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From AI to food recycling: Innovations transforming the energy sector
Listen: Making change is all about innovation. That’s no different when it comes to the energy sector.
In this episode of Energized: The Future of Energy, host JJ Ramberg and Enbridge CEO Greg Ebel talk to two innovators in the energy sector. First, we hear from Uli Homann, a Distinguished Architect in the Cloud and Enterprise business at Microsoft, about how generative AI is putting new strains on our energy systems—and creating new opportunities to make the grid more efficient.
Then, JJ talks with Caitlin Tessin, Vice President of Strategy and Market Innovation at Enbridge, and Ryan Begin, CEO of Divert, about how we can create natural gas from a surprising source: wasted food.
Listen on Apple, Spotify, Goodpods, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes will be published every other Thursday.
Can we keep energy affordable, safe, and secure?
Listen: Energy transition is a big idea with big implications for daily life. But what does it actually look like in practice?
In this episode of Energized: The Future of Energy, host JJ Ramberg and Enbridge CEO Greg Ebel talk to the Honourable Lisa Raitt, Vice Chair of Global Investment Banking for CIBC Capital Markets and former member of the Canadian parliament. During her time in government, Lisa served as Minister of Natural Resources, Minister of Labour, and Minister of Transport. Lisa talks about the tangible steps that need to be taken to move us down the road to energy transition, as well as how businesses and governments can work together to create a more sustainable, more affordable energy future.
Listen on Apple, Spotify, Goodpods, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes will be published every other Thursday.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Daniel Yergin on energy security in a changing world
Listen: Whoever controls the energy controls the power. But what happens when the resources needed to create that energy change?
In this episode of "Energized: The Future of Energy”, host JJ Ramberg and Enbridge CEO Greg Ebel talk to Daniel Yergin, Vice Chairman of S&P Global and author of The New Map: Energy, Climate & the Clash of Nations. They discuss the relationship between energy and geopolitics, how changes in energy resources impact the relationships between global superpowers, and the most effective ways to bring along developing nations as we move further down the path to energy transition.
“Energized: The Future of Energy” is a new five-part podcast series from GZERO Media's Blue Circle Studios and Enbridge, exploring the biggest ideas about the current energy transition and how it will impact geopolitics, the economy, and your bottom line.
Listen on Apple, Spotify, Goodpods, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes will be published every other Thursday.
Introducing “Energized: The Future of Energy”, a new podcast series
In our rapidly changing world, the critical role of energy is constantly evolving. Global energy investment continues to rise, with investment in low carbon fuels and renewables growing rapidly. Competing needs like affordability, energy security, and cleaner, more sustainable options make it hard to know what the future of energy will look like in the short or long term.
That’s why we’re diving into the biggest ideas about the current energy transition to learn where we’re going, and how it will impact geopolitics, the economy, and your bottom line. We’ll explore all those topics on “Energized: The Future of Energy”, a new five-part podcast series from GZERO Media's Blue Circle Studios and Enbridge premiering on Thursday, September 5th.
On each episode, host JJ Ramberg will be joined by Enbridge CEO Greg Ebel along with some of the top experts in the industry, including Pulitzer prize-winning author Daniel Yergin, former Canadian Member of Parliament Lisa Raitt, and former Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan. We’ll also talk about how technology is changing the game, and the diverse partners and Indigenous communities that are shaping the future of energy. This series is a must-listen for anyone interested in the next phase of the energy transition.
Listen on Apple, Spotify, Goodpods, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes will be published every other Thursday.
Resource-rich Alaska is crucial to the future of energy in America — Gov. Dunleavy
On GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy paints a picture of the state as a powerhouse of energy and resources, stressing, "We are an energy and economic giant, and we are the Arctic and Western Pacific Sovereign for the United States of America." Dunleavy highlights its proximity to an abundance of natural wealth—including the world’s largest gold mine and North America's largest graphite mine. "We still have billions of barrels of oil. We have over a hundred trillion cubic feet of gas that we're trying to market," Dunleavy emphasizes, positioning Alaska as crucial to America's energy future.
And, he adds, Alaska’s ability to mine these valuable resources is happening despite, rather than thanks to, the Biden administration and its penchant to view the state as "a large national park.” This, according to Dunleavy, hinders Alaska's ability to fully leverage its resources, stating, "Oftentimes we are not supported in our efforts to develop lands in Alaska that could produce minerals, that could produce more oil and gas, that could harvest our timber."
Despite these obstacles, Dunleavy remains optimistic, predicting that "the next 50 years will belong to Alaska" due to its vast resource base and strategic global position. He envisions Alaska playing a pivotal role in the global energy market, both in fossil fuels and renewables, provided that federal attitudes and policies evolve to support rather than hinder the state's ambition
Watch full episode: As the Arctic melts, Alaska's importance grows
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
New digital episodes of GZERO World are released every Monday on YouTube. Don''t miss an episode: subscribe to GZERO's YouTube channel and turn on notifications (🔔).
Dambisa Moyo: Europe's energy transition needs more than a "band-aid solution"
Most countries around the world understand that sooner or later they will need to transition to using more clean energy. But in the meantime, they still rely on over a hundred million barrels of oil per day.
What's more Russia's war in Ukraine has underscored our dependence on fossil fuels for energy.
“We hadn't anticipated that there'd be a war that would create these shocks. And that puts us slightly offside,” renowned economist Dambisa Moyo tells Ian Bremmer on GZERO World.
And what's the right way to move forward? For Moyo, Europe needs to ditch what she calls "industrial band-aid solutions" instead of the structural reforms needed to kick the Russian energy habit.
Watch the GZERO World episode: Struggling for economic progress as global recession looms in 2023
The world’s largest plastic waste pyramid is revealed in Egypt ahead of COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh.
What to expect from COP27: “It’s pretty grim”
Last year’s COP26 summit in Glasgow, Scotland, where central governments and the private sector worked together in unforeseen ways, gave us reason to hope for climate progress. Nearly 200 countries gathered to agree on details of the Paris Agreement with an eye toward limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees C. This year was meant to be all about implementation.
But in the last 12 months, the world’s been rocked by war in Europe, soaring inflation, and deepening political and economic divides between rich and poor countries. As world leaders descend this weekend on the Egyptian resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh for the COP27 climate summit, climate warriors are wondering what can be done at this pivotal moment to save the planet.
We spoke with our very own climate expert, Eurasia Group’s Vice Chairman Gerald Butts, for a reality check on the goals and possibilities for this year’s COP27. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Last year's COP26 produced some highly ambitious goals. What kind of progress has been made thus far on those goals?
Not a lot, unfortunately. I think that most governments have been distracted by the economic fallout from the war, and those directly involved in the war have been distracted by that. So I think it's been a suboptimal year, to say the least, in climate progress, with the one notable bright spot of the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States, which is the first serious stab at tackling the US domestic emissions problem that we've seen. So one big bright spot, and a lot of backsliding
What are the broad goals for this year's conference? What would success look like?
The advanced billing was that it was going to be an attempt to knit together north and south. And, unfortunately, I think the fault line between northern wealthier countries that emit a lot and the developing world, which historically has not emitted a lot, is going to be bigger than ever in Egypt and that will probably feature prominently in the daily coverage. There will be a big focus on climate finance and greenwashing — expect a bunfight on this front.
To what extent has the war in Ukraine impacted global climate goals?
I think the war in Ukraine will ultimately expedite the energy transition from fossil-based energy to renewables. But in the short term, there's no doubt that it's leading to an increase in the use of fossil fuels to create energy, particularly in Europe. And the most pernicious aspect of climate change emissions is that they persist for a long time in the atmosphere. So you're seeing a lot of coverage where people are saying, “these are temporary increases in emissions in Europe,” but they're not temporary to the atmosphere. That's the key point. They may ramp back down in a couple of years, but the consequences will be there for a very long time.
Do you expect that to shift at all in the coming year? What is the outlook for Europe’s transition away from fossil-based energy?
I think that the geopolitics of Russia's energy leverage over Europe has brought into sharp relief for European governments how ill-advised that was in the first place. And given that Europe does not have a large domestic store of fossil-based energy, it's underscored how important the energy transition away from fossil is in Europe. And European policymakers have really latched onto it. They're going to spend a lot of money to execute it, and it's going to be an expensive fast transition as governments try to manage large increases in energy prices in the short term. There's no doubt that the energy transition is happening and that people underestimate how disruptive it's going to be. The countries that are trying to push fast forward on an energy transition will endure the price spikes. So in a nutshell, it's going to be a lot bumpier than people expect it to be, and it will eventually happen, but there will be a lot of political fallout and turmoil.
Last year, the US and China signed a joint declaration on Climate Action. Is that cooperation in jeopardy today? And what does that mean?
Oh yeah, big time. I think it's part and parcel to the larger structural change in the US-China relationship, where they both see each other primarily as competitors rather than as strategic partners. In the past, the climate as an issue had been set aside from that change, but it's inevitably been sucked into that maelstrom.
This means you don't have the top two emitters and two largest economies cooperating any longer on climate change. I think it's become, for both countries, a field of competition rather than cooperation, which is again something we've been saying was inevitable at Eurasia Group Asia for a long time, but you're seeing it in full force now.
One of the biggest-picture issues that'll be in the background of every conversation at COP27 is the global competition for the rare earth minerals that go into making up the battery supply chain for everything from electric vehicles to storage for electricity grids. The Chinese are way ahead, and the North Americans — including Canada and Mexico — have lately stepped up their efforts to catch up. But we see this as a resource race where large dominant economies are competing with one another to secure a long-term supply of critical minerals that they think will be of strategic economic and security value over the mid to long term.
What other contentious issues will COP27 participants face?
I think the big issue is — and this was brought into sharp relief with the floods in Nigeria and Pakistan — that the developing world is saying, "We didn't cause this problem, but we're dealing with its most severe consequences, and under the loss and damage provisions that the north has signed onto repeatedly, but failed to deliver on, it's time for you guys to pay up.” And the north is going to show up without a lot of money.
As a veteran of several COPs, that's a dynamic that you see all the time, and I think the patience is wearing thin in the south, especially as they see all of this investment get sucked into the United States because of the IRA.
What do you think of Egypt playing host? How will that go down?
There's going to be a lot of bad publicity for Egypt during the course of the COP, in particular on political freedom issues. There are organizations trying to highlight the prevalence of political prisoners in Egypt. And of course, Sharm El Sheikh itself is known as a playground for wealthy Europeans and Middle Easterners. In some ways, having it in an African country so close to Europe is inviting comments on the global divide between north and south.
And finally, where does the world stand on climate targets, and what is your biggest fear?
Everybody’s way off their targets and a lot of very hard heavy lifting is required to get us anywhere near keeping 1.5 degrees alive. And right now we're somewhere in the mid-2’s depending on which projection you look at. And you only need to look around the world to see the manifestations of 1.2 degrees of warming, which is where we are, to know that the next 20, 30, 40, 50 years are going to be really difficult ones, in particular for people who live near the equator, which is most of humanity.
What worries me most is that we're entering a world where even the wealthy countries that can, to a certain extent, use their wealth to insulate themselves from the most severe impacts of climate change, aren't really doing it. It requires us in democratic societies to do things that we're historically not very good at, which is to think long-term on things like infrastructure and to make investments accordingly.
What keeps me awake at night is the migration crisis. I think that a combination of adverse heat events, flooding, and sea level rise will create numerous migration problems over the next 20 years that we have shown ourselves as a global community singularly inept at dealing with.
Sorry to be a downer, but it's pretty grim out there.
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