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Energy Explained
Get the latest as our experts share their insights on global energy policy.
Six Key Issues That Defined Climate Week 2025
CGEP scholars reflect on some of the standout issues of the day during this year's Climate Week
Blog
by Erica Downs, Dave Turk, Kate Guy, Gautam Jain, Luisa Palacios, David Sandalow, Vivek Shastry & Jack Andreasen Cavanaugh • October 10, 2025
Podcasts
Hear in-depth conversations with the world’s top energy and climate leaders from government, business, academia, and civil society.
What Drives ‘Breakneck’ Development in China?
Trade tensions between the US and China have hit a new high mark. Last week, after China announced plans to ratchet up its export controls of some rare-earths...
Events
Find out more about our upcoming and past events.
October 22, 2025
• 9:00 am - 10:00 am
edt
Preliminary Report of the International Dialogue on Climate and Trade
The growth of green industrial policy in major economies is creating friction between climate and trade. If allowed to escalate, these frictions may disrupt climate action and undermine...
Event
Guest
Patrick Pouyanné
Chairman and CEO of Total Energies
The oil and gas industry is at a crossroads. With the impacts of climate change becoming more severe every year, it’s clear that fossil fuel consumption must decline to prevent global warming from crossing a dangerous threshold.
Yet oil and gas companies posted record returns in 2022, driven by volatility in the global market. Many are making more investments in clean energy technologies, but it’s still a small share of their total capital expenditures. As the transition to clean energy gains momentum, these firms are balancing the requirements of the energy transition and the realities of today’s fossil fuel-dependent economy.
How can oil and gas majors reduce emissions while continuing to meet the global demand for fossil fuels? What role do they have in a clean energy transition? And how do their leaders see their position in an increasingly fractious and volatile global energy system?
This week host Jason Bordoff talks with Patrick Pouyanné.
Patrick is the Chairman and CEO of Total Energies, a French multinational oil and gas company and one of the world’s seven supermajors. He has served in this role since 2014.
Since his appointment, Patrick has overseen a diversification of his company’s portfolio, signified by its name change from Total to Total Energies in 2021. He has continued to expand Total Energies’ oil and gas business, pursuing new projects in Qatar, Mozambique, Uganda, and elsewhere. In the process, Patrick has emerged as a highly influential– and sometimes controversial– voice in the industry.
This episode of the Columbia Energy Exchange is a recording of a live, in-person conversation that took place on April 12th during the Columbia Global Energy Summit 2023.
More Episodes
What Drives ‘Breakneck’ Development in China?
Trade tensions between the US and China have hit a new high mark. Last week, after China announced plans to ratchet up its export controls of some rare-earths...
Building a New Energy Industrial Strategy
Industrial policy, supply chain security, and economic competitiveness are central to how we think about clean energy deployment. As the Trump administration pulls back federal support for the...
Is Permitting Reform About to Break Through?
Last year, an energy permitting reform bill sponsored by Senators Joe Manchin and John Barrasso passed out of committee but failed to gain full support in the US...
US Energy Policy in a Partisan Era
Following the rollback of key climate provisions from the Inflation Reduction Act, the debate over America's energy future is increasingly contentious. The passage of the One Big Beautiful...
Relevant
Publications
Six Key Issues That Defined Climate Week 2025
CGEP scholars reflect on some of the standout issues of the day during this year's Climate Week
Blog
by Erica Downs, Dave Turk, Kate Guy, Gautam Jain, Luisa Palacios, David Sandalow, Vivek Shastry & Jack Andreasen Cavanaugh • October 10, 2025
A Roadmap to Catalyze Methane Abatement in the Oil and Gas Sector Using Debt Financing
Human-caused methane emissions have contributed to at least one quarter of global warming since the preindustrial era. Since methane is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide (CO2) in trapping heat over the first two decades after its release, abating methane is considered a critical near-term strategy for reducing emissions.[
Q&A: Why Trump’s Gulf Tour Matters for Energy, AI, and Geopolitics
President Donald Trump's first official foreign policy trip, as in his first term, was to Saudi Arabia earlier this month, with additional stops in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
PetroStates and ElectroStates in a World Divided by Fossil Fuels and Clean Energy
PetroStates and ElectroStates clash as fossil fuels and clean energy reshape global power, strategy, and alliances.
External Publications
with Anne-Sophie Corbeau & Tatiana Mitrova •
The National Interest
• May 27, 2025
