The Climate Briefing

Jan 22 2025 48 ep. 35 mins 130

The Climate Briefing Podcast artwork

Climate change and geopolitics meet in The Climate Briefing, assembling experts, scientists and leaders to tackle some of the thorniest challenges in sustainability. Hosts Ruth Townend and Anna Åberg bring brilliant guests and big questions to Chatham House from around the world.

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Episode 48: The 2025 international climate agenda

Jan 22 2025 40 mins

Former US Climate Envoy Todd Stern and Director of Chatham House's Environment and Society Centre Ana Yang join hosts Ruth Townend and Anna Aberg to talk about prospects for climate action in 2025. Following Trump's inauguration, what are the likely consequences for climate diplomacy, and how will Brazil balance domestic demands against international obligations as COP30 and BRICS

Episode 47: What happened at COP29? Chaos, climate finance and coughs

Dec 10 2024 37 mins

Chatham House's Environment and Society Centre reassembles to discuss the outcomes of COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, what this means for climate finance and multilateralism, and how Ben’s Christmas jumper sums up the interconnected challenges developed countries face in balancing global resilience with domestic obligations. With Chris Aylett, Richard King and Ruth Townend, and speci

Episode 46: COP29, Azerbaijan's climate leadership, and prospects for climate action

Nov 14 2024 42 mins

As COP29 kicks off in Baku, Chatham House's Environment and Society Centre assembles on the airwaves. The team talk Azerbaijan's climate leadership, World Leader vibes, prospects for the conference, and why working on climate change makes you a terrible dinner party guest. Special guest hosted by Climate Briefing Alumnus, Ben Horton.

Episode 45: Climate finance 2 - Private finance, polycrisis and positive shocks

Aug 07 2024 40 mins

Coming fresh from a discussion of how private finance might close the climate finance gap, Ruth Townend is joined by Dr Nicola Ranger, Director of the Resilient Planet Finance Lab at Oxford University, and Professor Patrick Bolton, professor of finance and economics at Imperial College London. In the run up to COP29, we explore how public international finance might be deployed to

Episode 44: Re-humanising migration: From the geopolitical to the personal, and back again

Jul 10 2024 39 mins

Migration is top of mind and front of rhetoric in many countries, particularly as elections approach and geopolitical trends of increasing polarisation take hold. Ruth Townend is joined by Professor Ian Goldin, author of ‘The Shortest History of Migration’, and by Shelterbox CEO Sanj Srikanthan to discuss personal histories of migration, global trends, and the future of migrati

Episode 43: UK elections and climate action: wellspring or washout?

Jun 25 2024 31 mins

With a UK a general election rapidly approaching, as announced by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in the pouring rain, it seems that the commitment of both main parties to tackling climate change is looking almost as bedraggled as the prime minister himself. Ruth Townend is joined by Rachel Brisley, Ipsos’s Head of Energy and Environment and Olivia O’Sullivan, the director of Chath

Episode 42: Beyond the Energy Transition

Jun 14 2024 26 mins

Ruth Townend is joined by Antony Froggatt, Deputy Director and Glada Lahn, Senior Research Fellow, both of the Chatham House Environment and Society Centre to discuss the challenges and opportunities of the energy transition in key under-attended-to sectors, including non-energy-uses of fossil fuels. The podcast builds upon a series of four Chatham House roundtables kindly supporte

Episode 41: Climate finance: “show me the innovative sources”

Jun 04 2024 36 mins

Climate finance is vital to tackling climate change and decarbonising economies. Past pledges, however, have often failed to deliver, especially for developing countries. In the lead-up to COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, climate finance will be a major topic. Ruth Townend is joined by Jamie Fergusson, global director for Climate Business for International Finance Corporation, part of th

Episode 40: We need to talk about… behaviour change

Mar 15 2024 37 mins

Coming fresh from the Chatham House Energy Transitions Conference, Ruth Townend is joined in the studio by IPCC lead author on demand, Professor Felix Creutzig, Dr Christina Demski, Deputy Director of the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformation, and Toby Park, Principle Advisor and Head of Energy, Environment and Sustainability at the Behavioural Insights Team. Togeth

Episode 39: Unicorns vs workhorses

Feb 13 2024 36 mins

Ruth Townend is joined in the studio by Gwynne Dyer, author of Climate Wars, and Chatham House’s own Dr Daniel Quiggin to talk about climate solutions from the magical to the mundane. For his forthcoming book Intervention Earth, Dyer has spoken with more than 50 thinkers, innovators and engineers about how we might cool the planet and avoid catastrophe. Dyer, Quiggin and Townend