Eight Minutes

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The amount of renewable generation that is forecasted to come online over the next few years is staggering. But renewable assets face risks - risks associated with the changing climate in the first place. As weather patterns change, affecting cloud cover, snow melt, or wind speed - renewable assets are especially vulnerable to these changes.

I...

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There are over 20 Green Banks spread across the US, designed to deploy clean energy technologies and ensure equitable access to the clean energy economy. These quasi-public institutions play an important role in bridging a risk gap between what is "theoretically financeable" and what is "actually financeable".

In this episo...

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If there is a gold standard for setting corporate climate goals, it's a science based target. These commitments are a rigorous, methodical approach toward ensuring that we stay below the 2 degree warming threshold.

In today's episode, Paul explains the methodology used to determine science based targets and their net zero counterpart...

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Philanthropic giving to climate related causes is woefully small. But charitable dollars have a really important role to play because of their flexibility and different motivations. They can catalyze investment in areas where private or governmental dollars can not.

In this episode, Paul sits with Randall Kempner, Senior Advisor to the Aspen I...

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Paul sits with Mike Roeth of the North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE) to discuss the current state of trucking and how that industry is decarbonizing. Although trucks only account for 5-10% of the vehicles on the road, they contribute up to a quarter of the transportation sector's greenhouse gas emissions.

But whereas cha...

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2024 marks the first compliance period for the groundbreaking building performance standard in New York City known as Local Law 97. The law requires large buildings to go beyond simply reporting emissions and to begin to enact decarbonization standards. Or face fines.

Paul sits with Luke Surowiec of ICF and who is the program director of the N...

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It's been about 6 and a half years since Hurricane Maria laid waste to Puerto Rico's power grid. As the island continues its recovery, it is pioneering a more distributed, renewable and resilient power infrastructure that the rest of us can learn from.

In this episode, Paul sits down with Javier Rua of the Solar and Energy Storage As...

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On March 6th, the Securities and Exchange Commission released their long awaited rules on climate disclosure. The final product attempts to standardize how companies report on the risks that they face from worsening climate events, while providing a way to indicate the strategies and steps being taken to reduce the impact and risk of climate change.

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Thermal Energy Networks are matriced assemblies of pipes and heat pumps where buildings can not only utilize the heat from the ground beneath us, but repurpose heat from the buildings around us to make certain we're not wasting anything. And, because of that, these systems may be a super efficient and cost effective means to decarbonize large swat...

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In this episode, Paul unpacks how 24/7 hourly matching is becoming something of a new standard for corporate renewable energy procurement. This temporal strategy is having an impact on not just how large companies are buying power, but also for federal organizations, hydrogen developers, and, frankly, just about anyone in the renewable procurement mark...

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When Walmart launched their Project Gigaton program in 2017, the idea that the retailer could get their suppliers to cumulatively reduce 1 BILLION tons for carbon emissions by 2030 was hailed as incredibly ambitious.

Last week, the company reported in their fourth quarter earnings call that they had not only surpassed that billion ton goal, bu...

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While EV global sales continue to surge, the uptick in the US lags significantly behind that of our European counterparts. And while obstacles such as a lack of charging infrastructure, high up-front costs, and battery range are affecting market share - those same issues are also at play in Europe. So what are they doing right that is helping that cont...

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Getting discouraged by all of the negativity in climate news recently? In this week's episode, Paul takes a different tack - focusing on the good news that came out of 2023 and all of the positive results that we've *already* achieved in climate action. Take a bit of hope from this episode as to the trajectory of change that is occurring!

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In this episode, Paul is joined by DR Richardson and Jan Keleher of Elephant Energy to discuss the challenges of the residential heat pump market. With an array of federal, state and local incentives, a myriad of technology options, sizing requirements, electrical upgrade decisions and other factors that play into installing these units, Elephant Energ...

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The intensity and impact of wildfires has dramatically increased over the past few decades due to climate change. And as those acres burn, those fires are releasing trapped carbon back into the atmosphere and only exasperating global warming.

Utilities have been at the center of the controversy around wildfires - taking the blame for devastati...

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Is renewable natural gas the silver bullet for a greener future or a complex puzzle yet to be solved? While many industrial and natural gas companies have looked to RNG as a potential solution to decarbonize their operations, the fuel source is not without some issues.

Paul examines how RNG is made, used and contributes to decarbonization goal...

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CO2 may be the main culprit of climate warming activities - but there are other greenhouse gases out there even more potent. Twenty thousand times more potent, in fact. And controlling these gases is just as important to meeting our climate ambitions as reducing carbon emissions is.

Paul unpacks the Kyoto protocol and the seven gases identifie...

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Just before Christmas, the US Treasury and IRS issued rules on how certain tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act should be considered. These 45V tax credits are critical to the growth and evolution of the hydrogen industry, but not everyone agrees on how these credits should be managed. Should they prioritize growth of a needed carbon-free fuel in...

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Back in October, California passed a remarkable law called Senate Bill 253, The Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act. Usually shortened to just SB 253, the new law is the first to require large companies to publicly report on their greenhouse gas emissions.

Paul sits down with one of the key architects of the legislation, Catherine Atkin ...