Inside COP: Ed Miliband on Multilateralism, Leadership and the UK’s Climate Dilemma
Outrage + Optimism: The Climate Podcast
Persephonica
4.7 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 9 November 2025
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Why hasn’t the UK contributed to Brazil's flagship Tropical Forests Forever Facility it helped design? With COP30 about to open in Belém, the UK’s absence from this major forest finance deal is raising eyebrows.
Meanwhile, Prince William, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Energy and Climate Change Minister Ed Miliband have been in Brazil this week, demonstrating the country’s continued commitment to the COP process.
Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac sit down with Ed Miliband for a wide-ranging and candid conversation about credible climate leadership, the defence of multilateralism, and why the right is wrong to claim voters don’t care about the climate.
Recorded just after the Leaders’ Summit, 36 hours before COP30 begins, this episode dives into the apparent contradictions in the UK’s actions this week, and asks: how can climate ambition survive amidst political polarisation and harsh economic realities?
Learn more:
💡 Read about the Tropical Forests Forever Facility
⚡See the latest from the UK’s Department for Energy Security & Net Zero
🌍 Check out the official COP30 website for background and announcements
🎤 What do you want to hear on Inside COP? Ask us on SpeakPipe
Follow us on social media for behind the scenes moments and to watch our videos:
Instagram @outrageoptimism
LinkedIn @outrageoptimism
And we want to hear from you! What do you want to hear more of in Inside COP? Get in touch with us. Get in touch with us via this form.
Producer: Ben Weaver-Hincks
Video Producer: Caitlin Hanrahan
Exec Producer: Ellie Clifford
With thanks to Groundswell and Global Optimism.
This is a Persephonica production for Global Optimism and is part of the Acast Creator Network.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | So, hi, listeners, we weren't intending to put an episode out today, but we actually just spoke to Ed Miliband, and he was extremely candid about domestic situation in the UK, what is needed on the international stage as well as some of other developing stories. So we decided actually, we would put it out today. The poor team, they're going to put an extra episode out. So we'll be back. Surprise. We promised you a joint episode of Andre DeLago and Ed Miliband on Monday, |
| 0:23.2 | but actually you're goingago and Ed Miliband |
| 0:22.1 | on Monday. But actually, you're going to get Ed Miliband today and Andre Delago with our |
| 0:26.6 | analysis of the opening of the cop tomorrow. Because his conversation is actually worth a standalone. |
| 0:31.3 | There you go. All right. Here we go. |
| 0:34.5 | Hello and welcome to Inside Cop from Outrage and Optimism. We are here in Bel-M for a special |
| 0:39.9 | conversation with Ed Miliband. Thanks for being here. |
| 0:46.6 | So, Christiana, you and I have gone across town. We're now in the southern part of Bel-M. We're |
| 0:49.8 | sitting at what will be Goals House when the cop begins, which is a great venue. We'll be here |
| 0:53.8 | quite a bit throughout the week. |
| 0:54.7 | When the construction side here is finished. We seem to go from constructions to construction. But we're not in charge. We don't have to worry about it. Someone else has thanked for that. And in a minute, Ed Miliband, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change of the United Kingdom will be here. for a special conversation ahead of the COP, what he's seeing, we're going to talk to him |
| 1:12.4 | about the domestic issues, some of the things around the T-T-T-T-Ru-F, as well as his hopes for the politics at COP. Anything you want to say, you've been friends with Ed for a long time. I've been friends with Ed for a long time, but it does strike me that I've been spending a lot of |
| 1:24.5 | UK related |
| 1:25.3 | time lately |
| 1:26.0 | because I |
| 1:27.5 | spent a lot of |
| 1:28.5 | time last week |
| 1:29.9 | with the |
| 1:30.3 | Irshott Prize |
| 1:31.1 | led by Prince William, then that evening with the British Prime Minister and now with Ed. |
| 1:37.8 | So it's getting a little bit contagious from you, Tom. |
| 1:41.3 | Sorry about that. |
... |
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