Christiana Figueres's Recent LinkedIn Posts

I’m delighted to see Amazon and The Earthshot Prize take this important step forward in turning the world’s most promising climate solutions into real-world impact. This partnership is not about ideas alone - it is about implementation at scale. By connecting Earthshot Finalists with Amazon’s global operations and the broader corporate network of The Climate Pledge, this collaboration opens pathways for innovation to move faster, travel further, and deliver tangible benefits for people and planet. Over the past five years, Earthshot Finalists have already raised more than $500 million and demonstrated what is possible. Now, the focus sharpens: deployment, replication, and systemic change. What is so encouraging here is a simple but urgent truth: we do not lack solutions - we lack speed and scale. Encouragingly, both are within reach. When bold innovation meets global platforms capable of rapid adoption, we begin to unlock the positive tipping points that science tells us are possible this decade. This is how we move from inspiration to transformation.

Each Earthshot Prize host city brings together innovators, leaders and changemakers driving climate leadership at scale. The journey continues with #EarthshotMumbai

It is understandable to feel that there are so many challenges in today’s world that we don’t know where to start. Choose where you can make a difference, where you can influence a decision, where you can bring kindness, to yourself and to someone else – who really needs it in that moment? If it is a moment of hate and aggression, ask where can I bring peace and expand love? It is not a question of where the highest level of the system I can affect is, but of where I can actually make a difference in this moment, in the here and now. 🪷🪷🪷 A pleasure to join Plum Village friends Brother Phap Huu, Sister True Dedication and Brother Spirit for this discussion about how a mindfulness practice can support us to engage deeply and take action in the world. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/eHqxmCib Find out about the Plum Village online course, Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet (next cohort starting 1st March) here: https://lnkd.in/dX_B_wpB Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism, Inc. Plum Village App

Even if Trump's assertion that climate change is a hoax were true - the case for renewable energy stands on its own: → Security. Nations dependent on imported fossil fuels hand leverage to regimes they'd rather not. Domestic renewables change that equation entirely. → Growth. Clean energy isn't just green - it's a growth story waiting to be written for countries like the UK and Germany. → Stability. Smart public investment in renewables strengthens the social contract. It creates jobs, cuts energy bills, and gives governments something concrete to point to. Yet the latest conflict over oil has predictably triggered calls to squeeze more from declining reserves - the same short-term reflex, dressed up as pragmatism. Will leaders reach for the familiar, or will some finally use this moment as the push to build something more resilient? Don't miss today's episode of Outrage + Optimism, The Climate Podcast where Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac OBE and Paul Dickinson are joined by Bruce Douglas of Global Renewables Alliance (GRA) and Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) to unpack why the threat to oil infrastructure and the Strait of Hormuz matters so much, and why these moments keep repeating. 🎧 Out now, wherever you get your podcasts (link in comments).

I had a fascinating conversation about the psychology of behaviour change in the context of climate action with Lorraine Whitmarsh MBE last week - and it is encouraging to see this science increasingly applied to policy and public engagement. But the conversation also made me think about how this psychology is being used on the flip side. Unfortunately fossil fuel exporting countries understand it just as well as we do - and they’re ahead of the game. They know that individual behaviour change is difficult, that it is slow, shaped by systems, habits and infrastructure, and they are using that insight strategically in the global plastics negotiations. As fossil fuels lose competitiveness in electricity generation and increasingly in transport, petrochemicals and plastics represent a critical “long tail” for business continuity. Protecting that market is not incidental, it is central. In the plastics convention negotiations last year, we saw a clear dynamic emerge: some fossil fuel producers signalled they would not agree to measures that limit production unless there was parallel agreement to curb consumption. This might sound balanced to some but in reality, it shifts the burden toward consumers and behaviour change, fully aware that large scale shifts in consumption are politically and socially complex. This is not accidental, it is strategic. Thanks to the continuing work of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and maniy others we are getting closer to an international legally binding agreement on plastic, and we must employ all the levers available to us. This is not a choice between production and consumption, it is about addressing both, with clarity and courage. Understanding human behaviour should accelerate ambition, not delay it.

We are living in a time of profound suffering and injustice. With the energy of mindfulness, we can respond with clarity & compassion. 🙏💫💚 🌍 Just a few days left Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet: A 7-week online course with Plum Village teachers, climate leaders (including Christiana Figueres) & a global community of changemakers. Designed for those working in climate & systems-change, the journey encompasses: 🙏 Live sessions with monastic teachers 🪷 Profound talks & mindfulness practices grounded in the Plum Village tradition 🌈 Interactive sharing groups and opportunities for deep listening Learn more at plumvillage.org/zasp #MotherEarth #ClimateAction #Activism #Transformation #FutureGenerations #Dawn #EngagedBuddhism #DeepEcology #Mindfulness #Interconnectedness

Most of us like to think we make bold, independent choices. But the reality is that we often stick with whatever’s pre-selected. A Swiss research team and a national energy provider tested this with 250,000 customers. When renewable energy was the default plan, about 90% stayed on it for four years. When people had to opt in to renewables, only 3% chose it. Same people, same options, different default. As Lorraine Whitmarsh MBE, Professor of Environmental Psychology and Director of the The Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST) at the University of Bath tells us, defaults quietly steer behavior. And right now, many global systems are still preset toward higher-carbon choices instead of cleaner ones. 💬 Where else could we use this to maximum effect to change behaviour for a collective effort to carbon reduction? Hear more from Lorraine on the psychology behind 'catastrophe apathy': why understanding an existential threat doesn't always lead to action in today's episode of Outrage + Optimism, The Climate Podcast, with Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac OBE and Paul Dickinson. Out now, wherever you get your podcasts (link in comments).

On International Women’s Day, I was reflecting on how grateful I am to have had the opportunity to sit down for in-depth conversations with some of the remarkable women leading on climate. From shaping global systems to standing on the very frontlines of the climate crisis, their insight and determination are deeply inspiring. I’m thankful to have learned from voices such as Jacinda Ardern, Katharine Hayhoe, Jennifer Robinson, Cynthia Houniuhi and Helena Gualinga, to name just a few. Of course, there are countless other women, many working without recognition, striving every day against the odds to build a better future for all of us. I celebrate you and I am grateful for the work you do. I would love to hear which extraordinary women you are honouring this year.

Christiana Figueres: “We are in the middle of so many storms - personal storms, geo-political storms, environmental storms. If we learn how to ground ourselves in mindfulness, we prepare ourselves to be resilient… and to help others maintain serenity in the middle of these storms.” In a time of such heaviness, community is our biggest strength. Nearly 1000 people from over 66 countries have now joined us, and you still have time to register. 🙏♥️ Registrations close Saturday 14th March. Join us at: plumvillage.org/zasp ✨

Stop the 'hair shirting' and flip the framing! When we talk about the behaviour change needed for climate action it is all too often assumed it’s a sacrifice, like embracing a kind of modern-day hair-shirt mentality in the name of doing the right thing. While there can be trade-offs, that narrative misses the bigger picture. As we discussed with Lorraine Whitmarsh MBE on last week's podcast, any of the actions that reduce emissions also deliver immediate, tangible co-benefits for individuals: cleaner air, better physical and mental health, more liveable cities, lower energy bills, and stronger communities. These aren’t distant or abstract gains - they directly improve quality of life. So perhaps it’s time to flip the framing. Instead of presenting health and wellbeing as side benefits of climate policy, we could put them front and centre, recognising that decarbonisation is what happens when we design systems around healthier, better lives. What do you think? Is this perspective shift what is needed to create the change that is needed? University of Bath The Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST)

If climate change is the shark, water is the teeth. It's a vivid way of putting it (thanks Paul Dickinson 🙏) but it captures something important that global climate negotiations don't. Despite being the thread connecting all three UNFCCC environmental conventions (climate, biodiversity, desertification), water doesn't feature in the climate convention or the Paris Agreement. Why? Because these agreements tend to focus on the cause - rising greenhouse gas concentrations - not the effects. Water is where the effects hit hardest. As Paul laid out in last week's episode: - Melting land-based ice raises sea levels. Even a centimetre or two of rise can push storm surges hundreds of metres further inland, turning what were manageable floods into devastating ones. - Warming oceans expand thermally, adding further to sea level rise. - A more energetic Earth system carries more water in the atmosphere, producing the intense, concentrated rainfall events that are becoming the new normal. The climate crisis is increasingly experienced as a water crisis. Drought, flood and storm surge are are the faces of a warming world. One listener asked, do we focus enough on water in global climate negotiations and decision making? The simple answer is no, but it is time that we do. Listen to the full conversation on the latest episode of Outrage + Optimism, The Climate Podcast

I am outraged. How much pointless loss and destruction do we need to see before we break our oil addiction cycle? Every oil crisis is not a surprise, it's a consequence - and with each subsequent turn of the wheel, the human and economic prices being paid increase. The costs aren't abstract, they're measured in livelihoods, in communities and in futures cut short. What will it take for us to finally break the cycle? Listen to the latest Outrage + Optimism, The Climate Podcast for more on this, with Tom Rivett-Carnac OBE Paul Dickinson Bruce Douglas of Global Renewables Alliance (GRA), wherever you get your podcasts.

One of the biggest barriers to the energy transition isn't technology or politics. It's the price of capital. Tom Rivett-Carnac OBE lays out the numbers: Germany borrows at roughly 3%. Indonesia at 8–12%, with an additional 2% currency risk on top. Double the cost of finance and a project becomes 50% more expensive before a single panel is installed or a single turbine turns. The countries most exposed to climate impacts are also the ones being charged the most to respond to them. That's not an accident of geography — it's a structural problem baked into how global capital flows. We go deeper on this in our latest episode with Sri Mulyani Indrawati — Finance Minister of Indonesia, former Managing Director of The World Bank, and one of the most credible voices in the world on exactly this set of challenges. She walks through what it actually costs to retire a single coal plant early, why developing countries are trapped by contracts they signed in good faith, and what it would actually take to fix the system. 🎧 Full episode out now - link in comments.

“They are cooking the books.” Part of the Trump administration's justification for the repeal of the 'endangerment finding' last week, was an economic argument that going back to coal and gas is cheaper than renewables. That is true only if you ignore a large part of the figures, looking only at the cost to industry rather than to people or planet. Manish Bapna, President and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), willl be exposing these lies as the NDRC prepares to challenge the rollback in court - and is fairly confident they will win. In the meantime, uncertainty reigns.  What do you think - is this a temporary political detour, or a structural turning point for US climate leadership? Listen to today's Outrage + Optimism, The Climate Podcast to hear the full story. With Tom Rivett-Carnac, Christiana Figueres and Paul Dickinson, wherever you get your podcasts.

“Give me a billion dollars and I’ll do what you want.” Manish Bapna, President and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), links the Mar-a-Lago dinner with oil and gas executives to the rollback of the US endangerment finding. He argues this goes beyond a shift in policy - this is an attempt by ‘climate deniers’ and ‘ideologues’ within the Trump Administration to limit how future administrations regulate greenhouse gases. Don't miss this week's episode which goes way beyond the headlines about the repeal of the ‘endangerment finding’. Out now wherever you get your podcasts.

The vicious climate finance cycle for developing countries: Suffer greater Impacts of climate change ↓ Lower credit ratings  ↓ Higher borrowing costs ↓ More expensive energy transition ↓ Harder to reduce emissions ↓ The climate crisis gets worse... and round we go again. As highlighted with the example of Indonesia, penalizing climate-exposed countries with higher capital costs doesn’t manage risk, it slows the transition we all depend on for a stable planet. In this week’s Outrage + Optimism, The Climate Podcast we discuss this in depth and hear from Sri Mulyani Indrawati, economist and former Minister of Finance of Indonesia. One thing is clear: breaking this cycle is not just fair, it is financially and environmentally necessary.

By the end of the current administration, the US is going to be far behind the technological developments of the rest of the world. Will it be able to catch up? Great to talk to Katharine Hayhoe as always to explore what the US doubling down on fossil fuels means for its citizens and for the world.

We are no longer debating whether the clean-energy transition will happen - we are debating how fast we will make it a reality. Initiatives like Point One World highlight how, by aligning every day economic activity with climate ambition, we can begin to unlock new finance and broaden participation at the scale this challenge demands.

It goes without saying that efforts should be made to prevent as many bird deaths as possible, but we cannot give in to the politicization of these environmental issues.

Trump’s repeal of the US ‘endangerment finding’ is a huge kick in the teeth for climate action. On tomorrow’s episode, Manish Bapna of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) joins Tom Rivett-Carnac OBE, Christiana Figueres and Paul Dickinson to discuss what the repeal actually means for the US and globally - and how the US is pushing back. 🎧 Out Thursday 19 February, wherever you get your podcasts. Meanwhile, China’s Xinhua news agency’s cartoon sums up much of the global reaction pretty neatly (via Leo Hickman, Carbon Brief):

How much has the concept of a carbon footprint distracted us from the systemic changes needed at scale? It’s now widely understood that the term was created by bp in the early 2000s through a well-funded campaign that reframed the climate crisis as a matter of personal responsibility rather than corporate accountability. At the time, the idea was embraced by many, including environmental organisations - climate-conscious individual choices are of course undeniably positive. But they are not how we solve this problem. Looking back, the intentions of the fossil fuel industry are clear: to shift blame and focus from them to us - so they could keep on drilling. In this week’s episode, Tom Rivett-Carnac OBE asks what this framing has meant for our collective response. 💬 What do you think? How much has the carbon footprint narrative slowed the push for systemic action? 🎧 Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. Link in comments.

I’ve been asked by a few people why the repeal of the ‘endangerment finding’ is so significant - after all it’s not the first climate policy or regulation rolled back by Trump. This one does however stand in a category of its own - here’s a metaphor that might be useful. Most recent actions could be compared to pruning branches from a tree: they weaken climate policy, but the overall structure still stands. The endangerment finding, established by the Environmental Protection Agency, is different. It functions as the legal foundation for many federal climate regulations, which means that if you remove it, you are no longer trimming branches, you are uprooting the system that allows those branches to grow at all. Without that legal root, it will be extremely difficult for the federal government to justify or implement future climate rules that rely on it. The full significance of this remains to be seen. Manish Bapna of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) lays it out here. You can listen to the full discussion in the most recent episode of Outrage + Optimism, The Climate Podcast.

🪦 Multilateralism as we knew it is gone - international frameworks are weaker and global consensus is harder. But this isn't the time for nostalgia for days gone by. As Christiana Figueres says, nostalgia paralyses: if we spend all our time trying to rebuild what’s in pieces, we don’t build what comes next. We can't recreate the past so we need to ask what replaces it - will Mark Carney's ideas of purposeful alignment between nations rather than universal alignment work in this new world? 👇 What do you think climate cooperation looks like now? 🎧 Hear the full conversation on this week's Outrage + Optimism, The Climate Podcast with Tom Rivett-Carnac OBE, Christiana Figueres and Paul Dickinson, out now.

Spraying aerosols into the upper atmosphere might cool the planet. It might also remove the urgency to cut emissions. So the question really is not really whether geoengineering will buy us more time, but more time for what? In this week's episode Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac OBE and Paul Dickinson take on some of the knottiest questions in climate including water stress, biodiversity loss and geoengineering. 👇 Is geoengineering now a necessary component in the climate toolbox, or is it distracting from the real work that needs to be done? Let us know your thoughts. 🎧 Full episode link in caption.

📣 LET'S BE REAL about the unfairness of the global financial system: "When the rules were set, our countries did not even exist as countries independently, and therefore in many instances, decisions are made without reference to whether the impact on us is positive or negative. So we begin first from the perspective that if you don’t know our reality, you can’t lead for us in that respect. It is clear that unless we have discussions with all players at the table, we’re not going to change the system.” So said Mia Amor Mottley in our interview 18 months ago and the sentiment is echoed by Sri Mulyani Indrawati in our latest episode: the global financial system needs to deliver a fairer deal for developing countries. The possible viable path set out by Indrawati for Indonesia is similar to the Bridgetown Initiative which under Mottley's leadership aims to restructure debt, and increase development funding for climate-vulnerable, developing nations. Listen to both conversations for a deeper understanding of the steps being taken to address the unfairness of the system - and what's blocking them. 🎧 Mia Mottley: https://lnkd.in/etCHSgsu 🎧 Sri Mulyani Indrawati: https://lnkd.in/eZqFNu4R