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Columbia Energy Exchange features in-depth conversations with the world’s top energy and climate leaders from government, business, academia and civil society. The program explores today’s most pressing opportunities and challenges across energy sources, financial markets, geopolitics and climate change as well as their implications for both the U.S. and the world.
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Adapting National Security to Climate Change
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Energy and climate change are becoming ever more central to America's national security. It used to be that foreign policy and national security discussions related to energy focused primarily on oil prices and Middle East relations. Now, these conversations also include topics like critical mineral supply chains, clean energy competition with Chin…
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The Biden administration took office with ambitious plans to accelerate America's clean energy transition. Over four years, it enacted major climate legislation, poured billions into new clean energy manufacturing, built partnerships with global allies on clean energy, and navigated a global energy crisis after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. With Pr…
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The race to power artificial intelligence is dramatically reshaping America's electricity landscape. Recent analysis from the power-consultancy firm Grid Strategies shows that between 2024 and 2029, U.S. electricity demand will grow at five times the rate predicted in 2022. This surge comes as artificial intelligence and data centers reshape power …
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Europe is facing a challenging year as natural gas prices surge. While the continent seemed to weather the initial shock of losing Russian gas supplies, it’s now clear many were declaring victory too soon. Storage levels are dropping this winter, and the loss of Russian pipeline gas through Ukraine has left Europe increasingly dependent on global L…
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How Economic Warfare Impacts Energy
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At the start of February, President Trump launched a trade war. The president announced sweeping tariffs on goods imported from China, Canada, and Mexico. Although he temporarily backed away from the highest penalties, Trump clearly indicated that tariffs will be central to his policy agenda. This follows the Biden administration’s embrace of steep…
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Over the past month, the Trump administration has declared a national energy emergency, launched an ambitious agenda aimed at transforming the nation's energy landscape, and pulled back from America’s climate commitments. At the heart of Trump’s “Unleashing American Energy” strategy lies a complex balancing act: maximizing domestic energy productio…
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Reporters’ Roundtable: Trump’s Quick Start on Energy
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Last week, President Trump wasted no time in making good on a long list of energy-related campaign promises. Declaring a national energy emergency, he issued executive orders that could undo several Biden- and Obama-era climate policies. Carbon emissions standards are now in limbo, as are electric vehicle incentives and building energy efficiency s…
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President Donald Trump’s administration is promising an energy policy overhaul that would fundamentally reshape America's climate and energy policies. Trump and Republican leaders have pledged to pull back from many of the Biden administration’s climate actions, including parts of the Inflation Reduction Act, and surge domestic oil and gas producti…
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AI, Extreme Weather, and the LA Wildfires
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The year 2024 ended with a sobering milestone: it was officially the hottest year ever recorded. That pattern of extremes continues around the world, especially in Southern California, which is suffering from one of its worst disasters in history. First responders are battling lethal wildfires that have consumed more than 12,000 buildings and homes…
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Climate as a Catalyst for Global Conflicts
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Climate change isn't just an environmental threat—it's becoming a catalyst for conflict. Over the past decade, rising temperatures, water shortages, and other environmental disruptions have fueled tensions from the deserts of Iraq to the mountains of Nepal. And according to journalist Peter Schwartzstein, we're witnessing the emergence of a new, da…
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Re-run: Understanding the Scale of the Energy Transition
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Energy is fundamental to economic development. It propels manufacturing, transportation, and construction, and throughout history, it’s been the driver of human prosperity. But as global population continues to increase, and countries develop, energy use could double by the end of this century—with much of that increase concentrated in the developi…
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Re-run: Brazil’s Crucial Role in the Energy Transition
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In Brazil, the energy transition is pushed and prodded by conflicting forces. Its government is taking significant steps to cut emissions. For example, in August, it passed a much-anticipated low-carbon hydrogen framework; and in November, a law to create a regulated carbon market. And since taking office in 2023, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silv…
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The headline from this year’s World Energy Outlook released by the International Energy Agency says, “The world is on the brink of a new age of electricity.” In the United States, electrification is set to transform the energy landscape, and the nation is expected to see a rapid rise in power demand. Questions remain over how this demand will be me…
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COP29: A Veteran’s Account of the UN Process
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The international climate negotiation process stands at a critical juncture. At the recent COP29 summit in Azerbaijan, nations struggled to find common ground on financial support and carbon market strategies, all while grappling with the persistent influence of fossil fuel industries. Industrialized countries did pledge $300 billion to help develo…
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The Cybersecurity Stakes of the Energy Transition
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The energy transition is transforming how we power our world – clean energy systems are becoming more interconnected, automated, and reliant on digital infrastructure. But with this transformation comes a new vulnerability: cyberattacks. As our grid becomes smarter and our system more digitized, the potential for disruption grows. Earlier this year…
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Minimizing Damage as Mining for Critical Minerals Ramps Up
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The clean energy transition has a dirty underside. To move away from fossil fuels and toward solar, wind, batteries, and other alternative sources of energy, we have to intensify mining operations for critical minerals like lithium, copper, and cobalt. According to a Global Witness analysis of S&P Global data, copper mining will increase more than …
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Rising electricity demand. Heightened geopolitical tension. Fragility in energy markets. These are some of the big stories shaping the energy transition outlined in the International Energy Agency’s newest World Energy Outlook. Even as the IEA says the world is shifting from the "Age of Oil" to the "Age of Electricity," we are still far from achiev…
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In passing and signing the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, Congress and the Biden administration infused hundreds of billions of dollars into the energy transition. It was the largest investment in energy and climate in U.S. history. At the same time, the law left many countries worried over provisions requiring domestic manufacturing, which some …
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Re-Run: ‘The Untold History of Climate Science and Politics’
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In 1953, the New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers in the World Series, “From Here to Eternity” won the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture. And on May 24 deep in the education section of The New York Times, there was a short piece titled “How Industry May Change Climate.” In the years after, scientists went from writing about the possible i…
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How to Make the Energy Transition More Equitable
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Emerging markets and developing economies are set to account for the largest source of emissions growth in the coming decades, according to the International Energy Agency. As population growth in developing countries around the world increases, so will their demand for energy. And historically, these countries have looked to fossil fuels to suppor…
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The artificial intelligence boom is fueling a massive uptick in energy demand globally. A Goldman Sachs report from earlier this year claimed that processing a single ChatGPT query requires almost ten times the amount of electricity as a single Google search. But it’s not just ChatGPT queries driving up demand. As we transition to more renewable en…
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How Oil Markets Are Responding to Uncertainty in the Middle East
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Escalating tensions between Israel and Iran, the world’s seventh-largest producer of crude oil, have fueled concern over oil price volatility for the past few weeks. But the oil market isn’t reacting to geopolitical tensions in the Middle East as dramatically as it has in the past. Despite an ongoing war in Gaza and Israel, Israel’s attack on Hezbo…
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Europe at a Crossroads: Innovation, Energy, and Competitiveness
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Europe is facing a critical challenge. When it comes to advanced technology innovation, labor productivity, and affordable energy, it's not keeping up with the U.S. and China. At least that’s the take from Mario Draghi, former European Central Bank president, in his European Commission report last month titled, “The Future of European Competitivene…
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Norway’s Prime Minister on Balancing a Clean Energy Future
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According to recently released data, Norway is the first country in the world with more electric vehicles than gas-powered ones on the road. At the same time, the country is western Europe's largest oil and gas producer, with a total output of over four million barrels of oil equivalents per day. While the country aims to be carbon neutral by 2030,…
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The U.S. Military is Taking the Fight to Climate Change
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Back in 2012, the Department of Defense issued a first-of-its-kind “Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap.” It was designed to prepare the U.S. military for increasing threats to national security in the form of rising sea levels, increasing global temperatures, and growing conflicts over basic resources like food and water. It stated that “Climate cha…
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