Podcasts · Business · Science

Switched On

Bloomberg

300 episodes

The future of energy, transport, sustainability and more, as told by BNEF analysts. Each week, Dana Perkins and Tom Rowlands-Rees sit down with BloombergNEF (BNEF) analysts to uncover the key findings and stories behind their latest research.

Episodes page 3 of 6

  1. Crude Reality: Oil Demand Growth Falls After Tariffs

    · 27 min

    Oil demand growth outlooks have taken a heavy hit in recent weeks. In the wake of the Trump administration’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcements, US business and consumer sentiment tanked and global GDP expectations…

  2. Rainforest to Revenue: Brazil’s Carbon Market Opening

    · 37 min

    Brazil, the host nation of this year’s COP30, looks set to be at the center of most major carbon market developments in 2025. The country is working hard to develop its domestic carbon market, and could quickly…

  3. Power Play: EU Courts Chinese Battery Manufacturers

    · 24 min

    The European Union’s battery manufacturing sector has been struggling to stay competitive. In the face of supply chain concerns, technological barriers and record-low prices fueled by the global oversupply of battery…

  4. EU Dials Down Green Finance Rules as US Wages ESG War

    · 26 min

    The EU has taken an ax to its sustainable reporting regulations. While the bloc is widely considered the global leader for sustainable finance policy, this rollback could limit investors’ access to climate data and…

  5. Unlocking Southeast Asia’s Clean Energy Potential

    · 20 min

    Southeast Asia is an up-and-coming player in the energy transition. As the region’s production capacity has grown, so have its exports of key clean-power technologies. Within Southeast Asia, favorable policy has…

  6. Liquid Demand: Tech Solutions for Water Stress

    · 30 min

    We live on an increasingly thirsty planet. Growing populations and rising demand from industry, data centers and farming have led to water stress across the globe. Even under a scenario where global warming is limited…

  7. Hydrogen: Bucking the Low-Cost Clean Power Trend

    · 32 min

    The cost of producing clean power has never been lower. Improving financial conditions and oversupply of key equipment drove costs to record lows in 2024. Yet while the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) declined as…

  8. Data Center Dynamics: AI and Energy Demand

    · 37 min

    Energy-hungry data centers are on the rise. Power demand driven by artificial intelligence has been met by an increase in power purchase agreements (PPAs) for low-carbon energy. Meanwhile, DeepSeek has reduced demand…

  9. Investors Bet $2 Trillion on the Energy Transition

    · 24 min

    Annual investment in the energy transition has surpassed $2 trillion for the first time. Investors placed bets on renewable energy, power grids and energy storage, while buzzy emerging technologies fell out of favor.…

  10. Weather and Commodities: A Perfect Storm

    · 27 min

    Little connects the natural world to our lives more tangibly than the weather. Weather impacts everything from food to energy production, and shifting weather patterns have the power to shift the economy. From wind…

  11. Bank Transition Ratios Plot Route for Decarbonization

    · 35 min

    Banks are still spending less money on low-carbon solutions than on fossil-fuel projects. At last count, the energy supply ratio for bank financing was just 0.89 cents of low-carbon spend for every $1 spent on fossil…

  12. Global Wind Market Shifts as Chinese Exports Expand

    · 31 min

    Chinese wind turbine makers are expanding their global footprint at an impressive rate. Leading manufacturers like Goldwind, Envision, Mingyang and Windey are exporting their turbines at a significant discount to…

  13. Public to Private: The Shift in Clean Energy Ownership

    · 23 min

    Over the past five years, clean energy company valuations have reached new heights. As the ESG hype cycle ends, inflated public market valuations have given way to industry fundamentals. Increasing energy demand aided…

  14. Five Energy Transition Lessons for 2025

    · 19 min

    Was 2024 a good or a bad year for clean energy and climate progress? Looking through one prism, we saw record global electric vehicle sales, massive clean power capacity additions, and the adoption of new energy…

  15. Energy Security in Flux: Gas Faces 2025 Stress Test

    · 25 min

    This could be a challenging year for natural gas. Market dynamics are in flux, and how buyers and sellers react to the changes will make the year ahead a ‘stress test’ for the fuel and how the sector positions itself…

  16. Drilling for Gold: The Hydrogen Beneath Our Feet

    · 29 min

    At first glance, gold hydrogen could be a game changer. This naturally occurring molecule, which is found in reservoirs below the Earth’s surface, has the potential to be less carbon intensive and less expensive than…

  17. Japan Powers Up: Market Liberalization Sparks Interest

    · 32 min

    Japan’s power market is creating a stir. Having faced natural disasters, global energy crises and ever more extreme periods of weather, the world’s third-largest liberalized power market has had to contend with some…

  18. Splitting Atoms, Scaling AI: Big Tech’s Nuclear Gambit

    · 29 min

    The boom in energy-hungry data centers in the US has led to a revival of interest in nuclear power. Small modular reactors, or SMRs, are often held up as the way forward, but the technology remains in development,…

  19. Getting Real: Net Zero Isn’t Enough for Fortescue

    · 22 min

    The world is focused on net zero. Yet some companies, like Australian mining giant Fortescue, have set their sights higher, and are now aiming for ‘real zero’. On today’s show, we bring you an interview from the recent…

  20. Under the Hood of Emerging Markets’ Energy Transition

    · 21 min

    Emerging markets have big plans when it comes to the energy transition. Today, 95% of developing economies have a renewable energy target in place, and many of them are seeing massive growth in solar and other…

  21. Climate-Tech Finance: India Surges, China Slumps

    · 28 min

    Climate-tech funding is falling precipitously. During the third quarter of 2024, worldwide investment in the sector reached just $10.3 billion, a far cry from the $22.6 billion raised in the third quarter of 2023 and…

  22. Burning Issue: Peak Coal Close But Demand Lingers

    · 37 min

    “It looks like coal weather today,” is an unlikely forecast, but it shouldn’t be. Coal production and consumption are linked to weather, and the return of a La Niña weather cycle has the potential to extend the…

  23. Gone With the Wind: Turbine Additions Still Fall Short

    · 40 min

    Wind is key to tripling global clean energy capacity by 2030, but in recent years both onshore and offshore additions have been blowing cold. The landscape improves as we look ahead to 2030, when BloombergNEF expects…

  24. Current Investments: Expanding the World’s Power Grids

    · 31 min

    “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” This proverb is just as apt if you swap out “trees” for “grid investment.” Some $326 billion flowed into the world’s power grids in 2023,…

  25. Catch Me If You Can: EU Trails US On Clean-Tech Policy

    · 28 min

    Tariffs and subsidies loom large in the energy transition. The US Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, has been of global importance, changing trade relationships and causing some governments to rethink their domestic…

  26. Heavy Transport Maps Out a Low-Carbon Future

    · 42 min

    Heavy transport is at a crossroads. There are many possible paths for decarbonizing aviation, maritime shipping and long-haul trucking, including sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), ammonia, methanol and synthetic fuels.…

  27. Who Gives a COP? UN Biodiversity Summit Expectations

    · 29 min

    This month, 196 parties are converging in Cali, Colombia for the 16th United Nations Conference on Biological Diversity (COP16). Less famous but no less significant than its climate-focused sibling (which will take…

  28. Rocky Markets Undermine Energy Transition Metal Demand

    · 36 min

    Lithium-ion batteries, hydrogen electrolyzers and transmission lines all require one fundamental ingredient: metals. In other words, there can be no energy transition without massive metal supplies. Lithium demand…

  29. BNEF Pioneers Award: Net-Zero Fuels and Nature Data

    · 50 min

    Innovative climate tech is a key weapon in the battle to halt global warming, but finding the most effective new technologies isn’t always easy. Enter the BloombergNEF Pioneers. This annual award program identifies new…

  30. Growing Problems: Food Companies’ Environmental Impact

    · 33 min

    Agriculture is responsible for almost a third of global emissions. It’s also a leading driver of deforestation, water stress and plastic waste generation, and pressure is mounting on food companies to address their…

  31. Satellites Zero In on Elusive Methane Emissions

    · 35 min

    Methane might be the world’s simplest hydrocarbon, but its immense global warming potential makes it a complex problem in the battle to halt climate change. It’s also invisible to the human eye, which has made catching…

  32. Scaling Clean Energy to Power India’s Growing Demand

    · 38 min

    Extending energy access to the world’s most populous nation will be a Herculean task. To do it while also achieving its 2030 clean energy goals, India must increase its wind and solar capacity installations fourfold,…

  33. Big Oil Pumps the Brakes on Its Dirty Asset Divestment

    · 32 min

    International oil companies have been divesting assets at a surprising rate. Between 2015 and 2023, nine of the world’s largest IOCs have sold a total of $290 billion of assets, with upstream oil assets accounting for…

  34. Carbon Capture: Innovation Rises as Investment Stalls

    · 29 min

    Carbon capture is on a roller coaster these days. Projects in the sector attracted more than $11 billion in 2023, almost double the investment figure from the year before, only to see growth stall in the first half of…

  35. Fuel for Thought: Rising Tide of LNG May Become a Glut

    · 36 min

    A wave of new liquefied natural gas projects are due to be commissioned by the end of the decade. Yet a sharp increase in supply runs the risk of creating a glut, and with the rise of this transportable commodity, what…

  36. With Great Power Markets Comes Great Responsibility

    · 35 min

    Using electricity seems so simple: You flip a switch, and the light turns on. Yet behind that simple action is a sprawling and complex system of supply, demand and free-market economics. Today’s show dives into power…

  37. Food or Fuel: The Energy Transition’s Battle for Land

    · 30 min

    What do biofuels, renewable power, and the food on your plate have in common? They all need land, and lots of it. While the technologies required to reach a net-zero future are expanding alongside rising energy demand,…

  38. New Energy Storage Solutions Test Lithium-Ion’s Reign

    · 31 min

    With the rise of intermittent renewable energy generation, the need for long-duration energy storage is rising fast. Lithium-ion batteries currently dominate the market, with record-low prices fueled by a global…

  39. EV Sales Growth Cools But Some Markets Still Run Hot

    · 40 min

    This year has been a mixed bag for electric vehicles. After EV sales hit new highs in 2023, some automakers have now revised down their near-term targets, citing falling demand. While this may have generated headlines,…

  40. US Leads Clean Hydrogen Charge But Who Will Buy It?

    · 30 min

    Driven by supportive policies and a maturing project pipeline, clean hydrogen supply is set to increase 30-fold by 2030. Demand will be aided in part by Europe’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and other government…

  41. Net-Zero Window Closing But Still Time to Get On Track

    · 32 min

    Each year, BloombergNEF’s New Energy Outlook develops and evaluates scenarios for the transition to a low-carbon economy. Delving into electricity, industry, buildings and transport, this flagship report outlines…

  42. US Tariff Threat Risks Own Goal in Solar Trade War

    · 38 min

    The persistent oversupply of solar modules has pushed prices to record lows and threatened the competitiveness of manufacturing outside of Asia. Against this backdrop, a group of US companies has petitioned the Biden…

  43. Does Europe Need to Become More Protectionist?

    · 35 min

    The European Union could be leaning towards a more protectionist stance when it comes to clean industry manufacturing, with policies such as import tariffs and domestic content targets under consideration. Would such…

  44. Nuclear Harbors Big Dreams Despite Hurdles

    · 36 min

    The global nuclear industry has been plagued with retirements for over a decade. However, after delegates at the COP28 summit last year voiced aspirations to triple nuclear capacity by 2050, the industry could be…

  45. Strained Power Grids Test Flexible Market Solution

    · 32 min

    As already-strained power grids grapple with rapidly increasing demand, Europe is pioneering an innovative and powerful new tool to help system operators manage grid constraints. These local flexibility markets help…

  46. Rooftop Solar Boom Turns Australian Power Prices Red

    · 42 min

    Rooftop solar is celebrating a runaway success in Australia, which has positioned itself to become a renewable energy superpower. From a target of doubling its renewable energy capacity by 2030 to $1.2 billion in the…

  47. Self-Driving Vehicles Navigate Funding Speed Bumps

    · 32 min

    Autonomous vehicles might be the cars of the future, but following a flurry of venture capital and private equity funding a decade ago, investment in this space has since tapped the brakes. Last year saw VC/PE…

  48. US ESG Backlash Steps Up as EU Strengthens Standards

    · 34 min

    The first quarter of 2024 has seen a flurry of sustainable finance policy activity and a wave of mandatory reporting rules. Yet on the flip side, anti-ESG policies are gaining traction in the US. On today’s show, Dana…

  49. Brazil Harnesses Natural Capital to Fuel Green Future

    · 34 min

    As the host of this year’s G-20 meetings and next year’s COP30 climate conference, Brazil is in the spotlight. Ranked sixth globally for energy transition investment in 2023, and third for both wind and solar capacity…

  50. US Hydrogen Industry at Odds Over Tax Credit Rules

    · 40 min

    As part of the Inflation Reduction Act, draft guidance for the US hydrogen production tax credit was introduced in December 2023, with the aim of promoting decarbonization in hard-to-abate sectors and enhancing energy…

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