Outrage + Optimism: The Climate Podcast8 Touko 2025

Technology vs Transition?: What Tony Blair gets right - and wrong - about net zero

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair says that net zero is politically unachievable without radical rethinking: a shift away from reducing consumption and toward technologies that can remove carbon both at the source and from the atmosphere. So, are carbon capture and carbon removal really viable - and more palatable - alternatives to a rapid fossil fuel phaseout? And is our net zero strategy failing, or simply failing to be explained?

Hosts Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac, and Paul Dickinson dive into the heart of these questions and explore what Blair’s comments mean for the wider net zero debate. At a time when climate action is becoming increasingly politicised and weaponised, they consider how we might frame net zero as something that improves people’s lives, rather than threatening them. And how we can ensure that every credible climate solution stays on the table.

With timely and provocative contributions from listeners and friends of the podcast - including former BBC News Science Editor David Shukman and Senior Policy Advisor at Carbonfuture Sebastian Manhart - the hosts ask: can we rescue the net zero brand before it’s written off?

Learn more

📘 The Tony Blair Institute’s report, ‘The Climate Paradox: Why We Need to Reset Action on Climate Change’

✈️ ‘Aviation industry is ‘failing dramatically’ on climate, insiders say’ in the Guardian

🌱 The Future We Choose, by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac

📣 Our previous episode on communicating climate change with John Marshall, whose work Christiana references in this episode

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Producer: Ben Weaver-Hincks

Video Producer: Caitlin Hanrahan

Exec Producer: Ellie Clifford

Commissioning Editor: Sarah Thomas

This is a Persephonica production for Global Optimism and is part of the Acast Creator Network.

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