Podcast

About 3 billion people globally depend on open fires or inefficient stoves and fuels to cook their food. This has serious impacts on our climate and environment, as well as health and livelihoods, especially for women and children. The World Health Organization estimates that around four million extra deaths per year result from this indoor air pollution, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. In this episode, Dr Kandeh Yumkella (former Director General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, and former CEO of Sustainable Energy for All) speaks with Amey Bansod (iDE Cambodia) and Rebecca Wentworth (BURN Manufacturing) about advancing this important, and often silent, aspect of access to energy.

The world’s commitment to hold global temperature increases to well below 2°C will require significant changes to large-scale infrastructure. New assets require planning and financing, and investors are looking for guarantees that their investments will be rewarded. Global investment in the low-carbon energy transition reached $500 billion in 2020 (BNEF), but we need to go further and faster to reach targets. Where will all this money come from? In this episode of Energy in Conversation, Energy Institute Fellow Lawrence Slade (GIIA) chats to Falco van Wissen (Neptune Energy) and Anne Munaretto (EY) about the future of green finance.

Clean electricity is crucial for achieving a sustainable, low-carbon energy system. We already use it to charge our phones and light our homes – but we are also set to use it to decarbonise other sectors like heat and transport. Great progress has been made in adding low-carbon energy sources like wind and solar to the grid – however, the variability of renewables means that careful grid management is more important than ever. In this episode, President of the Energy Institute Steve Holliday joins Maria Carmona (Vattenfall) and Ariana de Almeida (IBM) to discuss the future of electricity grids. They conversation covers how mature grid systems currently work, the new energy sources and technologies that are changing how things will operate, and what this means for energy consumers going forward.

In their landmark Net Zero report, the UK’s Climate Change Committee states that carbon capture and storage (CCS) “is a necessity, not an option” for reaching net-zero emissions. Despite growing global consensus of its importance, there are only a limited number of pilot projects operating today. In this episode, we join Aleida Rios (BP) as she chats with Dr Jeni Reeve (Drax) and Charlie Garner (CCSA) about how CCS works, the policy interventions and financial investments required to develop it, and the opportunities for Generation 2050 in this growing sector.

To kick off our new season, the Energy Institute’s Chief Executive Louise Kingham chats with two talented young professionals to explore their motivations as they progress in the energy industry. Mervin Azeta (Schlumberger), and David Davidson (Ørsted) consider what it means to have a ‘career with a conscience’ in an industry often criticised for shirking its responsibilities to the planet. They discuss the challenges faced by women working in a sector still dominated by men, how we can address the dual challenges of energy access and the climate emergency, and whether a career in oil and gas can be reconciled with our climate goals.

Those with the least income are spending the most on energy, and will be the worst affected by climate change. In the final episode of its first season, Energy in Conversation is taking on two of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) which are inextricably linked: SDG 7, affordable and clean energy, and SDG 13, climate action. Our guests, Malcolm Brinded and Anshul Patel, discuss how to help those 840 million people with no electricity and 3 billion cooking with dirty inefficient fuels, without driving up climate warming emissions.

In a world banishing greenhouse gas emissions, all parts of the global economy will have to adapt. This episode asks an existential question for the energy sector: what will today’s oil and gas companies look like in the net zero world of 2050? EI Chief Executive Louise Kingham hosts a conversation between Maarten Wetselaar and Bob Ward. They may not agree on everything, but one thing is for certain: to succeed in the future, companies must show leadership now.

You may think low carbon power generation is a recent innovation. On this episode, we consider a source of electricity which has been providing zero-carbon power for decades – nuclear power. Our first guest, Kirsty Gogan considers how nuclear stacks up in today’s electricity mix when it comes to reliability, public opinion, and cost. Then, Paul Stein tells us how that could all change with an innovative new way of building nuclear power stations – small modular reactors. This is not your grandfather’s technology – but can SMRs compete with the falling price of and rising popularity of renewables?

Our latest episode explores the routes to decarbonising domestic heat. Hear from expert guests, Dr Tim Rotheray and Adam Madgett, about the need to balance both sides of the heating equation - energy efficiency and clean heating sources. We focus on the options for keeping warm without harming the planet, from electricity to heat networks to green gasses. 83% of UK homes have gas-fired boilers today, but what will the future of heating look like?

This week we focus on the UK's digital energy switchover - like TV and banking, retail energy is getting a 21st-century upgrade. But 1 in 10 UK adults are not internet users, and the same proportion are in fuel poverty. Can a digital energy future close this gap, rather than widen it? From smart kettles to vehicle-to-grid charging, and everything in between, our guests paint their vision for the future and consider how to take everyone along, including and especially vulnerable consumers.

Our first episode takes place at the intersection of food and energy - two systems which are central to human wellbeing and climate change. Getting food from farm to table is taking a toll on the environment, and 1/3 of all food produced never gets eaten. While the story differs between emerging and advanced economies, energy is at the heart of the challenge wherever we are in the world. Our guests walk us through food's journey, from how it's kept cold to how it's sold, and ask us to rethink society's biggest questions: how can we feed the world without destroying the planet?