climate now

This week we're joined by Dina Capiello and Julio Friedmann to talk about the latest climate news. The IEA released its global warming emissions report for 2023, and emissions continue to rise, but at a slower rate than in previous years. Meanwhile, to better track those emissions, EDF launched its long-anticipated MethaneSAT on March 4th, a satellite that will measure methane pollution worldwide.  And on March 6th the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissions (SEC) released its final rules to require companies to disclose their climate risk.

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Julio Friedmann, Dina Cappiello, Darren Hau and Eric Wesoff  join James Lawler to discuss this week's climate news. Why is the Auxin solar tariff case still a thing? How did we manage to reduce global emissions while increasing GDP last year? China works to establish a vehicle-to-grid (VTG) case study.  Meanwhile, more of Biden's 2020 voters now list climate change as their top priority.  What does this mean for the 2024 election?  Nathaniel Stinnett also joins Climate Now again to explain some key climate election news.

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According to a 2022 poll from the Associated Press, although 93% of Americans acknowledge that human activity impacts climate, nearly half of Americans (47%) feel that their actions don’t have an impact on climate change. And yet, we know – it is the collective momentum of tiny particles of snow that drive an avalanche.

In our upcoming episode, Climate Now sits down with James Regulinski, co-founder of Carbon Collective, to discuss the role of investing - even among individual, “retail” investors - in determining the pace at which clean energy technologies can replace our global dependence on fossil fuels. We will discuss why investing in your retirement and investing in clean energy technologies can be well-aligned endeavors, why most environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment portfolios aren’t having the impact they should, and why even small investments can make a big difference in accelerating the path to decarbonization.

Carbon Collective Disclaimer regarding the use of MSCI data to develop ESG funds:

The claims Carbon Collectively repeatedly makes are: 

• MSCI explicitly states that their data should not be used to determine how good or ethical a company is, just as supplemental data to understand its exposure to risk from ESG-related issues. This means the use of the data as a measure of how ethical your portfolio is, is not supported by the data provider, even when it is sold as such. 
• MSCI (and other data providers) use data that is self-reported by the companies. This data is not standardized or verified by MSCI or anyone. The result is data that is noisy/inconsistent. When used to build funds, the fund design is inconsistent with scientific reports of the actions we need to take to address the E of ESG. For example, the IPCC report states that if we want to stay below 2 deg warming (which is already disastrously high), we can not invest any new money in fossil fuel exploration or reserve development. However, funds using MSCI data routinely have oil and gas companies. This is not MSCI's "fault," but it is an artifact of using that data. 
• When you use single-factor scores to judge a company, unrelated factors can "balance" each other out. So a high S score can balance a low E score. This can also lead to the inclusion of companies that are inconsistent with models of how we solve climate change. 

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This summer, it's been hard to ignore the fact that climate change is no longer something we can think of as a future threat. It is here and it is impacting lives and livelihoods on unprecedented scales. But, it's also something that many people are still trying to fully understand. Today's guest is James Lawler, the founder of Climate Now, a Webby Award-nominated multimedia resource that distills the science and economics of climate change. He's here to answer questions sent in from listeners about what climate change is, what we can expect, and what we can do- in understandable and relatable terms. And he offers exciting resources we can all take advantage of.

Highlights

• Isn't more CO2 good for plants?
• Is it better to use less or recycle more?
• What are these terms being thrown around lately- CO2 removal, negative emissions tech, net zero, offsets?

What YOU Can Do

• Take advantage of the subsidies now available through the Inflation Reduction Act to buy more energy-efficient appliances and eco-friendlier heating for your home.
• Find the renewable energy providers in your area and see what other financing may be available.
• Join a group like those mentioned below. There is power in collectives!
• After you reduce your emissions as much as possible, offset the rest.

Resources

• Citizens Climate Lobby 
• Climate Cabinet Action
• Sealed
• *For the rest of the show notes, head on over to this episode's webpage!

Use EXGREEN20 discount code and receive a 20% discount to a full week or single day for the Congress of Conference registration!

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Hit me up on Instagram and Facebook and let me know what actions you have been taking. Adopting just one habit can be a game-changer because imagine if a billion people also adopted that!

What difference for the world are you going to make today?

Climate policy at the federal level is integral to mitigating the climate crisis. Unfortunately, the United States has had a hard time so far passing ambitious climate legislation. Why is that?

From the outside, the situation often seems hopeless. But what does it look like from inside Washington? To find out, Climate Now spoke with Alex McDonough.

Alex started his career as a policy advisor for Senator Harry Reid, co-founded Clean Energy for America, and is now a policy advisor and partner at Pioneer Public Affairs, a clean energy lobbying firm.

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Heavy-duty, long-haul trucks - known as Class 8 trucks - account for more than 1 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide each year.

Electrification, while a practical option for most of the trucking industry (see last week's episode), is not yet as feasible for long-haul Class 8 trucks. |

What options might exist to decarbonize heavy-duty trucking in the short and medium term, if not with electrification?

Climate Now spoke with two entrepreneurs whose companies are developing alternative technologies to reduce heavy-duty transport emissions: Bav Roy, co-founder and COO of Verne, a start-up optimizing hydrogen storage for fuel cell trucks; and Paul Gross, the co-CEO and co-founder of Remora, a startup that captures carbon from the exhaust pipe of trucks.

Listen now as we explore the challenges and growth opportunities for these two technologies, infrastructure considerations, and more.

Chapters:
00:15 Heavy-duty emissions
1:44 Verne Hydrogen introduction
6:03 Remora Carbon Capture introduction
7:14 Why it's hard to decarbonize trucking
9:35 Why use fuel cells?
12:23 Verne technology
14:50 Remora technology
22:08 Verne market timeline
27:05 Remora market timeline
29:35 Wrap-up discussion with hosts Darren and James

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Climate Now is kicking off our Decarbonizing Transportation series by addressing a question that looms over the electric vehicle market: how can we sustainably manufacture and recycle EV batteries?

To learn about electric vehicle battery trends and challenges, we are joined by Andy Stevenson, former Special Projects Associate at Tesla and former Chief Financial Officer of Redwood Materials, a battery recycling company.

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A growing population, groundwater depletion, poor water infrastructure, overuse, and water waste threaten our global freshwater supply.

Throw climate change into the mix, and the water crisis is exacerbated, as precipitation becomes less reliable and average global temperatures rise.

The water crisis, like the climate crisis, is projected to get worse, but there are solutions both corporations and governments can adopt to mitigate the negative impacts and prepare.

Climate Now spoke with Will Sarni, Founder and CEO of Water Foundry and a global thought leader on water challenges, to learn about the strategies and technologies available to assuage the water crisis.

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What does it take to turn an idea that could help fight climate change into a self-sustaining business? We often hear the glamorous stories of startups that have made it, but little about the struggles, the learning, and the luck required to get there.

Pol Knops, Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Green Minerals, joined Climate Now to share his ongoing journey to design, develop and market a process that transforms carbon dioxide emissions into a useful product.

Green Minerals speeds up the natural process of mineralization, in which CO2 chemically reacts with iron, magnesium or calcium-rich minerals to form a new mineral, permanently trapping the CO2. 

The Green Minerals mineralization process uses olivine to react with captured CO2 to create feedstocks for the concrete and paper industries. 

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On the 24th of February, 2009, David Crisp was in the control center at Vandenberg Air Force base counting down the seconds for the Orbiting Carbon Observatory to launch.

It was a project he had led for a decade - and it was the first NASA mission that would measure atmospheric carbon dioxide from space.

Hundreds of millions of dollars and years of work had gone into that moment, but David and his team had yet to face their greatest challenge...

This week, Climate Now is releasing a two-part series on NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) missions, including the saga of its multi-decadal journey to completion and the impact it could have on the fight to end climate change.

David Crisp, Senior Research Scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, shares his experience as the Principal Investigator for the OCO missions with Climate Now in this episode.

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As the climate crisis worsens, more and more companies are committing to go "net-zero". Most of these commitments include the purchase of carbon offsets or investment in negative emissions projects, designed to offset the emissions resulting from companies' operations.

The carbon offset market is in high demand due to this surge of net-zero pledges, but does the market actually work? How can companies be sure their dollars are removing carbon that otherwise wouldn't be removed from the atmosphere? And what are the risks of a market that doesn't uphold its promise of truly offsetting emissions?

Dr. Mark Trexler of the Climatographers and Derik Broekhoff of the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) joined Climate Now to discuss the carbon offset market, what's wrong with it, and what its future could be.

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Bioenergy is a renewable energy for its carbon neutrality - plants absorb CO2 during photosynthesis and emit the same amount when combusted for energy. But to significantly reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, substantial amounts of biomass, or organic matter, are required.

What types of biomass can sustainably and economically be used for energy? What policy or market adjustments can be made to allow bioenergy to compete with more affordable oil or gasoline?

Climate Now hosts James Lawler and Katherine Gorman spoke with Matthew Langholtz, Natural Resource Economist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, to better understand biomass availability and the role bioenergy could play in the transition away from fossil fuels.

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