The Power of Optimism: A Conversation with Christiana Figueres

The Climate Consciousness Summit 2024, hosted alongside COP29 in Azerbaijan, seeks to bridge climate action with global healing. The summit explores how addressing the climate crisis requires not only policies and technologies but also a shift in human consciousness.

In this conversation, Christiana Figueres, the Costa Rican diplomat who led the negotiations for the 2015 Paris Agreement, speaks with Kosha Joubert, CEO of the Pocket Project and co-host of the summit. Figueres shares her deeply personal perspective on optimism, collaboration, the fossil fuel industry, and the spiritual practice that sustains her leadership.

“Optimism is a well-informed choice, not naive hope”

Kosha Joubert: Christiana, many people today feel that the time for optimism has passed. What makes you optimistic, and how do you define optimism in the context of climate change?

Christiana Figueres: First, let me define what I mean by optimism, because so many people use the word in different ways, and everybody obviously chooses to interpret the word in their own context.

For me, optimism cannot be blind or naive. It’s not a sense of ignoring the science, ignoring the news, ignoring the destruction that we’re witnessing. It’s also not an irresponsible optimism, in the sense of saying, Well, this is for someone else to deal with, and I’ll just sit here on the couch and delegate the responsibility.

For me, optimism is a well-informed, deeply in-touch choice that we make to transform the pain into conviction and agency. It is not the output of something that we have achieved—it is the input. It is making a choice, which for me is a daily choice, of acknowledging the challenges, acknowledging the painful feelings that we all share, and saying: Precisely because of that, I will pick myself up and turn up in the world with my full agency and my full commitment to this.

“Collaboration is the natural state of life”

In an increasingly polarized world, how do we foster collaboration rather than division?

The irony is that collaboration is the natural state of affairs. If you look at nature, that’s the way nature operates. Any ecosystem is the result of the most complex collaboration among many species.

Deep down, it is also true for us as humans, because we are part of nature—not separate from it. But in the past 12,000 years, we have disassociated ourselves from nature. Starting with the agricultural revolution, we moved from being hunters and gatherers—deeply immersed in and dependent on nature—to sedentary human beings who intervened in nature, fenced off land, and developed an extractive mindset.

We got used to extracting food, fossil fuels, minerals, metals, wood—using and disposing without thinking about the consequences. But I don’t think this extractive mentality is truly who we are. It is learned behavior, and if we learned it, we can unlearn it.

So collaboration is not something we must force. Instead, we must pause, look deeply, and question what is truly natural to us. When we do, we realize that collaboration is not an external goal—it is who we really are.

“The fossil fuel industry is benefiting from an unexpected bonanza—but that won’t last”

Last year, you spoke about your disappointment in the fossil fuel industry. How do you see its role now?

As I said last year—and I’ve been very public about it—I am deeply disappointed by what the fossil fuel industry has chosen to do with their unprecedented profits since the invasion of Ukraine.

Now, what is very interesting is to observe that despite the fact that the full fossil fuel industry continues to want to extract more and more fossil fuels, we now have several confirmations that demand for fossil fuels is actually decreasing. The burning of fossil fuels is now on a plateau. It is not increasing, and global greenhouse gas emissions have plateaued and will begin to decrease.

That is because clean sources of energy are so much more superior in performance. Not only are they cheaper in most of the world, but they continue to attract investment and improve efficiency, while fossil fuel companies have already reached their maximum efficiency.

“Pain led me to a spiritual practice”

You’ve spoken about the role of meditation in your life. How did that journey begin?

Pain. Desperation. Frustration. Suffering.

Two years before the Paris Agreement, I was going through deep personal trauma. Every night, I cried myself to sleep. Every morning, I had to put on a big smile, rally my team, and lead some of the most critical climate negotiations in history. It was unsustainable.

That’s when I discovered the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh and Engaged Buddhism—which is about applying spiritual wisdom to everyday life.

For me, my spiritual practice is not separate from my work. It is not in parallel—it is the foundation. It allows me to be aligned, to show up with clarity, compassion, and conviction.

I believe many leaders, especially those fighting for climate justice, carry deep wounds. Without inner work, burnout is inevitable. That’s why integrating a spiritual or meditative practice is not a luxury—it’s a necessity for sustained leadership.

“Everyone has a role to play”

Many people want to take action but don’t know where to start. What advice do you have?

Start anywhere.

One exercise I recommend:

1.For one hour, observe everything you do.

2.Ask yourself: What’s the planetary consequence of this action?

You’ll find things that are life-giving—keep doing them. You’ll also find things that aren’t—and that’s where you can start making small shifts.

We all contribute one grain of sand to the bigger picture. No one builds the entire beach alone. But collectively? That’s how change happens.

“There is no excuse not to act”

Before we close, is there anything else you’d like to share?

We all work and influence right where we are. So I just invite everyone to just try it out for maybe even an hour. Try out for just an hour to see: What am I doing right now, and what is the consequence on the planet?

And then decide: Do I really want to continue doing it like that, or do I want to shift? If your answer is, I want to continue because this is actually having a positive, life-giving consequence on the planet—good for you. But if not? Then just choose to change that. Just start there.

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