In Brazil, the energy transition is pushed and prodded by conflicting forces. Its government is taking significant steps to cut emissions. For example, in August, it passed a much-anticipated low-carbon hydrogen framework; and in November, a law to create a regulated carbon market. And since taking office in 2023, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has spearheaded significant reductions in deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. But Brazil is also Latin America’s biggest producer of oil, and it...
Dec 24, 2024•50 min
The headline from this year’s World Energy Outlook released by the International Energy Agency says, “The world is on the brink of a new age of electricity.” In the United States, electrification is set to transform the energy landscape, and the nation is expected to see a rapid rise in power demand. Questions remain over how this demand will be met, and if this means increasing carbon emissions from the power sector. These questions are further complicated by the rise of artificial intelligence...
Dec 17, 2024•59 min
The international climate negotiation process stands at a critical juncture. At the recent COP29 summit in Azerbaijan, nations struggled to find common ground on financial support and carbon market strategies, all while grappling with the persistent influence of fossil fuel industries. Industrialized countries did pledge $300 billion to help developing nations adapt to climate change, but scientists say the commitment is still far short of the trillion dollars needed to prevent catastrophic envi...
Dec 10, 2024•42 min
The energy transition is transforming how we power our world – clean energy systems are becoming more interconnected, automated, and reliant on digital infrastructure. But with this transformation comes a new vulnerability: cyberattacks. As our grid becomes smarter and our system more digitized, the potential for disruption grows. Earlier this year, the FBI warned of a serious threat that Chinese hackers had infiltrated U.S. critical infrastructure systems, raising the possibility of a “devastat...
Dec 03, 2024•53 min
The clean energy transition has a dirty underside. To move away from fossil fuels and toward solar, wind, batteries, and other alternative sources of energy, we have to intensify mining operations for critical minerals like lithium, copper, and cobalt. According to a Global Witness analysis of S&P Global data, copper mining will increase more than 25% between 2021 and 2028. Cobalt mining will be up more than 100%. Lithium, more than 300%. And all that mining has serious environmental and soc...
Nov 26, 2024•48 min
Rising electricity demand. Heightened geopolitical tension. Fragility in energy markets. These are some of the big stories shaping the energy transition outlined in the International Energy Agency’s newest World Energy Outlook . Even as the IEA says the world is shifting from the "Age of Oil" to the "Age of Electricity," we are still far from achieving net-zero targets. And the tensions highlighted in the latest Energy Outlook illustrate how difficult the transition will be. This week, host Jaso...
Nov 19, 2024•57 min
In passing and signing the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, Congress and the Biden administration infused hundreds of billions of dollars into the energy transition. It was the largest investment in energy and climate in U.S. history. At the same time, the law left many countries worried over provisions requiring domestic manufacturing, which some see as protectionist. It’s a friction that’s part of ongoing green trade tensions. As other countries implement their own major climate action plans, ...
Nov 12, 2024•43 min
In 1953, the New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers in the World Series, “From Here to Eternity” won the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture. And on May 24 deep in the education section of The New York Times, there was a short piece titled “How Industry May Change Climate.” In the years after, scientists went from writing about the possible impacts of pollution on climate to warning U.S. presidents. And energy policy expert and scholar Jay Hakes says there’s much more to the story. From sc...
Nov 05, 2024•54 min
Emerging markets and developing economies are set to account for the largest source of emissions growth in the coming decades, according to the International Energy Agency. As population growth in developing countries around the world increases, so will their demand for energy. And historically, these countries have looked to fossil fuels to support their demand growth. But even though emissions from these countries are increasing, their historical cumulative emissions pale in comparison to thos...
Oct 29, 2024•57 min
The artificial intelligence boom is fueling a massive uptick in energy demand globally. A Goldman Sachs report from earlier this year claimed that processing a single ChatGPT query requires almost ten times the amount of electricity as a single Google search. But it’s not just ChatGPT queries driving up demand. As we transition to more renewable energy sources, AI is becoming critical to managing and improving efficiency across our electric grid. So how are some of the biggest American tech comp...
Oct 22, 2024•55 min
Escalating tensions between Israel and Iran, the world’s seventh-largest producer of crude oil, have fueled concern over oil price volatility for the past few weeks. But the oil market isn’t reacting to geopolitical tensions in the Middle East as dramatically as it has in the past. Despite an ongoing war in Gaza and Israel, Israel’s attack on Hezbollah, and attacks by Houthis in the Red Sea, the price of oil hasn’t changed much. China’s slowing economy and the U.S.’ increased domestic production...
Oct 15, 2024•59 min
Europe is facing a critical challenge. When it comes to advanced technology innovation, labor productivity, and affordable energy, it's not keeping up with the U.S. and China. At least that’s the take from Mario Draghi, former European Central Bank president, in his European Commission report last month titled, “The Future of European Competitiveness.” The last five years for the European Union have been tumultuous – from the pandemic to an energy crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, ...
Oct 08, 2024•57 min
According to recently released data, Norway is the first country in the world with more electric vehicles than gas-powered ones on the road. At the same time, the country is western Europe's largest oil and gas producer , with a total output of over four million barrels of oil equivalents per day. While the country aims to be carbon neutral by 2030, Norwegian oil and gas investments are expected to hit a record high this year and will remain strong in 2025. This week, host Jason Bordoff talks wi...
Oct 01, 2024•46 min
Back in 2012, the Department of Defense issued a first-of-its-kind “Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap.” It was designed to prepare the U.S. military for increasing threats to national security in the form of rising sea levels, increasing global temperatures, and growing conflicts over basic resources like food and water. It stated that “Climate change is expected to play a significant role in the DOD’s ability to fulfill its mission in the future.” Fast-forward to today, and Sherri Goodman says ...
Sep 24, 2024•39 min
It’s no secret that Republicans and Democrats don’t see eye to eye on climate change. According to a Pew Research Survey conducted earlier this year, just 12% of Republicans and Republican-leaners think climate change should be a top priority for the president and Congress. Meanwhile, the official 2024 Democratic party platform states there’s “nothing more important than addressing the climate crisis." Energy and environmental law professor David Spence says today’s news and social media are par...
Sep 17, 2024•40 min
Thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, the Department of Energy has been flush with cash for the past couple of years. Between the two measures, the DOE now has nearly $100 billion to put toward clean energy and grid development projects around the country through funding and loans. There’s an expectation that these contributions will drive private investment—and they have been. This July, the DOE reported nearly $50 billion in funding awards already, with m...
Sep 10, 2024•52 min
China’s dominance of global supply chains for many goods, including clean energy technology, is increasing concerns about resilience, security, and geopolitical influence in today’s new era of great power competition. At the same time, efforts to curb China’s dominance are raising concerns about the cost of clean energy at a time when its rapid deployment is needed. So are we in a new Cold War with China? Should American policymakers try to decouple from China? And how should policymakers addres...
Sep 03, 2024•1 hr 3 min
In 1953, the New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers in the World Series, “From Here to Eternity” won the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture. And on May 24 deep in the education section of The New York Times, there was a short piece titled “How Industry May Change Climate.” In the years after, scientists went from writing about the possible impacts of pollution on climate to warning U.S. presidents. And energy policy expert and scholar Jay Hakes says there’s much more to the story. From sc...
Aug 27, 2024•54 min
With her historic victory in Mexico’s presidential election in June, Claudia Sheinbaum will be the country’s first-ever female leader. And because of her background as a climate scientist who contributed to influential UN climate reports, many hope she will reverse Mexico’s drift away from climate leadership. But it’s not simple. Sheinbaum is a political protégé of outgoing president Andrés Manuel López Obrador. In his six years as president, López Obrador was a popular leader, but failed to adv...
Aug 20, 2024•36 min
Global clean energy investment has risen by 40% since 2020, reaching an estimated $1.8 trillion in 2023, according to the International Energy Agency. The cost of wind, solar, and batteries have fallen rapidly, often competing with fossil fuels, thanks to tech innovations, manufacturing scale, and policy support. But the world still isn’t on track to reach its emission reduction targets. And now new forms of demand, such as data centers running artificial intelligence, are raising concerns about...
Aug 13, 2024•55 min
Following decades of economic integration, the cost of clean energy technologies have fallen sharply. But the rising costs of fragmentation, industry-friendly policies, and geopolitical tensions risk slowing the energy transition. With the recent launch of the Trade and Clean Energy Transition initiative, the Center on Global Energy Policy has prioritized navigating the tensions between climate and trade, and focused on the potential to use trade policy as a tool to accelerate the pace of clean ...
Aug 06, 2024•57 min
So far this summer, politics has dominated the news. Which makes sense – it’s a presidential election year after all. But climate change and its effects haven’t gone anywhere and are getting worse. Just last week, Europe’s climate change service Copernicus announced that Earth hit the hottest temperature ever recorded for two consecutive days . The same service also said we’ve lived through more than a year now of record-breaking temperatures. During the June presidential debate , climate change...
Jul 30, 2024•54 min
Russia’s energy exports, including its significant natural gas capacity, are geopolitical currency for the country. Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russia was Europe’s single largest supplier of imported natural gas. But since the global fallout after the invasion, Russia is setting its sights on China as a new market for the country’s gas and as an important ally. The proposed Power of Siberia 2 pipeline would transport Russian natural gas to China via Mongolia. The project is a window int...
Jul 23, 2024•1 hr 5 min
Energy is central to economic development, and access to energy is intrinsically linked to prosperity. As standards of living improve, energy use could double by the end of the century with a majority of this growth occurring in the developing world. Meeting this demand with zero-carbon, affordable energy is a herculean task. Powering economic growth with zero and low-carbon energy resources will require both the development of new technologies and the rapid deployment of existing technologies. ...
Jul 16, 2024•54 min
On June 28, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a 40-year precedent established in the landmark 1984 case, Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council. The precedent, commonly referred to as the “Chevron Doctrine,” gave federal agencies considerable discretion to interpret laws passed by Congress when implementing regulations and policy. But with the court’s new ruling, federal agencies no longer have the final say on how laws are interpreted. Instead, the judiciary will hold that power. So...
Jul 09, 2024•45 min
Throughout the world, climate change is influencing human mobility. In a 2022 report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that devastating floods and storms have triggered the displacement of 20 million people per year since 2008. While migration is influenced by many factors, including socio-economic status and political stability, research by the IPCC and others tells us that climate change is increasingly significant. So, how is climate change impacting human mobility? And wha...
Jul 02, 2024•44 min
Demand for the critical minerals needed for batteries, solar panels, and other forms of clean energy will grow rapidly under the International Energy Agency's “net zero by 2050” scenario. And this gives mineral rich countries like Chile an outsized role in the energy transition. Chile currently holds more than a third of the world's lithium reserves, and the country is already the world's second largest producer of lithium, with an approximately 25% share of world production. Chile also is the w...
Jun 25, 2024•1 hr 2 min
Recent elections in the European Union shook up the continent’s climate politics. Far-right parties performed well in both the EU’s parliament and national governments, and the Greens lost nearly all of their gains over the past five years in the European parliament. Voters pointed to energy costs, security, and economic competitiveness as key factors in their decision-making. So what do these elections indicate about the shifting political ideology of the European Union? How will they impact Eu...
Jun 18, 2024•54 min
In the next few months, heat waves, droughts, thunderstorms, and hurricanes will wreak havoc on regions around the world. Climate scientists say these events are becoming more extreme and dangerous thanks in part to the changing climate. For example, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s outlook for the 2024 hurricane season, which just started June 1, anticipates an exceptionally high number of storms this year. So, why are extreme weather events worsening? How is climate change...
Jun 11, 2024•50 min
The elections for the European Parliament will take place in a couple of days, and polls currently suggest the Parliament will undergo a rightward shift. The last elections five years ago in 2019 saw major electoral gains for the environmentalist parties and popular support for ambitious energy transition plans. But the upcoming elections come following a tumultuous few years for the continent that included an energy crisis and an economic crisis. So how will the upcoming elections impact Europe...
Jun 04, 2024•1 hr 1 min
