Last month at New York Climate Week, GEM sent our largest-ever staff contingent. Together with 100,000 other attendees, we connected with colleagues known and new, explored diverse topics that all tie back to energy, and gathered insights to inform our work going forward. Here are some of the takeaways that are top of mind as we return with renewed enthusiasm to provide the open energy data and analyses that are essential to realizing a just energy transition.
Shifting into action
I’ve been attending New York Climate Week for more than a decade, and I’ve never been to one quite like this. The conflict in the Strait of Hormuz, AI and data centers, and the urgent need to power this new economy have changed the game. We are clearly in a moment of profound change, and the conversation seems to be shifting solely from themes of climate ambition and decarbonization to energy security and affordability. As the energy transition accelerates, policymakers, grid planners, financial institutions, and civil society are asking questions not about targets and pledges, but about what is actually being built, retired, financed, owned, and connected, as the grid becomes the critical medium where everything interconnects.
I shared more of my thoughts on Climate Week in an article. Read it on LinkedIn and connect with me to continue the conversation
Rethinking barriers to the energy transition
I see a shifting perspective on how tradeoffs in renewable energy development, particularly around land use, environmental concerns, and competing stakeholder interests, are being approached. Difficult tradeoffs are increasingly discussed as design and coordination problems rather than simply as conflicts. There was a strong emphasis on finding ways for different interests to coexist and on creating tangible benefits for communities and ecosystems.
The idea of a just energy transition is becoming reality. Scaling renewables is not only about building more capacity, but also about how projects are designed, who participates in the process, and how benefits and impacts are shared. Finding common ground among stakeholders will be critical to scale renewable energy development. It's encouraging to see the conversation moving beyond "how do we build more renewables?" to "how do we build them in a way that creates societal value?"
Tackling the methane problem as a team
I took heart from the broad cross-section of folks tackling the problem of methane emissions. Scientists are clearly outlining and communicating the impacts of anthropogenic methane across the three main sectors: waste, fossil fuels, and agriculture. Data organizations are equipped to monitor and attribute emissions, working in coalition to fill data gaps. GEM is in conversation with and assisting the work of excellent partners regarding methane monitoring and mitigation. Regulators are setting up rapid alert and response systems. Journalists (and comedians!) are translating this work to the general public. Real change in this space is possible!
Forecasting for the energy transition
Climate finance seems to be moving away from relying primarily on historical emissions data and toward using more forward-looking data to assess how companies are transitioning away from fossil fuels. Financial institutions and other data users seem less interested in companies’ climate targets and more interested in their capital expenditures for renewable energy, as well as their current absolute emissions relative to their portfolios.
Revealing financial blind spots requires asset-level data
Asset-level data is required to properly assess transition risk for corporations and investments. Without asset data, it's not possible to determine whether companies will meet their climate commitments. People use GEM's ownership data for climate accountability and granular assessments. Today’s data lets those working in finance observe the energy system and see who owns it, but it’s still challenging to measure asset-level climate risk and the impact of that risk on the whole system.
This gap matters because finance can only reallocate capital away from risk it can measure, and asset-level blind spots add up to system-level risk that stays invisible until it hits. I walked away from Climate Week and the presentation our Global Energy Ownership Tracker team gave with a refreshed appreciation for the work our team is doing to fill those gaps and help financial actors make decisions about climate risks with the full picture.
Quality data enables efficient decisions
For the energy transition, we now have solutions that weren’t available before. Wind, solar, and battery storage have become much more affordable. As countries move toward electrification, the combination of renewables and storage becomes more important. Countries need long-term plans with net zero as the goal. That is what helps set a clear direction and guide strategies. GEM’s high-quality, asset-level data plays an important role by helping policymakers and analysts answer key questions and make informed decisions in days or weeks, instead of months or years.
The AI boom as an opportunity to modernize the grid
Can data centers be an opportunity rather than a threat to power and water systems?I attended sessions that explored this question by highlighting how inefficient existing water and power infrastructure already are. For example, the US loses an estimated 900 billion to 1 trillion gallons of water annually to household leaks alone, which is equivalent to the water use of roughly 11 million homes. Rather than being viewed purely as a new strain on the grid, data centers could drive the modernization of power systems that have not fundamentally changed in almost a century.
The three main concerns mentioned as obstacles to data center development include: rate increases for utilities, threat to water availability, and threat to power availability. I was surprised that noise and emissions were barely mentioned, despite the fact that the majority of the larger data centers run on gas turbines, with diesel generators for backup (and increasingly, diesel generators as primary supply given gas turbine shortages). Renewables dominated the conversation, but the real generation mix on the ground was not reflected. That disconnect was a clear signal that GEM's asset-level tracking of the actual power sources behind data centers could directly correct the public narrative. This feels like an area where our data is not yet reaching the rooms where these conversations are happening, and it should.
Putting insights into action
If any of these insights strike a chord with you, we’d love to hear from you! Reach out to our program directors and project managers if you have an idea for collaboration, a question about GEM data, or a use case you’d like to share with us.
