This week: A love story about concrete. Melissa and Rebecca Dell , an industrial decarbonization expert, break down our relationship with concrete, and why it’s so dysfunctional. The problem? Making concrete – especially its key ingredient, cement – is toxic to the climate. Only two countries in the world – the US and China – produce more greenhouse gas emissions than the concrete industry as a whole. So what do we do about this toxic relationship? Do we cut ties? Do we try to mend it? Rebecca e...
Feb 24, 2022•20 min
What does a toaster oven have to do with carbon emissions? This week, Melissa and producer Alexandria Herr dissect one to find out. Turns out carbon emissions are embedded in everything around us – from the clothes we wear to our kitchen appliances. Melissa also talks to energy expert Chris Bataille about what it will take to decarbonize the heavy industries that p roduce these everyday objects. Guest: Chris Bataille is an expert on climate and energy policy. He is an associate researcher at the...
Feb 10, 2022•22 min
We have something different today: A crossover between The Big Switch and The Carbon Copy. If you like this episode, go over to The Carbon Copy and hit subscribe. When Covid disrupted the economy and shifted energy use, it sharply brought down economy-wide carbon emissions. Many wondered: would the pandemic-related changes to our energy system help or hurt the path to a net-zero carbon economy? Two years later, we have clearer data: a new report from the Rhodium Group on how emissions from fossi...
Jan 26, 2022•18 min
Aviation is a notoriously difficult sector to decarbonize. So as Melissa plans a family trip, she wrestles with her options. Which flights emit the least carbon? How well do offsets work? Should we even be flying at all? Melissa and colleague Kirsten Smith task producer Daniel Woldorff with calling up airlines to look for answers. Engineer Alejandra Uranga imagines airplanes in a net-zero future. Melissa and Alejandra cover electric planes, sustainable aviation fuel, hydrogen and more. Guests: A...
Dec 28, 2021•36 min
When one of the biggest ships in the world got stuck in the Suez Canal, it threw a giant wrench into international supply chains. It exacerbated shortages of everything from semiconductors to snuggies . Journalist Maria Gallucci explains how this overlooked sector plays an essential part in supplying – and decarbonizing – the global economy. Lawyer and economist Aoife O’Leary covers our decarbonization tools, including new fuels, slow steaming and kites, plus the regulations to get us there. And...
Dec 15, 2021•32 min
Heavy trucks emit an outsize share of greenhouse gasses and toxic pollutants. But we rely on them for nearly everything we buy. What will it take to decarbonize them? We hear from staff at the Community Center for Action & Environmental Justice. They’re demanding clean air in “America’s shopping cart,” a polluted region dominated by warehouses and trucking. And Dr. Ben Sharpe of the International Council on Clean Transportation covers the technologies and policies we need to reach zero-emission ...
Dec 01, 2021•32 min
Electric autonomous vehicles shuttle us to high-tech mass transit hubs. Our fare system is contactless. We’ve already paid via a customized, equitable subscription model. All the trains and buses are on time. And we don’t have to wait in traffic. This is a world in which we can hop in a car to get somewhere, but we don’t have to. In this episode, the second in our five-part series on transportation, Dr. Giovanni Circella paints a picture of a net zero world in which public transportation improve...
Nov 19, 2021•35 min
In the next five episodes, we'll take a deep dive into decarbonizing the entire transportation sector -- everything from bulldozers and planes to ships and trains. In this episode we start with cars. How do we switch the world's over 1 billion fossil-fuel-powered cars to zero-carbon alternatives, and fast? Dr. Melissa Lott explores the most promising pathway -- electrification -- with Dr. Sonia Yeh of Chalmers University. What kind of infrastructure and technology do we need to scale up electric...
Nov 03, 2021•29 min
In the first five episodes of this show, we talked about cleaning up our electricity system—the power grid. In upcoming episodes, we're going to explain how to make that Big Switch in every other sector of the economy—everything from cars and heavy trucking to industrial heat and buildings. It's a lot to cover, and so we need a roadmap. In this episode, we're doing just that. Our host, Dr. Melissa Lott , talks to energy system modeler Amber Mahone about what those sectors are what we need to do ...
Oct 25, 2021•36 min
We have a whole year of episodes coming up. In the first five episodes of The Big Switch, we talked about cleaning up our electricity system--the power grid. Next, host Dr. Melissa Lott will talk with experts about how to transform every other sector of the economy, including transportation, industry and buildings. To slow climate change, we need to transform our buildings, our homes, cars, and the economy as quickly as possible. But how do we do it right? Subscribe to The Big Switch everywhere ...
Oct 21, 2021•1 min
In episode 2, we explored how to build a championship zero-carbon “team” on the grid. We could have the best players in the world — rooftop solar, batteries, net metering, demand response, high-voltage transmission, and so many others — but if the rules prevent these technologies from playing ball, then we won’t be able to decarbonize fast enough. How do we make sure the rules strike the right balance between innovation and reliability — while making the zero-carbon grid system equitable? In our...
Jul 06, 2021•38 min
Matching electricity supply and demand is a high-wire balancing act. As we add more solar, wind and batteries, and shut down thermal generation, it shifts the balance. New kinds of distributed resources can help to balance things out -- but they also make grid management more complex. In our fourth episode of season 1, Dr. Melissa Lott explores the new ways to manage the zero-carbon grid. We’ll revisit the Texas grid disaster of 2021. Why did the electricity system nearly go down for weeks or mo...
Jun 30, 2021•30 min
If the grid system is the backbone of a low-carbon economy, then transmission lines are the nervous system. We need a dramatic build-out of the transmission system to connect renewable energy to the places that need it, while managing a wider range of local resources. How do we build it quickly, cheaply, and in a respectful way? In our third episode of season 3, Dr. Melissa Lott explores the role of transmission in decarbonizing the grid system. We’ll explore how Texas used transmission to encou...
Jun 24, 2021•35 min
Building a low-carbon grid is like building a sports team with star players and supporting players. Or, more accurately, it’s like re-building a sports team, where you have to go from underdogs to world champs. First, you have to retire the under-performers like coal. Then, you have to grow your star players — namely wind and solar. Finally, you have to get your star players to work together with supporting players. In our second episode of season 1, Dr. Melissa Lott explores the shifting power ...
Jun 15, 2021•30 min
The electric grid is the vast machine that powers everything around us. It’s also the part of the energy system where we're seeing the most dramatic changes as we address climate change. So what are the stakes, solutions and tradeoffs as we move to a net-zero energy system? In our first episode of season 1, Dr. Melissa Lott explores the intricacies of how the grid runs everything around us — and why it’s so vital to decarbonizing our economy. We’ll tell the story by visiting Texas, where the ele...
Jun 15, 2021•37 min
Welcome to our first season of "The Big Switch." It's a five-part series that explores how the power grid works, how it's changing, and how those changes can benefit society. Your host is Dr. Melissa Lott of Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy. To slow climate change, we need to transform our buildings, our homes, cars, and the economy as quickly as possible. But how do we do it right? Subscribe to "The Big Switch" everywhere you find podcasts.
Jun 04, 2021•4 min
