Climate impacts are continuing to intensify. More severe storms, droughts, floods and heatwaves are inflicting devastation on the most vulnerable communities – those who also bear the least responsibility for the climate crisis.

But as the need for climate action becomes ever more urgent, international aid is retreating. USAID has been dismantled, whilst wealthy countries across Europe have slashed their aid budgets.

This episode asks what the aid cuts mean for the most climate-vulnerable countries. With fiscal space tightening and multilateralism on the decline, guests discuss how governments and international organisations can incentivise more private sector investment, scale up climate finance and channel it to where it’s most needed. We also hear what impact regional partnerships could have in delivering meaningful climate action in this new global landscape.

Guests

• Sara Pantuliano (Chief Executive, ODI Global)
• Hans Peter Lankes (Deputy Chief Executive, ODI Global)
• Sara Schonhardt (international climate reporter, Politico)
• Sir Nicholas Stern (Chair, Grantham Research Institute)
  
  

Related resources

• A Fair Share of Climate Finance (Project, ODI Global)
• Revitalising finance for adaptation: what role for the multilateral climate process? (Working paper, ODI Global)
• Vulnerable nations on the brink: the double shock of aid cuts and US tariff increases (Insight, ODI Global)
• The relationship between climate action and poverty reduction (Report, LSE)
• Small change? Our projections for the conflict blind spot in climate finance by 2030 (Insight, ODI Global)

At a time of major geopolitical turbulence, Europe finds itself at a crossroads. Long regarded as a pillar of stability and multilateralism, the continent's role in today's increasingly divided world is being tested in numerous ways – as are its key institutions.

There is a new fragility to Europe's external relationships – underscored by Trump's threats to impose tariffs on EU imports, and by disagreements on security guarantees for Ukraine.

This episode dissects Europe's changing role and influence in the world today. Experts explore how European nations can come together to face external threats effectively, and identify some immediate opportunities for change.

Among our guests is ODI Europe’s Board Chair, Ambassador João Vale de Almeida, who shares ideas put forward in his thought-provoking new book The Divorce of Nations: A Diplomat’s Inside View as the Global Order Collapses. We also hear from historian and political writer Timothy Garton Ash, and Anand Menon, Professor of European Politics and Foreign Affairs at King’s College London.

Guests

• Sara Pantuliano (host), Chief Executive, ODI Global
• Timothy Garton Ash, Professor of European Studies, University of Oxford
• Anand Menon, Professor of European Politics and Foreign Affairs, King’s College London & Director, UK in a Changing Europe
• João Vale de Almeida, Chair of the ODI Europe Board and a former European Union Ambassador to the United States and the United Nations

Related resources

• The Divorce of Nations: A Diplomat’s Inside View as the Global Order Collapses (João Vale de Almeida, The History Press, 2025)
• Homelands: A Personal History of Europe (Timothy Garton Ash, Penguin Random House, 2023)
• How is Ukraine redefining global security? (Think Change podcast, ODI Global)
• Europe and the new world order: an updated approach to foreign engagement (Briefing paper, ODI Global)
• Can ‘the West’ be trusted? The future of European humanitarian aid (Insight, ODI Global)
• Navigating aid and national interest in Ukraine: the development toolbox of European donors (Insight, ODI Global)

Since 2011, Syria has been ravaged by conflict, foreign interventions and political fragmentation – leaving millions displaced and communities in crisis.

But amidst the devastation, a new conversation is taking shape.

Just months after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, a new interim government led by Ahmed al-Sharaa has formed. A recent poll shows 70% of Syrians feel hopeful, but that hope is colliding with hard realities.

More than 1,300 people – many believed to be civilians – have been killed in Syria’s worst violence since the fall of the Assad regime, as clashes erupt between forces loyal to the new government and Assad holdouts. Meanwhile, reconstruction is stalled. Western sanctions, unpaid civil servants, and new US tariffs risk deepening the crisis.

In this episode, we ask whether this fragile but hopeful moment for Syria can endure. Can international partners support recovery without repeating the mistakes of the past? And how can we centre the voices of Syrians in the process of rebuilding their country?

Guests

• Sara Pantuliano (host), Chief Executive, ODI Global
• Sana Kikhia, Executive Director, Syrian Legal Development Programme (SLDP)
• Leen Fouad, Senior Research Officer, Humanitarian Policy Group (HPG), ODI Global
• Amy Rodgers, Coordinator, Middle East Durable Solutions Platform
  
  

Related resources

• Syria’s chance to build better, not backward (Insight, ODI Global)
  
  
• Lifting sanctions on Syria: a bumpy path (Insight, ODI Global)
  
  
• Tens of thousands of people forcibly disappeared: will the international community step up for Syrians? (Insight, ODI Global)
  
  
• Syria's pursuit of justice: navigating accountability amidst ongoing turmoil (Insight, ODI Global)
  
  
• Revolution and rupture: humanitarianism and human rights in Syria and Myanmar (Event video, ODI Global)