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Season 01

Climate Now Podcast

In this podcast, Climate Now host James Lawler speaks with experts across climate science, economics, policy, clean energy and negative emissions technologies to learn about and share their research with our audience. Sign up to the Climate Now newsletter for updates on live tapings and new episode releases.

Podcast Episode 1.114 | 09.18.2023

Climate News Weekly: Apple’s Green Ad, Peak Fossil Fuels, G20, and more

This has been a big week for nations and companies ‘talking the talk’ about reducing their emissions footprints, from updated commitments at the G20 summit, to a carbon-neutral product launch by Apple, and ...
Podcast Episode 1.113 | 09.11.2023

The IRA Progress Report

When the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act was signed into law in August 2022, policy analysts predicted that the incentives it provided for renewable energy deployment, home electrification and EV adoption would ...
Podcast Episode 1.112 | 09.04.2023

Climate News Weekly

This week, listen to our news segment with Dina Cappiello, in which we cover the drivers of hurricane Idalia’s destructive impact on Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas, fueled by increased ocean temper...
Podcast Episode 1.111 | 08.28.2023

Made in America: The next generation of solar

You may recall an Auxin Solar tariff case in which a small domestic solar PV manufacturer, Auxin Solar, alleged that solar cells produced in Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam were circumventing U.S. tra...
Podcast Episode 1.110 | 08.21.2023

Building Solar Neighborhoods

There are over 8 billion square meters of rooftops in the US that are viable for solar energy generation, and could produce as much as 40% of national energy needs. And yet, only 8% of US households have in...
Podcast Episode 1.109 | 08.14.2023

Climate Now Debates: Carbon Capture and Storage

One of the most controversial parts of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act – the most ambitious climate spending bill in history – was the large pot of federal dollars that could now subsidize the nasc...
Podcast Episode 1.108 | 08.07.2023

Revolutionizing ammonia production

The Nobel-prize winning discovery of how to create synthetic ammonia has been called the “most momentous technical advance in history,” and for good reason. Today about half of the food consumed worldwide c...
Podcast Episode 1.107 | 07.24.2023

What happens after forests burn?

2020 was a record breaking season for forest fires in California. Over 4 million acres burned, releasing enough CO2 into the atmosphere to wipe out the prior 18 years of emissions reductions progress in the sta...
Podcast Episode 1.106 | 07.17.2023

Tracking Methane Leaks for Planet and Profit

In September 2022, two pipelines carrying natural gas from Russia across the floor of the North Sea were sabotaged, rupturing and emitting an estimated 500,000 tons of the potent greenhouse gas methane (the pri...
Podcast Episode 1.105 | 07.11.2023

Getting on track with home decarbonization

The Biden Administration in the U.S. has set a goal of achieving a net-zero emissions economy by 2050, which among other things means that U.S. households, and the appliances and machines that run within them, ...
Podcast Episode 1.104 | 06.26.2023

In the Navy! There is a climate action plan

In 2003, the U.S. Department of Defense released a report entitled, “An abrupt climate change scenario and its implications for United States national security,” which “imagined the unthinkable” – tha...
Podcast Episode 1.103 | 06.20.2023

Less waste, more energy

Landfills emit about 2% of the world’s greenhouse gases, but in terms of lowering global emissions, they represent some of the lowest hanging fruit. When organic waste – like municipal food waste, agric...
Podcast Episode 1.102 | 06.12.2023

This Week in Climate News: Fires, national EV charging standards, and the global stocktake

This Week in Climate News: One of the greatest difficulties in addressing climate change has been how invisible the crisis was. You cannot see the 40 billion metric tons of CO2 being added to the atmosphere e...
Podcast Episode 1.101 | 06.05.2023

What could climate instability mean to you?

Since humans began settling down and building civilizations 10,000 years ago, the Earth’s climate has been relatively stable. But before that, the climate was more unstable – unpredictable – a...
Podcast Episode 1.100 | 05.29.2023

Episode 100: How to talk about climate change

A 2022 study by Yale University found that two thirds of Americans (67%) rarely or never talk about climate change, and rarely or never hear people they know talking about it either. Despite the existential t...
Podcast Episode 1.99 | 05.23.2023

The evidence for peak fossil electricity

In 1909, headlines declared the U.S. would run out of petroleum by 1940. In 1945, the estimate was that the U.S. had 13 more years of petroleum reserves left. In 1966, we only had 10 more years before the “f...
Podcast Episode 1.98 | 05.15.2023

Fixing the problems with ESG investing

According to a 2022 poll from the Associated Press, although 93% of Americans acknowledge that human activity impacts climate, nearly half of Americans (47%) feel that their actions don’t have an impact on cl...
Podcast Episode 1.97 | 05.08.2023

What will happen when the permafrost thaws?

Since the Industrial Revolution nearly 150 years ago, global average temperatures have increased by more than 1 degree C (1.9 degrees F), with the majority of that warming occurring since 1975. But during these...
Podcast Episode 1.96 | 05.01.2023

LEED certifying buildings and cities, and why it matters

The built environment represents one of society’s largest environmental impacts – contributing nearly one fifth of global GHG emissions, not to mention impacts on natural resources like air and water...
Podcast Episode 1.95 | 04.25.2023

The debate about nuclear’s role in the clean energy transition

Every approach to decarbonizing the energy sector comes with its share of costs and benefits: renewables are cheap and clean, but require enormous amounts of land and are not always available when power is need...
Podcast Episode 1.94 | 04.12.2023

What is the future of agriculture in California?

On March 30, 2023, in partnership with the Livermore Lab Foundation and The Maddy Institute, Climate Now hosted a one day summit in Fresno, CA, examining the intersection of climate change and agriculture. Agri...
Podcast Episode 1.93 | 04.03.2023

Making hydrogen and carbon black out of renewable natural gas

Renewable natural gas (RNG), made from the decomposition of organic waste like livestock manure, is not necessarily net-zero if it’s burned to run a turbine or drive a car. But what if the RNG is not bu...
Podcast Episode 1.92 | 03.27.2023

Minerals discovery and mining for the energy transition

As we transition to a clean energy economy, demand for minerals like copper, cobalt, nickel, and lithium is projected to skyrocket. According to a 2022 report from the International Energy Agency, the total m...
Podcast Episode 1.91 | 03.20.2023

Decarbonizing a city with heat pumps and thermal energy networks

For a building owner, building decarbonization has myriad benefits: lower utility bills, lower maintenance, healthier and more comfortable living. But the barriers to reaching those benefits are large, particul...
Podcast Episode 1.90 | 03.13.2023

Net-zero cities: Making decarbonization work for everyone

Reducing average global temperatures. Preserving biodiversity. Decreasing the risk of droughts, floods and hurricanes. Reducing air pollution. Reducing utility bills. Creating new jobs and opportunities. Buildi...
Podcast Episode 1.89 | 03.06.2023

Low carbon fuel standards: what, why, and how?

On February 15, 2023, the U.S. Senate held a hearing considering a national clean fuels program, modeled after California’s state-wide Low-Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS). The LCFS sets an annually decreasing sta...
Podcast Episode 1.88 | 02.27.2023

The road to decarbonized trucking

2022 potentially marked a turning point for the U.S. electric vehicle (EV) market, with new EV car sales increasing by 65% over 2021 sales, and now accounting for nearly 6% of all new vehicle sales. (If EVs mai...
Podcast Episode 1.87 | 02.20.2023

Updates to the GHG protocol: Scope 1, 2, 3 and more?

More than one third of the world’s 2,000 largest publicly traded companies have made some kind of net-zero commitment, and the list is growing quickly. A critical part of those corporate plans will be securin...
Podcast Episode 1.86 | 02.13.2023

Decarbonizing diesel: cleaner fuels and engines

Electrification is going a long way in decarbonizing small vehicles (like passenger cars) in the global transportation sector, which produces about 16% of global emissions. But for long-haul transportation: tru...
Podcast Episode 1.85 | 02.06.2023

How to decarbonize a city

In November 2021, the City of Ithaca announced the approval of a plan to decarbonize all of its buildings by 2030. In this first-of-its-kind decarbonization plan, Ithaca outlined a pathway to electrify roughly ...
Podcast Episode 1.84 | 01.30.2023

Bill McKibben’s take on building a successful climate movement

On April 22, 1970, 20 million people across the U.S. marched, attended speeches and sat in teach-ins, marking the first Earth Day, and spurring on the enactment of the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the...
Podcast Episode 1.83 | 01.23.2023

How to fix the clean energy bottleneck

In 2021, U.S. President Biden signed an executive order with the directive to achieve 100% carbon-pollution free electricity in the United States by 2030. The goal is certainly achievable: currently wind and so...
Podcast Episode 1.82 | 01.16.2023

Farm to stable CO2 storage

The agricultural sector produces about a tenth of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, and while most of that comes from livestock (about 2/3), emissions from crop production still total about 2.2 billion me...
Podcast Episode 1.81 | 01.09.2023

Inside the DOE: Understanding the role of the US Department of Energy in the energy transition

“We’ve built an entire industrial economy around a set of energy sources, and we’re now thinking about diversifying way beyond that. And that’s a big set of changes.” What will it take to ...
Podcast Episode 1.80 | 12.22.2022

Breaking the link between how much we consume and economic growth

The carbon footprint of stuff For the last two centuries, continuous economic growth (the increase in the quantity and quality of the economic goods and services that a society produces, per capita) has been ...
Podcast Episode 1.79 | 12.19.2022

A star in the west was brightly shining…

Last week, LLNL’s National Ignition Facility successfully ‘ignited’ a nuclear fusion reaction equivalent to what takes place in the sun: the conversion of hydrogen to helium + energy. In a f...
Podcast Episode 1.78 | 12.12.2022

What lies beneath? Efficient heating and cooling.

Can Earth’s geothermal heat warm – and cool – your home? The hottest day ever recorded on Earth was on July 10, 1913. Thermometers in California’s Death Valley measured 134 degrees F. The coldes...
Podcast Episode 1.77 | 12.05.2022

The role of microgrids in the energy transition

A micro-grid is a local grid. That means that energy generation occurs locally (no giant transmission lines) to support local energy demand, and it has the option to operate independently from a traditional reg...
Podcast Episode 1.76 | 11.28.2022

Battery power: the future of grid-scale energy storage

Renewable energy sources – wind and solar – have become the cheapest and fastest growing form of electricity generation. But the industry has not yet escaped the perennial criticism that keeps many ...
Podcast Episode 1.75 | 11.22.2022

What is the future of carbon capture technology?

Since its founding in 1952, the mission of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has been to meet urgent national security needs through scientific and technological innovation. Expanding from its focus...
Podcast Episode 1.74 | 11.14.2022

The financial value of healthy ecosystems

How many crises can we address at once? In October of this year, headlines broke that the global animal population in 2018 is 69% smaller than it was a half century ago, in 1970. It is the latest bad news in ...
Podcast Episode 1.73 | 11.07.2022

Making buildings smarter, greener and healthier

The side benefit of reducing building emissions? Increasing quality of life. Building operations (heating, cooling and electrification) account for 27% of global CO2 emissions, but represent some of the lowest...
Podcast Episode 1.72 | 10.24.2022

Making waves with marine carbon capture

The global shipping industry emits ~1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, about as much as the sixth highest emitting nation in the world. In hopes of changing course, the International Maritime Organiza...
Podcast Episode 1.71 | 10.17.2022

An electrifying look at the future of steel

For some sectors of our economy, electrification as a decarbonization strategy is a whole lot easier said than done. Take the steel industry – which is responsible for 11% of global CO2 emissions. A larg...
Podcast Episode 1.70 | 10.03.2022

The solarcoaster: adoption curves and business models

Mitigating climate change is a race against time, requiring “rapid, far reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society,” according to the IPCC, who says we need to halve global emissions by 20...
Podcast Episode 1.69 | 09.20.2022

Follow the carbon trail: quantifying a corporate carbon footprint

Calls for transparent information on the carbon footprint of a product, service, company or government are getting louder from consumers and investors, and will likely be soon codified in regulations like the U...
Podcast Episode 1.68 | 09.06.2022

What’s in the Inflation Reduction Act for climate?

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), signed into U.S. law by President Joe Biden on August 16th, might be the biggest climate investment in history, but it does not look much like the kinds of policies that have ...
Podcast Episode 1.67 | 08.23.2022

Can oceans save us? Part III: The laws of the sea

International waters don’t belong to anybody, but everybody is connected to them. Like the global burden created by greenhouse gas emissions from any one country, company or individual, what a single country ...
Podcast Episode 1.66 | 08.23.2022

Can oceans save us? Part II: The tricky science of ocean carbon capture

Did you know plastic bags were originally intended to be an environmental solution? The idea was to replace paper bags in an effort to reduce deforestation. In 1935, cane toads were another fix – they wer...
Podcast Episode 1.65 | 08.23.2022

Can oceans save us? Part I: Using oceans to pull more CO2 from the air

More than 4 billion years ago, when Earth was still in its infancy, the atmosphere held more than 100,000 times the amount of CO2 it does today. Ever so slowly, that CO2 was absorbed into the oceans, where it r...
Podcast Episode 1.64 | 08.09.2022

Understanding EPA v. West Virginia: How will the Supreme Court’s ruling impact GHG regulation?

On June 30, 2022, the United States Supreme Court handed down a decision on the case “EPA v. West Virginia,” ruling in a 6-3 vote that the EPA exceeded its statutory authority by setting greenhouse gas emis...
Podcast Episode 1.63 | 07.26.2022

Do we need nuclear power to solve climate change? Amory Lovins says no

In 2017, the V.C. Summer Nuclear Plant expansion – meant to hail the renaissance of nuclear power in the US – came screeching to a halt. The project, to build two new reactors at an existing South C...
Podcast Episode 1.62 | 07.12.2022

How can you save money while decarbonizing your building?

Heating, cooling and electrifying buildings produces nearly one fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions, but by employing existing energy efficient technologies and switching to renewables, we could cut 87% of...
Podcast Episode 1.61 | 06.21.2022

Is there a profitable approach to carbon capture and storage?

In the international carbon offset market, the average price of removing one tonne of CO2 from the atmosphere is still below $15 USD, nowhere near enough to cover the costs of carbon capture and storage (CCS). ...
Podcast Episode 1.60 | 06.14.2022

Concrete, steel and plastics: Paths to a greener industrial sector

Each year, we produce about 30 billion tonnes of concrete globally. That’s nearly 10,000 pounds, or more than 2 entire cars-worth of concrete, per person, per year.  We produce enough steel to build more tha...
Podcast Episode 1.59 | 06.07.2022

Are we undervaluing energy efficiency as a decarbonization strategy?

Are we underestimating the potential of increased efficiency? It wouldn’t be the first time. In 2021, the International Energy Agency and the U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasted a 50% increase i...
Podcast Episode 1.58 | 05.31.2022

Financial innovations for climate and clean energy impact

In the 2019/2020 fiscal year, the global climate finance sector reached a record 632 billion US dollars. Unfortunately – that is a little short of the more than $3 trillion US dollars needed each year to ...
Podcast Episode 1.57 | 05.23.2022

How to meet electricity demand while greening the grid

Lawrence Livermore National Lab, Princeton University, and the IPCC have all published proposed climate mitigation pathways: strategies for economically reaching net-zero emissions by mid-century for California...
Podcast Episode 1.56 | 05.17.2022

Will the clean energy transition be cheaper than we thought?

The recent working paper by Rupert Way, Matthew Ives, Penny Mealy, and Doyne Farmer, Empirically grounded technology forecasts and the energy transition, suggests that the high estimates of the expense to trans...
Podcast Episode 1.55 | 05.09.2022

Diluting dependence on Russian oil: How renewable energy can defund a war

Among the top importers of Russian oil are the EU, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, and France. The EU accounted for 71% of oil imports from Russia 2 months after the war in Ukraine began. But cutting off oil a...
Podcast Episode 1.54 | 05.02.2022

The bottom line on sustainable shipping: Can the shipping industry reach zero emissions?

If the international shipping sector were a country, it would be the sixth largest CO2 emitting nation in the world. Every year, 11 billion tons of goods – about 80% of all the goods we use or consume ...
Podcast Episode 1.53 | 04.25.2022

Buried treasure: Unearthing the power of the soil carbon bank

Soil – that mixture of degraded bedrock, decomposing organic matter, and microorganisms that nourishes the root systems of plants and trees – already holds twice as much CO2 as the earth’s atm...
Podcast Episode 1.52 | 04.19.2022

How can water reuse help solve the global water crisis?

Today, 26% of the global population – about 2 billion people – live without reliable access to safe drinking water.  And, as climate change worsens, the availability of fresh water will only decrea...
Podcast Episode 1.51 | 04.12.2022

Climate risk reporting: Why an SEC mandate makes sense

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission wants to standardize climate risk reporting. What does that mean? On March 21, 2022 the SEC released a proposal for a new rule: that publicly traded companies will ...
Podcast Episode 1.50 | 03.29.2022

Can ammonia or wind propel carbon-free shipping?

In the race for decarbonization, the shipping industry faces major challenges. Fuel is cheap, almost half the price of gasoline. And, most ships last between 20-25 years, meaning that the turnover to cleaner sh...
Podcast Episode 1.49 | 03.22.2022

How the electricity grid works

One of the most efficient ways to get to a net-zero economy is to generate electricity from renewable sources, and then make as many things run on electricity as possible.  But, as more end-use services (trans...
Podcast Episode 1.48 | 03.08.2022

A venture capitalist’s perspective on the evolution of green transportation

In 2021 alone, more than $32 billion dollars were invested in green-technology startups, a four-fold increase from five years earlier.  But how far will those dollars go?  Only about 25% of venture-backed ...
Podcast Episode 1.47 | 02.22.2022

Can We Achieve 100% Electric Car Sales by 2030?

What will it take to get 100% of new car sales to be electric by 2030? Is it consumer demand?  Is it political pressure? How about we just increase both?  The Zero Emission Transportation Association (ZETA) i...
Podcast Episode 1.46 | 02.18.2022

How to Scale Up Carbon Capture and Storage

From 2015 to 2020, the installed capacity of renewable electricity increased 50%, reaching nearly 12% of global electricity consumption. The number of electric vehicles sold in 2021 was 13 times more than in 20...
Podcast Episode 1.45 | 02.08.2022

Is micromobility the future of urban transportation?

How can we better design our cities and suburbs so that they are centered around humans, not cars? Cars do not need to be the primary method of urban transportation, and alternatives such as public transportati...
Podcast Episode 1.44 | 02.01.2022

An insider’s perspective on advancing US climate policy

Climate policy at the federal level is integral to mitigating the climate crisis. Unfortunately, the United States has had a hard time so far passing ambitious climate legislation. Why is that? From the outside...
Podcast Episode 1.43 | 01.25.2022

Re-imagining Heavy-Duty Trucking with Hydrogen and Carbon Capture

Heavy-duty, long-haul trucks – known as Class 8 trucks – account for more than 1 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide each year. Electrification, while a practical option for most of ...
Podcast Episode 1.42 | 01.17.2022

The trucking industry needs to go green. Are electric trucks the answer?

In 2019, medium- and heavy-duty trucks accounted for about a quarter of U.S. transportation emissions while representing less than 4% of vehicles on the road, according to the U.S. EPA. It is clear the trucking...
Podcast Episode 1.41 | 01.10.2022

Why all ride-sharing should go electric. And autonomous, with Dave Rubin

Ride-sharing services currently result in 69% more emissions, on average, than the trips they displace, according to a recent study by the Union of Concerned Scientists. But, if the ride-sharing vehicles were e...
Podcast Episode 1.40 | 12.23.2021

The sustainability conundrum of electric vehicles: Making and recycling EV batteries, with Andy Stevenson

Climate Now is kicking off our Decarbonizing Transportation series by addressing a question that looms over the electric vehicle market: how can we sustainably manufacture and recycle EV batteries? To learn abo...
Podcast Episode 1.39 | 12.20.2021

Green banks: How they unlock funding for climate solutions, with Bryan Garcia

The Connecticut Green Bank, the first green bank in the US, has unlocked over $2 billion in capital toward clean energy projects and other climate solutions since it was established by the state legislature in ...
Podcast Episode 1.38 | 12.16.2021

Ocean-Based Carbon Dioxide Removal and Geoengineering with Wil Burns

Earth’s oceans play a key role in slowing climate change, absorbing nearly a third of anthropogenic CO2 emissions. And they could, potentially, absorb more. In this episode, Climate Now explores developi...
Podcast Episode 1.37 | 12.13.2021

Unpacking COP 26: Are we on track to solve the climate crisis, with Megan Darby

In November 2021, representatives from around the world gathered to update their climate commitments at the 26th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP 26)...
Podcast Episode 1.36 | 12.09.2021

Scaling wind energy: What it will take to reach global net-zero, with Simon Watson

Wind energy is one of the cheapest sources of energy today, but it accounts for only ~6% of global electricity generation. To limit global warming to 2 degrees C or less, wind energy will need to scale up to ...
Podcast Episode 1.35 | 11.29.2021

Adaptation in North America: What’s happening and what needs to happen, with Beth Gibbons

Much of the focus surrounding climate action is on mitigation: how do we reduce the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and avoid catastrophic climate change in the coming decades? But the real...
Podcast Episode 1.34 | 11.22.2021

How to Ensure Climate Impact Investing Actually Has an Impact with Amit Bouri

“The [investment market] we have in place now is not working for people, it’s not working for the planet, and it’s actually not working for most investors.” This is according to Amit Bou...
Podcast Episode 1.33 | 11.16.2021

Water Strategy and Climate-Induced Drought: How to mitigate and prepare with Will Sarni

A growing population, groundwater depletion, poor water infrastructure, overuse and water waste threaten our global freshwater supply. Throw climate change into the mix, and the water crisis is exacerbated, a...
Podcast Episode 1.32 | 11.02.2021

Improving Climate Models with Machine Learning

Most climate models in use today are based upon large-scale, well-understood physical relationships that drive global temperature and precipitation trends. But the effects of complicated interactions that occur...
Podcast Episode 1.31 | 10.25.2021

Trash to treasure: One man’s journey to make CO2 waste a useful product

What does it take to turn an idea that could help fight climate change into a self-sustaining business? We often hear the glamorous stories of startups that have made it, but little about the struggles, the lea...
Podcast Episode 1.30 | 10.18.2021

Pricing carbon around the globe: Why it’s so difficult

How do we finance the cost of mitigating climate change, while discouraging continued use of fossil fuels? The largest public statement of economists in history argues for a carbon tax – which would charg...
Podcast Episode 1.29 | 10.12.2021

Do you get what you pay for? Monetizing Forests via Carbon Credits

A rapidly expanding list of companies have announced plans to go “carbon neutral” or “net zero”. Often, these plans include at least some offsetting of greenhouse gas emissions by purcha...
Podcast Episode 1.28 | 09.24.2021

Climate impacts profits: How businesses should report climate risk with Emily Wasley

For businesses, a changing climate is not just about worsening weather patterns. Businesses must be prepared for what is likely to be an era of rapidly accelerating change to many dimensions of their operations...
Podcast Episode 1.27 | 09.17.2021

Measuring CO2 from space: the science of NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory missions

In the first episode of our two-part series, we learned how NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory made it to space despite overwhelming odds from David Crisp, the mission’s principal investigator. Toda...
Podcast Episode 1.26 | 09.14.2021

Measuring CO2 from space: a journey of perseverance, heartbreak, and scientific breakthrough with David Crisp

On the 24th of February, 2009, David Crisp was in the control center at Vandenberg Air Force base counting down the seconds for the Orbiting Carbon Observatory to launch. It was a project he had led for a decad...
Podcast Episode 1.25 | 09.10.2021

Saving two birds with one stone: tackling biodiversity and climate together with Pete Smith

Many climate change mitigation proposals are land-use intensive. Are these proposals feasible without negatively impacting biodiversity? Can we develop solutions for both the climate and biodiversity crises? Th...
Podcast Episode 1.24 | 09.07.2021

Calculating Climate Financial Risks with Tory Grieves

The climate crisis has myriad effects on American businesses, from where properties are located and their likelihood of encountering extreme weather, to where materials are sourced and potential supply-chain co...
Podcast Episode 1.23 | 09.03.2021

Building stars on Earth: the potential of nuclear fusion

Is there such a thing as “perfect” energy? With nuclear fusion, the answer is maybe. Fusion energy would be safe to human health, environmentally clean, and essentially limitless. But, developing a ...
Podcast Episode 1.22 | 08.27.2021

Nuclear Energy: What are the real risks? with David Keith

Despite being a reliable, zero-emissions alternative to energy derived from fossil fuels, nuclear energy remains mired in controversy. Opponents often cite four reasons not to include nuclear in the portfolio o...
Podcast Episode 1.21 | 08.20.2021

Investing in the Energy Transition with Salim Samaha

Transitioning to a sustainable energy economy will require significant input of investment capital. But how do investors decide which companies and technologies to back as society moves toward a carbon neutral ...
Podcast Episode 1.20 | 08.16.2021

Optimizing Reforestation to Mitigate Climate Change with Susan Cook-Patton

Trees are an incredible resource for mitigating climate change, with myriad environmental benefits – not least their ability to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it for hundreds to thous...
Podcast Episode 1.19 | 08.13.2021

Will China reach net-zero emissions by 2060?

China currently produces more greenhouse gas emissions than the next three biggest emitters – the United States, European Union, and India – combined, making a commitment from China to decarbonize i...
Podcast Episode 1.18 | 08.09.2021

Carbon Dioxide Removal with Roger Aines

How do we reach global net-zero emissions by 2050, when there is almost no chance of completely ending our dependence on fossil fuels by that time? The solution will require Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) – a h...
Podcast Episode 1.17 | 08.06.2021

Carbon Sequestration with Julio Friedmann

In order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, we must (in addition to reducing emissions) capture carbon and permanently store it where it cannot be released, a process known as carbon sequestration....
Podcast Episode 1.16 | 08.02.2021

Clean Aviation Fuel with Steve Csonka

What incentives are needed for airlines to adopt sustainable aviation fuel (#SAF) and decarbonize air travel? How does SAF get tested and approved for use in commercial aviation? Who are the players in this spa...
Podcast Episode 1.15 | 07.30.2021

What’s Wrong with Carbon Offsets? with Mark Trexler and Derik Broekhoff

As the climate crisis worsens, more and more companies are committing to go “net-zero”. Most of these commitments include the purchase of carbon offsets or investment in negative emissions projects,...
Podcast Episode 1.14 | 07.27.2021

Hydrogen Electrolysis with Ben Wiley

Declining renewable energy costs have sparked a renewed interest in green hydrogen, which has the potential to decarbonize sectors in which electricity cannot. Because hydrogen doesn’t occur by itself on ...
Podcast Episode 1.13 | 07.19.2021

Bioenergy Conversion with Jerry Tuskan

How exactly are plants converted into liquid transportation fuel? And what obstacles does bioenergy need to overcome in order to displace fossil fuels in the US energy economy and abroad? Jerry Tuskan is the CE...
Podcast Episode 1.12 | 07.12.2021

Biomass Availability with Matthew Langholtz

Bioenergy is a renewable energy for its carbon neutrality – plants absorb CO2 during photosynthesis and emit the same amount when combusted for energy. But to significantly reduce our reliance on fossil f...
Podcast Episode 1.11 | 07.08.2021

Climate Modeling with Joeri Rogelj

Climate impact assessment models carry significant weight when developing mitigation and adaptation strategies. So, what climate models exist, and what factors do they include? What scenarios are they projectin...
Podcast Episode 1.10 | 07.02.2021

Climate Policy with Danny Richter

National governments are best-suited to provide the bold, swift action required by the climate crisis through policy. But which policies, exactly, should be passed? What are the pros and cons of each, and which...
Podcast Episode 1.09 | 06.25.2021

Net-Zero by 2050 with Eric Larson

What are the possible paths and necessary steps to achieve net-zero emissions in the United States by 2050? Which energy sources could sufficiently decrease our reliance on natural gas and oil to meet that targ...
Podcast Episode 1.08 | 06.18.2021

Carbon Capture 101 with Howard Herzog

According to the IPCC’s 2018 report, carbon capture and storage – in addition to a significant reduction in emissions – will be necessary in order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees above ...
Podcast Episode 1.07 | 06.10.2021

Housing Market Climate Risk with Amine Ouazad

Sea levels are rising, storms are worsening, and flooding is consistently exceeding FEMA’s 100-year floodplain maps. Yet, an increasing percentage of new mortgages are used to purchase homes in at-risk ar...
Podcast Episode 1.06 | 06.07.2021

Climate Projections with Sergey Paltsev

Dr. Sergey Paltsev, Deputy Director of MIT’s Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, spoke with Climate Now hosts James Lawler and Katherine Gorman about climate projections and the tool...
Podcast Episode 1.05 | 06.01.2021

Costs of Climate Change with Ian Bolliger

Dr. Ian Bolliger, Climate Data Scientist at Rhodium Group and affiliate of the Climate Impact Lab, joins Climate Now podcast hosts Katherine Gorman and James Lawler to explain how we measure the costs of climat...
Podcast Episode 1.04 | 05.25.2021

Government’s Role in Climate Action with Caroline Spears

Hosts Katherine Gorman and James Lawler interview Caroline Spears, founder and executive director of Climate Cabinet, a nonprofit that helps local, state, and federal candidates run and legislate on climate cha...
Podcast Episode 1.03 | 05.17.2021

Social Cost of Carbon with Tamma Carleton

Hosts Katherine Gorman and James Lawler interview Dr. Tamma Carleton about how to determine the real cost of a ton of carbon and how that number can be used to create policies and regulations. ...
Podcast Episode 1.02 | 05.17.2021

Sea Level Rise with Bob Kopp

Hosts Katherine Gorman and James Lawler interview Dr. Bob Kopp of Rutgers University about sea level rise and how we estimate the costs of climate damages. Dr. Kopp is one of the foremost experts in climate sci...
Podcast Episode 1.01 | 04.19.2021

Climate 101 with Kerry Emanuel

Dr. Kerry Emanuel, professor of Atmospheric Science at MIT and co-founder of the MIT Lorenz Center discusses how we can solve climate change.
Podcast Episode 1.0 | 03.31.2021

Climate Now Introduction

Welcome to the Climate Now podcast, hosted by Katherine Gorman and James Lawler. Climate Now is a multi-platform resource on the science of climate change, covering the key scientific theories underpinning our ...