Nobuo Tanaka - The race for clean energy dominance

Last week’s Episode 105 of Cleaning Up with Michael Liebreich was with Nobuo Tanaka, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) between 2007 and 2011. His successor, Fatih Birol, was my guest on Episode 28 of Cleaning Up.

My three key takeaways were as follows:

1. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine represents a crisis for the energy sector even more profound than the first oil shock in the early 1970s. It involves not just oil, but also coal, gas and electricity, and it is global. It is also taking place at a time when we are simultaneously trying to deliver modern energy services to the final 2 billion people who don’t have them (SDG7), and to deal with the growing threat of climate change.

2. All the major economies, in addition to acting to secure their resilience of supply, are responding by doubling down on the rush for clean energy. This will likely exacerbate the trend towards great power competition; it remains to be seen if this accelerates decarbonisation, or if the stress it puts on supply chains slows it down.

3. Japan’s near-term plans for decarbonisation are heavily dependent restarting its remaining nuclear power stations, idled since Fukushima 2011, and public opinion is shifting noticeably in favour. Longer term, Japan’s plans are more dependent on hydrogen than those of any other country – a huge risk in my book.

You can listen to Episode 105 of Cleaning Up on your favourite podcast platform or watch it on YouTube. Episode 106 of Cleaning Up will be with another IEA alumnus, Laszlo Varro, who took over as Chief Economist at the IEA when Birol was promoted to the Executive Director role.