Climate Now Podcast
Climate News Weekly: Apr 1, 2024
Coal plants closing, AI for climate, and more
This week on Climate News Weekly, James Lawler and Julio Friedmann discuss coal-fired power plant closures in New England, how the DOE is spending billions to spur innovation in technologies to decarbonize top-emitting industries, the role that AI can play in
Climate Now: Mar 26, 2024
How climate changes where people live
In the U.S. alone, 162 million people will experience a worse quality of life due to the changing climate within the next 30 years. Rising sea levels stand to displace 13 million Americans in the long run while wildfires and other risks are likely to disp
Climate News Weekly: Mar 25, 2024
Energy demand up, new battery storage, and more
This week on Climate News Weekly, James Lawler is joined by Julio Friedmann and Canary Media Reporter Julian Spector. Julio reports on his experience at CERAWeek, and discusses rising energy demand. Julian shares his thoughts on new battery construction projec
Climate Now: Mar 21, 2024
Charging Electric Fleets (3/3)
In 2023, electric vehicle drivers reported that, when pulling up to one of the more than 140,000 EV public charging stations across the United States, something went wrong about 21% of the time, leaving them unable to charge their vehicles. Such unreliabili
Climate News Weekly: Mar 20, 2024
SBTI, CERAWeek, and more
This week on Climate News Weekly, James Lawler is joined by GreenBiz Editor at Large Heather Clancy, as well as regular contributors Dina Cappiello and Julio Friedmann. They discuss the latest updates to the Science Based Targets Initiative dashboard and what
Climate News Weekly: Mar 11, 2024
MethaneSAT and the SEC
This week we’re joined by Dina Cappiello and Julio Friedmann to talk about the latest climate news. The IEA released its global warming emissions report for 2023, and emissions continue to rise, but at a slower rate than in previous years. Meanwhile, to
Climate Now: Feb 27, 2024
Charging Electric Fleets (2/3)
Today, given route lengths and cargo capacity, it is possible to electrify 65% of medium-duty and 49% of heavy-duty trucks. Commercial fleets’ are responding to this promise, with announced commitments to electrification surpassing 140,000 vehicles in 2022 i
Climate News Weekly: Feb 26, 2024
Natural gas prices, EV leasing, and more
In this week’s episode of Climate News Weekly, James Lawler, Julio Friedmann, and Darren Hau discuss falling natural gas prices and the impact of that on the energy transition, how leasing companies are responding to the EV industry, the need for more su
Climate Now: Feb 20, 2024
Charging Electric Fleets (1/3)
In the United States, nearly one quarter of national greenhouse gas emissions come from the 280 million vehicles that drive on the nations roads each year. And while fleet vehicles – including the ~5 million buses, garbage trucks, law enforcement vehicles an
Climate News Weekly: Feb 19, 2024
IEA’s birthday, Siemens’ new plant, and more
On today’s episode of Climate News Weekly, James Lawler and Julio Friedmann discuss the IEA’s 50th anniversary, Siemens’ plans to open a US-based transformer plant, Ireland’s energy woes, and more.
Climate Now: Feb 13, 2024
Living outside our comfort zone
In the late 1970’s, English chemist Dr. James Lovelock and American biologist Dr. Lynn Margulis published a research paper hypothesizing that living organisms – without intention or agency – could have a regulatory effect on their environment that help
Climate News Weekly: Feb 13, 2024
California flooding, heat pumps in the news, and more
In this episode of Climate News Weekly, James Lawler sits down with Julio Friedmann and Darren Hau to discuss potential responses to California’s most recent torrential rains, how both California and the UK are responding to heat pumps, the EU’s ne
Climate Now: Jan 30, 2024
The emerging market that is unlocking renewable projects
Passage of the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in 2022 was a game changer in the United States’ effort to address climate change. The hundreds of billions of dollars the IRA has made available for clean energy and climate mitigation projects will likely
Climate News Weekly: Jan 29, 2024
Delayed LNG terminal, Europe’s energy mix, and more
On this week’s episode of Climate News Weekly, James Lawler and Julio Friedmann discuss the consequences of the Biden administration’s decision to delay the approval of a LNG export plant in Louisiana, some European countries’ plans to transition away
Climate News Weekly: Jan 23, 2024
Cold EVs, Hawaii’s virtual power plant, and more
This week on Climate News Weekly, host James Lawler is joined by Julio Friedmann, Darren Hau, and Canary Media Reporter Julian Spector. They discuss the various issues facing EV users and owners during the US’ recent cold snap, new developments in British
Climate Now: Jan 16, 2024
Virtual power plants and next-gen batteries
Since 2019, the cost of wind and solar electricity production has been lower than that from fossil fuels, and costs are projected to continue falling well into the next decade. But for renewable energy to truly dominate the electricity market, it needs to be c
Climate News Weekly: Jan 15, 2024
Auxin solar case, Utah climate senate race, and more
Julio Friedmann, Dina Cappiello, Darren Hau and Eric Wesoff join James Lawler to discuss this week’s climate news. Why is the Auxin solar tariff case still a thing? How did we manage to reduce global emissions while increasing GDP last year? China works to
Climate News Weekly: Jan 9, 2024
Green hydrogen tax credit rules, Chinese EVs dominate, Louisiana LNG exports, and more
In this week’s episode of Climate News Weekly, Julio Friedman, Dina Cappiello, and Darren Hau join James Lawler to discuss the US Treasury’s new guidance for what can qualify for a “green hydrogen” tax credit, Tesla no longer being the world’s larg
Climate Now: Jan 1, 2024
The Voluntary Carbon Offset Market (3/3)
In January of 2023, a headline from Boston Consulting Group read: The voluntary carbon market [VCM] is thriving. Their evidence? A 4-fold increase in the value of the market in the course of a year, to a valuation over $2 billion USD and growing. Nine months l
Climate Now: Dec 25, 2023
The Voluntary Carbon Offset Market (2/3)
Join us for the second of our three-part series on voluntary carbon offset markets, where we take a look at three companies that have very different strategies for removing carbon from the atmosphere. Vesta aims to increase the amount of atmospheric carbon tha
Climate Now: Dec 19, 2023
The Voluntary Carbon Offset Market (1/3)
The voluntary carbon offset market (VCM) – in which customers can pay for third-parties to avoid emitting CO2 or remove it from the atmosphere on their behalf – has existed for over 30 years, and has been controversial for nearly as long. On the one hand,
Climate News Weekly: Dec 18, 2023
Top Stories of 2023, including COP28 deal, methane tracking, climate risks, and more
For our last episode of Climate News Weekly this year, we’re reviewing the top climate space stories of 2023 according to our series regulars Julio Friedmann, Dina Cappiello, and Darren Hau. Climate Now Host James Lawler and Managing Producer Emma Crow-Willa
Climate Now: Dec 11, 2023
Roads to CO2 Removal
How much CO2 is it possible to remove in the United States and at what cost? Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists and researchers from more than a dozen institutions have completed a first-of-its-kind national assessment of carbon dioxide removal
Climate News Weekly: Dec 11, 2023
COP28 coverage, including global health, carbon capture, and “phase out vs phase down”
Today in Climate News Weekly, we continue our coverage of COP28 with three people who each covered a different aspect of the conference. First, we speak with Julian Moore of Climatebase to discuss this COP’s focus on how climate change impacts global health,