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The $4.5 Trillion Myth: What the transition really costs
One figure has come to dominate discussions about financing the energy transition: $4.5 trillion per year. But what exactly does that figure represent, and does it accurately reflect the scale of the challenge facing capital markets?
In Episode 2 of Capital in Transition, Mark Campanale and Harry Benham examine how headline transition investment estimates often combine fundamentally different categories of spending, from consumer EV purchases and grid infrastructure to early-stage technologies and long-duration industrial decarbonisation.
The episode explores what sits behind the headline number and whether it provides an accurate picture of the investment needed to build the next energy system.
Other Episodes:
06 October 2026
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Why do oil fields still get built? Harry Benham is joined by Guy Prince, head of Carbon Tracker's oil and gas team, to follow the long road from...
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In episode six of Capital in Transition, Harry Benham and Mark Campanale look back across the series and trace the thread running through every...
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