Lee Beck, Clean Air Task Force

On the heels of a very eventful COP28 in Dubai in 2023, we sat down with Lee Beck, Senior Director for Europe and the Middle East at the Clean Air Task Force, to discuss the global conversation on energy and how that impacts the dialogues and pledges coming from COP28. While a lot of Lee’s background has been focused on Carbon Capture, Lee’s current position allowed her to participate in many different discussions and venues at COP28 and she shares her insights with us with regards to nuclear energy, methane, and more.

Our conversation with Lee began with exploring what international conversations (outside of energy issues associated with Russian aggression) had the most impact and what other areas were perhaps overlooked heading into COP. With the global pledge announced by more than 20 nations to triple nuclear energy production by 2050, Lee shared her perspective on how nuclear energy achieved prominence at this COP that it does not usually ascend to and how ATF prepared for and supported this opportunity. We then discussed how to translate that and other pledges into action, understanding the commitments made at COP28 around methane emissions reduction, and how, or if, all of this is achievable. Lee shared more about her background before closing us out with an overview of the financing challenges to achieve these goals and what we should be thinking about as a follow-up to COP28 in general and in looking ahead to COP29.

We appreciate Lee's perspective and hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did!