Energy vs Climate: How climate is changing our energy systems

LIVE from the Montreal's Climate Solutions Prize Festival 2025 

Na'im Merchant, Executive Director of Carbon Removal Canada and the host of The Carbon Curve podcast, and Grégoire Baillargeon, President of BMO Quebec and Vice Chair of BMO Capital Markets join Ed Whittingham for a panel discussion exploring how Canada can become a global leader in carbon removal. 

With two podcast hosts and one Bank of Montreal president, Ed,...

David & Ed chat with Dr. Rose Mutiso about the tension between energy, climate, and economic development in Africa and the global south. 

They touch on many topics to do with sub-Saharan Africa, including energy production & consumption, electricity and power grids, and the vast economic inequity that still exists between the global north & south.

About Our Guest:

Dr. Rose M. Mutiso is a Kenyan scientist, thought lead...

Ed and David chat with special guest Andreas Malm, author of How the World Surrendered to Climate Breakdown and How to Blow Up a Pipeline: Learning to Fight in a World on Fire. 

They discuss Malm’s critiques of climate inaction—how liberal democracies, fossil capital, and the Global North have collectively abandoned meaningful efforts to stop climate breakdown—and what comes next for movement strategy, the ethics and effectiveness o...

Ed Whittingham & Roger Thompson discuss Upton Sinclair's classic novel - Oil!

We're sharing another episode of Ed's occasional podcast, Climate Book Reviews, this time discussing the book that was the inspiration for the critically acclaimed 2007 movie, There Will Be Blood, starring Daniel Day-Lewis.

Ed and co-host Dr. Roger Thompson (Associate Dean and Professor of Writing and Rhetoric at Stony Brook University in...

Energy expert Amy Myers Jaffe returns to EvC to chat with Ed about Energy and Artificial Intelligence. 

Nearly every aspect of the economy seems to be impacted by the stunningly rapid development of AI. Energy is no exception. Ed and Amy have a wide-ranging discussion that covers a lot of ground and touches on several hot topics, including: 

• How AI is transforming the production, distribution, and consumption of energy; 
• The energ...

There’s something in Carbon Removal for everyone — are we building enduring relationships to advance the sector?

A bonus EvC episode - on February 27, 2025, EvC co-host Ed Whittingham hosted a panel discussion at Carbon Removal Canada's Carbon Removal Day in Ottawa. They cover a number of topics including the changing political headwinds in the US, efforts to bolster investment in Canada, and silicon valley's interest in C...

David & Ed chat with Dr. Holly Buck about Conspiratorial-Environmentalism’s connection to climate & geoengineering; the anti-vax movement; and what it tells us about mainstream environmentalism & climate politics.

(03:08) Skip Intro
(09:12) David's personal experience with Conspiratorial-Environmentalism
(27:15) Social Media and monetization
(38:58) What do we do when environmentalists turn to conspiraci...

Host Ed Whittingham closes out Season 1 by examining the case against Direct Air Capture by one its harshest critics, Al Gore, followed by the counterarguments of supporters. Will DAC live up to its hype and potential to help cool a warming planet? 

Guests include: 

• Greg Nemet, professor at the University of Wisconsin
• Klaus Lackner, professor at Arizona State University
• David Keith, professor at the University of Chicago and a...

Host Ed Whittingham delves into the early days of another pioneering Direct Air Capture (DAC) company, Switzerland’s Climeworks, and its innovative modular approach to deploying its technology. Ed also looks into the developing synergy between the tech sector and carbon removal. 

Guests include: 

• Jan Wurzbacher, co-founder of Climeworks
• Lucy Hargreaves, Corporate Affairs and Climate Policy at Patch
• Jim McDermott, co-founder an...

Host Ed Whittingham continues the story behind the development of Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology and its potential role in helping to fight climate change. Ed explores the early days of Canadian cleantech company Carbon Engineering, and how it drew the attention of both Bill Gates and Occidental Petroleum. 

Guests include: 

• Ken Caldeira, senior scientist at Breakthrough Energy
• David Keith, professor at the University of ...

Jesse Jenkins, David Keith, and Ed Whittingham break down the key policy reversals, their impact on U.S. emissions, and the broader geopolitical and economic consequences—for Canada and beyond. Plus, audience questions!

Full Show notes with links to references on our website

About Our Guest:

Jesse D. Jenkins is an assistant professor and macro-scale energy systems engineer at Princeton University with a joint appointment in the D...

EvC co-host Ed Whittingham's new series on Carbon Dioxide Removal

Host Ed Whittingham dives into the world of Direct Air Capture (DAC), a technology that extracts carbon dioxide directly from the ambient air. Ed explores the early history of carbon dioxide removal, why it could be useful in fighting climate change, and challenges the technology has faced along the way. 

Guests include: 

• Klaus Lackner, professor at Arizon...

The race to remove carbon is on. This is the inside story.

🌎 Scrubbing the Sky: Inside the Race to Cool the Planet drops early March 🌎 

This narrative podcast series takes listeners through one of the most ambitious climate efforts ever attempted: removing carbon from the atmosphere.

Join EvC's co-host Ed Whittingham as he uncovers the story behind carbon removal —the companies racing to scale it, the challenges they face, and ...

Ed chats with four movers & shakers in Canadian climate philanthropy.

On Nov. 13, 2024, nine prominent Canadian family foundations, including EvC's David Keith’s, announced a combined pledge of $405 million, all dedicated to accelerating Canada’s shift to a low-carbon economy. They touch on: 

• Why this financial commitment occurred and why now 
• The challenges facing climate advocacy today and in the near future
• What needs t...

Join David & Ed for a special end-of-2024 Ask-Us-Anything episode dedicated to your questions.

Thanks to everyone who sent in your questions - we couldn't do it without you!

Also, thanks to the Pembina Institute for help with an answer at 22:00 (reference link - Meeting the emissions cap-A feasible pathway for the oil and gas).

More show notes on our website.

About Your EvC Co-Hosts:

Da...

𝘿𝙖𝙫𝙞𝙙 & 𝙀𝙙 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙗𝙚𝙨𝙩-𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙨𝙘𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙬𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙖𝙮𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝘿𝙖𝙫𝙞𝙙 𝙒𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙚-𝙒𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙨. It's a wide-ranging discussion covering everything from the potential fallout of the US election, shifting global interests and priorities, climate activism, China's role in climate and green energy technology, and as usual - listener questions for our guest. 

• (01:27)...

Support Energy vs Climate on #GivingTuesday

Energy vs Climate is a labour of love – we hosts don't draw a salary from the show because we feel strongly about the public service benefit of the project.

But, we still have production costs. So, we're asking one last time for you to please consider making a one-time or monthly donation in our only annual donation campaign. Thanks in part to last year's generous supporters,...

Climate Book Reviews is co-hosted by EvC's own Ed Whittingham and his friend Roger Thompson, Associate Dean and Professor of Writing and Rhetoric at Stony Brook University in New York. 

Each episode highlights some climate related books worth knowing about. This episode is an interview with New Zealand author Kirsten McDougall about her novel, She’s a Killer. At times hilarious and at other times troubling, the book is set in t...

David & Ed chat with University of Chicago's Michael Greenstone. 

Show Notes:
(02:52) Engineering the Planet
(03:25) The future of the Temperature–Mortality Relationship
(04:48) Valuing the Global Mortality Consequences of Climate Change
(07:36) Climate Damages and Adaptation Potential Across Sectors of the US
(09:35) Heat Exposure & Poverty
(11:30) Seasonality of Mortality Under Climate Change