Episodes

Rhian-Mari Thomas is Chief Executive of the Green Finance Institute. The Institute sits at the nexus of the public and private sectors, the Green Finance Institute convenes and leads sectoral coalitions of global experts, that identify and unlock barriers to investment towards impactful, real-economy outcomes. The Green Finance Institute is backed by the UK Government and City of London Corporation. Rhian spent 20 years in investment banking and corporate finance and was awarded an OBE for services to green banking. She is an Emeritus Member of TCFD and co-chaired the launch of the TNFD to which she is a senior advisor. Rhian sits on numerous advisory groups across UK Government including the Net Zero Expert Group, Centre for Greening Finance and Investment, Global Resources Initiative, Department for Transport Expert Panel, Her Majesty’s Treasury Green Technical Advisory Group and the UK Voluntary Carbon Markets Forum. Rhian was also a commissioner on the Zero Carbon Commission a…

This episode of Cleaning Up is based on a 2015 blog post written by Michael for BloombergNEF. https://about.bnef.com/blog/liebreich-energy-sector-transformed-must-energy-sector-reformed/ We would like to thank BloombergNEF for allowing us to record it.

Professor Emily Shuckburgh OBE is Director of Cambridge Zero, the University of Cambridge's major climate change initiative. Emily is a climate scientist and mathematician, a Fellow of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, an Associate Fellow of the Centre for Science and Policy and a Fellow of the British Antarctic Survey. She leads the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training on the Application of AI to the study of Environmental Risks. A polar expert, she previously led a UK national research programme on the Southern Ocean and its role in climate. In 2016 she was awarded an OBE for services to science and the public communication of science. She is co-author with HRH The Prince of Wales and Tony Juniper of the Ladybird Book on Climate Change.

Inger Andersen is Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme. From 2015 until 2019, Inger was the Director-General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Before that she worked at the World Bank for 15 years in roles such as Vice President of the Middle East and North Africa; Vice President for Sustainable Development and Head of the CGIAR Fund Council. Prior to joining the World Bank, Inger worked at the UN, focusing mostly on drought and desertification issues. Her career began in Sudan, where she worked as an English teacher and moved to development sector in 1985 to work at the Sudan Aid. Inger holds a BA from the London Metropolitan University North and a MA in Development Economics from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

Tommaso Demarie (PhD) is co-founder and CEO of Entropica Labs, a company working on optimisation with and for quantum computing. Tommaso has 12 years of experience in the field of quantum information and computation. Before founding Entropica, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Singapore's Centre for Quantum Technologies and Singapore University of Technology and Design. His research interests included (and include, when he finds the time to publish research articles) applications of quantum-based protocols, verification of quantum computation, and novel cryptographic schemes for quantum computing. Tommaso holds an Undergraduate Degree in Physics and a Masters in Environmental Physics from the University of Torino (Turin, Italy) and a PhD in Physics from Macquarie University, Sydney.

David Turk serves as Deputy Secretary in the US Department of Energy. Before joining President Biden’s administration in 2021, David spent over 4 years as Deputy Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA). He was Head of Strategic Initiatives Office and Head of Energy Environment Division. During the Obama administration David worked at the Department of Energy (Deputy Assistant Secretary), the Department of State (Deputy Special Envoy) and at the National Security Council as a Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director. Between 2001 and 2007 David was a counsel in the US Senate, working for Senators Joe Biden and Kent Conrad. David holds a bachelor’s degree from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and JD from the University of Virginia Law School

Francesco Starace is Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of Enel. Before becoming the CEO in 2014, Francesco spent 14 years at Enel, holding a number of executive positions - between 2008 and 2014 he led Enel’s renewable power generation business, Enel Green. Prior to this role which included overseeing the businesses’ IPO. Before 2008 Francesco was, inter alia, Head of Business Power and Managing Director of the Market Division. Before joining Enel, Francesco worked at General Electric, ABB and Alstom. His work has taken him to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland and the United States Francesco served as a member of the Advisory Board of the United Nations’ Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) between 2014 and 2017 and has been Chair of SEforALL’s Administrative Board since October 2020. Francesco also served on the Board of Directors of the United Nations’ Global Compact from 2015 until 2021. Between 2016 and 2018, he was co-chair of the World Economic Forum's Energy …

Lieutenant General (Retd) Richard Nugee is the lead author of the UK Ministry of Defence’s Climate Change and Sustainability Strategic Approach report. Richard spent over 35 years in the military. He was first commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1985. During his service he reached the rank of Lieutenant General and was the Chief of the Defence People between 2016 and 2020. He led the works on UK MoD’s Climate Change and Sustainability Review between 2020 and 2021 and retired from the army in May 2021. Richard was appointed MBE in June 1998, CBE in January 2012, CVO in September 2016, and CB in January 2020, he was awarded the US Legion of Merit for his services in Afghanistan in 2014. He holds BA degree from Durham University and MA from King’s College London.

Nathan Gambling is a heating engineer and lecturer who has taught in colleges and a prison. As well as industry, teaching and assessing qualifications he has a psychology degree in Behavioural studies and is regarded as a leading expert around training and the learning process within plumbing and heating. He has a remarkable heritage within the heating industry: As central heating first started to take hold it was his grandfather who brought Swedish oil burner technology to the UK and was the UK’s leading oil combustion expert venerated throughout Europe. His great uncle was lead engineer and European Energy manager for Unilever and his dad was a technical rep for Trianco Redfyre who back in the 80s was the UK’s leading boiler manufacture. He sometimes works with his cousin who is the UK’s leading acoustic sensitive heating and ventilation engineer installing and maintaining the comfort cooling and heating systems in some of the world’s best recording and post production facili…

Pasquale Romano is President and Chief Executive Officer of ChargePoint and a member of the company’s board of directors. Pasquale joined ChargePoint in February of 2011, bringing more than 30 years of technology industry leadership and executive management experience to the company. He is currently a board member for Levitate Acquisition Corporation. He co-founded 2Wire which was acquired by Pace plc for $475M in 2010. Previously, Pasquale held multiple positions in marketing and engineer...

Ban Ki-moon was the 8th Secretary General of the UN. He is the Chairman of Ban Ki-moon Foundation for a Better Future. In April 2019, Mr. Ban was elected as the Chairman of Presidential National Council on Climate and Air Quality (NCCA) (2019-2021). In April 2018, Mr. Ban was elected as the Chairman of Boao Forum for Asia. In January 2018, Mr. Ban, along with former President of Austria Mr. Heinz Fischer, were inducted as Co-Chairs of the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens in Vienna, Aus...

Peter Sweatman is the founder and Chief Executive of Climate Strategy & Partners (@ClimateSt and www.climatestrategy.com), a strategic consulting group in Clean Energy, Clean Technology Innovation and Energy Efficiency working with leading companies and policymakers in the global energy transition Peter is also Chairman and founder of Energy Efficiency Capital Advisors (www.eecapadvisors.com) an expert solution provider and finance structuring partner for over Euro 60 million of finance for energy savings and on-site power in Spanish cities. Peter Sweatman has spent 30 years in finance of which 18 are climate finance and energy efficiency. He has published fifteen white papers and chaired, moderated or spoken at 380 conferences and workshops on the global energy transition to a climate neutral economy. Peter is the rapporteur for EU Commission and UNEP FI’s 500-strong Energy Efficiency Financial Institutions Group (#EEFIG) since 2013 and for five years was the G20’s EEFTG technical …

Amory Lovins is Cofounder and Chairman Emeritus of the Rocky Mountain Institute. Apart from co-founding the Institute in 1982 he served as its Chief Scientist between 2007 and 2019. Amory is a an author of 31 books and more than 700 papers, he has advised major firms and governments on energy in over 70 countries for more than 45 years. He has taught at ten universities, most recently the Naval Postgraduate School (Professor of Practice 2011–17) and Stanford University, where he’s currently Adjunct Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a Scholar of the Precourt Institute for Energy—but only teaching topics he’s never formally studied, so as to retain beginner’s mind. He served in 2011–18 on the National Petroleum Council and has advised the US Departments of Energy and Defense. He has received the Blue Planet, Volvo, Zayed, Onassis, Nissan, Shingo, and Mitchell Prizes, the MacArthur and Ashoka Fellowships, the Happold, Benjamin Franklin, and Spencer Hutchens Medals,…

Mariana Mazzucato (PhD) is Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London (UCL), where she is Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose (IIPP). She is winner of international prizes including the Grande Ufficiale Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana in 2021, Italy's highest civilian honour, the 2020 John von Neumann Award, the 2019 All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values, and 2018 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought. She was named as one of the '3 most important thinkers about innovation' by The New Republic, one of the 50 most creative people in business in 2020 by Fast Company, and one of the 25 leaders shaping the future of capitalism by WIRED. She is the author of three highly-acclaimed books: The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths (2013), The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy (2018) and th…

David Sandalow is the Inaugural Fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy and co-Director of the Energy and Environment Concentration at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He founded and directs the Center’s U.S.-China Program. David is as a director at Fermata Energy and senior advisor to APL. He is a member of the Zayed Future Energy Prize Selection Committee, Global CO2 Initiative Advisory Board, Electric Drive Transport Association’s “Hall of Fame” and Council on Foreign Relations. David held senior positions at the White House, State Department and U.S. Department of Energy. At DOE he served as Under Secretary of Energy (acting) and Assistant Secretary for Policy & International Affairs. Before joining DOE, David was a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and Executive Vice President at WWF. David holds a B.A. from Yale University and J.D. from University of Michigan Law School.

Dan Doctoroff is the Founder and CEO of Sidewalk Labs, an Alphabet company that works with cities to address key urban problems. Before founding Sidewalk Labs in 2015, Dan spent 6 years working at Bloomberg L.P. first as President and since 2011 as CEO. He joined that company after leading the post 9/11 recovery of the New York city for 7 years as its Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding. Prior to working in the Mayor Bloomberg administration, Dan was Managing Partner at Oak Hill Capital Partners and worked as an investment banker at Lehman Brothers. Dan is a board member of the University of Chicago, World Resource Institute and Human Rights First. He founded Target ALS, an initiative aimed at finding new approaches to treating the illness. Dan holds a B.A. in government from Harvard College and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School.

Guy Turner is the founder and CEO of Trove Research and an expert on carbon markets. Guy has 30 years’ experience in research and strategy in sustainability and the energy transition. He spent his first 15 years in consulting advising companies and governments on a wide range of sustainability issues. In 2006 he joined New Energy Finance (NEF) to create the carbon market research business (New Carbon Finance) which was integrated into NEF. After the sale to Bloomberg, Guy continued as Head of Commodities and Chief Economist of BNEF, building out power and gas market analysis and renewables economics. In 2017 Guy joined BP Economics where he was responsible for global oil supply analysis and worked on BP’s Energy Outlook. From 2018 to 2020 Guy was the Strategy and Analysis Manager at EDF Renewables, overseeing market and financial analysis to support investments in offshore and onshore wind, solar, battery storage and hydrogen. Guy has undergraduate degrees in Mechanical Engin…

Glen Peters is Research Director at Center for International Climate Research (CICERO) in Oslo. Previously he was a post-doctoral researcher at the Industrial Ecology Programme at NTNU. Dr Peters is a worldwide authority on socio-economic drivers of emissions. He has performed pioneering work on how international trade intricately connects emission drivers in different countries. Recent work has focused on trends in carbon emissions, socio-economic drivers, and future emission pathways at the global and country level (particularly China and India). Other key research areas include emission metrics and the carbon cycle. Dr Peters is on the Scientific Steering Committee of the Global Carbon Project. While at the University of Newcastle (Australia) he received a University Medal and Deans Medal for undergraduate performance (Mathematics/Physics) and the DH Trollope Medal for his PhD (Environmental Engineering). He has twice received the Environmental Science & Technology Best Polic…

Damilola Ogunbiyi is the CEO of Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL), Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All and Co-Chair of UN-Energy Mrs. Ogunbiyi has extensive experience in the energy space. Before joining SEforAll she was Managing Director of the Nigerian Rural Electrification Agency, the first woman to be appointed to the post. Before that she was Senior Special Assistant to the Nigerian President on Power and a senior official in the Lagos State Government. Mrs. Ogunbiyi worked for the British Government as a Consultant in the Department for International Development and at the HM Treasury. Mrs. Ogunbiyi maintains a keen interest in mentoring and empowering young people through skills acquisitions. She created the Lagos State Energy Academy to build the capacity of young people in renewable energy technology, and the Energizing Education Programme (EEP) which launched a Female STEM Student Internship Programme to provide hands-on p…

Professor Dame Julia King (Baroness Brown of Cambridge) DBE, FRS, FREng is an engineer, crossbench member of the House of Lords and Chair of The Carbon Trust. Julia started her career in academia as a Rolls-Royce fellow at University of Cambridge and was involved in teaching and research for 16 years, before moving to business. Between 1994 and 2002 she held a number of managerial positions at Rolls-Royce. In 2002 she became the Chief Executive of the Institute of Physics. Between 2004 and 2006 Julia was the Principal of the Engineering Faculty at Imperial College London. After that, she was Vice-Chancellor of Aston University for a decade. Julia has worked closely with the government on a number of climate, technology and education issues. She led the King Review of low-carbon cars (published in 2008) and sat on numerous government bodies, such as Climate Change Committee's Adaptation Sub-Committee of which she is the chair. Julia was appointed a life peer in the House of …

Todd Stern is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, best known for leading the US delegation at COP21 in his capacity as Special Envoy for Climate Change at the Department of State. Todd’s political career started in 1993, when he joined President Clinton’s administration. Between 1997 and 1999, he led the US government efforts on global climate change – he was the senior White House negotiator at the Kyoto and Buenos Aires negotiations. Between 1999 and 2001 he was a Counsellor to the Secretary of the Treasury. After 7 years in the private sector, Todd returned to politics, joining President Obama’s administration as the Special Envoy for Climate Change, U.S. Department of State in 2009. As the chief climate negotiator he led the US delegation at COP21 and was one of the key architects of the Paris Agreement. Todd is now a Senior Fellow at Cross-Brookings Initiative on Climate and Energy. He graduated from Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School. Todd is a member of th…

Alain Ebobissé is a specialist in the financing and development of infrastructure and CEO of Africa50. Prior to joining the organization, Mr. Ebobissé served as the Global Head of the World Bank Group’s Global Infrastructure Project Development Fund (IFC InfraVentures), where he oversaw a team of infrastructure specialists and led the development of and investment in numerous infrastructure projects in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Mr. Ebobissé led the design, structuring, and implementation of IFC InfraVentures from its inception. He also served as Chief Investment Officer in the Global Infrastructure and Natural Resources Department of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private-sector arm of the World Bank Group, based in Washington. Prior to joining the IFC in 1998, he held several positions in the financial services industry in France, including Deputy Head of Project and Structured Finance at Caisse des Depots et Consignations. Ebobissé holds a Master…

John Redfern is an investor, advisor and serial entrepreneur in the data analytics, oil service and energy tech verticals. John spent his career in executive roles at multiple international oil and oil service companiess including as a Director at Hess in London, President of Accumap in Calgary and President of IHS Energy in Denver. Prior to Eavor, John spent 13 years in China co-founding a series of start-ups, the most recent of which is LocalGravity, the leading retail data analytics platform in China. As a director, executive and advisor over the years, John has specialized in commercial strategy, negotiations, alliancing, M&A, and private equity. John holds a degree in Engineering Physics from Queen’s University in Kingston, Law degrees from McGill University in Montreal, and an MBA degree from INSEAD in France.

Julie Klinger is an Assistant Professor of Geographer at the University of Delaware and also affiliated with the university's new Minerals, Materials and Society Program. She is the author of "Rare Earth Frontiers: From Terrestrial Subsoils to Lunar Landscapes”, Cornell University Press. Julie Klinger was formerly Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. Julie lists her research interests as “the dynamics of global resource frontiers and space-based technologies with particular emphases in China, Brazil, and the United States; how diverse forms of violence and strategies for survival shape land use, environmental conservation, and livelihood security; rare earth elements; natural resource use; environmental politics; and outer space.