Chris Goodall

Why organisations work with Chris Goodall

• His book Possible: Ways to Net Zero provides a sector-by-sector analysis of 16 specific technical challenges – from green hydrogen storage to decarbonising steel and cement – giving executive teams a structured, evidence-based account of what net zero delivery actually requires, not just what it aspires to.
• He sits on the Advisory Board of the Pictet Clean Energy Fund in Geneva, advising institutional capital on the technologies he researches and writes about – his perspective is shaped by what serious investors are actually backing, not by policy advocacy.
• Carbon Commentary – his long-running newsletter, part of the Guardian Environment Network – has tracked real-world clean energy deployment data independently for over a decade. Executives and investors treat it as a check on sector claims rather than a source of promotional commentary.
• Ten Technologies to Fix Energy and Climate was named an FT Books of the Year, establishing a track record of translating complex energy systems into analysis that serious non-specialist audiences can act on.
• He covers hard-to-abate sectors – aviation, agriculture, heavy industry – where most advisers produce high-level ambition; Goodall engages with specific technologies and deployment realities.

Biography highlights

• Author of seven books on energy and climate published over 17 years, with Possible: Ways to Net Zero (Profile Books, 2024) as the most recent
• Ten Technologies to Fix Energy and Climate named an FT Books of the Year
• What We Need to Do Now shortlisted for the 2020 Wainwright Prize for Writing on Global Conservation
• Member of the Advisory Board, Pictet Clean Energy Fund, Geneva
• Publisher of Carbon Commentary – long-running energy transition newsletter and website, part of the Guardian Environment Network
• Contributor to The Guardian, The Independent and The Ecologist
• Alumnus of the University of Cambridge and Harvard Business School (MBA)

Biography

Chris Goodall has spent nearly two decades tracking the energy transition – not as a trend to describe, but as a set of specific, solvable technical and economic problems. His most recent book, Possible: Ways to Net Zero (Profile Books, 2024), takes that argument to its logical conclusion: mapping 16 distinct challenges on the path to carbon neutrality, from the decarbonisation of steel and cement to green hydrogen storage and climate-resilient agriculture.

That analytical discipline is tested against real capital. Goodall sits on the Advisory Board of the Pictet Clean Energy Fund in Geneva, where institutional investors are deploying money into the technologies he researches. It is a position that keeps his work anchored in what is commercially viable now, rather than what might be viable in a decade. Most energy transition commentary collapses that distinction.

His Carbon Commentary platform – part of the Guardian Environment Network – has tracked clean energy deployment data independently for over a decade. It has earned a readership among executives and investors precisely because it does not represent a corporate or consultancy position. Ten Technologies to Fix Energy and Climate was an FT Books of the Year; What We Need to Do Now was shortlisted for the 2020 Wainwright Prize for Writing on Global Conservation.

Goodall read at the University of Cambridge and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. He brings to board-level audiences something the energy transition conversation rarely produces: an independent, data-grounded account of what is technically and financially achievable – and what is not.

Key speaking topics

• Net zero pathways and energy system transformation
• Decarbonisation technologies: hydrogen, storage, renewables deployment
• Hard-to-abate sectors: steel, cement, aviation, agriculture
• Clean energy investment and technology readiness
• Climate policy, regulation and corporate strategy
• Electric vehicles and charging infrastructure
• Grid infrastructure and the limits of the energy transition

Ideal for

• Boards and executive teams building credible net zero strategies
• Energy, infrastructure and sustainability investors
• Chief Sustainability Officers and ESG leaders in energy-intensive industries
• Chief Strategy Officers and transformation leads navigating the capital implications of decarbonisation

Audience outcomes

• A clearer picture of which decarbonisation technologies are deployment-ready and which remain speculative
• A realistic, sector-specific understanding of what net zero delivery actually requires operationally
• Greater confidence in evaluating clean energy investment claims against independent evidence
• Insight into the policy and regulatory risks shaping energy transition timelines
• A framework for moving from corporate climate ambition to credible, technology-grounded action