Episodes

President Joe Biden campaigned for the White House on a number key climate promises. When he officially took office, hopes were high that bold climate action would be at the center of the Biden policy platform. One year later...

California Governor Gavin Newsom proposed spending $22.5 billion on tackling the climate crisis this week, as part of his $286.4 billion budget proposal. The so-called California Blueprint includes funding for everything from...

2021 was a productive year for climate policy – particularly for U.S. states. Both red and blue states passed ambitious climate bills last year. Several of the new laws address emissions from multiple sectors of the economy, ...

Is Build Back Better really dead? Could the climate and clean energy provisions live on? Political Climate weighs in on the timely issue of Senator Manchin’s “no” on President Biden’s marquee legislation. Plus, Brandon, Shane...

The clean energy transition is accelerating — but progress isn’t always smooth. The global energy crisis and related price spikes have raised some difficult political questions around the push for decarbonization. At the same...

As we enter the holiday season, our hosts run through 10 powerful stats that will help you navigate the inevitable question from a curious family member: “So, what’s going on with the climate?” As a listener of this podcast, ...

Climate finance has been center stage at COP26. Meeting the globe’s climate goals will require mobilizing trillions of public and private dollars. So what exactly does that look like? During the first week of the UN climate s...

Where are the offshore wind projects in America? While turbines have become a familiar sight in states across the country, offshore wind is virtually non-existent. Even with thousands of miles of coastline, the U.S. only has ...

Policy debates on Capitol Hill today fit into a bigger political picture. In Part 2 of this conversation with David Roberts, hosts Julia Pyper, Brandon Hurlbut, and Shane Skelton talk about political sentiments, campaign mess...

David Roberts is worried. Democrats have control of the House, Senate and the White House and an opportunity to pass bold climate policy and political reform — perhaps their last opportunity for a long time — but are stuck in...

With several major deadlines looming, U.S. lawmakers remain divided on how to move forward with the bipartisan infrastructure bill and Democrats’ larger $3.5 billion spending package — both of which contain critical funding a...

Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico is no stranger to climate and energy issues. In recent months, he’s sponsored legislation on zero-emission homes, electric transmission, energy storage, a civilian climate corps, and more...

The U.S. political climate has changed a lot in 2021, especially when it comes to climate and energy issues on Capitol Hill. The Political Climate podcast has changed too. Rather than debate macro politics, we’re focused on a...

Political Climate is coming back to the airwaves! Catch new episodes every two weeks — wherever you get podcasts — starting Thursday, September 2nd. Brandon Hurlbut, Shane Skelton and Julia Pyper will be discussing all of the...

We always new that 2021 would start with a bang — between the Georgia Senate runoff election, the inauguration of President-Elect Joe Biden, cabinet announcements, coronavirus relief and, of course, earnest discussions on the...

The past few years have been a mixed bag for climate. U.S. emissions declined to their lowest level in three decade this year, but these reductions came at an incredible cost as the economy shut down amid the coronavirus pand...

It will take a massive war-time mobilization effort to effectively address the climate emergency, argues Saul Griffith — inventor, MacArthur genius fellow, CEO of Otherlab , and co-founder of Rewiring America , an organizatio...

Crowdfunding, blockchain, artificial intelligence and neobanks. What do all of these buzzwords have to do with fighting climate change? On this episode of Political Climate’s DITCHED series , host Julia Pyper speaks to the au...

2020 has been a remarkable year. It witnessed the coronavirus pandemic, an economic crash, a historic and divisive U.S. election, widespread protests for racial justice and more. And yet, amid all of the turbulence, the world...

Cities and states have powerful roles to play in divesting from fossil fuels and directing investments toward sustainable industries. There are a number of ways for these sub-national actors to participate in the divest/inves...

When Neil Chatterjee was appointed to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission by President Trump in 2017, stakeholders in the climate and clean energy space were concerned about what his agenda would be. Headlines dubbed him...

2020 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for fossil fuel divestment. Despite economic disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, a growing number of countries, companies and financial institutions are committing to quit c...

The coronavirus pandemic has created an opportunity to reboot the American economy in a way that is cleaner and helps to mitigate climate change for future generations. But it’s not only that, this is also a moment to build b...

A growing number of financial institutions are moving their investments from fossil fuels into less polluting projects and resources. So what do oil and gas companies make of this shift? Some of them are waking up to the clea...