SmarterMarkets™

We present a Special Episode recorded this past week at S&P Global’s CERAWeek 2026 in Houston, TX, where the theme was Convergence and Competition: Energy, Technology and Geopolitics.   David Greely sat down with Aldo Flores-Quiroga in the Podcast Studio in the Nexus Ballroom at CERAWeek. Aldo is Non Resident Fellow for Latin America Energy Studies at the Center for Energy Studies (CES) at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.   David and Aldo discuss the role of convergence and competition in the North American energy industry, as well as global geopolitics following the U.S. military actions in Venezuela and Iran.  

Stuart Connolly, CEO of CloudMargin, a collateral and margin infrastructure specialist. He explores tokenized collateral, the case for tokenizing money market funds, and how liquidity pools could change margin assets. He warns tokenization must prioritize deep liquidity to avoid heavy haircuts and enable usable collateral reuse.

We continue our Weathering Decarbonization series this week by welcoming Samantha Dart back into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. Samantha is Co-Head of Global Commodities Research at Goldman Sachs. David Greely sits down with Samantha to discuss how our changing energy system is weathering the conflict in Iran at the same time as its weathering decarbonization.

Helima Croft, Managing Director and Global Head of Commodity Strategy at RBC Capital Markets, brings sharp geopolitics and energy-market expertise. She walks through recent strikes, Iran’s drone and militia capabilities, Gulf interceptor shortages, and the ripple effects on LNG, oil supply and strategic reserves. She highlights key inflection points to watch as tensions shape prices and regional risk.

Peter Fusaro, founder of the Wall Street Green Summit and long-time climate finance advocate. He reflects on 25 years of the summit and its shift from carbon trading to broad sustainability. Conversations cover rising private investor interest, AI and carbon credit trends, compliance versus voluntary markets, tech firms’ energy choices, OceanTech and robotics, and where climate capital is flowing.

Hayn Park, a portfolio manager in energy commodities with deep European power and gas trading experience, joins to discuss the energy transition’s effect on power markets. He critiques policy incentives, explains how renewables and carbon rules reshape price dynamics, and describes why traders must think multi-commodity and rethink risk models in a more volatile market.

Mark Lewis, Partner and Managing Director at Climate Finance Partners and carbon markets specialist. He breaks down EU ETS mechanics and recent price shocks. He explores who holds allowances, why industry is feeling pressure, and policy levers like free allocation, offsets and CBAM. He also outlines how compliance markets 2.0 could shift price discovery across heavy industry and regions.

Robin Girmes, founder and CEO of Enwex, builds weather indices to help energy firms hedge climate-linked supply and price risk. He traces his shift from geography to meteorology and explains how renewables magnify system flexibility challenges. He describes index design choices for temperature, wind and solar, who uses these products, and why standardized weather contracts could become a tradable risk market.

Robert Friedland, mining entrepreneur focused on critical minerals and large projects. Jeff Currie, strategist on energy, commodities, and AI-driven infrastructure. They discuss big tech becoming asset-heavy with data centers. They debate copper and commodity price scenarios, supply-chain and mining bottlenecks, strategic hoarding, and potential capital rotation into miners.

Robert Friedland, mining entrepreneur and advocate for critical raw materials; Jeff Currie, commodity strategist at Carlyle focused on macro and energy transition. They discuss Davos' focus on security and raw materials. They debate a commodity supercycle, copper's strategic role, militarization-driven CapEx, supply vulnerabilities, and how electrification and AI reshape demand.