Energy 360°

This week, André de Ruyter, former CEO of Eskom the South African national power utility, joins Cy McGeady and Gracelin Baskaran to discuss South Africa’s energy sector and its energy transition plans. In the discussion, Andre draws on his time at Eskom to emphasize the importance of long-term planning and policy decisions for the electricity sector in South Africa.

Kevin Book, ClearView Energy Partners and Senior Adviser (non-resident), CSIS Energy Security and Climate Change Program, and Liam Denning, Columnist, Bloomberg Opinion, joined Joseph Majkut, CSIS Energy Security and Climate Change Program to assess which energy developments in 2023 have staying power and look ahead to the energy and climate issues to watch next year. Watch the CSIS Event: 2023 Energy and Climate Review

This week, Trevor Houser, a partner at the Rhodium Group, joins Allegra Dawes (CSIS) to discuss highlights from the Clean Investment Monitor. The Clean Investment Monitor, a joint project of Rhodium Group and MIT’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, tracks public and private climate investments since 2018. In the past year, clean energy investment in the United States totaled $213 billion, a 37 percent increase from the previous year, largely due to new legislation passed in the United States (the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, and the Chips and Science Act) and up 165 percent from five years ago. Further Reading: The Clean Investment Monitor: Tracking Decarbonization Technology in the United States The Clean Investment Monitor

This week, Geoff Dietz with the Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas (RNG Coalition) joins Ben Cahill with the CSIS Energy Security and Climate Change Program to discuss renewable natural gas (RNG). RNG is a domestic clean energy resource derived from the capture, cleaning, and conditioning of methane and other gaseous emissions from organic waste. Landfill projects and agricultural projects, particularly in dairy states, are the main sources of RNG production. Geoff and Ben discuss the future of RNG production, where demand for RNG is rising, and the potential economic and environmental benefits of RNG for the United States. 

This week, Rohitesh Dhawan, the President and CEO of the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), talks with Gracelin Baskaran about responsible mining and the challenges faced by the global mining industry. They discuss the role of ICMM in improving the standards of responsible mining, emphasizing the importance of obtaining the consent of mining-affected communities and the need for a fair and balanced dialogue among stakeholders. Dhawan also shares his personal journey and passion for mining, highlighting the industry's potential to lift people out of poverty, contribute to conservation efforts, and drive the energy transition. 

This week, Dr. Seong-ik Oh, Director General of the Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport, joins Jane Nakano, senior fellow with the CSIS Energy Security and Climate Change Program, to look at the differences between South Korea and Japan's energy policies and the factors that developed these different strategies. Dr. Oh also discusses how the dual challenge of energy security and climate change is advancing how Korea and Japan diversifying their energy production, including greater nuclear power and renewable energy resources. Dr. Oh is the author of the recent book: Overseas Energy Investment of Korea and Japan: How did Two East Asian Resources-Rare Industrial Giants Respond to Energy Security Challenges.

In the weeks following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, there was a flurry of articles, commentaries and videos predicting that the event signaled the end of globalization. Part of this prediction was based on policymakers and business leaders seeing the risks of global supply chains in countries with dissimilar political, economic and human rights alignments. What does the push to onshore and friend shore clean energy supply chains mean for global trade? How can trade be used as a tool to address climate change?  Allegra Dawes hosts this episode with Ambassador Jayme White, the Deputy United States Trade Representative; Peter Rashish, the Vice President and Director of the Geoeconomics program at the American German Institute; and Colin Grabow, a research fellow with the Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies at the Cato Institute; and special thanks to Emily Benson, the Director of the Project on Trade and Technology at CSIS. 

In this episode, we look at two different sectors – the solar industry and the offshore wind industry. Both technologies are set to play important roles in decarbonizing the US’ and the world’s power supply. Allegra Dawes hosts this episode with MJ Shiao, the Vice President of Supply chain and Manufacturing for the American Clean Power Association; Scott Moskowitz, the Director of Strategy and Market Intelligence at QCells; Atin Jain, Senior Associate, BloombergNEF; and Varun Sivaram, the Group Senior Vice President for Strategy and Innovation at Orsted. 

Batteries are critical for the energy transition. Can the US build a domestic industry for batteries from mining for minerals to producing batteries at scale? Allegra Dawes hosts this episode with Jay Turner, a professor of environmental studies at Wellesley College; Jasper Jung, the Executive Director of Global strategic initiatives and public policy with General Motors; Steve LeVine the editor of the online publication, the Electric; and Jon Evans, the CEO and President of Lithium Americas. 

Green industrial policy is the new tool to address climate change, stimulate domestic manufacturing, and counter China. Where did this new policy experiment come from and what is at stake? Allegra Dawes hosts this episode with Jane Flegal, the former Senior Director for Industrial Emissions at the White House; David Victor, a professor of innovation and public policy at UC San Diego; and Joanna Lewis, an associate Professor of Energy and Environment at Georgetown University.  

It’s been a little over a year since the passage of the IRA. How has the bill impacted the US’ energy transition strategy? Joseph Majkut and Deputy Secretary Dave Turk of the Department of Energy discuss how investment in clean energy has developed in the wake of the IRA.  

The CSIS Energy Security and Climate Change team is launching a new podcast miniseries, New Shores, that will dive into the world of clean energy supply chains in the wake of the Inflation Reduction Act. Join us to learn about onshoring and friendshoring the energy transition.

This week Christyan Malek, Managing Director and Global Head of Energy Strategy for JP Morgan and Head of EMEA Oil & Gas Equity Research, joins Joseph Majkut, director of the CSIS Energy Security and Climate Change Program to discuss energy market conditions, energy security, barriers to investment and what’s next for the energy transition.   Christyan Malek, a Managing Director and Global Head of Energy Strategy for JP Morgan and Head of EMEA Oil & Gas Equity Research. Christyan and his team have been consistently top-ranked by Institutional Investor in European Exploration and Production and Oilfield Services over the last 11 years, most recently achieving the #1 rank four years in a row in the 2020-2023 II Surveys for Oil & Gas Exploration and Production in both the Developed Europe and Emerging EMEA categories. He is also ranked the top-rated global energy analyst in the individual category.   Christyan has written extensively on Global and European Majors’ energy transition and disruption, energy macro s

This week, CSIS experts Joseph Majkut, Ben Cahill, and Gracelin Baskaran cover recent developments in global oil markets, BRICS expansion, critical minerals, and the geopolitics of energy.    Further Reading from the CSIS Energy Security and Climate Change Program Oil Market Tightens but China Looms Large  Six New BRICS: Implications for Energy Trade  Prospects for U.S. Minerals Engagement with Africa   

This week, Adi Imsirovic (Surrey Clean Energy) joins Ben Cahill (CSIS) to discuss developments in global oil markets, demand and supply outlooks for the rest of 2023, and the OPEC+ - Russia relationship.  Adi is the Director at Surrey Clean Energy and former Global Head of Oil Trading at Gazprom Marketing and Trading, and was a Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. He is also the author of: ‘Trading and Price Discovery for Crude Oil’ and editor of ‘Brent Crude Oil, Genesis and Development of the World's Most Important Oil Benchmark’.    

This week, Simone Tagliapietra, a Senior Fellow with Bruegel, joins CSIS program director Joseph Majkut to discuss how Europe is managing the ongoing energy crisis and moving away from Russian energy supplies while advancing decarbonization efforts, also look at the future of energy security in Europe, and the state of U.S.-EU energy policy cooperation. Further Reading After the great energy crisis: Europe’s new landscape, Testimony before the U.S. Senate Climate Change Task Force Rebooting the Net Zero Industry Act: Testimony before the European Economic and Social Committee

In this week’s episode, Steven Burns, Chief Director of Energy and Infrastructure for Europe and Eurasia, USAID, joins Ben Cahill with the CSIS Energy Security and Climate Change Program, for an update on Ukraine’s energy sector. Steve describes the current state of Ukraine’s energy sector and the extensive damage done by Russian attacks this past winter, especially to the electricity sector. Steve outlines the role that USAID is playing in the reconstruction, with the help of its partners and Ukrainian counterparts, to fix the existing energy infrastructure, restore capacity, and build for a more resilient and lower-emission energy future.

This week, David Fishman, a Senior Manager at The Lantau Group, joins Cy McGeady to look at the Chinese electric power sector. China is leading in renewable energy deployment but at the same time is building and using coal-fired power plants. David and Cy look at the Chinese sector to understand how both these things can be true and what it means for China’s energy future.  

This week, Rick Rossow, Chair in U.S.-India Policy Studies here at CSIS, joins Joseph Majkut to discuss India’s ambitious renewable energy targets, where it is exceeding or failing to meet those targets, subnational collaboration with counterparts in U.S. states, and India’s position on the world stage over the next decade. Further Reading: Accelerate: 175: A Plan for Targeted Renewable Energy Cooperation with Key Indian States

This week, Laszlo Varro (Shell) joins Joseph Majkut (CSIS) to discuss the latest Shell Scenarios, called Sky and Archipelago, and how they relate to the world’s present geopolitical, energy, and climate developments. Laszlo Varro is Vice-President, Global Business Environment at Shell, where he leads their analyses of energy scenarios, macroeconomics, climate policy, and geopolitics. Varro joined Shell in 2021, after ten years at the International Energy Agency. For more, check out the Shell Scenarios.