A Changing Atmosphere at the Upcoming UN Climate Summit
Release Date: 11/04/2025
Jigar Shah Wants to Depoliticize Energy
Columbia Energy Exchange
As political support for clean energy has waxed and waned over the past twenty years, so has the government’s financial backing. In the 2010s, critics pointed to the failed solar startup Solyndra, which the Department of Energy had backed to the tune of half a billion dollars, as a poster child of wasteful spending. But under President Biden, in addition to major clean energy incentives passed in the Inflation Reduction Act, the DOE’s Loan Programs Office borrowing authority grew ten-fold. Now, under a second Trump administration, the tide turned again. The loan office, and clean...
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Michael Webber on What’s Behind Rising Energy Costs
Columbia Energy Exchange
With electricity prices on the rise, the future of our power grid is attracting a lot more attention. Surging demand is at the center of the story, but the power sector is also grappling with supply chain bottlenecks and aging infrastructure – all while trying to balance capacity growth with reducing emissions. This isn't just a technical challenge. Energy affordability and equity are reshaping debates about energy policy, permitting reform, and climate goals. So, what’s really behind rising prices? What are the best ways to balance the need to build capacity with the interests of...
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Reporters’ Roundtable: What’s Driving US Energy Policy News in 2026?
Columbia Energy Exchange
From the affordability crisis and the data center boom, to the US government’s campaign to reinvigorate the Venezuelan oil market, energy is dominating headlines in unusual ways. And that’s all happening against a backdrop of upheaval in federal energy policy, which started on day one of the second Trump administration. As we begin the new year and head into midterm elections, there’s a dizzying number of crucial energy policy issues at play. So what issues are shaping US climate and energy policymaking in 2026? How might upcoming court rulings change things? As high utility bills...
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Anja Manuel on the Next Era of Great Power Competition
Columbia Energy Exchange
Great power competition—particularly between the United States and China—is intensifying. This rivalry is reshaping everything from technology supply chains and energy security to the future of artificial intelligence. This is happening at a time when US relations with India and Europe are under strain, largely due to policy uncertainty and the administration’s new trade strategies. So how should the US navigate this new era of great power competition? How do we balance economic competitiveness with security and energy objectives? Where do critical technologies like AI and...
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Oil and Venezuela: What’s Next?
Columbia Energy Exchange
Early on January 3, 2026, the United States apprehended Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife and removed Maduro from power. Maduro was transported to New York, where he now faces federal charges of narco-terrorism and drug trafficking. The situation in Venezuela remains highly fluid, as does the US policy response. President Trump has signaled a dramatic expansion of US objectives. He has suggested the US will be “running” the country during a transition and is seeking direct access to Venezuela’s massive oil reserves. In Caracas, interim President Delcy...
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Editor’s Pick: Sean Casten on US Energy Policy in a Partisan Era
Columbia Energy Exchange
This has been a crucial year for US energy policy. The passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act eliminated many of the clean energy incentives that were centerpieces of Biden-era climate policy. The rollback of key climate provisions from the Inflation Reduction Act led to contentious debate over America's energy future. With so many shifting priorities and questions around the direction and the pace of the energy transition, it’s unclear what 2026 will bring. So how are policymakers facing these challenges and working to accelerate clean energy deployment in a shifting political...
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Luisa Palacios and Eddie Fishman on the US Pressure Campaign on Venezuela's Oil
Columbia Energy Exchange
Over the past week, President Trump has intensified pressure on Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro by targeting the regime’s economic lifeline—oil. The United States has seized two oil tankers and is in pursuit of another, following President Trump’s declaration of what he called a “total and complete blockade” of vessels carrying Venezuelan crude subject to US sanctions. The move places one of Venezuela’s most valuable and strategic assets squarely at the center of the conflict. The country holds an estimated 17 percent of the world’s oil reserves and produces nearly one...
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From Hot Rocks to Clean Power: Roland Horne on the Future of Geothermal
Columbia Energy Exchange
If it seems like you're hearing a lot more about geothermal energy lately, that's because this clean, firm energy source is at a technological turning point. With roots in the 1970s, enhanced geothermal systems aren't exactly new. But they're finally hitting paydirt — or rather, steam — thanks to improved drilling techniques borrowed from the fracking boom. These advances have made geothermal energy production potentially viable outside of the Western states in the US, where it's long been a small but steady source of power. So what is the state of geothermal energy and what's behind...
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Emmanuel Lagarrigue on Climate Investing Today
Columbia Energy Exchange
Investment in clean energy technologies is on course to this year, according to the International Energy Agency. That’s more than twice the amount invested in fossil fuels. But 2025 also brought lots of geopolitical, economic, and political uncertainty to clean technology investing. Waning enthusiasm for climate action in some governments and intensifying trade wars have created more risk for many investors. So how much are these policy shifts impacting climate investment strategies? How have investors in the United States reacted to the roll-back of some key incentives in the...
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Amy Harder on Climate and Energy Reporting
Columbia Energy Exchange
The national conversation around climate change is shifting. There’s more focus on energy affordability and demand, as well as on the dual role artificial intelligence plays as both a climate problem and potential tool for lowering emissions. Likewise, there’s been a shift in how the media covers these issues. shows that news coverage of climate has declined in recent years — as have the number of local newsrooms. Yet, surveys indicate that news consumers want more coverage of climate change. So do reporters and editors, based on strong interest in the at the Center on...
info_outlineThe ten years since the Paris Agreement was signed at the UN Climate Change Conference, COP 21, have been the ten hottest years on record. And the outcome that the Paris Agreement sought — limiting global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels — is now widely considered unattainable.
There are other hurdles as well. Many nations have not submitted climate action plans, or nationally determined contributions, to the UN. And President Trump says he plans to re-withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement. Still, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change marches on. Next week, delegates, activists, and journalists will converge in Belém, Brazil, for the 30th Conference of the Parties, or COP30.
So what are some of the possible outcomes of this year’s climate summit? Will the absence of the United States even matter? Will the issue of climate equity and financing garner much attention? And what could come from a new forum that Brazil is planning, where governments will discuss how climate policy affects trade?
This week, Bill Loveless speaks with Elliot Diringer about the issues that are likely to dominate the upcoming COP.
Elliot is a global fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy directing its International Dialogue on Climate and Trade. He brings decades of experience in climate diplomacy as a negotiator, journalist, and policy strategist. He first engaged with the topic as a reporter covering the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and later served in senior roles in the Clinton administration, the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, and more recently as a senior policy advisor to Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry during the Biden administration.
Credits: Hosted by Jason Bordoff and Bill Loveless. Produced by Mary Catherine O’Connor, Caroline Pitman, and Kyu Lee. Engineering by Gregory Vilfranc.