Episode 15: Global Shifts, Climate Investing, and the Future of Cultivated Meat with Christophe Defert (Head of Climate Growth Partners, HSBC) and Jeff Tripician (CEO, Meatable)

In Episode 15 of The Smart Society Show, co-hosts Brynne Kennedy and Rt Hon Chris Skidmore unpack a week of seismic developments in energy policy, global politics, and food system innovation. As elections from Canada to the UK reshape climate ambition, and energy systems buckle under geopolitical pressures, our hosts delve into how national interests and net zero goals are colliding and where the opportunity lies amid the volatility.

They are joined by two standout guests: Christophe Defert, Head of Climate Growth Partners at HSBC, and Jeff “Trip” Tripician, CEO of cultivated meat leader Meatable. Together, they explore how to build resilience in the face of political uncertainty, whether through smarter capital allocation or reinventing the two trillion dollar global meat industry.

What’s News: Sovereignty, Security and the Shifting Sands of Climate Politics

This week’s What’s News segment kicks off with a whirlwind of headlines. With the Canadian federal election underway and local races heating up in the UK, Brynne and Chris explore how political power plays are reshaping energy transition strategies on both sides of the Atlantic.

Chris highlights a bold new push from UK leadership, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer reaffirming Britain’s net zero commitment and openly courting US clean tech firms amid IRA uncertainty. Ed Miliband’s letter positioning the UK as a haven for green investment, backed by a national wealth fund and GB Energy, underscores a growing rift in global climate leadership.

Meanwhile, a power outage in Spain and Portugal and the first LNG shipment to a developing nation offer real-time snapshots of how energy independence, import reliance, and infrastructure gaps are shaping policy decisions worldwide. Brynne reflects on her recent meeting with national energy leaders torn between celebrating imported gas and urgently seeking domestic alternatives.

Their conversation turns to China’s renewed net zero commitment, framed by President Xi Jinping as a legacy-defining industrial transformation. With a whole-of-economy approach pledged in the next five-year plan, China’s role in climate leadership may be reemerging just as others retreat. As Chris notes, every country’s energy transition will be different, but the race to onshore, decarbonize, and de-risk is now universal.

Chasing Net Zero: Christophe Defert on Investment Resilience and Sustainable Supply Chains

In the Chasing Net Zero segment, Brynne and Chris speak with Christophe Defert, who leads HSBC Climate Growth Partners. From coal-to-biomass transitions in the early 2000s to his current role shaping HSBC’s transatlantic growth equity strategy, Christophe brings a seasoned view of how climate investing is evolving.

He breaks down the fund’s investment pillars: energy transition, mobility, supply chain sustainability, and climate resilience, and explains why sustainable supply chains are emerging as the most exciting, undercapitalized frontier. Every industrial process is being reimagined, he says, and corporate efficiency naturally aligns with sustainability.

Christophe also discusses why HSBC favors capital-light, scalable models, often software-driven, that can plug into existing infrastructure. He notes that while energy hardware is critical, optimizing what we already have, such as solar, wind, and transmission, is where massive value lies.

Amid political volatility, Christophe remains bullish. With ten-year closed-end funds and a global footprint, HSBC looks through the noise. Even if rhetoric shifts, the trends are clear. The energy transition isn’t reversing. He urges fellow investors to see uncertainty as an entry point, not a red flag, and emphasizes the importance of staying globally connected. Being transatlantic helps you ride the waves of policy change on both shores.

Chasing Unicorns: Trip Tripician on Meatable and the Future of Cultivated Meat

In this week’s Chasing Unicorns, Brynne and Chris are joined by Trip Tripician, CEO of Meatable, a biotech-driven food company producing real meat, without animals, in just eleven days. With forty years in traditional and natural food systems, Trip is now at the forefront of reimagining meat for a ten billion-person planet.

He shares how Meatable blends scientific excellence with practical insight, tackling regulatory hurdles country by country in partnership with local meat companies, all while scaling a product that’s indistinguishable in taste but radically better for the planet.

Trip doesn’t see cultivated meat as a disruptor but as a partner to the existing meat industry. This is not a fight, he says. We’re here to meet rising demand, not to displace farmers. Meatable’s blended model, integrating cultivated meat into traditional supply chains, offers a pragmatic path to decarbonizing protein without sacrificing consumer habits or livelihoods.

With a new thirty million euro raise underway, Meatable is gearing up to launch both pork and beef products, expand regulatory approval, and prove its model across geographies. As Trip puts it, you could build a cultivated meat facility in the desert and feed a city, no water, no soil, no harm.

Final Thoughts

Episode 15 of The Smart Society Show underscores a vital truth: the energy and climate transition is no longer an ideological debate. It is a matter of national strategy, industrial survival, and planetary stability.

From elections to energy storage, cultivated pork to software-optimized grids, the global transition is messy, multi-layered, and politically volatile. Yet, as our guests show, it is also ripe with opportunity for those agile enough to adapt, patient enough to ride out the cycles, and bold enough to invest in what comes next.

Listen to Episode 15 now and stay tuned for more insights from the frontlines of the energy transition.

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