CU Cleaning Up: Leadership in an Age of Climate Change

Podcast

Cleaning Up: Leadership in an Age of Climate Change

Once a week, Michael Liebreich and Bryony Worthington have a conversation with a leader in clean energy, mobility, climate finance or sustainable development. Informative, inspiring and fun!

Website ↗ Last published 2 November 2026 315 posts collected by Sputnik

Said on Cleaning Up: Leadership in an Age of Climate Change

“We are building decentralized generation not only because it's economically more viable, but also because decentralization provides for less war risk. You can only get insurance if you have a physically diversified portfolio of assets. Nobody would insure a 2,200 megawatt battery in Ukraine. It's obvious.” — Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, Cleaning Up: Leadership in an Age of Climate Change
Volodymyr Kudrytskyi · 2 Nov 2026 Listen →
“Today we had a price of one Ukrainian cent at 12 o'clock. In the evening it was 15 hryvnias, so 1,500 times higher. So you cannot currently build the system purely on wind and solar, because it would collapse. When I build one megawatt of flexible gas generation, I substitute 10 megawatts of coal generation. Why? Because my gas piston machine can be switched on in six minutes and switched off in two seconds, while a large coal-fired power plant cannot do that.” — Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, Cleaning Up: Leadership in an Age of Climate Change
Volodymyr Kudrytskyi · 2 Nov 2026 Listen →
“I strongly believe that the era of big power plants is gone. It's gone not only for security reasons, because you can face these sabotage acts in every country in the world, and the enemy can take down a large portion of your generation assets in one go if you centralize too much. But it's also economically more viable. To build a large combined cycle plant you would need four to five years; you can roll out smaller facilities in six to eight months.” — Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, Cleaning Up: Leadership in an Age of Climate Change
Volodymyr Kudrytskyi · 2 Nov 2026 Listen →
“From 2014 up until April, this April, so we're talking about 12 years, I had said that as long as Western support for Ukraine remains at a certain level, Ukraine will win this war, but it's going to take a hell of a long time. In April, as a result of a variety of things stemming from the extraordinary tech breakthroughs they've made here on weapons, I could see this war ending within two years.” — John E. Herbst, Cleaning Up: Leadership in an Age of Climate Change
John E. Herbst · 26 Oct 2026 Listen →
“Countries where mining happens are on average healthier, wealthier, and better educated than their non-mining counterparts. So this idea that mining somehow makes your country poorer just does not hold up to scrutiny.” — Rohitesh Dhawan, Cleaning Up: Leadership in an Age of Climate Change
Rohitesh Dhawan · 21 Oct 2026 Listen →
“We have a Soviet-style energy system… our four biggest generation units produce more than 60, 65% of all our electricity. And our top 10 substations… transport more than 60% of all electricity. That's why Russia tried to attack the biggest generation units and the biggest substations.” — Andrii Gerus, Cleaning Up: Leadership in an Age of Climate Change
Andrii Gerus · 19 Oct 2026 Listen →
“This winter in Ukraine was the harshest winter out of anything we have experienced… My day would start with asking, out of the three things, electricity, heating and water, what do you have? You never had all three. You were lucky if you had two. Most likely had only one… I still show the screenshot from my utilities app on one of the days in February where we had electricity three and a half hours: two and a half hours at night and one hour during the daytime.” — Dmytro Boroday, Cleaning Up: Leadership in an Age of Climate Change
Dmytro Boroday · 19 Oct 2026 Listen →
“How do you protect energy infrastructure from drones? I mean, that was never a topic, it was never something we had to focus on. Now, if we are putting gas turbines or if we are putting solar panels, if we're doing transformation stations, a big part of the planning is passive protection against drones. … This has never happened anywhere in the world.” — Alexander De Croo, Cleaning Up: Leadership in an Age of Climate Change
Alexander De Croo · 14 Oct 2026 Listen →
“I know that European countries are continuing to produce tanks, and they're spending huge amounts of money on this kind of equipment, where each tank costs more than a million Euros but can be destroyed by a 200-euro drone.” — Oleksandr Tolokonnikov, Cleaning Up: Leadership in an Age of Climate Change
Oleksandr Tolokonnikov · 12 Oct 2026 Listen →
“What I worry about is we'll have sort of fusion's Theranos moment … where investors say you didn't exaggerate, you actually duped us, right? And if that happens, it'll cool the whole market.” — Steven Cowley, Cleaning Up: Leadership in an Age of Climate Change
Steven Cowley · 7 Oct 2026 Listen →
“If you have to make targets with gold hohlraum, they have to cost roughly 20 cents each. At the moment, they cost $10 million each. So we're a little ways off, right?” — Steven Cowley, Cleaning Up: Leadership in an Age of Climate Change
Steven Cowley · 7 Oct 2026 Listen →
“I find it scandalous that serious politicians, that energy ministers, will look at the economy and don't know what powers it. Measuring the energy use of our economy in primary energy units is like measuring nutrition by how many acres are used in agriculture. And yet that's what we're doing.” — Michael Liebreich, Cleaning Up: Leadership in an Age of Climate Change
Michael Liebreich · 23 Sep 2026 Listen →

Recent Episodes

  1. 2 Nov 2026

    How To Run An Electricity Grid In A State Of War | Deep Dive Ukraine 04: Vitalii Zaichenko & Volodymyr Kudrytskyi

    With Vitalii Zaichenko and Volodymyr Kudrytskyi

  2. 28 Oct 2026

    Can Indonesia Grow Without Burning More Coal? Ep280: Sandiaga Uno

    With Marie Cheong and Sandiaga Uno

  3. 26 Oct 2026

    How Will The Russia-Ukraine War Come To An End? Deep Dive Ukraine 03: John E. Herbst

    With John E. Herbst

  4. 21 Oct 2026

    We Need More Metals Than Ever. But at What Cost? | Ep279: Rohitesh Dhawan

    With Rohitesh Dhawan

  5. 19 Oct 2026

    The Race to Rebuild Ukraine's Energy Infrastructure | Deep Dive 02: Andrii Gerus & Dmytro Boroday

    With Andrii Gerus and Dmytro Boroday

  6. 14 Oct 2026

    How Energy Security Became National Security | Ep278: Alexander De Croo

    With Ana Rovzar and Alexander De Croo

  7. 12 Oct 2026

    How Ukraine Can Survive Another Brutal Winter | Ukraine Deep Dive 01

    With Oleksandr Tolokonnikov , Sorina Seitvelieva , Emine Emirsalieva and Oleksandr Kozhukhar

  8. 7 Oct 2026

    Is Nuclear Fusion About To Have A Theranos Moment? Ep 277: Sir Steven Cowley

    With Steven Cowley

  9. 30 Sep 2026

    Is The Earth Warming Faster Than We Thought? | Ep276: Peter Cox

    With Peter Cox

  10. 23 Sep 2026

    The Scandal at The Heart of The Energy Transition | Ep275: Jan Rosenow

    With Jan Rosenow

  11. 16 Sep 2026

    The Race Is On To Control AI | Episode 274: Afonso Salema & Sam Winter-Levy

    With Afonso Salema and Sam Winter-Levy

  12. 9 Sep 2026

    Mexico Wants To Build An $8,000 EV For Everyone | Ep273: Roberto Capuano

    With Roberto Capuano

Guests

Jonathan Maxwell (4 episodes), Adair Turner (4 episodes), Damilola Ogunbiyi (3 episodes), John Pettigrew (2 episodes), Ion Yadigaroglu (2 episodes), John Browne (2 episodes), Bonny Simi (2 episodes), Naomi Oreskes (2 episodes), Hannah Ritchie (2 episodes), Emma Pinchbeck (2 episodes), Silvia Madeddu (2 episodes), Tzeporah Berman (2 episodes), and 174 more.