In the era of president Donald Trump and the ESG backlash, climate diplomats have choppy waters to navigate. Countries are reeling from yet another year of extreme weather as investors look to build resilience into their portfolios.

In this episode, deputy editor Jack Graham talks to Rachel Kyte, the UK special representative for climate, about her role under the UK's new prime minister Andy Burnham, how she interacts with investors and what the world must do to respond to climate extremes.

Topics include how the government is engaging with Trump's United States on energy issues, China's potential hosting of the UN COP33 summit, and her work on changing the risk perception of emerging markets.

Europe's summer heatwaves have caused widespread destruction, from the Rhine river hitting record lows to wildfires across France, Italy and Spain.

It is also having severe impact beneath our feet.

Many investors appreciate the importance of soil to our food systems, flood resilience and more. But how do events like extreme heat impact soil health, and how can we adapt?

In this episode, our nature reporter Gina Gambetta sits down with Paul Hallett, a professor of soil science at the University of Aberdeen and president of the British Society of Soil Science.

Hallett digs into some of the most exciting soil solutions out there, from the power of peas to boost nitrogen levels to acoustic technologies that can rapidly measure soil health. He also explains the implications of the heatwaves and droughts, telling us what's actually happening underground and how investors should be responding – and he looks ahead to next week's UN COP17 conference on desertification, which starts in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia on Monday.

"Doing well by doing good" was an often-heard refrain at conferences throughout the early 2020s. It was even supported by influential academic studies that claimed sustainability and investment performance were highly correlated.

Then came the invasion of Ukraine, giving a boost to dirty and opaque sectors such as energy and defence, and sustainability began to look like a drag on returns. ESG came under fire, with right-wing commentators arguing that it contravened funds' fiduciary duty.

Four years on, with new conflicts emerging in the Middle East, the relationship between sustainability and performance is as hotly debated as ever.

In this episode, editor Lucy Fitzgeorge-Parker discusses the evolution of thinking on the topic with Jason Mitchell, CIO for responsible investment at Man Group.

They discuss the performance implications of exclusionary strategies, the use of quantitative methods to generate trading signals from climate and other non-financial data, innovative ways to leverage AI in sustainable investment, and how ESG might be depoliticised.