Climate Confident
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 finance
- the politics, markets, and policies shaping the transition
- the technologies and tools improving climate accountability, resilience, and risk management
- hard truths, hidden bottlenecks, bold ideas, and real-world success stories
Subscribers 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.
Climate Confident
Why Fossil Fuel Dependence Is a Terrible Business Model
This episode is only available to subscribers.
Climate Confident +
Get bonus episodes with extra analysis, insight, and commentaryWhat if fossil fuels aren’t just polluting, but a standing threat to economic stability?
This episode makes the case that the energy transition is now as much about security and cost as it is about climate.
In this solo Climate Confident+ episode, I dig into a brutal truth too many policymakers and business leaders still avoid: fossil fuels don’t merely drive emissions, they drive volatility, fragility, and geopolitical risk. At a moment when war, price shocks, and supply disruption are once again rattling global markets, I unpack why this matters for climate tech, decarbonisation, and the wider energy transition.
You’ll hear why fossil dependence acts like “instability in a bottle”, and why renewables, storage, EVs, heat pumps, and grid upgrades are increasingly the smarter response, not just environmentally, but economically. We dig into how fuel shocks ripple through inflation, trade, competitiveness, and public finances. And you might be shocked to learn just how much fossil import dependence is still costing countries, businesses, and households, even before you count the pollution, health damage, and wider social harm.
This is also a clear-eyed episode. I’m not pretending renewables solve everything by magic. We need grids, storage, flexibility, better policy, and faster deployment. But that’s precisely the point: those are infrastructure challenges we can solve. Perpetual exposure to volatile fossil fuels is not a strategy. It’s a liability.
🎙️ Listen now to hear why climate tech, policy, and electrification are becoming central to real-world decarbonisation, energy security, net zero, and long-term emissions reduction.
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.
Contact
If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - get in touch via direct message on LinkedIn.
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