The Drive to Decarbonize

Clean energy is now cheaper than coal, and its uptake is accelerating. But can we get to zero emissions in time? Investor and technologist Ramez Naam joins Azeem Azhar to discuss how technological innovation and economies of scale are accelerating us towards a zero-carbon future, as well as the major challenges that remain.

They also cover:

• The virtuous cycle that drove the falling price of clean energy.
• How the Covid-19 pandemic could be an opportunity for massive government investment in clean energy infrastructure.
• Three strategies to overcome the renewable energy storage problem.
• Why industrial production of steel, concrete, and plastics remains the biggest challenge.

Further reading:

• “The Third Phase of Clean Energy Will Be the Most Disruptive Yet” (Rameez Naam, 2019)
• “Solar Power Is Sustainable for the Economy, Too” (Wired, 2020)
• “How Germany helped make renewable energy cheap for the rest of the world” (Vox, 2020)
• “How industry can move toward a low-carbon future” (McKinsey, 2018)

@ramez
@azeem
@exponentialview

Exponential View newsletter

About Exponential View:
Welcome to Exponential View, where Azeem Azhar examines how exponential technologies such as AI are reshaping the future. Each week, Azeem shares his analysis or speaks with an expert guest to shed light on frontier shifts across technology, business and society.

To keep up with the Exponential transition, subscribe to this channel or the newsletter: https://www.exponentialview.co/
To keep up with our AI economy research, subscribe to https://www.investmentbrief.ai/

Where to find me:

Exponential View newsletter: https://www.exponentialview.co/
Website: https://www.azeemazhar.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/azeem/
Twitter/X: https://x.com/azeem

Production by EPIIPLUS1.
Production and research: Baba Films, Marija Gavrilov.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.