← Videos · Energy & Permitting

Wright at Reuters Climate Week: Energy Poverty, Climate, and AI Demand

September 25, 2025 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:33:16

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Reuters correspondent Timothy Gardner interviewed Energy Secretary Chris Wright during Climate Week, noting Wright also serves as deputy on the President’s National Energy Dominance Council. Wright said the week had brought a wide range of dialogues — which, he said, is what the Trump administration wants — and called an Energizing Africa event his best of the week for its candid exchange with African leaders.

Asked what he means by saying climate change is real and deserves attention, Wright called it a physical phenomenon that should continue to be monitored and studied: atmospheric CO2 has risen about 50 percent, he said, absorbs infrared radiation, contributes to warming, and has led to a slightly wetter, greener, warmer world that will likely continue. If it becomes a bigger deal, he said, pathways exist to change the energy system.

But Wright argued the world’s biggest energy challenge by far is access: roughly a billion people live with modern energy while 7 billion want it. Attempts to impose expensive, unreliable energy that shrinks human possibilities, he said, will never go global, and the numbers show the much-discussed energy transition is not happening. The exchange then turned to voices — including the Dallas Fed, RAND, and NextEra’s CEO — arguing the United States needs renewables, especially for the AI-driven rise in electricity demand.

Why it matters

The long-form interview is Wright’s most complete statement of the administration’s energy philosophy: climate as a monitored physical phenomenon, but energy expansion for the developing world and for AI as the overriding priority.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Wright Joins Reuters to Discuss Trump Administration Energy Policy - September 25, 2025”, 2025-09-25 (official upload, embedded above; published 2025-09-25). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.