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 (iD ..read more

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 ..read more

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 ..read more

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 ..read more

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 ..read more

Energy in Conversation Season 2 is coming on the 26th of January! Featuring young energy professionals from around the world as part of the EI's Generation 2050 initiative ..read more

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 ..read more

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 ..read more

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 renewabl ..read more

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 ..read more