Audioblog 12: The Five Superheroes of the Transition

Cleaning Up: Leadership in an Age of Climate Change

This week, Michael presents the second part of his two-parter for Bloomberg New Energy Finance, exploring the bear and bull cases for the net zero transition. This week is the bull case: the "5 superheroes" of the transition, 5 forces/trends even more powerful than last week's "5 horsemen", which can prevail in the challenge of rapidly decarbonising the global economy. The 5 superheroes are: Exponential Growth, Systems Solutions, Great Power Competition, Disappearing Demand, and the Primary Energy Fallacy. And stay tuned until the end for a 6th "bonus" superhero!

This audioblog is based on Michael's Bloomberg New Energy Finance opinion piece of the same title.

Links

Read the original BNEF piece on which this audio blog was based: https://about.bnef.com/blog/liebreich-net-zero-will-be-harder-than-you-think-and-easier-part-ii-easier/

Read the latest IEA Renewables Report 2023: https://www.iea.org/news/massive-expansion-of-renewable-power-opens-door-to-achieving-global-tripling-goal-set-at-cop28

Read the 2017 research paper - Limits to Growth in the Renewable Energy Sector: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032119305143

Read Michael's 2018 piece for BNEF - Beyond Three Thirds, The Road to Deep Decarbonisation: https://about.bnef.com/blog/liebreich-beyond-three-thirds-road-deep-decarbonization/

Read the research review by Hans Eric Melin on the reuse and recycling rates of lithium-ion batteries: https://www.energimyndigheten.se/globalassets/forskning--innovation/overgripande/state-of-the-art-in-reuse-and-recycling-of-lithium-ion-batteries-2019.pdf

Read Michael Barnard's analysis of the proportion of global shipping linked to the fossil fuel industry: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelbarnard/2023/12/05/how-will-climate-action-change-the-face-of-global-shipping/?sh=73844bc869d0

View the Lawrence Livermore Sankey Diagram showing estimated US energy flows in 2022: https://flowcharts.llnl.gov

Read the first part of this BNEF piece on the "5 horsemen" of the transition: https://about.bnef.com/blog/liebreich-net-zero-will-be-harder-than-you-think-and-easier-part-i-harder/

Related Episodes

Audioblog 11: Net Zero Will Be Harder Than You Think - And Easier. Part 1: Harder: https://www.cleaningup.live/audioblog-11-net-zero-will-be-harder-than-you-think-and-easier-part-i-harder-1/

Audioblog 10: The Next Half-Trillion-Dollar Market – Electrification of Heat: https://www.cleaningup.live/cleaning-up-audioblog-episode-10-the-next-half-trillion-dollar-market-electrification-of-heat/