Energy vs Climate: How climate is changing our energy systems

Octopus Energy paid its UK customers collectively over £100,000 during a recent heat wave, not through new infrastructure, but a text message and a price signal offering demand flexibility. That caught our attention.

In this episode, Ed and Sara (David sits this one out) talk with Eric Davids, Head of Strategy for Octopus Energy's US business, about redefining utility-customer relationships, how approaches in the UK stack up against North American utilities' much blunter "please conserve" grid alerts, and what happens when consumers get real price exposure and it doesn't go well.

🎙️ TIMESTAMPS
0:52 – Episode intro
1:56 – Welcome Eric Davids
5:57 – What is demand flexibility?
7:40 – Inside Octopus's £100K UK heat wave response
9:51 – Alberta's grid alerts vs. Octopus's incentives
22:11 – Guardrails against price exposure risk (Winter Storm Uri)
28:21 – Is this just another hype cycle?
35:45 – Equity and the energy transition
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They say there's no growth without feedback. This season, you've given us plenty of it.

In this episode, David, Sara, and Ed do something most podcasters shouldn't do: they read the comments. Out loud and on purpose.

Some feedback was positive. Some was additive. Some fell into the category we're calling "strongly suggestive." 

If you've ever left a comment on an EvC clip wondering whether David, Sara and Ed actually saw it: they did. This is what they had to say back.
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Ed's new project, Critical Mass, starts with a deceptively simple question: if Canada decides it wants more nuclear power, can it actually deliver it? The answer turns out to be complicated.

As part of the project, we're hosting four live town halls across the country. The first was recorded at Toronto Climate Week on June 5, featuring Todd Smith (former Ontario Minister of Energy, now VP at Candu Energy) and Brendan Frank (VP of Policy at Clean Prosperity). Together they work through the project's core tensions - cost, democratic legitimacy, and standardization - with the kind of honest talk you've come to expect from EvC.

Thank you to Geoff Burt and The Consecon Foundation for helping make the evening possible. 
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The aftershocks of the Iran war are reshaping energy markets, investment decisions, and climate politics in very different ways around the world.

David, Sara, and Ed sat down with Vijay Vitheeswaran, Global Energy and Climate Innovation Editor at The Economist and 2025 Energy Writer of the Year, to discuss the shock rippling through energy markets since the war in Iran began. 

On one side are forces accelerating the energy transition like electrification, EV adoption, solar deployment, and rapidly scaling clean tech. On the other are forces pushing toward deeper fossil fuel lock in: energy security fears, coal expansion, oil investment surges, and persistent fossil fuel subsidies. Which force is actually winning?

The conversation covered a lot of ground — from samosa vendors in Delhi packing up because cooking fuel tripled in price, to what a potential OPEC collapse could mean for the oil sands.

This show's a great listen, especially if you're trying to make sense of a world where the energy transition and fossil fuel lock-in are happening simultaneously.

About Our Guest:
Vijay Vaitheeswaran is the Global Energy & Climate Innovation Editor of The Economist. He has produced numerous cover stories and won awards for his reporting. He is an accomplished public speaker and his three books have created a stir, with accolades ranging from lengthy reviews in The New Yorker to shortlisting for the FT/McKinsey Business Book of the Year prize.  The Financial Times has declared him to be “a writer to whom it is worth paying attention.”
Vijay is a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He serves as an advisor on innovation to the World Economic Forum/Davos, and has taught at NYU Stern Business School and Northwestern University. Vijay is an alumnus of Harvard Business School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

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Nuclear is having a global moment. But the story in Canada is a lot more complicated.

David, Sara, and Ed sat down with Prof. Jason Donev of the University of Calgary for a full, unsparing look at where nuclear fits in a rapidly growing and electrifying Canadian grid.
Jason is one of the clearest thinkers on energy systems in the country. He's also someone who started out opposed to nuclear and changed his mind. 
We set this episode up to tackle two questions. First, what is the case for new nuclear right now, given rising electricity demand from electrification, industry, and AI. And second, why Canada, despite decades of experience, has struggled to build new projects beyond Ontario and New Brunswick.
A few things you'll hear about:
Canada had a nuclear accident in 1952. Jimmy Carter helped clean it up.
“Small” modular reactors can be up to 300 megawatts. A CANDU is closer to 700. “Small” is a relative term.
Darlington’s BWRX-300 is a closely watched test case for Western SMRs. Will costs fall with follow-on units, or will nuclear repeat its Achilles heel and get more expensive?
It turned into a lively and wide-ranging conversation on costs, timelines, small modular reactors, and the deeper issue that keeps coming up with nuclear. The physics may be solved, but the politics and institutions are not.

About Our Guest:
Prof. Jason Donev is a tenured professor teaching Energy Science and Physics at the University of Calgary. He leads EnergyEducation.ca, the world’s largest and most widely used energy resource for adults. 

Timestamps:
(00:00) Introduction
(02:20) Jason's journey from nuclear skeptic to advocate
(06:53) A brief history of nuclear in Canada
(12:39) Canada's nuclear accident record — what really happened
(17:56) The global nuclear resurgence: 40 countries, tripling by 2050
(20:27) SMRs: hype vs. reality
(22:58) Is nuclear being used to delay climate action?
(30:09) Why Western nuclear costs are "a joke" — and what to do about it
(31:57) Nuclear waste: real problem or political football?
(36:06) Why nuclear needs BOTH big business AND big government
(52:07) What should Canada actually do?

🔗 Related Episodes:
⚛️ The Nuclear Debate with Elizabeth May (S1, Ep. 10)
🔄 Turn the Tables
Full References & Notes

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