An optimistic view on the energy of the future
An optimistic view on the energy of the future
UK
Energy expert, consultant and author speaking about energies of the future, sustainability and climate change
Request fees and availabilitySend a simple request. You’ll get a quick reply with fees and availability
About Chris
Keynote
Video
Articles
Optimist about the energy future
As an author of several successful books and writer for Guardian Environment Network and
other energy websites, Chris Goodall knows how to communicate ideas clearly and tersely.
His most recent book ‘What We Need To Do Now’ was shortlisted for the UK’s major prize
in the environmental field.
Chris’s weekly newsletter Carbon Commentary covers topics across energy technology and
finance across the world. He is also an active investor in young UK startups focused on
energy efficiency and low carbon electricity generation. As chair of the company, he led the
UK’s fastest growing car charging business to a successful sale in summer 2019 to the French
multinational Engie.
Chris Goodall has built up a strong expertise within the field of energy technologies and
gives regular talks about global approaches to low carbon energy generation, low carbon
heat, electric cars and battery storage as well as carbon capture and geoengineering. He has
spoken at most of the large festivals across the UK, including Hay, Cheltenham, Oxford and
Bristol Science. He has given presentations at the Science Museum, the House of Commons
and the British Library. Chris Goodall works with big NGOs and companies and gives his
best advice on how they can become more energy efficient. He has advised Marks &
Spencers on community energy and even helped Greenpeace with the possibility of a 100%
switch to LED in the UK.
Chris Goodall is often asked to give opinionated statements of why the conventional view is
mistaken; he always explains his views professionally with data and arithmetic analysis. He
brings in stories of individual entrepreneurs and their companies.
Chris Goodall is a strong believer in research and supports that the world can now become a
world of low fossil fuel use but reasonable prosperity for all. He is an optimist about the
energy future.
Chris Goodall has worked for many of the world’s largest media companies in locations
around the world. After leaving Harvard Business School, he was also a full member of the
UK Competition Commission, now part of the Competition and Markets Authority.
Keynotes by Speaker Chris Goodall
Watch the TEDx Talk by speaker Chris Goodall
How can the world now become a world of low fossil fuel?
It’s easier than it has ever been. We now have a range of technologies that can be deployed everywhere around the world – including in less prosperous countries – to provide energy for all. The principal ingredient is solar photovoltaics, a way of generating electricity that is getting cheaper all the time.
This isn’t enough, not least because the sun only shines for part of the day. But it forms a basis. It can be supplemented by a range of technologies, including wind in higher latitudes, many of which are moving rapidly to being cost-competitive with fossil fuels. These include transport oils from biomass such as algae, hydrocarbons developed from artificial photosynthesis and enhanced anaerobic digestion.
In addition, we’re seeing fast advances in tidal energy, geothermal and concentrating solar power, an approach which can store energy for use in the darker hours.
Can you give tips how an individual can contribute to reduce the carbon emission?
This is uncomfortable. For reasonably affluent people in industrial countries the two things that would make most difference are giving up flying and eating less meat. My first book (How to Live a Low-carbon Life) was about just this. But I found that most people didn’t want to change their lifestyle to avoid air travel and meat. This is why I started to work on the technologies that might allow people to continue with conventional lives but have less impact on the planet.
What kinds of clients have you worked with in the past?
I’ve worked with companies in most low-carbon fields. These include a small wind turbine company, an electric car charging business, a producer of biological plastics (very interesting field, by the way), investors looking at recycling tyres and new ways of making solar panels and a very large retailer wanting to support community energy.
How do audiences gain from your keynote presentations?
I hope they leave with a sense that the world actually can change in time. This is the most exciting moment to be involved in energy. The world’s energy system has huge inertia – we’ve spend a hundred years building up the current infrastructure at a huge cost – but the prospects for low carbon energy sources are now clear even to climate skeptics.
What do you personally gain from being a public speaker?
I love communicating ideas that offer the world a better future.
Send a simple request. You’ll get a quick reply with fees and availability
