Switched On

The roll out of charging infrastructure is combatting range anxiety and enabling the adoption of Electric Vehicles. Ryan Fisher, whose research focuses on Electric Vehicles and Charging Infrastructure for BNEF, discusses how quickly this is happening, what is facilitating charger installations around the world, and how charging might impact the electricity grid in the future. Today's podcast pulls...

Today’s episode features an interview from BNEF’s Summit in Munich that took place on May 24, 2022. Colin McKerracher, Head of Advanced Transport at BNEF, spoke with Irene Feige, Head of Climate Strategy and Circular Economy at BMW Group. They discuss how to take emissions and the circular economy into account when designing a vehicle. Irene shares her views on the automotive supply ch...

To understand how the energy transition could play out around the world, one might turn to Europe to see how progressive policies and favorable economics for renewables are having an impact. For the second year in a row, BloombergNEF has taken a closer look at Europe’s place in the energy transition through a series of forward-looking scenarios found in the European Energy Transition Outlook...

Today’s episode features an interview from BNEF’s recent Summit in New York City, where Ethan Zindler, Head of Americas for BNEF, spoke with Mark Carney, UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance and Chair of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ). As emphasis on sustainable finance grows and reporting frameworks refine, he highlights the importance of corporate disc...

Looking to better understand the newly proposed rules on climate-related disclosures from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), or where nuclear and gas belong on the EU Taxonomy for Sustainable Activities, or perhaps what the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) is doing? You’ve come to the right place and today’s episode goes through all of this and more with Ma...

From flight shaming to solar ‘buycotts,’ political consumers are making their voices heard on climate by using their wallet. In today’s episode we speak with Hugh Bromley, who writes about consumer issues across the global energy, transport, and sustainability sectors for BloombergNEF (BNEF). We discuss case studies from around the world, where political consumers are driving dec...

By the end of the decade, energy demand could grow by 80% across the five countries containing the majority of European data centers. Instead of placing strain on the grid, data centers have the potential to serve as a source of flexible demand. In today’s episode, Michael Kenefick and Sarrah Raza from BNEF discuss the future of the grid and how data centers might interact. Today’s episode is base...

They are also one of the largest sources of industrial emissions. In today’s episode we talk about how companies are looking to reduce these emissions and some of the emissions reducing technologies that are being developed. We also discuss how high oil prices might this impact the petrochemicals supply chain. We are joined by Ilhan Savut who writes about sustainable materials for BNEF and Sisi Ta...

What companies are buying voluntary carbon offsets? How much do offsets cost? Are they truly providing an additional carbon benefit? These are just some of the hotly discussed topics in the carbon offset space. This week, Switched On speaks with BNEF’s Head of Sustainability Research, Kyle Harrison, about the outlook for voluntary carbon offsets. He addresses some of the issues being discussed rig...

What must be true today, in order to achieve a net-zero future? That is one of the questions considered by the BloombergNEF Energy Economics team when building forward-looking energy transition scenarios out to 2050. This week, Switched On speaks with BNEF’s Chief Economist, Seb Henbest. He talks about our Energy Transition Scenario, as well as what we might learn from the three net zero scenarios...

Recent volatility and high prices in natural gas commodities markets have created a knock-on effect for utilities and consumers. This week, Switched On speaks with BloombergNEF's global head of LNG analysis, Fauziah Marzuki, about the once regional but now global natural gas market. She discusses the future of natural gas including when and under what conditions natural gas prices and trade flows...

In June of this year, the California Public Utilities Commission put out a decision requiring an additional 11,500MW of clean energy capacity to be procured by entities supplying the California grid by 2026. But also stipulated 1,000MW of this has to come from zero-emitting, renewable resources that have at least an 80% capacity factor, or, geothermal. In part 1 of this series we talked about the...

Geothermal is a small industry, with just about 14 gigawatts of capacity online globally. But where it matters, it matters a lot. In pockets around the world, geothermal can be not just the cleanest form of power, but also the cheapest. Still, geothermal development is hard -- drilling wells involves similar risks to oil and gas projects, but offers returns more in line with utilities. That risk p...

In late October, Rio Tinto announced plans to capture and bury CO2 from its ISAL aluminum smelter outside Reykjavik in the basalt right under its feet. The initiative is part of a $7.5bn effort to reduce firm-wide operational emissions by 50% by 2030. Today, Switched On speaks with Kari Helgason, head of research and innovation at Carbfix, the company that will take Rio's CO2 and inject it undergr...

Hundreds of countries and companies aim to hit net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050, or thereabouts. But even after COP26, most have not laid out clear pathways to getting there, and are putting themselves in the position of starting too late to meet the mid-century deadline. This decade is critical to get things going. This week, Switched On speaks with BNEF head of energy transition, Luiza Demoro, abo...

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas. When it comes to reducing methane emissions, monitoring technology, economics, and policy all have an important role to play. This week, Switched On speaks with BNEF analysts Antoine Vagneur-Jones, who covers EMEA Energy Transitions, and Nakul Nair, who covers U.S. Gas & LNG. They tell us about methane emissions and what can be done. This episode is based on...

The pressure is on the U.S. to get its climate house in order before it seeks to lead negotiations in Glasgow. This week, Switched On speaks with BNEF head of Americas, Ethan Zindler, and BNEF head of global policy, Victoria Cuming. They will walk us through the politics in the U.S. and what to watch out for in Glasgow, whether or not Biden shows up to the conference as a leader, or just an attend...

Europe's energy crunch is complex and weeks in, does not yet seems to be resolving, with higher gas prices, gasoline shortages and electricity retailers going out of business. This week, Switched On speaks with BNEF head of research for EMEA, David Hostert. He will walk us through the big picture -- why the energy crunch, why now -- and talk us through how gas, coal, carbon and renewables are all...

Hydrogen is a clean burning molecule that could be used to cut carbon emissions in some of the hardest to abate sectors like steel, cement, and aluminum production. This week, Switched On speaks with BloombergNEF lead hydrogen analyst Martin Tengler about the fundamentals of hydrogen. He will talk us through the many ways hydrogen can be produced, transported and used, plus the challenging economi...

International mining company Glencore has set a net-zero 2050 ambition across its operations for scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, meaning not only the mining but the use of its products, like coal. Today, Switched On speaks with Anna Krutikov, head of sustainable development at Glencore. She walks us through the company's targets, opportunities faced by Glencore in the energy transition in areas like...

The urban sprawl can seem endless, but in reality, cities only cover 3% of global landmass, while accounting for 70% of global emissions. Cities around the world are therefore turning their focus to sustainability. This week, Switched On speaks with Technology & Innovation analyst for BNEF, Kirti Vasta. She will tell us about cities making moves toward sustainability and why now. How different...

The offshore wind sector is set to grow more than 10-fold over the next 15 years. Growth has been largely in Europe to date, but China is about to go big with more than 25 gigawatts coming online in the next five years, and President Biden is pushing for 30 gigawatts to be installed in the U.S. by 2030. This week, Switched On speaks with BloombergNEF offshore wind analysts Imogen Brown and Chelsea...

BloombergNEF's Electric Vehicle Outlook is our long-term view on how electrification, shared mobility, and autonomous driving will re-shape road transport in the next three decades. This week, Switched On speaks with Colin McKerracher, the report's lead author and head of transport analysis, about when the world must start to meet net zero targets, which sectors are on track to do so, and what sur...

Over the past four months more than $30 billion has been raised by some of the world's largest asset managers for energy transition-focused funds. The capital raised will be invested in things like wind, solar, and energy storage projects, and equity in the companies developing and supplying these projects. Switched On speaks with BloombergNEF Chief Content Officer and Bloomberg Opinion columnist...

Power company AES has been an energy company in transition for well over a decade, and continues to develop and own renewable and other power assets globally. Today, Switched On's Dana Perkins speaks with AES CEO, Andres Gluski. He shares his views on the many aspects of the energy business -- from generation to storage to nuclear -- as well as what AES is doing to reduce its own carbon footprint...