This week’s Current Climate, which every Saturday brings you the latest news about the business of sustainability. Sign up to get it in your inbox every week.
Floating solar power plant in Huainan, China.
AFP via Getty ImagesThe International Energy Agency released its annual World Energy Investment report this week. The intergovernmental agency has found that investments in energy have increased across nearly all categories and are expected to hit $2.8 trillion. As has been the case since 2015, investments in clean energy sources are greater than those of fossil fuels, with over $1.7 trillion in clean energy investments this year. Those energy investments include electric vehicles, nuclear power plants, heat pumps and other related products.
The agency notes that the gap between the amount invested in clean energy keeps increasing versus fossil fuels, a trend that’s been ongoing since 2019. Of particular note are investments in solar power, which are expected this year to exceed investments in oil production for the first time since the agency started tracking investment. That’s despite the fact that fossil fuel investment is expected to grow 15%.
“Clean energy is moving fast – faster than many people realize. This is clear in the investment trends, where clean technologies are pulling away from fossil fuels,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said in a statement. “For every dollar invested in fossil fuels, about 1.7 dollars are now going into clean energy. Five years ago, this ratio was one-to-one.”
The Big Read
A rally to call for protection of the Clean Water Act outside of the U.S. Supreme Court.
CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty ImagesSupreme Court Weakens Clean Water Protections
The Supreme Court weakened protections in the Clean Water Act, a ruling that narrows what wetlands are protected under the law, which environmental advocates warn could have wide-reaching environmental impacts and lead nearly half of the country’s wetlands to be open to damage.
Discoveries And Innovations
A team of engineers at UMass Amherst have developed a technique for manufacturing materials that can be used to create devices that can harvest electricity from humidity in the air.
Sustainability Deals Of The Week
Wind Power: Mercedes-Benz entered into an agreement with German energy developer Umweltgerechte Kraftanlagen to build a 20 turbine wind farm that can generate more than 120 MW of electricity for the company’s test track in Papenburg, Germany.
Ammonia As Fuel: Ammonia fuel developer Amogy has entered into an agreement with chemical manufacturer LSB Industries, which is geared towards encouraging adoption of ammonia as fuel for boats, starting with a pilot program integrating LSB’s low-carbon ammonia with Amogy’s ammonia fuel products.
Lithium-Sulfur Batteries: Stellantis Ventures, the venture fund of the transportation technology company, announced that it’s making an investment into battery startup Lyten, which is developing a Lithium-Sulfur battery that aims to be more sustainable to manufacture and uses fewer metals like nickel or cobalt.
On The Horizon
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting there will be 12 to 17 named tropical storms and hurricanes this year, a roughly average storm season that puts it on pace to reach last year’s total, though as of this week there are no tropical storms in sight.
What Else We’re Reading This Week
Insurers Quit Climate Club in Droves After Threats From GOP
Here’s how global warming will change your town’s weather by 2080 (Popular Science)
A Computer Scientist Breaks Down Generative AI’s Hefty Carbon Footprint (Scientific American)
Green Transportation Update
Brightline's planned Las Vegas to Los Angeles railway could be the first true high-speed train in the U.S., running at speeds over 185 mph.
BrightlineSix decades after Japan debuted its shinkansen bullet trains, high-speed rail connects major cities in Europe, South Korea, Taiwan and especially China, which has a sprawling 26,000-mile system. Other regions are embracing it as well: trains race across Morocco, the Saudi Arabian desert and a high-speed line spanning Indonesia’s Java island opens in June. The one major outlier? The United States, where travelers are stuck with cramped, crowded airplanes and congested freeways as fast, futuristic trains rolled into country after country.B ut not for much longer. The 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law set aside billions of dollars for Amtrak to get its Northeast Corridor’s Acela trains running at up to 160 miles per hour this year between Boston, New York and Washington DC. But it also earmarked $12 billion for other projects, some targeting even faster trains. Funding decisions for two of those, California’s high-speed rail system and Brightline West’s Las Vegas-to-L.A. train, are coming soon.
The Big Transportation Story
Ford CEO Jim Farley pats a Ford F-150 Lightning truck.
Getty ImagesFord’s EV Customers Getting Access To Tesla Charging Network In 2024
Ford, which is working to grab electric vehicle market share from Tesla, struck a deal to give its EV customers access to more than 12,000 of Tesla’s fast-charging stations in the U.S. and Canada starting early next year.Jim Farley, CEO of Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford, said owners of its F-150 Lightning pickup, Mustang Mach-E sports car and E-Transit vans will be able to start using Tesla’s charging network once a new adapter they’ll need goes into production in 2024. That gives customers more than double the charger access they have with Ford’s current charging network.
More Green Transportation News
Study Shows EV Owners Pay More To Drive Fewer Miles
California’s New Solar Rules Greatly Cut Payback, But Could Power Trading Fix That?
Apex.AI Operating System To Run Volkswagen Robo Ridepooling Vans
China’s Zeekr Sales Drive In Europe Threatens BMW, Audi, Mercedes
France’s Ban On Short-Haul Flights Where Rail Offers Fast Alternative Signed Into Law Today
Waymo Partners With Rival Uber In Phoenix For Rides And Food
Volvo Sells 1,000 Battery-Electric Trucks, Makes Hydrogen Progress
