iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 02/10/2026

Our own modeling attempts of the global power sector transformation: yes, renewables are 'only' at ~35% today. By 2050? ≥75%.¹ ¹ gwagner.com/pathways

My panel discussion in Istanbul earlier today

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 02/10/2026

More steps, more H₂O. I can't tell, though, whether that's infrastructure failure, or an admirable climate adaptation model to be mimicked.

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 02/10/2026

This is pretty cool, too ☔

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 02/10/2026

Always fascinating to see how climate conversations are framed, and by whom. Everything here is framed as climate v economy, climate v security… The first person mentioning the costs of unmitigated climate change, and how electrification is a massive opportunity? Ali Koç gwagner.com/oksijen-2026

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 02/10/2026

Wherever they are missing 😕

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 02/10/2026

Hey, @worldbollardassoc.bsky.social, what's your stance on these mighty mini bollards all over Beyoğlu?

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 27/09/2026

Almost as if "writing = thinking" extends to "painting Powerpoints = thinking" 🤔 gwagner.com/ai

The thing about a 20 slide deck previously taking hours to construct vs having AI now do it in minutes is that the hours it took to create it in the old world meant that everything was thoughtful, crafted, and scrutinized. In the hands of someone good, it made for breakthrough work.

AI is making everyone "think" they are good, but it's getting really tired really fast. I'd say that >50% of the slides I see now are claudeslop.

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 26/09/2026

File under 'what could possibly wrong?'

‘Zombified’ C.D.C., Hobbled by Cuts, Struggles to Fulfill Scientific Mission

The agency, long seen as the global leader in public health, has lost its independence and much of its staff as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has tightened control.

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 25/09/2026

"Ethics of science cannot be separated from who funds it" Goes for AI, goes for climate, of course, too. Spot on @financialtimes.com letter:

FT letter: "Ethics of science cannot be separated from who funds it"

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 25/09/2026

Not particularly funny, or serious. www.washingtonpost.com/education/20...

Using AI, a professor wrote 200-plus papers

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 25/09/2026

Yes, there's a better way for 'middle powers' to organize themselves in a low-CO₂ world order: "Canada and EU are missing the big prize — green steel" @steelwatch.bsky.social's Pascal Husting in today's @financialtimes.com

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 25/09/2026

Every successful climate week panel should conclude with a ride home on the Hudson Greenway on a solar-powered e-bike.

Riding down the Hudson Greenway with Saul

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 24/09/2026

Tonight @ @columbiauniversity.bsky.social, a couple seats still remaining. Dinner included with (free) registration. " I survived climate week" t-shirts optional business.columbia.edu/climate-week

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 23/09/2026

Another day, another reminder that getting off fossil fuels is an economic necessity, not just an environmental and health one www.wsj.com/business/ene...

Latest in Energy & Oil

The Global Fuel Crisis Is Driving Up the Costs of Home Heating Oil, Too

Homes in the Northeast and Alaska are especially dependent on heating oil in winter.

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 22/09/2026

Meanwhile, the tools being proposed are...not quite what any serious economist would recommend. www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Latest in Energy & Oil

Trump Weighs Diesel Export Ban as Fuel Prices Soar

The president said a decision would come “fast” on a potential restriction that several Republicans are championing.

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 22/09/2026

The LinkedIn comments on this one are...something else. www.linkedin.com/posts/gwagne...

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 22/09/2026

Sweet baby Jesus! Amazing research, though. Also fun: this is today's @nature.com newsletter linking to People¹ linking to @pnas.org. ¹ people.com/limiting-sug...

Sugar-rationed babies saw host of benefits
A study of people who lived their early life during post-war sugar rationing in the United Kingdom found that they had lower risks of all-cause dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, depression and anxiety than people born after rationing ended. A separate study found they were much less likely to develop certain cancers later in life. Even in adulthood, low-sugar babies continued to consume less sugar and had healthier diets overall. “This suggests that the level of sweetness people are exposed to very early in life may shape their taste preferences for a long time,” says economist Weilong Zhang, who co-authored the latter study.

People | 4 min read & The Conversation | 6 min read
Reference: npj Aging paper & PNAS paper

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 22/09/2026

Happy Climate Week Tuesday Lots going on: business.columbia.edu/climate-week

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 21/09/2026

The @financialtimes.com rings in New York Climate Week with this front-page story: "US drivers face motor oil rationing as prices quadruple and supplies run dry" Yes, the only answer is to get off fossil fuels, all of them. Hormuz just made that even clearer: gwagner.com/nature-fossilflation

FT: US drivers face motor oil rationing as prices quadruple and supplies run dry

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 21/09/2026

Running into her 49th year. Happy 48th, honey!

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 19/09/2026

I'd have missed Wendell Berry's passing without perusing an old @economist.com still with me: "Critics accused him of romanticising the past and recommending the impossible. He strongly denied that. The past had also been full of bad choices, most of which had contributed to the present horrors…"

Obituary | Into the woods
Wendell Berry urged Americans to think little, local and deep
The agrarian writer, poet and activist died on August 31st, aged 92

Critics accused him of romanticising the past and recommending the impossible. He strongly denied that. The past had also been full of bad choices, most of which had contributed to the present horrors. Of course, too, not everyone could be self-sufficient. But even city-dwellers had porches or entryways in which they could grow food. They could go to farmers’ markets and buy local. Above all, they could change their ways of living. He himself wrote only by daylight and rejected computers, to reduce his dependence on strip-mined coal. Such individual protests, though tiny, might ultimately work better than the mass protests he had staged since the 1960s against Kentucky’s addiction to fossil fuel. Public campaigns too often turned into fads that faded before the root problem was tackled. Saving the planet had to be reduced to the scale of each person’s competence.

His scale was the farm, and that minute scrap of earth represented, for him, the whole. Amid his joys and satisfactions he also blazed with anger, and fretted over the sort of world he would be able to leave to his children. But living as he did, on his own patch, he knew exactly how to cope. He went to the woods.

I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 17/09/2026

"Reimagining research papers as interactive and *reliable* AI agents" aka making GitHub code & the actual insights from the paper itself come to life: www.nature.com/articles/s41... @nature.com Neat.

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 15/09/2026

Two related conversations, one big question: how do we build a cleaner, more secure energy future? Join us for either, or both! Archival pics: German energy minister Habeck 2 years ago, in the same room as our Tue panel; panel discussion during Climate Week 2005 (gwagner.com/industrial-2025)

Simon Brandler, VP Policy & Public Affairs, Brimstone
Cornelius Pieper, Managing Director & Senior Partner at BCG
Maria Persson Gulda, founding CTO of Stegra
Nick Ellis, Principal, Amazon Climate Pledge Fund

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 15/09/2026

If you can't make it Tuesday, and of course also if you can: Thu, Sept 24, 6pm: How can middle powers build a “Pax Electricana,” reducing exposure to volatile fossil fuels while leveraging clean energy and critical materials? RSVP: columbiasocialenterprise.org/civicrm/even...

Conversation with Saul Griffith, Shanta Barley, and Amy Myers Jaffe

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 15/09/2026

Happy NY Climate Week to all who celebrate! 2 conversations @columbiabusiness.bsky.social on the future of energy: Tue, Sept 22, 6pm: How do we get to 35% electrification by 2035, from vehicles and buildings to industry and the grid? RSVP: columbiasocialenterprise.org/civicrm/even...

Climate week conversation with Devrim Celal, Rob Metcalfe & Kelly Yazdani

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 13/09/2026

PS: Our dog peeing at his usual corner.

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 13/09/2026

Rye × Trzesniewski (a reference only Austrians would get ;)

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 12/09/2026

Real¹ bread, two blocks from home. New York finally has it all. ¹ Real = rye

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 12/09/2026

Yes, there's a LinkedIn version Yes, it goes…deep lnkd.in/gY_im7bm PS: gwagner.com/coalcrossover

If this is the "commute" home from work early Friday evening, is it really a commute?

If "work" means getting to write a paper with Columbia Business School Climate Knowledge Initiative fellows Lilly Loghmani and Haoran Fu, creating a dataset of 6,580 operating coal-fired units at 2,384 plants in 73 countries, and demonstrating that for >95% of all still operating coal plants around the world, it would be cheaper to shut them down and replace them with local renewables (+ storage)¹, is it really work?

¹ gwagner.com/CoalCrossover, now out as a Nature Portfolio working paper, with coalcrossover.org bringing the GitHub code to life

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 12/09/2026

Commuting home late on a Friday afternoon with pumper-to-bumper car traffic half the length of Manhattan is…absolutely glorious.

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 11/09/2026

Meanwhile, on the Bab al-Mandeb side of the peninsula www.ft.com/content/cd65... Yeah, high oil prices are here to stay for a while.

Houthis capture Red Sea port in blow to Saudis
Rebels overrun historic Yemeni port of Mocha as they advance south towards strategic Bab al-Mandeb Strait

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 08/09/2026

Every $1 invested in cleaner air and lower CO₂ returns $15 in societal benefits. And even if you don't care about externalities because…🤷, those same investments boost GDP by 2.8% in 10 years. ft.pressreader.com/article/2815...

UN says air and climate push will lift growth
Report says tackling both issues together would raise global GDP 2.8% by 2035

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 06/09/2026

Unlike so many others, the @financialtimes.com nails the "OMG, 1.5℃ is gone" message: "Temperature overshoot requires urgent action" Yep. And every 0.01℃ matters. Reminds me of my NYT oped with @costasamaras.com: "The widely recited '12-year deadline' is wrong — and right." gwagner.com/12years

UN report: temperature overshoot requires urgent action to keep warming in line with Paris accord

With children, days might last forever, but years fly by. Something similar applies to climate policy. The current days of delay and debates can seem to drag on forever, but the next presidential election is right around the corner, and so is 2030. Concrete, realistic deadlines focus the mind and jump-start action. And jump-start we must.

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 06/09/2026

Fun(?) fact: @naomioreskes.bsky.social & @erikconway.bsky.social's merchantsofdoubt.org, the book that is, came out in 2010. We've all known for a loooong time what's happening, and it's only gotten worse.

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 03/09/2026

Sunrise without clouds, phone background since last year's European Forum Alpbach 🌄

Sunrise at 6:00 a.m. on top of the Gratlspitze without clouds, phone background since last year's European Forum Alpbach

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 03/09/2026

4:00 a.m. Sunrise Hike up the Gratlspitze today. Timelapse courtesy of the 15-year-old 😎

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 01/09/2026

I won't get duped by this advertising gimmick driving around the Alpbach Forum. I won't get duped by this advertising gimmick driving around the Alpbach Forum. I won't get duped... Wow, this is cool. Imagine buses like this driving around town every 5-10min.

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 01/09/2026

Auf zum #efa2026 Morning Briefing mit @philippramer.at¹ Die Frage: "Kann Europa gleichzeitig wachsen und das Klima schützen?"² Eine Trickfrage. Ohne Wachstum geht Klimaschutz nicht, und umgekehrt. ¹ gwagner.com/efa-2026 ² www.derstandard.at/story/300000... @derstandard.at

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 31/08/2026

No delay so far 🥊 This might indeed have been my fastest editorial review, ever gwagner.com/delay

Same-day editorial decision (to send paper to review)

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 28/08/2026

@bloomberg.com details "Iran war’s energy winners and losers" Winners? China, "leveraging its dominance in green technology manufacturing at a time when soaring oil and gas prices are boosting interest in solar panels, batteries and electric vehicles." www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 27/08/2026

When the algorithm thinks you should be enrolling in your own class 😎

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 27/08/2026

Current Thai power mix: gas, gas, and more gas. The new goal, in wake of Iran War: 60% renewables in 25 years, up from 15(!)% and double(!) the previous goal.¹ Yes, the appropriate response to geopolitical and tech forces.² ¹ www.bloomberg.com/news/article... ² gwagner.com/nature-fossilflation

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 27/08/2026

I'm old enough to remember when one @ipcc.bsky.social statement about Himalayan glaciers "disappearing" by 2035 was some major scandal. Meanwhile, this today, via @apnews.com. Yes, that's climate change; i.e. us dumping CO₂ into the atmospheric sewer. Hundreds dead.

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 27/08/2026

Austria is currently trying to figure out rules around CO₂ removal, and it's amazing to see the same ol' debate play itself out over and over… Yes, it's part of the answer.¹ No, it isn't an excuse not to cut CO₂ in the first place.² ¹ business.columbia.edu/insights/cli... ² gwagner.com/greenMH

CO₂-Speicherung: „Scheinlösung“ vs. „Zukunftstechnologie“

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 26/08/2026

Today's @nature.com briefing leads with Dolly Parton, and appropriately so nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02676-1

The scientific legacy of Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton has died at the age of 80, leaving a legacy of music, philanthropy and science. She helped to fund Moderna’s early-stage vaccine research and filmed herself being vaccinated to help dispel hesitancy. And her Imagination Library programme sends more than three million books per month to children around the world. “Today is a sad day as we mourn an exceptional artist, a true champion of kindness, and ambassador of science and public health,” says Tedros Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization.

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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 25/08/2026

Doing my part to push 9 to 5 above the billion mark today. It's been on repeat for the past ~2 hours, and it's positively mesmerizing. R.I.P.

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