April 22, 2022
Earth Day Economics: The Financial Case for a Clean Energy Transition, with Doyne Farmer
Costs are considered a major barrier to more rapidly decarbonizing the global energy system. But it turns out it might actually cost MORE to stay on dirty fossil fuels, climate impacts aside. Using probabilistic cost forecasting methods, Dr. Doyne Farmer and his team at the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School find that a rapid green energy transition could result in net-savings of trillions of dollars.
For Earth Day, Dr. Doyne Farmer joined Climate Now to discuss his recent research on why a clean energy transition makes economic sense.
J. Doyne Farmer is Director of the Complexity Economics programme at the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, Baillie Gifford Professor in the Mathematical Institute at the University of Oxford, and an External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. His current research is in economics, including agent-based modeling, financial instability and technological progress. He was a founder of Prediction Company, a quantitative automated trading firm that was sold to the United Bank of Switzerland in 2006. His past research includes complex systems, dynamical systems theory, time series analysis and theoretical biology. During the 1980s he was an Oppenheimer Fellow and the founder of the Complex Systems Group at Los Alamos National Laboratory. While a graduate student in the 1970s he built the first wearable digital computer, which was successfully used to predict the game of roulette.
February 16, 2022
Venture Investing in Clean Transport
Continuing our Decarbonizing Transportation series, Climate Now hosted a live interview with Brook Porter, founding partner at G2 Ventures, a late-venture, early-growth investing firm focused on emerging technologies. Brook started an electric airplane company before transitioning into biofuels and other technologies, becoming an early investor in Proterra and Shift.
December 8, 2021
History and Impact of Green Banks with Bryan Garcia
How do we mobilize the capital needed to build a sustainable future? Green Banks are a private-public partnership designed solely for this purpose. Bryan Garcia is the president and CEO of the first green bank in the US, the Connecticut Green Bank, whose mission is to accelerate the flow of private capital to markets that energize the green economy.
November 3, 2021
Electric Trucking in North America with Mike Roeth
How does North America compare to the rest of the world in the transition to electric trucking?
Mike Roeth, Executive Director of the North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE), joined Climate Now on Wednesday, November 3rd at 11 am ET to detail the state of electric trucking in North America and its growth trends.
Roeth also shared insights from NACFE’s recent “Run on Less – Electric” demonstration of electric trucking technology, in which electric trucks spent three weeks conducting typical fleet operations to showcase their ability to perform at – and even above – current freight standards.
November 4, 2021
Technologies for Decarbonizing the Trucking Industry with Rick Mihelic
In 2019, medium- and heavy-duty trucks accounted for about a quarter of transportation emissions while representing less than 4% of vehicles on the road, according to the U.S. EPA.
It is time for the trucking industry to decarbonize, but which emerging technologies will move freight vehicles into climate-friendly territory is not yet clear.
Rick Mihelic is the Director of Emerging Technologies for the North American Council for Freight Efficiency. He joined Climate Now to explore the most promising new technologies for decarbonizing the trucking industry.
October 29, 2021
The State of EV Trucking Infrastructure with Jessie Lund
There are now over 460 zero-emissions commercial freight vehicle models available around the globe, and this number is only expected to increase as pressure grows to reduce emissions.
But, developing more EV trucks will not reduce emissions in the commercial freight sector without parallel innovations in charging station infrastructure.
Jessie Lund, Senior Associate with Rocky Mountain Institute’s Carbon-Free Mobility program, joined Climate Now on Friday, October 29th, to detail how EV charging infrastructure can be customized to address the needs of unique business models.
October 28, 2021
Capturing Carbon from Long-Haul Trucking with Paul Gross
In 2016, the most recent year with available data, road freight emitted the equivalent of 2.4 billion tons of CO2 to the atmosphere, accounting for 40% of global road transport emissions, and almost 5% of total greenhouse gas emissions.
While energy-efficient solutions for personal road transport – such as electric and hybrid vehicles and hydrogen powered cars – are becoming more commonplace, the same cannot yet be said for heavy-duty trucking.
One company is on a mission to change that. Remora retrofits long-haul trucks with a carbon capture device and sells the captured CO2 to concrete producers and other end-users.
We spoke with Paul Gross, Co-Founder and CEO of Remora, to learn more about transportable carbon capture technology and its potential to decarbonize long-haul trucking.
October 25, 2021
Electric Mobility in Developing Nations with Nathan Ratledge
Much of Sub-Saharan Africa and India experience high petrol costs and poor air quality – conditions that make the adoption of electric vehicles increasingly attractive.
However, these regions also lack a reliable electrical grid, meaning innovative approaches to electric transportation are necessary.
Nathan Ratledge, TomKat Graduate Fellow at Stanford University, talked about his research on how to bring electric vehicles to developing nations.
October 12, 2021
Climate and the Water Crisis with Will Sarni
Why are investors buying up water rights? The impacts of climate change on the global water supply are growing, and with it water-related conflict and inequity. While trying to mitigate the source of the climate change crisis, it is also imperative that we adapt to its consequences.
Climate Now discussed climate-water impacts with Will Sarni, the founder and CEO of the Water Foundry, a consulting firm that develops strategies to address water scarcity and quality challenges, and the founder of the Colorado River Basin Fund, a private equity fund investing in innovative water technologies.
August 31, 2021
Financial Risk Reporting with Emily Wasley of WSP
The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) was established by the Financial Stability Board in 2015 to provide reliable information about financial institutions’ climate-related risks and opportunities to stakeholders.
Emily Wasley joined Climate Now on August 31st at 4 pm to explain what the disclosure process is, what is required, and why TCFD reporting is necessary.
Emily leads WSP USA’s corporate climate risk, adaptation, and resilience practice. She also serves as a west coast Future Ready Advisor for WSP USA, President of the Board of Directors for the American Society of Adaptation Professionals (ASAP), Steering Committee member for Women in Climate Tech (WiCT), a fellow to the American Security Project (ASP), and a Blue Endeavors Ambassador.
August 6, 2021
The Legality of a U.S. Carbon Border Adjustment with UChicago’s David Weisbach and The Brookings Institution’s Adele Morris
If the US doesn’t have a national carbon tax, how effective is a border tax? What are the legal hurdles that may need to be addressed if we were to implement such a tax? How might it compare to the proposed EU carbon border adjustment mechanism?
July 27, 2021
Nuclear Energy with David Keith
Some argue nuclear fission is needed to achieve a net-zero future, while others say the cost, waste, and history of meltdowns warrant investments in other forms of clean energy. Harvard’s David Keith shared his insights.