COP27 is underway and the World Leaders Summit has already come to a close. With this year's global climate gathering comes another reminder of just how far we are from actually curbing emissions to hit the goals of the Paris Agreement. Plus, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine and energy prices spiking this year, we are confronting the cruel reality of how our reliance on coal, oil, and gas is leading to 2022's "fossilflation."
Professor Gernot Wagner, a climate economist at Columbia Business School and author of Geoengineering: The Gamble, has written quite a bit on how global leaders should respond. He joins the show this week to discuss some of 2022's biggest energy issues and what we might expect to see unfold at COP27 and beyond to combat the turbulent prices that come with fossil fuel dependency.
Just as the broader European economy depends heavily on Germany, the continent's industrial powerhouse, Germany's own economy depends on access to affordable power. With geopolitical and climate conditions requiring an urgent transition to renewables, the task now is to develop a politically viable energy strategy.