AI, Energy and Climate Podcast

Axios CEO and co-founder Jim VandeHei has spent more than a year using AI obsessively, finding it remarkably useful for writing and thinking. Yet he is deeply concerned about AI’s risks and the failure of leaders to prepare for the huge challenges created by AI. Join host David Sandalow as he and VandeHei discuss these topics and VandeHei's new book, Simplify, which offers practical advice on how to clarify priorities in a chaotic time.

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NVIDIA, the Silicon Valley-based company SPAN and a major homebuilder recently announced a partnership to deploy mini-data centers at homes around the US. By using existing grid capacity, the companies hope to close the speed-to-power gap by building networks of distributed compute capacity while cutting power costs for homeowners. Join host David Sandalow as he explores this exciting and innovative idea with Arch Rao, founder and CEO of SPAN.

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The landscape of AI policy is changing rapidly. From a one year data center moratorium in New York to sweeping new energy laws in Thailand, it’s clear that governments around the world are exploring radical new approaches to artificial intelligence. AI, Energy and Climate host David Sandalow and Siliconsciousness host David Rothkopf join forces to examine the far-reaching debate over AI policy to examine what’s working and what the future might hold.

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Can AI help deliver access to reliable, affordable energy in emerging economies? The team at ZOLA Intelligence believes the answer to that question is yes. According to the company's website, ZOLA's platform "is engineered to solve energy inequality for billions of people by asserting that true energy access requires intelligence, not just hardware." Join host David Sandalow as he talks with Bill Lenihan, CEO and founder of ZOLA Intelligence, about the challenge of providing reliable, affordable energy and the company's innovative work around the world.

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Pope Leo sent some strong messages about AI in his 42,000-word essay last week. Is the Pope anti-AI? What risks and benefits of AI does the Pope highlight? What impact will the Pope's essay have, including with big tech companies? Join host David Sandalow as he explores these questions and more with Paolo Carroza, a Professor of Law at Notre Dame and Co-Chair of the Meta Oversight Board.

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The International Energy Agency just released a new report on energy and AI, updating its landmark report on that topic last year. The new report – called Key Questions on Energy and AI -- provides authoritative information on a wide range of topics including the growth in power demand for AI; the role of natural gas, nuclear power and batteries at AI data centers; the impacts of AI clusters on electric grids; and the future of physical AI such as robots and autonomous vehicles. Join host David Sandalow as he talks with the two lead authors of the report – Thomas Spencer and Siddharth Singh.

Show notes: IEA, Key Questions on Energy and AI (April 2026) --https://www.iea.org/reports/key-questions-on-energy-and-ai

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What impact is the war in Iran having on nuclear security? If President Trump ever follows through on his threat to "obliterate" Iran's largest power plants, what risks would that create at the Iranian nuclear power plant at Bushehr? What impact does AI have on nuclear security, as well as on energy innovation more broadly? Join host David Sandalow as he discusses these issues and more with former U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, in a special episode of the AI, Energy and Climate Podcast recorded at CERAWeek.

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Lord Nicholas Stern, author of the landmark Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, recently released his new book The Growth Story of the 21st Century: The Economics and Opportunity of Climate Action. Along with Dr. Mattia Romani and other colleagues, he also published a paper in Nature last year on the role of AI in the climate transition. Join host David Sandalow as he talks with Stern and Romani about economic growth, climate change, AI and the energy transition.

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More than 35,000 people attended the recent India AI Impact Summit in Delhi, which featured speeches from more than 20 heads of state and dozens of technology company leaders including Sam Altman of OpenAI, Dario Amodei of Anthropic and Demis Hassabis of Google DeepMind. In this episode, host David Sandalow offers his reflections on the Summit and speaks with Arunabha Ghosh, President of CEEW, a leading Delhi-based public policy think tank. Ghosh offers his views on the Summit, data center construction in India and around the world and the role of AI in sustainable development, among other topics.

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In a high-profile speech, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney recently declared "We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition." US government officials and many others interpreted the comment to refer at least in part to the dramatic developments in US-Canada relations in the past year. Meanwhile, the US and Canadian energy systems are deeply interconnected. Join host David Sandalow as he talks with AJ Goulding, a leading power market expert based in Toronto, to discuss power prices, data centers, the future of coal and solar power, and the implications of US-Canadian tensions on the energy systems in both countries.

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Electric utilities are not generally known as hotbeds of innovation. What would it take for electric utilities to become more innovative? What impact would that have on the adoption of AI technologies in the power sector? Can AI tools help control power price increases for households, instead of creating pressures for increased power prices due to data center demand? Join host David Sandalow as he discusses these topics and others with Sandy Grace, Vice President of US Policy and Regulatory Strategy at National Grid.

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Increasing power prices are a hot topic in the United States. Last week the Trump administration, eight Democratic governors and five Republican governors announced a plan to protect households in mid-Atlantic and Midwestern states from paying more for electricity because of electricity demand from data centers. Join host David Sandalow as he talks with Peter Fox-Penner, a leading expert on electricity markets, to discuss the causes of power price increases, the role of data centers, the recent bipartisan agreement in the PJM region, and more.

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AI’s huge energy needs are getting enormous media attention. AI’s potential to make energy more secure, clean and affordable is getting less attention. What would it take for AI’s impact on the energy system to be net-positive? What would that mean exactly? What examples help show the potential for AI to make positive contributions to the energy system? Join host David Sandalow as he discusses these topics and a new report called From Paradox to Progress: A Net-Positive AI Energy Framework with one of the report’s lead authors -- Ginelle Greene-Dewasmes, AI and Energy Lead at the World Economic Forum.

https://www.weforum.org/publications/from-paradox-to-progress-a-net-positive-ai-energy-framework/

https://icef.go.jp/wp-content/themes/icef_new/pdf/roadmap/icef2025_roadmap.pdf

https://icef.go.jp/wp-content/themes/icef_new/pdf/roadmap/icef2024_roadmap_AI-Climate-Second-Edition.pdf

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How significant is data center water use? Is it tiny in relation to other sectors, significant in some water-stressed regions, or both? Can new liquid-based cooling technologies which (perhaps counter-intuitively) need less water than traditional air-based cooling technologies help? Join host David Sandalow as he discusses these topics and more with three coauthors of the new Sustainable Data Centers Roadmap -- Alexis Abramson (Dean of the Columbia Climate School), Julio Friedmann (Chief Scientist at Carbon Direct) and Angela Yuan (a master's degree candidate at the University of Cambridge).

ICEF Sustainable Data Centers Roadmap -- http://icef.go.jp/roadmap

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Amory Lovins has been a leading thinker on energy policy for more than 50 years. Several months ago he wrote an article with the provocative title "Artificial Intelligence Meets Natural Stupidity." As the title suggests, Lovins is skeptical about AI in a number of respects – in particular about the electricity it will require. Listen as host David Sandalow talks with Lovins about AI power demand forecasts, the role of natural gas and renewables, AI in education, a proposal to require all payments to electric utilities by new large loads such as data centers to be bonded or insured, and more.\

Amory Lovins, Artificial Intelligence Meets Natural Stupidity (May 2025), https://integrative-design-for-radical-energy-efficiency.stanford.edu/sites/extreme_energy_efficiency/files/media/file/data-centersaiel-dr-16-10-may-2025.pdf

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After a pause over the summer, we’re restarting the AI, Energy and Climate Podcast with a conversation between Jennifer Granholm, former U.S. Secretary of Energy and Governor of Michigan, and host David Sandalow. Sec. Granholm explains why she’s an “AI optimist,” sounds several notes of caution on AI and describes where she agrees and disagrees with Trump administration policies.

AI for Climate Change Mitigation Roadmap -- https://www.icef.go.jp/roadmap and http://transitiondigital.org/ai-climate-roadmap.

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Octopus Energy, a global technology and energy company, was founded in the UK 10 years ago with the goal of helping to transform electric utilities. It created Kraken, a cloud-based platform that helps utilities and their customers manage data from smart meters, electric vehicles, distributed energy resources and more. Join host David Sandalow as he talks with Nick Chaset, CEO of Octopus Energy US, about Octopus, Kraken, AI in the power sector, and strategies for combining grid flexibility and data center load growth.

AI for Climate Change Mitigation Roadmap -- https://www.icef.go.jp/roadmap and http://transitiondigital.org/ai-climate-roadmap.

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More than a billion people in the world live in energy poverty, with little or no access to electricity. Can AI help put an end to energy poverty -- or could it make the problem worse? Is there a risk of a new digital divide, with the US, China and Europe integrating AI into their economies while many nations in the Global South fall behind? Join host David Sandalow as he discusses these questions and more with Damilola Ogunbiyi, a top UN official and CEO of Sustainable Energy for All.

AI for Climate Change Mitigation Roadmap -- https://www.icef.go.jp/roadmap and http://transitiondigital.org/ai-climate-roadmap.

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Arun Majumdar is the inaugural Dean of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability at Stanford University and previously served as Founding Director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) and Chair of the Secretary's Advisory Board at the US Department of Energy. He is one of the United States' top energy experts and an accomplished institutional leader. Join host David Sandalow as he talks with Dean Majumdar about the AI work underway at the Doerr School, power demand for AI, AI's potential impacts on climate change mitigation, teaching in the AI era, and much more.

The AI, Energy and Climate Podcast is a special series from the DSR Network sponsored by NEDO and hosted by David Sandalow, Inaugural Fellow at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy.

AI for Climate Change Mitigation Roadmap -- https://www.icef.go.jp/roadmap and http://transitiondigital.org/ai-climate-roadmap.

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Thirty-two years after Jensen Huang founded NVIDIA, the company is at the center of the AI revolution and the third-most valuable company in the world. Jensen -- as he is known throughout his company and the IT industry -- is shaping the future of AI and countless applications of AI. In this episode, Jensen talks with host David Sandalow about how AI can help solve energy and climate problems, AI's power consumption, the intelligence infrastructure of the future, and more.

The AI, Energy and Climate Podcast is a special series from the DSR Network sponsored by NEDO and hosted by David Sandalow, Inaugural Fellow at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy.

AI for Climate Change Mitigation Roadmap -- https://www.icef.go.jp/roadmap and http://transitiondigital.org/ai-climate-roadmap.

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