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 advance climate policy. In fact, Mexico is one of just two countries out of the G20 without a net-zero target for carbon emissions.

Even as López Obrador propped up the oil sector, the primary state-owned petroleum company Pemex is deep in debt and seeing four-decade lows in production. And Mexico’s heavy dependence on the U.S. for natural gas is a growing energy security issue for the country.

Sheinbaum has promised to boost clean energy – how effective will she be? Will she be able to address the country’s growing power demands and energy infrastructure challenges? And will she break from her predecessor’s lagging record on climate change?

This week, host Bill Loveless talks with Carlos Pascual about what a Sheinbaum presidency could mean for Mexico’s addressing the country’s energy issues, and encouraging more investment in clean energy in Mexico.

Carlos is senior vice president for Global Energy and International Affairs at S&P Global Commodity Insights, where he leads all business lines in Latin America. He was previously at IHS Markit, where he concentrated on worldwide energy issues and international affairs. 

Carlos served as U.S. ambassador to Mexico from 2009 to 2011 and to Ukraine from 2000 to 2003. From 2011 to 2014 he was a special envoy and coordinator for international affairs at the U.S. Department of State, where he established and directed the agency’s Energy Resources Bureau. He was also a former resident fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia SIPA.

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 rising energy use and emissions. 

So how do we encourage more innovation in clean energy? How do we mobilize investment to scale-up and commercialize emerging technologies? What is the role of the private sector and what kinds of policies do we need?  

This week, host Jason Bordoff talks with Arun Majumdar about some of his views on emerging technologies and energy policy. They also discuss how higher education can adapt to provide the knowledge and skills needed in the clean energy economy.

Arun is the inaugural Dean of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. He also serves as the Jay Precourt Provostial Chair Professor at Stanford University and Senior Fellow and former Director of the Precourt Institute for Energy. Formerly, he served as vice president for energy at Google. 

In the Obama administration, Arun served as founding director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy and as the acting under secretary of energy. He also served as a Science Envoy for the U.S. Department of State and currently serves as the chair of the U.S. Secretary of Energy Advisory Board.

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 energy deployment.

So how can the rules of trade be better aligned with climate goals and policies? How can the international trading system be modernized to tackle a challenge like climate change? And how can countries reconcile low-cost, clean energy technologies, often made in China, with concerns about economic competitiveness, security, and supply chain resilience?

This week, we return to a conversation from earlier this year between host Jason Bordoff and Dan Esty focused on Dan’s career, his recent work at the World Trade Organization, and the intersection of climate policy and trade policy.

Dan is the Hillhouse Professor at Yale University and director of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy. He has written numerous books on environmental responsibility and economic progress, including Green to Gold and Greening the GATT. Dan also served as commissioner of Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection from 2011 to 2014.

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 did take center stage – but only for a moment. CNN moderators asked former President Donald Trump what he would do, if re-elected, to slow the climate crisis. His answer deviated quickly to other topics. 

For his part, President Joe Biden – who has since announced he’s leaving the race and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris – played up his landmark Inflation Reduction Act, the largest investment in clean energy and climate action in U.S. history.

But where is the American public in all this? 

How worried, frustrated, or hopeful are people feeling about global warming? And how do those sentiments compare to other countries around the world? 

This week we return to a conversation from last fall, when host Bill Loveless talked with Anthony Leiserowitz about Yale’s Climate Change in the American Mind surveys, and what they reveal about public opinion around climate change both here in the U.S. and around the world. They also discussed the current discourse in American politics, and how attitudes differ among registered voters. 

Anthony is the founder and director of the Yale University Program on Climate Change Communication, and a senior research scientist at the Yale School of the Environment. He has worked with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the National Academy of Sciences, the World Economic Forum, and many other major organizations to understand the psychological, cultural, and political factors that shape climate change beliefs. Anthony also hosts "Climate Connections," a daily 90-second podcast about the climate crisis.

Since Bill’s interview, Anthony’s program at Yale has released its Spring 2024 Climate Change in the American Mind survey results for Beliefs & Attitudes and Politics & Policy.

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 into Russia’s energy export strategy and the evolving relationship between China and Russia. 

So what is the strategic importance of Chinese-Russian energy diplomacy? How significant was Russia’s loss of the European gas market? And has Europe left its energy crisis behind?

This week host Jason Bordoff talks with Erica Downs, Akos Losz, and Tatiana Mitrova about their recent CGEP commentary, The Future of the Power of Siberia 2 Pipeline. They discuss the geopolitical significance of the proposed pipeline and the evolving Russia-China relationship. They also cover a range of other topics including the outlook for European energy security and climate goals, China’s energy demand, and the global gas market. 

Erica is a senior research scholar at CGEP focusing on Chinese energy markets and geopolitics. She previously worked as a senior research scientist in the China Studies program of the CNA Corporation.  

Akos is a former senior research associate at CGEP where he specialized in natural gas markets and the role of gas in the energy transition. He recently left CGEP and is returning to the International Energy Agency as its lead natural gas analyst. 

And Tatiana is a research fellow at CGEP. She’s spent her career focusing on Russia and global energy markets. Tatiana previously served as the executive director of the Energy Centre of the Moscow School of Management and the head of research in the Oil and Gas Department in the Energy Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. She is also an independent director of SLB, the large energy services firm.

(Note: This conversation was taped prior to President Joe Biden’s July 21, 2024 announcement that he was suspending his campaign for a second term in office.)

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. But reinventing the global energy mix continues to be extremely challenging, and there are open questions regarding the affordability and feasibility of new technologies. 

Why is energy so important for development? And where are the opportunities for innovation in the energy transition? 

This week host Jason Bordoff talks with Eric Toone about the intersection of energy and economic development, and the challenge of increasing energy access in the developing world while rapidly cutting emissions.

Eric is the technical lead on the Investment Committee at Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Before joining Breakthrough in 2017, he was the vice provost and director of the Duke University Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative, and a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Duke.

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, how will the new ruling impact energy policy and environmental regulation? What are both proponents and opponents saying about the court’s decision? And what does this mean more broadly for the modern administrative state? 

This week host Bill Loveless talks with Michael Gerrard and Jeff Holmstead about the implications of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the Chevron Doctrine.

Michael is the founder and faculty director of Columbia’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. From 2012 to 2018, he was the chair of the faculty of Columbia University’s Earth Institute. Before joining Columbia in 2009, Michael practiced environmental law in New York for three decades.

Jeff is a partner and co-chair of the Environmental Strategies Group at Bracewell LLP. From 2001 to 2005, he served as the assistant administrator for air and radiation in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

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 what can policymakers do to address climate migration? 

This week host Bill Loveless talks with Shana Tabak about how climate change influences migration both within and across borders.

Shana is a human rights lawyer and the director of immigration strategy at Emerson Collective, where she leads engagement at the intersection of global migration and the climate crisis. She is also an adjunct professor of human rights at the Georgetown University Law Center and an affiliated scholar with Georgetown’s Institute for the Study of International Migration.

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 world's largest producer of copper, which will also be needed for a much more electrified economy. 

So what is Chile's role in the energy transition more broadly? How will Chile's plans to nationalize its lithium industry play out? And how will the country be impacted by an escalating trade war between the U.S. and China?

This week host Jason Bordoff talks with Juan Carlos Jobet about Chile’s role in the global energy transition. 

Juan Carlos is Chile’s former minister of energy and mining. He was recently appointed dean of the School of Business and Economics at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez and is a distinguished visiting fellow at Columbia’s Center on Global Energy Policy. Throughout his career, he has held several positions in both the public and private sector. He served as undersecretary of housing and minister of labor and social security, and previously worked as an investment banker and in private equity.

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 Europe’s relations with the U.S. and China? And what do these elections mean for European climate and energy policy?

This week, host Jason Bordoff talks with Ann Mettler, vice president for Europe at Breakthrough Energy, a network of investment funds, philanthropies, and nonprofits dedicated to scaling low-carbon technologies. She previously served as director-general at the European Commission, where she ran an in-house think tank called the European Political Strategy Centre. Prior to that, she was the executive director of the Lisbon Council, an economic policy think tank she founded in 2003.

Jason and Ann discuss the results of the recent European elections, the economic competitiveness challenges facing the European Union, and Ann’s views on Europe’s new tariffs on China.