Issue 07: On Energy, the World Will “Look More Like Pakistan”

Welcome to the seventh Cleaning Up newsletter of 2026.

Energy analysts are starting to focus their attention on what the world – and their own sector – might look like when the Iran War finally comes to an end. It is a troubling question, with Easter bringing attacks on a Kuwait oil refinery and a desalination plant and threats by President Donald Trump to “demolish” Iran’s infrastructure.

The indications from consumer behaviour are that deployment of electric vehicles, solar panels and batteries will accelerate, and from governments that home-grown energy, be that renewable or fossil fuel, will be prioritised.

Cleaning Up’s weekly interviews, conducted by Michael Liebreich and Bryony Worthington, are increasingly focussing on the long-term implications for energy, as well as the immediate effects of the war. The latest episode, on 1 April (see below), featured a prediction that many more countries in the developing world would follow the example of Pakistan and see mass adoption of small-scale solar to cut dependence on fossil fuels and escape a struggling grid.

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News on Cleaning Up

• Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners has joined Cleaning Up’s Leadership Circle, taking the membership to 18 prominent companies in the energy transition. CIP is one of the biggest investors in clean energy projects outside China, including in offshore wind in Europe, North America and East Asia, and has raised funds totalling EUR 37 billion. CIP said:

  “We are delighted to join Michael Liebreich’s Cleaning Up Leadership Circle and to stand alongside peers who are equally dedicated to accelerating the energy transition. We look forward to contributing actively to this community of like‑minded partners who share our belief that the rapid deployment of renewable energy is the most effective way to meet the world’s growing energy demand.”

• Michael held a ‘fireside chat’ on 25 April with CIP Managing Partner Jakob Baruël Poulsen, at the Infrastructure Investor Global Summit in Berlin. See photo below.

  

  Michael Liebreich in conversation with Jakob Baruël Poulsen at the Infrastructure Investor Global Summit.

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Show Snippets: Ricken Patel and Emmanouil Kakaras

Episode 251: Ricken Patel

• The 1 April episode saw Bryony in conversation with Ricken Patel, the Canada-based founder and ex-CEO of Avaaz, the global online activist network. Patel was reassuring on the advance of solar power:

  “I think the sun is coming…..The signal was sent to the markets. Enough public investment was put in place that we got solar cost curves down enough, that the market will take care of it from here. If Trump wants to stand in the face of capitalism, he can do that, which he is. We’ll see how long that lasts. Maybe for a while. But I think the world will end up looking more like Pakistan, in terms of the amount of solar uptake there has been.”

• However, Patel was more bearish on climate risks: “We are not on track to avoid the risk of catastrophic climate damage.” Patel mentioned changes to the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, the movement of the Thwaites glacier in Antarctica, which could if melted raise world sea levels by up to three feet, and the loss of 5% of global cloud cover in the last 30 years, reducing the Earth’s reflectivity, as three issues of particular concern.

• The chart below by Jan Rosenow, professor of energy and climate policy at Oxford University, shows the change in solar PV’s share of electricity generation in Pakistan.

  

  Chart titled: Pakistan’s Solar Revolution: from 0% to 25% in a decade. Image: Jan Rosenow

Episode 250: Emmanouil Kakaras

• The 25 March interview was with Emmanouil Kakaras, senior advisor to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries EMEA, a member of Cleaning Up’s Leadership Circle. Kakaras told Michael that steel is one of the biggest CO2 emitters and he expects several technologies to be used to alleviate this, including scrubbers for carbon capture, the use of electric arc furnaces and hydrogen reduction of iron oxide. He said:

  “We see demand on green steel picking up because of different branding and quotas and public procurement issues. And also as a characteristic of [made in Europe] production.”

• Asked by Michael whether parts of the hydrogen economy could succeed even as many others do not, Kakaras said:

  “The ones that combine hydrogen as a storage, that means the precondition for everything is that you have abundant renewable electricity and you can have some competitive hydrogen. The ones that combine, for instance, biogenic CO2 with hydrogen. And I think in that context, synthetic fuels in whatever form, methanol to start with, which is the simplest molecule. But also the whole discussion about synthetic fuels, especially when you use biogenic CO2, they will have their place in the mixture.”

  Biogenic CO2 is carbon dioxide produced from burning, fermenting, digesting or decaying biomass.

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Upcoming

• A reminder that on the morning of Monday 20 April, Cleaning Up will be doing a live recording and hosting a networking reception during San Francisco Climate Week. Interested to see what our events are like? Apply to attend here.

• Cleaning Up is headed to Singapore in late May during Ecosperity Week, an Asia-focussed event that will “explore practical and commercially viable opportunities across AI, next generation sustainable data centres, the electrification value chain as well as adaptation and resilience”. Michael will be speaking there. Watch this space for further details on Cleaning Up’s plans in Singapore.

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News from Our Network

Our Leadership Circle

• Octopus Energy stated on 26 March that its internal data showed that UK sales of solar panels and heat pumps had risen 54% and 51% respectively in the first three weeks of the Iran War, with sales of electric vehicle chargers up 20%. The company said: “Soaring gas prices and petrol hitting 12‑month highs have sent homeowners scrambling for more predictable energy – and they’re not just browsing, they’re buying.”

• On 25 March, KKR announced that it had sold CoolIT Systems, a specialist in liquid data centre cooling, to Ecolab in a $4.75 billion transaction that generated “approximately 15 times the original equity invested”. KKR said that liquid cooling uses 30-40% less energy for cooling [than the air-cooled alternative] while also reducing water consumption as a closed-loop system.

• Cygnum Capital said on 26 March that a fund it manages had provided a $13 million loan to Sterling Bank, a Nigerian commercial bank, to help it boost lending to renewable energy projects in Africa’s most populous country. These will include solar home systems, mini-grids, commercial and industrial and on-grid installations, it added.

• Arup has won a contract to deliver early-phase foundation engineering and design for the UK’s first small modular reactor, at Wylfa in Anglesey, Wales, the company said on 12 March. The Great British Energy – Nuclear project is intended to produce up to 1.5GW of power.

• Eurelectric put out a release on 18 March, arguing that Europe’s path to electric mobility “starts with corporate fleets”. The organisation’s recommendations included the adoption of binding EU purchase targets for fleet electrification, the activation of national incentives for zero-emission vehicle uptake, and the empowering of grid operators to “proactively prepare networks for fleet electrification”.

Our Alumni Network

• Greg Jackson, chief executive of Octopus Energy, guest on Cleaning Up episode 175 in September 2024, said in an interview with the Times on 27 March that the UK should extract all of the North Sea’s available oil and gas. But he added that this would make no difference to the price of gas or the security of supply, and that the future lay with electrification and renewables.

• Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency and guest on episodes 28 and 133 of Cleaning Up, issued a statement on 23 March about his meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Canberra. It said:

  “The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz amid the conflict has slowed a significant portion of the world’s oil and gas flows to a trickle. While the consequences are global, the pain is currently being felt most acutely across the Asia-Pacific region, which is the destination for the vast majority of fuel exports from the Middle East.”

• Teresa Ribera, European commissioner vice-president for a clean, just and competitive transition, visited Washington on 26 March and was reported as saying that economic shocks from the Iran war would accelerate a European transition to clean energy that was already underway. Ribera guested on Cleaning Up episode 37 in March 2021.

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See You in a Fortnight!

The next edition of the Cleaning Up newsletter will be on Monday 20 April. By then, the energy crisis sparked by the Iran War may have eased thanks to a last-minute agreement ahead of Trump’s deadline – or it may have intensified further, with looming shortages of fuel in many countries.

We would love your feedback and ideas for the Cleaning Up newsletter or for the show. Please send them to team@cleaningup.live.