Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
In this episode of the Climate Confident Podcast, I sit down with Dr. Gary Yohe, one of the world’s leading climate economists and a long-time IPCC author who shared in the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
Gary has spent more than 40 years reframing how we think about climate change, not as a distant environmental issue, but as a risk management challenge with urgent economic, social, and financial consequences.
We explore his simple but powerful framework: abate, adapt, or suffer. These are the only three climate choices we have left, and some level of suffering is now inevitable. From the collapse of insurance markets in California to the risks of sea-level rise in San Francisco, Gary shows how climate change is already disrupting finance, housing, and community resilience.
But this isn’t all doom. Gary draws inspiration from Václav Havel’s words that hope is not optimism but the conviction that action makes sense, regardless of the outcome. It’s a message of courage for policymakers, businesses, and citizens alike.
👉 If you want to understand why climate economics, risk, and resilience are at the heart of the crisis, and what we can do to respond—this conversation is essential.
📌 Don’t forget to subscribe for more interviews with global climate leaders.
🎧 Listen to the podcast: climateconfidentpodcast.com
✉️ Subscribe to my fee weekly newsletter: newsletter.tomraftery.com
⸻
Timestamps:
00:00 – Introduction
02:00 – Abate, adapt, or suffer explained
07:30 – Why insurance markets are flashing red
12:45 – Climate risk as financial instability
18:00 – Finding hope, not optimism, in climate action
25:00 – Climate Café and the power of collaboration
33:00 – Closing reflections
In this episode of the Climate Confident Podcast, I sit down with Dr. Gary Yohe, one of the world’s leading climate economists and a long-time IPCC author who shared in the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
Gary has spent more than 40 years reframing how we think about climate change, not as a distant environmental issue, but as a risk management challenge with urgent economic, social, and financial consequences.
We explore his simple but powerful framework: abate, adapt, or suffer. These are the only three climate choices we have left, and some level of suffering is now inevitable. From the collapse of insurance markets in California to the risks of sea-level rise in San Francisco, Gary shows how climate change is already disrupting finance, housing, and community resilience.
But this isn’t all doom. Gary draws inspiration from Václav Havel’s words that hope is not optimism but the conviction that action makes sense, regardless of the outcome. It’s a message of courage for policymakers, businesses, and citizens alike.
👉 If you want to understand why climate economics, risk, and resilience are at the heart of the crisis, and what we can do to respond—this conversation is essential.
📌 Don’t forget to subscribe for more interviews with global climate leaders.
🎧 Listen to the podcast: climateconfidentpodcast.com
✉️ Subscribe to my fee weekly newsletter: newsletter.tomraftery.com
⸻
Timestamps:
00:00 – Introduction
02:00 – Abate, adapt, or suffer explained
07:30 – Why insurance markets are flashing red
12:45 – Climate risk as financial instability
18:00 – Finding hope, not optimism, in climate action
25:00 – Climate Café and the power of collaboration
33:00 – Closing reflections
