As 2023 comes to a close, the Energy Gang reflects on the events and trends of 2023 that provided grounds for optimism about the transition to a lower-carbon world. On this week’s show, Ed Crooks is joined by Melissa Lott and Amy Myers-Jaffe as they share their reasons to be cheerful this holiday season. Ed chooses the precipitous drop in the cost of solar modules, making solar power ever more competitive against fossil fuels, and driving the adoption of solar energy on a global scale. Amy’s cho...
Dec 22, 2023•44 min
Further conversations from this year’s summit. COP28 was the largest climate talks to date, with global industry leaders, governments, analysts, journalists and climate activists converging on Dubai for the summit. The Energy Gang's schedule was packed, and host Ed Crooks was joined by many interesting and influential people from the world of energy across 6 full days. In this episode, we bring you three new conversations that we couldn’t fit into the regular schedule. Kevin Kariuki is the Vice ...
Dec 22, 2023•52 min
The gang assess the outcome of the climate talks in Dubai. This year’s COP went to overtime, as countries argued over the wording of the concluding statement. They had to carry on the negotiations all through the night to do it, but finally they emerged with what was described as a “historic” agreement. For the first time, the need to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels has been put on the record in a concluding statement from a COP. In our final show on COP28, the Energy Gang look ...
Dec 15, 2023•44 min
Nuclear energy has been in the headlines more in Dubai, than at any previous COP. Nuclear power has had more prominence at this year’s climate talks than at any previous COP. In fact, some people have even been calling it “the nuclear COP”. That’s partly because the hosts, the United Arab Emirates, have been a pioneer of nuclear power in the Gulf region, building four reactors to meet 25 per cent of its electricity demand. At this year’s COP, 24 governments set a goal to triple worldwide nuclear...
Dec 11, 2023•47 min
On day 9 of the climate talks, what do the experts think? As Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the UNFCC, said today, it’s go-time for governments at COP28 this week. To examine the latest stories Ed Crooks has assembled a panel of energy experts: regular Energy Gang guest Melissa Lott, who is Director of Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, Morgan Bazilion, Director of the Payne Institute for Public Policy and professor of public policy at the Colorado School of Mines, and J...
Dec 08, 2023•39 min
An interview with Kristen Siemen from General Motors On this bonus episode recorded live from COP28, Ed Crooks meets Kristen Siemen, Chief Sustainability Officer at General Motors. She sits down with Ed to discuss the current state of the EV market, GM’s plans for the industry and the key takeaways from the conversations at the summit. Subscribe to the show on your podcast platform of choice so you don’t miss any of these special episodes coming live from COP28 , and join the conversation on soc...
Dec 08, 2023•14 min
What are the barriers to cheap green hydrogen? As COP28 debates the future of fossil fuels, many people think low-carbon hydrogen could replace them for some uses. But, hydrogen has plenty of problems of its own: water use, public resistance to building infrastructure and above all, its cost. Ed Crooks talks to three leaders from politics and business, who are trying to find ways to cure these headaches. Michelle Lujan-Grisham, Governor of New Mexico has launched an initiative to provide a strat...
Dec 07, 2023•48 min
At the halfway point of COP28 the focus is still on fossil fuel abatement. Ed Crooks is joined by Dr Melissa Lott, Director of Research at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy and Professor at the Climate School, and Michael Webber, the McKetta Centennial Energy Chair at the University of Texas. Together they examine the biggest themes that are dominating debate at COP28. The arguments and discussions are still going on, but as Melissa says, they’re not at the core of what’s happ...
Dec 06, 2023•46 min
At the halfway point of this year’s climate negotiations at COP28, the focus is still on the proposal that the world’s governments should commit to phasing out fossil fuels. Discussion on the best way forward is still going on; fossil fuels are responsible for the majority of human-induced climate change, and so the world has to stop using them. But as concerns over energy security continue, some say that the debate should not be around fossil fuels v renewables, but rather low-emissions v high-...
Dec 05, 2023•47 min
The insight and debate from the Climate Co-Lab event at COP28 In 2009, developed countries jointly pledged to mobilise $100bn per annum to support climate action in developing countries. This target has never been met and the pledge will expire in 2025. It is estimated that approximately $5 trillion is required annually, just to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. The New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) intended to replace this pledge, is currently under negotiation, due to be finalised...
Dec 04, 2023•37 min
Part one of our coverage live from the conference Ed Crooks is joined by Amy Harder & Bill Spindle from Cipher, the publication supported by Breakthrough Energy – the clean energy network founded by Bill Gates. Amy and Bill have been in Dubai since the start of the conference, and they analyze the big stories to come out of the first few days. The loss and damage fund is the main focus; a few hundred million has been pledged to help developing nations deal with the impacts of climate change,...
Dec 04, 2023•23 min
COP28, this year’s Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, started in Dubai on Thursday November 30. The Energy Gang will be there, bringing you all the latest news from the negotiations and explaining what it all means. As the climate talks get under way, Ed Crooks sits down in New York with Energy Gang regulars Dr Melissa Lott and Amy Myers-Jaffe to look ahead to the talks. On the show today, they explore the four key items on the agenda: The Global Stocktak...
Dec 01, 2023•58 min
Thanksgiving is a special time in America when families across the country get together and argue. In honor of that tradition, host Ed Crooks and regular Amy Myers-Jaffe are joined by Danny and Toby Rice, two brothers who have both had very successful careers in energy but have gone in somewhat different directions. Toby Rice is president and chief executive of EQT, the largest producer of natural gas in the US. He is an advocate for the benefits of exporting liquefied natural gas, and makes the...
Nov 17, 2023•51 min
The International Energy Agency last week published its World Energy Outlook, which is its big annual review of everything that is going on in the world of energy. One of the headlines that has been attracting a lot of attention is the forecast that, on current trends, demand for all three fossil fuels – that is, oil, gas and goal – will peak before 2030. The IEA’s report states that the pathway to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees C, the objective the world set in the Paris Agreement, is s...
Nov 03, 2023•1 hr 7 min
This week marks 50 years, almost to the day, since the 1973 OPEC oil embargo on the US, which led to global oil prices soaring. Oil’s potential role as a political weapon was thrown into sharp relief, and the world woke up to a new awareness of the vital importance of energy security. On the Energy Gang this week, Ed Crooks hosts Robbie Orvis and Amy Myers Jaffe, to explore the parallels between that first great oil shock and the economic and political issues arising from the conflict in the Mid...
Oct 20, 2023•1 hr 2 min
The International Energy Agency last month held its first ever summit to discuss Critical Minerals and Clean Energy. It was attended by more than 50 countries, which came together to discuss ways to secure the critical minerals that are needed to make the transition to low-carbon energy. Whether it’s copper wiring in electricity systems, steel in a wind turbine, or lithium in an EV battery, metals are vital for low-carbon technologies, and demand is only going to increase over the next decade. N...
Oct 06, 2023•53 min
Host Ed Crooks brings you the second of two special episodes recorded live from Wood Mackenzie’s Hydrogen Conference. In the rapidly changing energy landscape, hydrogen has become a hot topic. For some, it represents a beacon of potential for meeting global net-zero ambitions. For others, it is a costly and ineffective blind alley. As the clean energy transition advances, hydrogen has seen a surge in interest and investment around the world. This episode delves into different facets of the hydro...
Sep 27, 2023•53 min
Host Ed Crooks brings you the first of two special episodes recorded live from Wood Mackenzie’s Hydrogen Conference Industry leaders and energy analysts gathered recently for the second annual Wood Mackenzie Hydrogen Conference, where they debated the potential of hydrogen in the global energy mix. Join host Ed Crooks in the first of two special episodes from the conference, with part two coming out tomorrow. The conference provided a forum to discuss how hydrogen, with all its potential and cha...
Sep 26, 2023•49 min
What’s Next for US Energy Policy? As part of Climate Week in New York, The Energy Gang recorded a special edition in partnership with New York University: an expert panel discussing the future direction of US climate policy and its implications for the energy transition. Amy Myers Jaffe, a regular contributor to The Energy Gang and director of the Energy, Climate, Justice, and Sustainability Lab at NYU, hosted the event, leading a conversation about the key steps that governments, regulators and...
Sep 22, 2023•41 min
Direct air capture and carbon sequestration – is it viable, and scalable? The U.S. Department of Energy announced in late August that it would be investing $1.2 billion in two direct air capture or DAC facilities. Direct air capture technology, which uses either chemical media (such as a liquid solvent or solid sorbents) or physical processes involving filters to remove C02 directly from the atmosphere. Carbon capture technologies - that capture CO2 at emissions point sources, like power plants ...
Sep 08, 2023•47 min
It’s a little over a year since the US Inflation Reduction Act was passed into law. Solar was one of the main beneficiaries, thanks to an extension and expansion of the tax credits available to the industry. So why has the sector fallen out of favour with investors recently? August was a difficult month for the markets in general, but companies including First Solar, Sunrun, Sunpower and Sunnova (who have been featured on our sister podcast The Interchange) have had it particularly rough. To loo...
Aug 25, 2023•1 hr 5 min
On the last Energy Gang we looked at the impact of record temperatures on the energy sector. This week, we discuss another impact of climate change: its effect on human psychology. We discuss how the way we talk about global warming affects how we respond to it. A recent study in the journal Global Environmental Change argued that scientists and media organizations need to rethink the way they talk about climate change. The study’s authors called on the media to emphasise potential solutions to ...
Aug 11, 2023•57 min
New challenges for our power supplies in a warming world. Global temperatures have been breaking records this summer. On some estimates, the earth is the hottest that it has been for about 125,000 years. In Phoenix, Arizona, temperatures have consistently reached over 110 degrees Fahrenheit, and people are being hospitalized with severe burns after falling on the ground. The heat is bringing other threats, including the wildfires that have been burning out of control in parts of southern Europe ...
Jul 28, 2023•57 min
Bidenomics’ is the new buzzword that the US administration is using to brand its industrial strategy. What does it mean for energy in the US, and around the world? Last week, President Joe Biden spoke in South Carolina about his economic vision: a strategy that he is calling “Bidenomics”, with the energy transition is right at the heart of it. By “turning the climate crisis into an opportunity”, the White House says, the US can create good-paying jobs in clean energy while also bringing down con...
Jul 14, 2023•54 min
This year’s climate talks have already drawn widespread criticism. Can they make progress? COP28, this year’s Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, is still five months away, but the discussion around it is already intense. The conference is being held in Dubai, a choice that has drawn criticism because the United Arab Emirates is one of the world’s leading oil-producing countries. Last year’s COP27, held in Egypt, was widely considered a failure...
Jun 30, 2023•57 min
The north-eastern US has taken on a post-apocalyptic appearance recently, blanketed by smoke from wildfires in Canada. Host Ed Crooks and regular guest Melissa Lott, Director of Research at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, are both based in New York and saw first-hand the extent of the fires that have been burning in Quebec. In recent years we have seen huge fires up and down the west coast of North America, in Siberia, in central Greece, to name just a few regions that have...
Jun 16, 2023•48 min
More money will be invested this year in the solar industry than in oil production. So said Faith Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, last week. Amy Harder, executive editor of Cipher, attended the Cleanpower 2023 event in New Orleans and experienced at first-hand what it means for the Big Green energy industry to be rivalling the scale of Big Oil. The event has been dubbed the ‘Coachella of clean energy’ and as Amy recounts walking the half-mile long hall, full of clea...
Jun 02, 2023•55 min
The excitement around ChatGPT and other large language models has put AI firmly in the spotlight in recent months. Public perception is that we’re entering a new age of AI; it is a brand-new technology that promises to change our lives. In the world of energy, though, AI is not a new concept. GE was developing its AI capabilities more than a decade ago. BP invested in an AI company in 2017 to support oil exploration and production. And so far, although you can see the impact of AI in many parts ...
May 19, 2023•54 min
On the Energy Gang this week, Ed Crooks is joined by Dr. Melissa Lott, the Director of Research at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, and Amy Duffuor, who is a General Partner at Azolla Ventures, a climate-focused investment firm. In this week’s episode, the gang start of by discussing the recent outcry over the possible impact of offshore wind development on whales. Although there is no evidence connecting the wind industry’s activities to the rise in whale deaths, peopl...
May 05, 2023•1 hr 4 min
It’s a special edition of the Energy Gang this week. New York University’s 2040 Now event is an initiative focused on addressing the challenges posed by climate change, and this week the Energy Gang joined in. As part of the week of exercises, talks, exhibitions and discussions, regular Energy Gang member Amy Myers-Jaffe led a workshop on building energy transition scenarios, looking for ways to deepen our understanding of the present and strengthen our predictions about the future. The Energy G...
Apr 21, 2023•57 min
