Episode 99
The Angry Clean Energy Guy on “Sovereign AI” and the recipe with three ingredients each country needs to achieve it. Plus a special focus on the state of Sovereign AI in South-East Asia and why these nations (though not only these nations – indeed most nations) need a radical pivot: A stand-alone Minister of AI; a large build-out of data centers at home; and critically, a tsunami of solar, wind and storage to power this new brain with the only fuel that makes economic and security sense. The risk if they don’t? Becoming vassal states to the algorithm.
Episode 98
The Angry Clean Energy Guy on data centers in space: the good, the bad and the ugly – and why they are inevitable by 2030
Episode 96
Real climate action isn’t happening at the UN Climate talks—it’s happening everywhere else. So, are the UN climate summits a waste of time? What is their actual purpose? Should they be reformed or simply shut down? The Angry Clean Energy Guy breaks down what you need to know about the UN’s COP conferences and highlights examples of the massive, inexorable climate momentum building outside the negotiating halls.
Episode 95
The Achilles heel of AI and AGI is electricity. By 2030, new data centers require $6.7 trillion worldwide, based on current market data, to keep pace with the demand for compute power. Not much, however, will be built without a massive scale-up of solar, wind and batteries. The Angry Clean Energy Guy on why we should expect an acceleration of renewables deployment around the world, as everyone eventually wakes up to the fact that nuclear will take 20 years to deliver, gas turbines are virtually unavailable through 2030, and new coal is finished everywhere except in China and India.
Episode 94
Forget “energy transition”. We are in the midst of an energy TRANSFORMATION, completely upending how we live on a global basis. We are on our way, for the first time in the history of humanity, into the era of over-abundant clean energy to deliver much cleaner air and oceans, healthier lives, so much less waste and so much more efficiency than the fossil fuel era. Off you go go into the dustbin of history, age of oil
Episode 93
The Angry Clean Energy Guy reveals how the onslaught of attacks on clean energy in the United States is fueled by vindictiveness and greed, not facts, and exposes the groups behind the hostility.
Episode 92
The Angry Clean Energy Guy on the space race of this century: becoming a solar superpower. Humanity is moving into an unprecedented era of energy super-abundance which is going to be all about harnessing terawatts of solar energy; TW-scale solar manufacturing and TWh-scale battery manufacturing. After all, total energy consumption globally today is about 16TW, while right above our heads the Sun is delivering 173,000 TW of energy to Earth continuously, over 10,000 times greater than what we are currently using. And it’s all there for the taking by those countries that achieve solar superpower status – with almost any and all countries in contention. The global order is on its way to be potentially dramatically re-shuffled.
Episode 91
On Monday, 28 April 2025, a major power blackout occurred across the Iberian Peninsula affecting Portugal and Spain. The Angry Clean Energy Guy on the history of blackouts since the 1960’s; why we won’t know the cause for months or even years; the solutions we are literally drowning in; and how the ultimate cure is to go bigger and faster on solar and batteries.
Episode 90
We are in the midst of an organised assault on climate action, climate science, the environment, diversity, equity and inclusion and more generally, on decency, equality and morality. The Angry Clean Energy Guy on the “passwords” which may help to understand the “why”; and how this assault is destined to fail.
Episode 89
Recently, President Trump apparently sought to stop wind power expansion in the US and withdrew from the Paris agreement, in a barrage of orders aimed at boosting fossil fuels and reverse policies that address climate change.
The Angry Clean Energy Guy on why it’s very good news that the United States is withdrawing from the Paris agreement (don’t worry about it); and why the global energy transition is not something President Trump or anyone else is going to stop.
Episode 87
On Monday 2 December 2024, the mother of all climate lawsuits began at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Unprecedented, it’s also the largest ever case seen by the world court, with a record number of 97 States and 11 international organizations speaking in the oral proceedings. The ICJ is being asked to provide clarity on international law with respect to climate change.
The Angry Clean Energy Guy on why what the ICJ says could change the world.
Episode 86
You may have heard that a “nuclear renaissance” is gathering pace, driven most recently by something called “small modular reactors” or SMRs. Apparently, SMRs are going to be ubiquitous everywhere and are going to play a key part in decarbonization. The Angry Clean Energy Guy on why this isn’t going to happen; and why all this talk about SMRs (and it’s mostly talk) pushes back the era of energy abundance which we are on the cusp of, by diverting capital which would have been much better spent on a faster deployment of renewable energy: solar, wind and batteries.
Episode 85
On 14 June 2024, a major oil spill blackened Singapore’s coastline, after yet another shipping accident which punctured the oil tank of a fuel ship and spilled at least 400 tons of oil, with large quantities washing ashore. This episode of the Angry Clean Energy Guy is the beginning of a ten-part series on the history of fossil fuels in South-East Asia, and how the region will shake-off this last remnant of its colonial history – fossil fuels – to get rid of oil spills once and for all; achieve energy independence; strengthen national security; improve the energy efficiency of buildings, vehicles, appliances, and electronics; and protect and enhance the health of all citizens in this process.
Episode 84
The Angry Clean Energy Guy on the depravity at the heart of climate finance: those who set the house on fire (rich nations) are lining up outside to sell fire extinguishers, or loan them with interest, to the occupants who need them (poorer nations) – and in the process often saddling these occupants with debts, or worse, taking whatever furniture, savings or cash they have left.
Episode 83
Chinese innovation on steroids: The Angry Clean Energy Guy on some pretty shockingly amazing announcements in the battery energy storage world from China, and on decisive progress on recycling batteries from the United States. Together, these guarantee that oil is on its way out of the transportation sector; that oil and gas are on their way out of electricity generation, forever, much earlier than people think; and that we will shrink the environmental footprint of energy – by exiting oil and gas and coal – by somewhere between 90% and 99%.
Episode 82
The Angry Clean Energy Guy on two recent, and historic, renewable energy milestones many thought impossible. First, solar, wind and hydro power exceeded 100% of California’s electricity demand on an almost daily basis over a sustained period of several weeks. Second, also in California, battery storage became for the first time ever the largest source of supply in the California grid. The evidence is incontrovertible: not only can we power entire countries with almost 100% renewable energy, but we will also get there faster than most people think.
Episode 81
The Angry Clean Energy Guy on the fraud that is plastic recycling, perpetrated by Big Oil and their enablers; and on the emerging evidence that the health dangers of plastic – obfuscated for 50 years – could be life-threatening , including substantially raised risks of strokes, heart attacks and other nasty invasions of our bodies by Big Oil.
Episode 79
Disinformation, misinformation, deception and propaganda by Big Oil is rife. The number of oil trolls on my social media feeds – and those of so many other climate activists – has seen a remarkable increase, some collecting 1,000+. The Angry Clean Energy Guy on the “Top 10 Disinformation Tag Lines” peddled by Big Oil trolls and bots, aided and abetted by some of the world’s largest public relations firms and assorted politicians, lawyers and consultants on their payroll.
Episode 78
The Angry Clean Energy Guy on the need to tackle the fantastic quantities of waste and pollution from the healthcare sector – 5 to 7% of global emissions and 5th largest polluter if we thought of it as a country – and how the doctors, demigods everywhere, are in the process of being nudged to evolve to get to zero-waste and zero-emissions medicine.
Episode 77
The Angry Clean Energy Guy on the sheer quantity of drivel we’re bring bombarded with about gas, (such as the world needing more affordable energy (read: gas); or how gas is part of a pragmatic approach to the energy transition; or using the words “low-carbon” in the context of energy systems); and how in reality, it’s all deliberate propaganda orchestrated by dark organizations such as the “International Gas Union”. Their global playbook of deception to lock-in fossil gas (and make a couple of bucks while setting fire to the world) has been exposed through their own incompetence: it was available on the International Gas Union’s own website, by mistake, until the documents were removed six months later
Episode 76
The Angry Clean Energy Guy on why our fossil fuel addiction requires at least 535 times more mining than the renewables economy displacing it – and how we have already all the minerals we need to decisively transition to clean energy lifestyles and economies
Episode 75
The Angry Clean Energy Guy on why South East Asia’s clean energy future is here already, today: it’s all happening, all one needs to see is it is take a quick tour of the behind-the-scenes, massive, renewable energy surge in Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia and Thailand.
Episode 74
The Angry Clean Energy Guy on why we have all the money in the world to pay for climate action right now (and where that money is), so why the hell are we not getting on with it.
Episode 73
We need to talk about COP28, the 28th installment of the United Nations Climate Talks, which will take place in Dubai, UAE at the end of this year. For the first time ever, the CEO of an oil company – literally the constituency that must stop all new oil & gas and phase-down existing oil & gas – has been appointed as the President of a COP – literally the global forum which is supposed to phase-down the production of oil & gas. Does this mean that Big Oil has finally succeeded in completing its hijacking of the annual meeting of 198 countries to act on climate? Should the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change secretariat be going nuts about it and acting (fat chance, probably)? Or does fighting climate change require all hands on deck, as some prominent voices have argued? Listen, weep or cheer, and make up your own mind. Then do something about it.
Episode 72
The Angry Clean Energy Guy’s third episode in a mini-series of podcasts showcasing some of the remarkable environmental progress in Asia, today featuring the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam (after China was featured in Episode 70 and Indonesia was featured in Episode 71). Here’s one factoid from this episode: the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines, an independent body set-up under the constitution to investigate allegations of human rights violations against Filipinos, released a 160-page National Inquiry on Climate Change with explosive findings against Big Oil.
Episode 71
The Angry Clean Energy Guy’s second episode in a mini-series of podcasts showcasing some of the remarkable environmental progress in Asia, today featuring Indonesia (after China was featured in Episode 70). The next podcasts will feature Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, South Korea and India. Here are two factoids from this episode: Indonesia’s fight against plastic waste is much more advanced than that of rich and industrialized Western countries; while its renewable energy industry is about to take off.
Episode 70
The Angry Clean Energy Guy’s first episode in a series of podcasts showcasing some of the remarkable environmental progress in Asia, starting with China. The next podcasts will feature Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand and India. Here’s one factoid from this episode: there were 80,000 environmental lawsuits brought by Chinese prosecutors in 2020 alone, all of which were to enforce environmental regulations.
Episode 69
The noise from oil trolls, oil bots and Big Oil astroturfing has become deafening. Their aim is to overwhelm the climate movement – and thoroughly confuse the public – by posting vast amounts of misleading information and spreading crazy conspiracy theories as well as general nonsense, in very large volumes. They are a naked attempt at pushing Big Oil’s agenda of perpetuating fossil fuels irrespective of the very high risk they pose to society’s very survival. The Angry Clean Energy on what they are; what to do about them in an environment where Big Oil’s obscene 2022 “profits” will likely power them into hysteria mode; and how this is consistent with Big Oil recently dropping any pretense about their goal of stalling – and then reversing – the energy transition.
Episode 67
The global legal construct around climate change was born in 1992, when the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change was negotiated at the UN Conference on Environment and Development, more commonly known as the Earth Summit, in Rio de Janeiro. In this podcast, we take a tour through a short history of UN climate talks (now in their 27th year at what’s called a “Conference of the Parties”, in short a COP) – whereby the Angry Clean Energy Guy concludes that climate action is happening everywhere, except at the UN climate talks
Episode 66
Sustainable aviation fuels are a fraud. Study after study say that no matter how you look at the data, their production will fail to meet aviation needs no matter how much money is thrown at the problem. Not only does the industry have to be created from scratch, creating enough “sustainable” fuels to replace jet fuel by 2050 assumes we can convert all of the planet’s grasslands to biofuel crops. Worse, they give airlines, aircraft manufacturers and oil & gas companies public relations cover to continue to do incredibly little to tackle their emissions and pollution, while increasing the use of jet fuel as the growth of air travel continues unabated.
Episode 65
Climate optimism is in short supply, so this is a podcast about ten BIG, BIG reasons to be optimistic that we are pushing back against global warming. I put this podcast together because climate anxiety is real: distress related to worries about climate impacts is widespread. We feel powerless in the face of crisis of epic proportion manifesting itself through biblical floods, epic droughts, powerful heatwaves and cascading consequences on our daily lives and livelihoods. Indeed this is so far the decade of words such as “since records began”, “for the first time in human history”, “millions affected”, “breaking multiple records”, “has no parallel in recorded history” and possibly the word of the decade, “unprecedented” – all the more reason to focus on why we can be optimistic about the future, at least in a relative sense (it could have been worse and warming of 2°C for example is a lot better than warming of 2.5°C!). Yes, some warming is already baked-in, probably 2°C or more, but the judgment is out on where we will end up and YOU can do something about it.
Episode 64
In the midst of a global climate crisis touching everyone and everything, there are new, sophisticated and dangerous forms of greenwashing making the rounds, courtesy of the oil & gas industry and their stooges.
Episode 63
Many people struggle with climate anxiety – the feeling of distress, uncertainty and loss of control which is a natural reaction to the magnitude of the climate crisis and how apparently little our individual actions matter in fighting it.
Episode 62
There is something sordid taking place out there. Over the past few weeks, shareholders – that is, investors, asset management firms, banks and pension funds – blocked proposals to accelerate carbon emission reductions at oil & gas producers including BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Occidental Petroleum, Shell and TotalEnergies.
Episode 61
While India was roasting under a record heatwave; the Amazon was recording record after record of deforestation destruction; dust storms were sending thousands to hospital in Iraq; Ethiopia was facing its worst drought in at least 40 years; and global average atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations were reaching their highest level on record for any calendar month in April, consultants McKinsey were busy preparing yet another report obfuscating the reasons why climate finance flows continue to be appallingly inadequate.
Episode 60
The Angry Clean Energy Guy on why your “luxury cruise” is just a floating garbage trash can; how the shipping industry in its entirety has gone rogue in terms of climate action, ocean pollution and public health impact; and why the International Maritime Organization needs to be either fundamentally restructured or closed: it’s not fit for purpose and it’s doing everything in its power to do absolutely nothing at all.
Episode 59
The Angry Clean Energy Guy on the top 5 climate action myths busted by the Ukraine war: the different ways governments and big business had justified, sometime for decades, why they couldn’t take this or that climate action, then suddenly took them in days in a different context.
Episode 58
Greenwashing – drowning consumers with vague or false claims to deceive them into believing that a business’ products or image are green – has gone viral: Most businesses are at it, irrespective of their sectors, some more vociferously than others. Here are the Angry Clean Energy Guy’s “Greenwashing Top 15:” the Top 15 ways we are being deceived – on a daily basis if not more frequently – by Big Oil, businesses, the financial sector, politicians and many others.
Episode 57
The Angry Clean Energy Guy on why the blockchain is possibly one of the most powerful tools for citizen climate action, in particular for those angry about how little their governments have been doing for 30 years about climate change.
Episode 56
We need to talk about corporate evil: companies knowingly doing harm. In this episode, the Angry Clean Energy Guy features a massive company many around the world don’t know about which is overtly trying to greenwash its deeds by using children, while simultaneously – and boldly – trying to fry the planet.
Episode 55
The Angry Clean Energy Guy on a little known, secretive, stealthy tool undermining climate action, the innocuously named the Energy Charter Treaty, threatening to ensure global heating exceeds 2 degrees Celsius by driving tens of billions of dollar more to Big Oil, Big Gas and Big Coal
Episode 54
“COP26,” the 26th year pretty much all the countries in the world convened in an annual conference to talk about what to do about the climate catastrophe, will result – just like its preceding 25 editions – in talk, then in some more talk.
Episode 53
The Angry Clean Energy Guy on pretty much everything you really need to know about nuclear energy. That’s for example the fact that conventional nuclear energy is not only finished, but has also become a massive distraction in our climate emergency, diverting precious dollars away from sun, wind and water.
Episode 52
The IPCC released a hugely important scientific report this week. However, in this episode, I would like to talk about biodiversity instead, and in particular, biodiversity loss in the oceans.
Episode 51
I’ve had it with the bashing of bitcoin, the blockchain and crypto miners for their energy usage. This is all, in one word, noise and should be ignored.
Episode 50
This Episode is a slightly longer version of a TEDx Talk I gave at Singapore’s National Gallery on 28 April 2021 about ESG.
Episode 49
The Angry Clean Energy Guy on pretty much everything you need to know about ESG, starting with the need to be very suspicious whenever you see an ESG label on an investment product.
Episode 48
If you want to get elected, requirement number one is to come up with a meaningless tagline while pretending everything is going pear-shaped, e.g. “Take Back Control” or “Make America Great Again.”
Episode 47
Over the past year, multiple oil and gas companies have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in planting trees, or threatening to do so, to offset their greenhouse gas emissions. There are, however, several fundamental problems with what they are doing, or probably more accurately, pretending to do.
Episode 46
We need to talk about lawyers and about law firms.
One of the strongest weapons in the fight to do nothing at all about climate change is the anti-climate-action litigation carried out by most, if not all, of the largest law firms in the world.
Episode 45
With an estimated $30 trillion in assets under management, the insurance industry is a huge (but mostly invisible) force in influencing the direction of the global economy.
Episode 44
If you listen to banks and their explanations of what they are doing about climate change, you might get the impression that most “get it” and are fighting it shoulder-to-shoulder with the rest of humanity.
Episode 43
“Fresh air” is a myth. In reality, 90% of us (worldwide) are breathing dirty air on a permanent basis. Because we can’t see the pollution in our air, we don’t tend to think about it enough. But our air is weakening all of us and killing 7 million a year, as well as placing an undue burden on health systems in every country. This has to stop and it can: No more petrol or diesel cars, trucks, buses, two- and three-wheelers, or trains – all of which can be replaced today by clean alternatives. Soon, no more petrol or diesel ships and planes too. Let’s get going.
Episode 42
The latest, newest attacks against clean energy, namely “Oh my God, what are we going to do with all those solar panels and wind turbines and batteries at the end of their lives” and “Oh my God, what about the mining practices employed to get the materials necessary for clean energy ” are, in one word, bollocks.
Episode 41
October, 2020 marked the end of an era: The world’s largest solar and wind power generator, the US utility NextEra, surpassed ExxonMobil – literally the embodiment of Big Oil’s recklessness and once the most valuable company on earth – in stock market worth: It took a pandemic to show the markets that the time for clean energy and clean air is right now, and here we are.
Episode 40
Indonesia, population 270m and basking in abundant sunshine most of the year while stretched across the Equator, has less installed solar power capacity (198MW) than Finland (215MW), an Arctic country with just 5.5m people.
That’s one of the reasons South East Asia remains the global laggard on renewable energy while at the same time threatening to set the world on fire through the world’s last great expansion in coal and gas infrastructure.
