pack: https://tinyurl.com/spkrpck And a quick note before you go: I’ve started a new Reddit community for serious, evidence-led discussion on climate solutions, clean energy, decarbonisation, policy, technology, and what actually works in practice. If you’d like to suggest future guests, challenge ideas from the show, or share climate reports and solutions worth discussing, join us at r/ClimateConfident

September 16, 2026Episode 29429 min

Generation Is Not Delivery: The Grid Problem Behind Decarbonisation

Get in touch - leave me a message Building more renewable generation is not enough if the grid cannot carry the electricity to where it is needed. Curtailment, connection queues and delayed infrastructure are turning grid capacity into a climate and competitiveness constraint. My guest today is Niklas Persson , CEO of Grid Integration at Hitachi Energy , with nearly three decades in electrification. We look at what happens as industry, transport and data centres demand more clean power while transmission infrastructure, permitting and grid connections struggle to keep pace. We examine why the grid may need to arrive before demand is certain, how interconnectors can reduce the cost of resilience, and whether energy independence could actually require greater cross-border interdependence. We also explore HVDC, the 600 MW ELMED link between Tunisia and Italy, and a harder policy question: when grid capacity is scarce, who should get connected first? Listen now to understand why electricity generation is only half the decarbonisation challenge, and what has to change if clean power is actually going to reach the businesses, vehicles and communities that need it. Sign up to Climate Confident+ for deep dive analysis of the major climate and energy stories of the day. Support the show Podcast subscribers I'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's amazing subscribers: Anita Krajnc Cecilia Skarupa Ben Gross Jerry Sweeney Andreas Werner Stephen Carroll Roger Arnold And 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. 🎤 Looking for a keynote speaker on climate, energy, AI, or sustainability? I help executive audiences understand the technologies, trends, and decisions shaping the low-carbon transition. Download my Speaker Pack: https://tinyurl.com/spkrpck And a quick note before you go: I’ve started a new Reddit community for serious, evidence-led discussion on climate solutions, clean energy, decarbonisation, policy, technology, and what actually works in practice. If you’d like to suggest future guests, challenge ideas from the show, or share climate reports and solutions worth discussing, join us at r/ClimateConfident

September 9, 2026Episode 29331 min

Solar, Batteries and EVs Are Turning Delay Into an Investment Risk

Get in touch - leave me a message Solar, batteries and EVs are moving fast enough to change the risk calculus for energy investment. The bigger mistake may now be assuming today’s system, and its customers, will still be there tomorrow. I speak with Professor Ray Wills , Managing Director of Future Smart Strategies, who has been modelling technology adoption curves for years. We examine what accelerating clean-energy deployment means for capital allocation, electricity prices, new gas infrastructure and industrial competitiveness. We look at how batteries can reshape power-market economics before they dominate annual generation, why conventional forecasts may struggle with nonlinear adoption, and what China’s scale in solar, batteries and EVs tells Western leaders about where competitive advantage is moving. The harder question is no longer simply how fast these technologies can grow, but how costly it becomes to plan as though they won’t. Listen now to understand how rapidly changing energy economics could alter the investment decisions businesses and policymakers are making today. Sign up to Climate Confident+ for deep dive analysis of the major climate and energy stories of the day. Support the show Podcast subscribers I'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's amazing subscribers: Anita Krajnc Cecilia Skarupa Ben Gross Jerry Sweeney Andreas Werner Stephen Carroll Roger Arnold And 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. 🎤 Looking for a keynote speaker on climate, energy, AI, or sustainability? I help executive audiences understand the technologies, trends, and decisions shaping the low-carbon transition. Download my Speaker Pack: https://tinyurl.com/spkrpck And a quick note before you go: I’ve started a new Reddit community for serious, evidence-led discussion on climate solutions, clean energy, decarbonisation, policy, technology, and what actually works in practice. If you’d like to suggest future guests, challenge ideas from the show, or share climate reports and solutions worth discussing, join us at r/ClimateConfident

September 2, 2026Episode 29232 min

Long-Duration Energy Storage Is Ready. The Energy Markets Aren’t

Get in touch - leave me a message Long-duration energy storage is increasingly ready to deploy. The harder problem is that electricity markets still struggle to value what duration actually provides - flexibility, reliability and power when the sun sets, the wind drops and demand peaks. My guest is Julia Souder , CEO of the Long Duration Energy Storage Council . She works across the policy, finance and deployment questions shaping this market, and brings a useful view of what is already happening in places such as China, Australia, the UK, Ireland and the US. We look at why storage is becoming an infrastructure and investment question rather than simply a technology question; what changes when markets pay for four hours of capacity but the grid increasingly needs eight, 12 or 24; and why revenue certainty may now matter more than another technical breakthrough. We also examine what China appears to be getting right about deployment, and why long-duration storage matters for data centres, industrial heat and renewable-heavy grids. Listen now to understand what is really holding back long-duration energy storage at scale, and what could shift the economics, policy and investment case. Sign up to Climate Confident+ for deep dive analysis of the major climate and energy stories of the day. Support the show Podcast subscribers I'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's amazing subscribers: Anita Krajnc Cecilia Skarupa Ben Gross Jerry Sweeney Andreas Werner Stephen Carroll Roger Arnold And 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. 🎤 Looking for a keynote speaker on climate, energy, AI, or sustainability? I help executive audiences understand the technologies, trends, and decisions shaping the low-carbon transition. Download my Speaker Pack: https://tinyurl.com/spkrpck And a quick note before you go: I’ve started a new Reddit community for serious, evidence-led discussion on climate solutions, clean energy, decarbonisation, policy, technology, and what actually works in practice. If you’d like to suggest future guests, challenge ideas from the show, or share climate reports and solutions worth discussing, join us at r/ClimateConfident

August 26, 2026Episode 29137 min

Buyer Pressure Helped Avoid 2 Million Hectares of Deforestation

Get in touch - leave me a message Two million hectares of avoided deforestation is not a theoretical climate benefit. It is what Priscillia Moulin says can happen when companies stop treating supply-chain risk as somebody else’s problem. ClimateEpisode291.srtSRT Priscillia is Director of Strategy at MosaiX, working on deforestation-free commodity supply chains across palm oil and other high-risk materials. Her work sits at the intersection of traceability, satellite monitoring, supplier engagement and EUDR — where corporate commitments have to survive contact with real plantations, real contracts and real communities. What struck me most was how much leverage buyers can have once they know where products actually come from. We look at why satellite data still needs human verification, how a confirmed deforestation case can sometimes be stopped within days, and why simply dropping a non-compliant supplier may protect a brand while doing very little for the forest. We also challenge the habit of reducing forests to carbon alone. Listen now to understand how traceability and commercial pressure can turn deforestation policy into measurable change on the ground. Sign up to Climate Confident+ for deep dive analysis of the major climate and energy stories of the day. Support the show Podcast subscribers I'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's amazing subscribers: Anita Krajnc Cecilia Skarupa Ben Gross Jerry Sweeney Andreas Werner Stephen Carroll Roger Arnold And 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. 🎤 Looking for a keynote speaker on climate, energy, AI, or sustainability? I help executive audiences understand the technologies, trends, and decisions shaping the low-carbon transition. Download my Speaker Pack: https://tinyurl.com/spkrpck And a quick note before you go: I’ve started a new Reddit community for serious, evidence-led discussion on climate solutions, clean energy, decarbonisation, policy, technology, and what actually works in practice. If you’d like to suggest future guests, challenge ideas from the show, or share climate reports and solutions worth discussing, join us at r/ClimateConfident

August 19, 2026Episode 29037 min

98% of a Construction Firm’s Emissions Sit in Its Supply Chain

Get in touch - leave me a message At John Sisk & Son, up to 98% of company emissions sit in the supply chain. That changes the decarbonisation problem completely: the biggest levers are often not on the construction site, but in what gets bought. I speak with Keith O’Flynn, Group Supply Chain Sustainability Manager at Sisk, about what that means in practice for one of Ireland’s largest contractors. When concrete and steel dominate purchased-goods emissions, procurement decisions become climate decisions — but thin margins, imperfect carbon data and established standards can slow change. We examine why low-carbon concrete can deliver major embodied-carbon reductions yet still struggle to scale, what makes cleaner steel harder to source, and why spend-based Scope 3 accounting can give companies a dangerously fuzzy picture of their footprint. We also look at the tension between commercial reality and the growing demand from clients for demonstrably lower-carbon projects. Listen now to understand where construction’s Scope 3 emissions really sit — and what has to change if companies are serious about cutting them. Sign up to Climate Confident+ for deep dive analysis of the major climate and energy stories of the day. Support the show Podcast subscribers I'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's amazing subscribers: Anita Krajnc Cecilia Skarupa Ben Gross Jerry Sweeney Andreas Werner Stephen Carroll Roger Arnold And 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. 🎤 Looking for a keynote speaker on climate, energy, AI, or sustainability? I help executive audiences understand the technologies, trends, and decisions shaping the low-carbon transition. Download my Speaker Pack: https://tinyurl.com/spkrpck And a quick note before you go: I’ve started a new Reddit community for serious, evidence-led discussion on climate solutions, clean energy, decarbonisation, policy, technology, and what actually works in practice. If you’d like to suggest future guests, challenge ideas from the show, or share climate reports and solutions worth discussing, join us at r/ClimateConfident

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