Heat pumps work almost like magic—delivering several times more heat energy than the electricity they require to run. Modern heat pumps are so efficient, they can even extract warmth from freezing temperatures, keeping buildings comfortable despite the cold outdoors. With many policymakers seriously exploring ways they can accelerate heat pump adoption, we thought now is the perfect time to offer some specific and useful guidance on designing effective approaches for realizing this goal. Our guest today is Dr. Richard Lowes, a specialist in heating technology and policy with the Regulatory Assistance Project in Europe. He also co-chairs the Clean Heat Forum international policy network. Richard has advocated for heating policy since earning his doctorate in the subject from the University of Exeter a decade ago, advising the Scottish government’s heat decarbonization programme board, various UK parliamentary select committees, and serving in multiple roles within the UK government. In this episode, we discuss why the energy transition requires us to fix leaky buildings, tradeoffs between energy efficiency upgrades and simply swapping out old boilers for heat pumps, the best policies to encourage heat pump adoption, and the measures available in Europe to support all these efforts.

Tim Gould, Co-head of the World Energy Outlook at the International Energy Agency (IEA), discusses vital trends influencing the energy transition. He reveals that global fossil fuel demand is expected to peak within five years, reshaping markets and geopolitics. The conversation explores the surge in low-emission electricity sources, particularly wind and solar, projected to dominate power generation by 2030. Additionally, they delve into rising energy demands from data centers, evolving expectations for hydrogen, and the urgent investments required to meet climate targets.

This episode is the second in a miniseries about how the UK is transforming its energy system. If you missed Part One, featuring Adam Berman discussing the UK’s decarbonization progress, you can find it here. In this conversation, Luke Ames Blackaby from Ofgem, the UK’s electricity and gas regulator, joins us to discuss how the agency is supporting technology development to meet the UK’s 2030 clean power and 2050 full decarbonization targets. We explore a wide range of critical topics, including flexible electricity tariffs, cost-effective expansion of the transmission system for renewable energy, and adapting gas networks for hydrogen. Additionally, we cover integrating heat networks, leveraging electrified rail as a flexible demand asset, and using storage to manage variable renewable generation. Finally, we examine how regulations can evolve to accommodate emerging technologies like demand flexibility and optimize existing infrastructure.

This episode kicks off a new miniseries exploring how the UK is evolving its energy system through world-leading efforts to meet its decarbonization goals. In 2024, it closed its last coal-fired power plant and conducted its most successful Contract for Difference (CfD) auction yet, which attracted a diverse range of renewable energy projects—including more than enough offshore wind bids to make up for the lack of such projects in the 2023 auction. The UK also launched an astonishingly ambitious effort to develop an economy-wide energy planning process for the entire country, conducted by the newly-established National Energy System Operator (or NESO). NESO produced its first report, providing essential guidance to all participants in the country’s energy system. Additionally, Great British Energy was created, which will make the British government a direct investor in renewable energy projects. In this episode, we speak with Adam Berman, the Director of Policy and Advocacy at Energy UK, the nation’s energy industry trade group. He advocates for ways to speed up the UK’s journey to net-zero through enabling low-carbon investment in clean power generation. We review all of 2024’s developments in detail, and outline the path forward for the UK’s energy transition.

Why do most economic models consistently underestimate the speed of energy transition? Our guest today, Doyne Farmer, believes he knows why. Doyne is the director of the Complexity Economics program at the Oxford Martin School at Oxford University, the Chief Scientist at Macrocosm, a modeling shop specializing in complexity economics, and the author of the recent book Making Sense of Chaos—A Better Economics for a Better World. In this conversation, Doyne argues that traditional equilibrium economics falls short at capturing the realities of a rapidly changing world. He explains how a new approach called complexity economics, using agent-based modeling, provides a more accurate picture of how economic actors actually behave that can give policymakers and investors better guidance for navigating an evolving economy. It also indicates that the energy transition and climate action are likely to develop much more quickly than current forecasts suggest.

The outlook for energy transition in the US may feel bleak at the moment, but Europe continues to make significant progress. So if you’re ready for a little good news and thoughtful conversation about the energy transition in Europe, this one’s for you! Our guest in this episode is Jan Rosenow, a veteran European energy observer, analyst, and policy advisor with extensive experience in energy regulation and market design. As Vice President of the Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP), he supports their European team with a focus on power market design, energy regulation, electrification, the gas transition and energy efficiency. Jan’s resumé includes roles at the World Economic Forum, the International Energy Agency, the European Commission, the European Parliament, the UK’s Office of Gas and Electricity Markets, and the British House of Commons, among many others. He is also an accomplished academic who has contributed extensively to hundreds of peer-reviewed articles, technical reports and opinion pieces on energy and sustainability. In this episode, we explore where Europe’s energy policies are delivering results and where it is still falling short. We discuss the enormous need to improve building energy efficiency across the continent and how electrifying heating systems can help. Jan also explains why balancing electricity and gas prices is key to supporting the energy transition. And Chris offers a few thoughts on how the re-election of Donald Trump might impact energy transition in the years ahead.

Nuclear power is “having a moment.” Frequently in the news, it is hailed by proponents as a critical part of decarbonizing our economy and meeting rising power demand. But does nuclear truly have a role to play in the energy transition? The fact is that nuclear power plants are only built when they have significant government backing. Around the world, the private sector avoids these projects unless governments take all the risk, and offer extensive financial support—below-market loans, grants, and subsidies—as well as unlimited technical expertise, personnel, research, and supply chain support. This raises the question: Why do governments insist on pursuing nuclear power when it has continually proven to be the most expensive, risky, and slowest way to generate power? Our guest this episode, M.V. Ramana, has conducted extensive research to uncover the reasons behind the enduring support for nuclear power. A professor at the University of British Columbia, Ramana brings a wealth of expertise from his career in nuclear physics, nuclear weapons, nuclear power plants (including SMRs), and public policy on international security and energy supply. His recent book, Nuclear is not the Solution: The Folly of Atomic Power in the Age of Climate Change, delivers a comprehensive and unflinching critique of nuclear energy as a meaningful climate solution. In this conversation, we discuss the roles of government, industry, and politics in perpetuating nuclear power, and whether its future is compatible with the energy transition.

The energy transition is making good progress on several fronts. Renewables are displacing fossil fueled electricity generation. Heat pumps are decarbonizing space heating. Electric vehicles of all sizes are replacing oil-powered cars. But the world’s industrial decarbonization is really just getting started. Industry generates roughly one-third of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, so solutions for this sector are critical for the energy transition. We have made faster progress in decarbonizing electricity, transportation, and heating because it’s easier to replace a handful of dirty technologies with clean alternatives. Decarbonizing industry, however, is a far more complex task, involving thousands of materials, processes, and end products. That’s why they used to be called “hard-to-decarbonize” sectors. Fortunately, there are clear starting points. More than half of industrial emissions come from steel, cement, and chemicals—which we know how to decarbonize. And there are solutions on the horizon for the rest of industry too. In this conversation, Jeffrey Rissman, Senior Director of Industry at the San Francisco based think-tank Energy Innovation, walks us through each of the industrial sectors and the solutions for each one. Jeff is the author of a recent book titled Zero-Carbon Industry: Transformative Technologies and Policies to Achieve Sustainable Prosperity, and after listening to this episode, you’ll know just about everything you need to know about industrial decarbonization.

The energy transition in China is a complex picture. China is both the world’s largest annual greenhouse gas emitter and the largest market for electric vehicles. It’s the largest user of coal, and it deploys more wind and solar every year than the rest of the world combined. It’s both the largest worry in terms of rising CO2 concentrations, and the biggest hope for curbing emissions. But in syndicated media, this complex reality tends to be boiled down to old tropes, generalized and unhelpful characterizations, and correct but irrelevant data, instead of any useful context and synthesis. So you might be forgiven for not knowing that power sector emissions in China actually fell in the second quarter of 2024, and China’s CO2 emissions could be close to a peak in its CO2 emissions, which means the world probably is too. The reporting on India and the rest of Southeast Asia is even worse, if not nonexistent. So we are very pleased to welcome back Australian energy analyst Tim Buckley to the show. We sat down in person in Sydney for an hour and a half conversation about the trends and the data in all of those countries, as well as their trade relationships with Australia. And we begin to explore the potential for Australia to use its abundant and cheap wind and solar resources to produce green hydrogen, then use it to upgrade the ores and other materials that it exports to Asia and beyond. After listening to this episode, we hope you’ll have a much better idea of the reality of the energy transition in Asia and Australia.

In August 2024, Chris commenced a three-month research trip across Australia and New Zealand to explore their unique challenges and opportunities in the energy transition, and to conduct interviews with the people involved. This episode kicks off a miniseries based on those travels. We start by speaking with Giles Parkinson, a journalist for more than 40 years who has arguably covered Australia’s energy transition more thoroughly and consistently than anyone else. Giles is the founder and editor of Renew Economy and the co-host of the weekly Energy Insiders Podcast as well as the founder of two other websites: One Step Off The Grid, which provides information to consumers contemplating what they can do to support the energy transition, and The Driven, which is billed as “Australia’s most-trusted and well-read electric vehicle news site.” In this roughly 90-minute conversation, we frame up the big picture on Australia’s energy transition, including the major themes and vectors of change. We discuss several significant energy transition projects as well as the politics of the energy transition in Australia, including the roles of various government agencies.