​Solitaire Townsend, Co-founder of Futerra shares the inspiration behind her new book, 'The Happy Hero', the Climate Optimism movement & successful Futerra campaigns

Solitaire Townsend’s Twitter profile  succinctly reads: “Author of www.thehappyhero.org. Co-founder of @Futerra. #ClimateOptimist”
 
In this equally succinct interview we dive into an exploration of what inspired Solitaire to become a green entrepreneur as a teenager, how that has influenced her to investigate the connection between happiness and heroism and the evidence of its impact. 
 
We discuss how she is passionate about communicating that whilst we must take climate change seriously, that linking climate and optimism isn't either weird or dangerous, and how we can deal with apathy around climate change by believing that we can deal with it.
 
Along the way we also find out about the work Futerra has done with the likes of WWF and Sky, their partnership with The Climate Group for #ClimateOptimist, the importance of empowering and educating women, and more, all in a succinct 26 minutes.

 Just prior to the launch of their Renewables 2017 Global Status Report, which found there was a record of 161 GW added to global power capacity, for 23% less investment, I talked with Christine Lins, the Executive Secretary of REN21, which is based at the UNEP.

In this fascinating conversation, Christine and I discussed Trump's decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement, and why it may aid global action on climate change, baseload myths, fossil fuel divestment and how policy makers and innovative small businesses can help drive the renewable revolution.
 
REN21 was created in 2004 as a ‘Coalition of the Willing’: all those in the private and the public sector that are keen on advancing renewable energy. Their members span from national governments to different international institutions such as the UN, European Commission, World Bank, industry associations, NGOs and actors in the field of science and academia.