Instead of yet another COP30 preview, your hostess SYNI heads right into the heart of the real sustainable energy debate that is sadly missing in Brazil, starting with an explanation of the one chart you need during COP30 week, the classic Sankey energy use diagram. If you’re not familiar with the Sankey, never fear, you will be by the end of this pod. And you’ll know how it reveals that clean energy answers a far larger share of our real energy needs than realised by the pessimists responsible for COP30's negative vibe shift. Think interns of energy services and suddenly you can see the light at the end of the NetZero tunnel. So join SYNI as she paints this Sankey picture in your sustainable imagination. 

SYNI, your hostess with virtual swag, challenges us to become time travellers to ameliorate our view on climate change. She addresses the recent, growing clamour in the climate change debate and why the science leaves very little room for doubt. The clock we should be watching is measured in geological time rather than in financial quarters or electoral cycles. Claims that urgent action is alarmism fail this basic time test. The science shows that each additional increment of warming increases damages and raises the risk of crossing thresholds with long lasting outcomes. The pathways that keep those risks in a manageable range demand deep emission cuts this decade and the next. They require structural investment decisions that align with a world that works at low emissions. So let's go Back to the Future, jump into the DeLorean with Doc and Marty, set the clock to the 22nd century and listen to SYNI tell it like it is.  

SYNI, your host with the most subtle-swag in the sustainable community, is focused on the United Nations endorsing the first Article 6.4 carbon credit methodology, a breakthrough that may unlock hundreds of billions $$ in climate finance and reframe how global carbon markets operate. SNYI introduces you to the A6.4ER (catchy we know!) and unravels why this huge step forward that has taken a decade will soon take centre stage at the COP30 conference in Belem, Brazil. And yes, this is one of those rare times when bureaucracy might save the planet. One thing is certain: the global carbon market is no longer a theoretical construct. It has a name, a rulebook, and a supervisor. 

SYNI, your host, gives a review of the International Maritime Organisation meeting in London last week to promote a Net Zero agenda. Spoiler Alert: Delegates arrived with dense documents and finely tuned talking points and left with a familiar souvenir from multilateral life. The headline is simple. The can has been kicked into 2026. The decision on a global fuel standard and a pricing instrument still awaits while the working group on greenhouse gas reduction refines drafts and guidance while capitals weigh their red lines and their comfort zones. As always, SYNI is full of tough questions and she offers up honest answers. Thanks for joining us!

In this episode, SYNI, your host who provides the most, is mulling the politicisation of sustainability, especially sustainable finance at the supranational institutional level. The World Bank sits at this crossroads, and there are political opponents howling in the not-so far distance. This brings us to a core principle we have stated since the start: sustainability should stand on its own, not be wrapped in other causes, so it stays clear of political fights unrelated to protecting the climate. So let's tip our hat to SYNI and cozy up to another 20 minutes of her podcast magic.

Join SYNI, your host, for an examination of Germany’s role in Europe’s green hydrogen industry and the politics now shaping support for production and infrastructure across the Union. Germany likes to think of itself as Europe’s industrial metronome. When the beat is steady, factories hum and policy lines up with engineering. When the beat stutters, everyone hears it. Nowhere is that more evident than in green hydrogen, where Berlin’s choices ripple through investment committees from the Ruhr to Rotterdam, and through ministries from Brussels to Madrid. 

SYNI, your host, explores the Douro Valley as a living landscape, a place that invites careful stewardship because it is both a working valley and a world treasure. We are going to explore how UNESCO helps set a sustainable framework for this remarkable region in northern Portugal, how local institutions and producers have translated that framework into practical choices, and why the Douro remains a case study for aligning heritage with climate action. So join SYNI's pod and search into your cabinet for that long-savoured bottle 40 Tawny, both yours to enjoy! 

SYNI, your host, delves into New York City Climate Week, one of the high-profile gatherings on the sustainable calendar. As the conference moves into full-swing, we want to answer two important questions that you may share. Is this spectacle or substance? Are we meeting to admire the problem or to move capital and policy and technology at the speed required? SYNI works through these animating questions in five pieces of thinking. History and origins. Who is on the mic this week. What impact to expect in real terms. What the record says about outcomes from prior years. And what future trends and complementary events like Harvard Climate Action Week can add to the signal. So sit back and let SYNI sort it out on your behalf!

SYNI, your hostess, address today’s topic of a slightly specialist nature within the world of sustainable politics, Nationally Determined Contributions, otherwise known as NDCs, and whether they are a credible foundation of climate action or a theatrical flourish of sustainable politics that promises the earth on the grand political stage but then forgets its lines once the global attention and auditorium empties. But don't expect a one-line verdict from SYNI. That would be neat and misleading. Evidence points to both momentum and inertia. Listen for the next 22 minutes and join the debate!

In our 37th Episode, SYNI, your host, tackles the next wave of sustainable energy storage and why it will define the pace and reach of the clean power transition. Storage is the hinge on which an electrified future swings. Solar and wind now form a meaningful and growing share of generation in many markets. Yet scale brings new questions. SYNI asks you, our loyal listeners, to picture the grid as an outdoor orchestra. Renewables are the brass and strings with surges of splendour and the odd squeak of timing. Storage is the percussion section keeping time. The conductor is price. And the audience is you, a public that now expects reliability, low emissions, and sensible cost. Happy listening!! 

SYNI, your indefatigable hostess, focuses on the Science Based Targets initiative and its draft revision to the Corporate Net Zero Standard, which were recently updated. We hope you didn’t think we would go for a light and cheerful topic to close out the summer? No, no! Instead SYNI plunges into the deep end of sustainable governance and corporate regulation, taking a close look at STBi Version 2.0 and the fine line between pragmatic target setting and protecting long-term reductions that the net zero carbon emissions goal requires. So grab your notebook and sit at your desk for this one as we're working through complex policy and making recommendations how to best navigate the changes.   

SYNI, your host, tears into today's topic, the European Union Hydrogen Bank. Specifically, what is wrong with the Bank and why are winners of the biggest subsidies walking away from completing their green hydrogen projects? We’re talking about three of the largest green hydrogen projects in the EU turning an icy shoulder €589 million of future EU support during this blazing hot summer. We’ll need more than sun cream and a beach umbrella to unravel this one. Thankfully we have SYNI's take on both problems and solutions, so sit back for the next 23 minutes and enjoy the cool breeze of our pod. 

This week join SYNI, your host, as she dives into the role of crypto currencies in sustainability with a special look at the growing role of tokenisation in carbon credits. It’s been a subject on our radar for several weeks, and with the growing mania over bitcoin’s rapid price rise in recent weeks, it’s seems like the perfect time to tackle the subject of how the explosive world of digital currencies are producing sustainable outcomes and private funding solutions. So it's both the dog days of summer and time to put on your crypto thinking cap. We hope you enjoy the pod! 

Your host SYNI explores the European Union’s latest push to harness artificial intelligence in the energy sector as a tool against climate change. The EU has recently opened consultations for a Strategic Roadmap on Digitalisation and AI in the Energy Sector, reflecting its commitment to ensure the digital and green transitions go hand-in-hand. We’ll explore how AI can accelerate decarbonisation across Europe’s power grids, buildings, and industries, discuss the most important AI use cases highlighted in the EU plan, and provide a balanced view of the opportunities and concerns that AI brings to the energy industry. So sit back and enjoy this August break with our summertime pod! 

SYNI, your hostess with dry wit and a sharp tongue, launches into the second in our Summer mini-pod series, well aware that many of you might currently be lounging beachside, mountain-bound, hiking on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, or spending the long August days on your island in the Baltic Sea, not exactly keeping pace with the latest in climate finance literature. So allow SYNI to bring you up to speed on everything you missed. Specifically, the freshly released "Global Landscape of Climate Finance 2025" report details the leaps and bounds of climate finance into the trillion dollar stratosphere, so, settle in comfortably, grab your beverage of choice, and hit play.

SYNI launches our summer series of mini pods, shorter more focused episodes intended to match the shorter attention spans of our summertime listeners. Today’s topic is the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, better known to its friends as the HLPF. Specifically, we’re diving into the launch of the Climate and SDG Synergy Solutions reports and the wider signals sent at this year’s forum in New York. If you missed it, think of this as your guided tour of what was said, what was meant, and what might happen next.

SYNI is riding the breeze for today’s pod topic of sailing – its heritage as a sustainable means of transport and sailing’s place in today’s world of sustainable sport and pastimes. As the saying goes, we cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust our sails. The sailing world is doing exactly that, adapting its practices to protect what it loves. In the process, it keeps alive the spirit of exploration and freedom that sailing has always embodied, while steering that spirit toward healing our blue planet. We'll also check out three sailing clubs - San Diego Yacht Club, Clube Naval de Ponta Delgada and Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, to zoom in on the way sustainable is the new form of clubability. We invite you to unfurl your spinnaker with SYNI!  

SYNI launches into Part 2 of our mini-series on the European Commission’s proposed 2040 Climate Law amendment, a plan that would legally bind the European Union to cut its net greenhouse gas emissions by 90% by the year 2040. This week we’re zooming in on the Iberian Peninsula, unlocking the likely impact of the EU’s initiative specifically on Spain and Portugal, and then circling back to the traditional European heavyweights of Germany and France. We’ll also dive into carbon credits, market design, and climate governance shifts under this 2040 proposal. It’s a statement that the EU is not taking the foot off the accelerator after 2030 but rather pressing harder. The direction is set, towards deep decarbonisation.

SYNI, your host, tackles the European Commission’s 2040 Climate Law amendment – a plan that would legally bind the European Union to cut its net greenhouse gas emissions by 90% by the year 2040. Now, that’s a hefty goal and a mouthful of policy-speak, but fear not: we’re going to unpack what this 2040 target really means in this Part 1 of a 2 part mini-series, why it matters right now in 2025, and how it could reshape everything from how Europeans get their energy to how they travel, manufacture goods, grow food, and even how businesses plan for the future.

This week, SYNI is zooming out to look at sustainable tourism on a broader scale in Part 2 of a mini-series. We’ll discuss the global trends that are reshaping travel in the name of sustainability, examine if all these green ideas are making a dent in the tourism industry’s environmental impact, and see what’s being done about the not-so-sustainable side of mass tourism. Plus, we’ll take a little tour of some of the world’s most environmentally friendly resorts – from rustic eco-lodges to high-end retreats – and tackle a thorny question: is eco-tourism becoming just another luxury good for the rich, or can it be accessible to everyone? So, grab your reusable coffee mug and settle in, because we’re about to ride the green wave into the world of sustainable travel.