Columbia Energy Exchange

Dec 17 2024 100 ep. 50 mins 1.8k

Columbia Energy Exchange Podcast artwork

Columbia Energy Exchange features in-depth conversations with the world’s top energy and climate leaders from government, business, academia and civil society. The program explores today’s most pressing opportunities and challenges across energy sources, financial markets, geopolitics and climate change as well as their implications for both the U.S. and the world.

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Transforming America’s Power System

Dec 17 2024 58 mins

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 incre

COP29: A Veteran’s Account of the UN Process

Dec 10 2024 42 mins

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 cha

The Cybersecurity Stakes of the Energy Transition

Dec 03 2024 52 mins

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 th

Minimizing Damage as Mining for Critical Minerals Ramps Up

Nov 26 2024 48 mins

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

Inside the 2024 World Energy Outlook

Nov 19 2024 57 mins

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 t

Where Climate and Trade Policy Meet

Nov 12 2024 43 mins

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 f

Re-Run: ‘The Untold History of Climate Science and Politics’

Nov 05 2024 54 mins

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 cl

How to Make the Energy Transition More Equitable

Oct 29 2024 57 mins

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 t

Balancing AI's Growing Energy Demands

Oct 22 2024 54 mins

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

How Oil Markets Are Responding to Uncertainty in the Middle East

Oct 15 2024 59 mins

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 Houth