Michael Liebreich

Catch Michael on Do Radio: It’s Not About Trees with John Lunn, 26th October - 1st November 2026.

Michael Liebreich is an entrepreneur, investor and energy transition expert, best known as the founder of New Energy Finance, the research and information business that became BloombergNEF following its acquisition by Bloomberg in 2009.

Michael studied engineering at Cambridge and attended Harvard Business School. His career has included management consulting, technology investment and international media, including senior roles at Associated Press Television and in technology investments during the dot-com era. He is also a former Olympic freestyle skier, having represented Great Britain in moguls skiing.

In 2004, Michael founded New Energy Finance, combining his background in engineering, business and information services to help investors understand the rapidly developing clean energy sector. Following its sale to Bloomberg, he continued to lead the business until 2014, before moving into a broader range of investment, advisory and public policy roles.

Today, Michael is co-managing partner of EcoPragma Capital, leads Liebreich Associates, and co-hosts the Cleaning Up podcast with Baroness Bryony Worthington. He has also served on the board of Transport for London, where his work included a particular focus on transport safety and organisational accountability.

Across his work, Michael brings together engineering, economics, investment and systems thinking to explore how the world can move towards cleaner, more affordable and more resilient energy. He describes his outlook as pragmatic optimism, believing that technological progress and economic opportunity can help drive the transition, provided we focus on practical solutions and are prepared to challenge existing systems.

DO Radio Show Notes

In this episode, John Lunn speaks with Michael Liebreich, entrepreneur, investor, energy transition expert and founder of New Energy Finance, which later became BloombergNEF, about the transformation of the global energy system, the challenges of moving away from fossil fuels and why he remains optimistic about the future.

Michael has had an unusually varied career, from competing as an Olympic freestyle skier to working in consulting, technology, finance and energy. He reflects on how those experiences eventually led him to establish New Energy Finance in 2004, creating a business that helped investors and policymakers understand the emerging clean energy sector. Following its acquisition by Bloomberg in 2009, Michael has continued to work across investment, policy and public debate, focusing on how to accelerate the transition to cleaner energy.

The conversation explores Michael's belief that the direction of the energy transition is no longer in doubt, even if its speed remains uncertain. He explains why the economics of solar, batteries and electrification are changing the way energy is produced and consumed, and why the transition needs to be understood as a transformation of interconnected systems rather than simply replacing one technology with another. He also discusses the importance of energy security, particularly against a backdrop of geopolitical instability and repeated shocks to global oil markets.

John and Michael discuss the growing political resistance to net zero and the difficulty of communicating complex energy issues in a world increasingly dominated by simple messages. Michael argues for a pragmatic approach that recognises the continuing role of fossil fuels during the transition while moving quickly to adopt technologies that can reduce emissions at the lowest cost. He also explains why learning through deployment matters: the more we build and use effective technologies, the more opportunities we create to improve them and bring down their costs.

A recurring theme is pragmatic optimism. Michael believes that humanity has the ability to solve enormous challenges, but that progress requires investment, innovation, political leadership and practical action rather than simply hoping things will improve. His approach combines a detailed understanding of engineering and economics with a willingness to challenge conventional thinking about climate policy and the energy transition.

It's a wide-ranging conversation about energy, risk, technology and the realities of systemic change, with Michael offering a perspective on both the scale of the challenge and the opportunities already emerging.