Climate Now

Our Season One finale brings you a debate about the pace of the energy transition that was recorded live at NYC Climate Week three weeks ago.  How fast is the transition progressing, really?  And why might there be divergent opinions on the subject? The debate was co-moderated by James Lawler and Dina Cappiello (RMI), and features RMI's Kingsmill Bond and Bain's Aaron Denman. We look forward to your thoughts and questions, as always, and we look forward to being in touch with all of you again in 2025.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

Voluntary Carbon Markets, or VCM, are the decentralized marketplaces where carbon credits, used to offset greenhouse gas emissions are traded. Each credit offsets a metric ton of carbon dioxide emissions. The VCM has existed since the 1980s with recent updates to the types of activities that count as offsets.On July 30 of this year, the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) updated their recommendations for corporate carbon accounting standards that affect how corporations should count carbon offsets towards their net-zero goals. Dr. Jennifer Jenkins, chief science officer at Rubicon Carbon, joined us to talk about changes to the VCM and how they affect the way corporations can use carbon credits to meet their net-zero goals.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

On this week's edition of Climate News Weekly, James Lawler and Julio Friedmann discuss Exxon-Mobil's projections of flat oil demand by 2050, closing the last coal-fired power plant in the UK, disproportionate impacts of climate change in Africa, and more.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

Climate News Weekly is back to cover the week's biggest stories in climate news with host James Lawler, joined by Julio Friedmann and Darren Hau. The team kicks off this week's coverage with an analysis that uses artificial intelligence to determine the impacts of 1500 climate policies on emissions. Up next, Julio and James discuss a new CarbonMapper satellite that can detect methane and carbon dioxide emissions with high precision. The team also discusses the hydrogen industry's struggle to go green and the looming reality of irreversible climate tipping points.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

As a Climate Now listener, we know you appreciate frank and thoughtful debate about the climate crisis. So we'd like to share an episode from a podcast that looks at how climate change is changing our energy systems.Energy vs Climate is a podcast featuring energy experts David Keith, Sara Hastings-Simon, and Ed Whittingham. They break down the hard truths and tough choices posed by the energy transition from the heart of Canada's oil country. Through their topics and their guests, David, Sara, and Ed bring new honesty around the sharp trade-offs between climate action and economic progress .The episode we're sharing with you is called, "Buzzkill: Understanding the Shift in Media Perception Towards EVs," with special guest Dr. Simon Evans, deputy editor and policy editor at Carbon Brief. Together, they tease apart EV fact from fiction. We think you'll really enjoy it.Listen to Energy vs Climate wherever you get your podcasts and check out energyvsclimate.com for their next live webinars, where you too can join in on the discussion.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

Climate News Weekly is back to cover the week's biggest stories in climate news with host James Lawler, joined by Dina Cappiello and Julio Friedmann. The team kicks off this week's coverage with upheaval in the voluntary carbon market. Up next, Julio and Dina discuss developments in politics, from Kamala Harris' VP pick to a Brazilian oceanographer's appointment as Secretary-General of the International Seabed Authority. Later, our team covers extreme weather events and China's latest emissions goals. In other news this week, shareholders at Glencore fought for the company to retain its coal business - and won.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

The United States' Renewable Fuel Standard Program requires a certain volume of renewable fuel be used to replace or reduce fossil fuel use. Each gallon of renewable fuel is assigned a Renewable Identification Number or RIN, which allows renewable fuel volumes to be tracked, traded, bought, and sold. These multifunctional numbers affect the entire fuel industry, including both conventional and renewable fuel producers. According to one of our next guests in the series, RINs are little-known and poorly understood - even in the renewable fuel industry. Discover how the RIN system functions as a subsidy, mandate, tax, and a financial asset all at once. Tune in as we dissect the "most complex environmental credit ever written" with two experts in the field: George Hoekstra, President of Hoekstra Trading, and Brooke Coleman, the Executive Director of the Advanced Biofuels Business Council.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

James Lawler is joined by Carbon Direct's Julio Friedmann for Climate News Weekly. Join James and Julio as they discuss what Kamala Harris' candidacy and potential presidency could mean for climate policy, followed by positive signs that China's emissions may be hitting a turning point. The team also covers the accident involving a wind turbine off the coast of Massachusetts, bipartisan grid permitting reform legislation, and the EPA's latest round of funding for climate pollution. The team rounds out their coverage of this week's news by discussing wildfires sweeping the Northwestern U.S. and Canada, the (new) hottest day on record, and a power grid struggling to withstand the impacts of climate change.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

Ethanol-to-jet is one pathway to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Until recently, this pathway was out of reach for commercial production. That changed this year when LanzaJet opened the world's first ethanol-to-SAF plant, the Freedom Pines Fuels Plant, in Soperton, Georgia. LanzaJet projects that the plant will produce nine million gallons of SAF in its first year in operation.In our third installment of our sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) series, we sat down with LanzaJet's Vice President of Commercial, Stéphane Thion. Tune in to hear from Stéphane about drop-in fuel standards, SAF supply chains, LanzaJet's offtakers and partners, and the company's plans for ethanol-to-SAF plants around the world.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

Climate News Weekly is back to cover the week's biggest stories in climate news. James Lawler, Julio Friedmann, and Darren Hau begin this episode with a discussion of the latest extreme weather events, including Hurricane Beryl and record-breaking heat over the last year. Up next, James, Darren, and Julio discuss developments in the EV industry like Tesla's market share falling below 50 percent and falling battery prices. Later, Darren and James discuss a copper deposit discovered with the help of AI. To round out this week's headlines, the team covers a report predicting that oil demand will peak in 2025.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

Sustainable aviation fuel can use a variety of feedstocks, from used cooking oils to oily seeds. When those feedstocks are heated under high pressure with a catalyst, the process produces hydrocarbons - the essential component in fuel. This process is called HEFA, Hydro-processed Esters and Fatty Acids. One company using this process to produce sustainable aviation fuel is Montana Renewables, based out of Great Falls, Montana, where they reconfigured equipment previously used in petroleum refining. In part two of four, we'll be sitting down with Bruce Fleming, who serves as Executive Vice President of Calumet Specialty Products Partners and CEO of Calumet subsidiary Montana Renewables. Bruce will take us behind the scenes of the biofuel industry, discussing Montana Renewable's approach to feedstocks, infrastructure, and and other challenges to scaling SAF.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

In the latest installment of Climate News Weekly, James Lawler and Dina Cappiello (RMI) discuss a variety of stories on climate, sustainability, and technology. Dina and James cover a breaking story out of the Supreme Court: the ruling that ended Chevron deference and slashed the power of regulatory agencies. Later, James and Dina analyze the Economist's special report on solar and a tax on methane emissions from gassy cows and pigs. Also covered this week: a new angle on climate-related insurance impacts, climate washing lawsuits' success, and Mexico's over-burdened grid.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

Aviation accounts for 12% of CO2 emissions from transportation and 2% of all CO2 emissions globally. Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is fuel made not from petroleum hydrocarbons, but from other sources of carbon and hydrogen. These non-fossil hydrocarbons include waste oils, plant-derived oils, and more complex sources like woody biomass and municipal solid waste; even CO2 can serve as a source of carbon to make hydrocarbons. Derived from all of these sources and more, approximately 160 million gallons of SAF were consumed in 2023 - a drop in the bucket of the 90 billion gallons of conventional fuel consumed globally that year. In the first of four episodes focusing on the sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) landscape, we sat down with Beatrice Batty, Director of Fuel Planning at EPIC Fuels, the fuel supply division of Signature Aviation. Beatrice shares her expertise on aviation fuel and discusses the different methods for deriving SAF and why SAF is essential to meet the aviation industry's net-zero goals.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

Climate News Weekly is back to cover the week's biggest stories in climate news. Host James Lawler, joined by Julio Friedmann (Carbon Direct), begins this episode with follow-up coverage of heat-related fatalities at the Hajj pilgrimage. Up next, James and Julio discuss two tales of climate risk- one relating to critical infrastructure and the other relating to the insurance industry. Later, the team covers a recent ruling by the UK Supreme Court and pushback against the UN's biodiversity treaty. Rounding out this week's stories, James and Julio discuss a G7 debate on who bears responsibility for climate action.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) was established in 1977 with two key missions: to carry out defense responsibilities relating to nuclear weapons, and to bring together under one department the "loosely knit amalgamation" of various energy projects which were, at the time, scattered across the United States government. The Department of Energy Organization Act created the Department to better coordinate national energy strategy in the face of new challenges – namely, two OPEC energy crises and the growing nuclear energy industry. Since then, the DOE's responsibilities have evolved with the challenges that the country has faced. Today, one key dimension of the DOE's role in national energy security is supporting low-carbon energy production and carbon management projects. This role includes advancing Carbon Dioxide Removal, or CDR as the US will likely need to remove at least a billion metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year to meet its net-zero goals. We spoke with Rory Jacobson, the acting division director for Carbon Dioxide Removal in the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, or FECM to better understand the DOE's role in advancing CDR.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

On this week's Climate News Weekly, James Lawler and Julio Friedmann discuss the latest in global climate news. Up first, James and Julio cover the latest developments in Europe; namely, green parties suffering losses in the latest elections as EU steelmakers risk missing their climate targets despite billions in subsidies.  Our hosts also discuss climate impacts around the world, from record temperatures making the Hajj pilgrimage particularly perilous to a deluge in Florida. James and Julio round out this week's news with discussion of the New York congestion pricing pause and what it means for the city's residents. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

Climate News Weekly is back to cover the week's biggest stories in climate news. Emma Crow-Willard and co-hosts Julio Friedmann (Carbon Direct) and Heather Clancy (GreenBiz) begin by discussing why the OECD's $100 billion in climate finance for developing nations is better late than never. Later, the team covers international stories, including record-breaking temperatures in New Dehli and Kenya's president visiting the United States to discuss climate goals and trade. Next, our hosts cover the US Department of Energy's announcement of its principles for integrity in the voluntary carbon market. The team rounds out this week's news by digging deeper than the headlines on Microsoft's emissions hikes, attributed to the company's AI operations – but not for the reasons you may think.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

Climate Now is back to tackle six of the biggest stories in recent climate news. James Lawler, Julio Friedmann, Dina Cappiello, and Darren Hau discuss recent developments in the U.S., from electric grid planning and finance to the Department of Energy's list of 10 national interest energy corridors. The team also digs into BHP's bid for Anglo American with one metal at the center of it all: copper. Our hosts round out this week's news by discussing the biggest year over year jump in CO2 at Mauna Loa Observatory, climate action collaboration between the U.S. and China, and Climeworks' record-breaking DAC plant beginning operations. Tune in to dig deeper than the headlines with our expert team. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

According to the CDC, the spread of vector-borne diseases (those spread by blood-feeding bugs like mosquitos, ticks, and fleas) is linked to climate change. Rising temperatures and humidity influence breeding rates and can extend the range of disease-spreading bugs, bringing diseases to areas that have never seen a case. What are the ways that climate change can influence the spread of disease? How can we best track this spread to get ahead of it and avoid worse impacts? To find out what we need to know about the relationship between vector-borne diseases and climate change, we sit down with two experts in the field: Dr. Erin Mordecai, professor of biology and senior fellow at Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment and Dr. Manisha Kulkarni, professor in the School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

Julio Friedmann and Darren Hau join James Lawler to discuss the latest climate news: Tesla lays off its supercharger team, historic flooding and heat in Asia, $11 Billion committed to the World Bank, G7 agree to phase out coal by 2035, and several new rules from the CEQ and EPA to advance permitting reform and expand solar in the United States.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

Just over 70% of humanity's energy consumption comes from hydrocarbons like coal, oil, and natural gas. The world is dependent on hydrocarbons, not just for energy but also for plastics, contact lenses, and computers, and so many other things. Using hydrocarbons like fossil fuels for energy has also led to huge amounts of climate change-causing emissions. So, knowing how important hydrocarbons are to modern society, how can we also ensure that they do not become our downfall?This week, we sat down with Casey Handmer of Terraform Industries, a startup combining solar power with direct air capture of CO2 to produce synthetic hydrocarbons. How does this work, and will it help? Tune in as Casey explains the importance of hydrocarbons, the potential impacts of switching to synthetic, and how Terraform's technology is trying to make synthetic, renewable natural gas affordable.Tune in!Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

This week, Julio Friedmann and Darren Hau join James Lawler to talk about the latest climate news. The news of the week covers Executive Director of the International Energy Agency Fatih Birol's latest comments on Europe's energy plans, a new innovation in home insulation with Aeroseal that could help reduce energy use (born from a U.S. National Lab), RMI's new home energy tool, the increase of coal capacity, but also of wind in 2023, JP Morgan's reality check on fossil fuel phase-out, and Scotland's realization that its 2030 climate goals were 'out of reach.'Tune in!Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

This week on Climate News Weekly, James Lawler is joined by Dina Cappiello. They discuss the latest on green banks, the recent turmoil at the SBTI, the power of solar sheep, and more.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

This week on Climate News Weekly, James Lawler sits down with Julio Friedmann and Darren Hau. They discuss the passing of climate leader Richard Benedict, a new geoengineering experiment, new California rules for energy distribution and use, and the emergence of a new biomass startup.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

This week on Climate News Weekly, James Lawler and Julio Friedmann discuss coal-fired power plant closures in New England, how the DOE is spending billions to spur innovation in technologies to decarbonize top-emitting industries, the role that AI can play in a variety of climate change fighting efforts, and more.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

In the U.S. alone, 162 million people will experience a worse quality of life due to the changing climate within the next 30 years. Rising sea levels stand to displace 13 million Americans in the long run while wildfires and other risks are likely to displace millions more. With 3.2 million American climate migrants to-date, it's time to start thinking about what our country's future might look like.Even these statistics may be vast underestimates because nailing down someone's exact reason for moving is harder than it may seem. So, how do we determine what factors influence people's decisions to move? Why is climate migration about more than beating the heat? What history brought us here and where are we headed? This week's episode with investigative journalist and author Abrahm Lustgarten will answer these questions and more. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

This week on Climate News Weekly, James Lawler is joined by Julio Friedmann and Canary Media Reporter Julian Spector. Julio reports on his experience at CERAWeek, and discusses rising energy demand. Julian shares his thoughts on new battery construction projects.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

In 2023, electric vehicle drivers reported that, when pulling up to one of the more than 140,000 EV public charging stations across the United States, something went wrong about 21% of the time, leaving them unable to charge their vehicles. Such unreliability in charging availability could be crippling to what needs to be rapid growth in the EV market, and produces particular challenges to fleet operators considering EV adoption. They will be dependent on reliable EV charging to ensure their business remains operational and on schedule. Increasing the reliability of public EV charging is a two-part problem: 1) understanding what causes charging failures in a system that is a combination of electrical hardware, computer hardware, and software, and 2) having a workforce that knows how to solve the problems. In the final episode of our series examining the fleet charging landscape in the US, we are joined by Kianna Scott and Walter Thorn of ChargerHelp!, a company that offers charger support services, and charging technician training certification programs. We will discuss why we need specialized training to develop a workforce that can service EV chargers, and what kind of servicing infrastructure will be necessary to support the expansion of a widespread and reliable national EV charging network.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

This week on Climate News Weekly, James Lawler is joined by GreenBiz Editor at Large Heather Clancy, as well as regular contributors Dina Cappiello and Julio Friedmann. They discuss the latest updates to the Science Based Targets Initiative dashboard and what they really mean for companies' climate goals, what happens at the Aspen Ideas: Climate festival and CERAWeek, as well as the DOE's latest Voluntary Carbon Dioxide Removal Purchasing Challenge, and more.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

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.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

Today, given route lengths and cargo capacity, it is possible to electrify 65% of medium-duty and 49% of heavy-duty trucks. Commercial fleets' are responding to this promise, with announced commitments to electrification surpassing 140,000 vehicles in 2022 in the United States alone. Still, the number of electric fleet trucks currently on the road in the US is well under 1% of all medium and heavy duty trucks, and companies are facing a dearth of EV charging infrastructure to support the expansion of these commercial fleets.  The good news is, companies are emerging to fill the gaps in charging infrastructure, assuage concerns from prospective EV fleet owners, and make commercial adoption not just a possibility but an advantage. In this episode, the second installment of a three-part series on the state and future of electric fleet charging, Climate Now is joined by three industry leaders: Anthony Harrison (TeraWatt Infrastructure), Jonathan Colbert (Voltera), and Jeffrey Prosserman (Voltpost). Anthony, Jonathan, and Jeffrey join Climate Now's James Lawler and Darren Hau to discuss what factors prospective EV fleet adopters are considering, what their companies are doing to facilitate buildout of charging infrastructure, and how that buildout means growth for many industries – not just EV charging.  You can find the full transcript as well as sources mentioned in this episode here: https://climatenow.com/charging-electric-fleets-2-3These interviews were recorded in Summer 2023. Since then, Voltera has published additional playbooks, which you can find here: Playbook 1, Playbook 2, Playbook 3.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

In this week's episode of Climate News Weekly, James Lawler, Julio Friedmann, and Darren Hau discuss falling natural gas prices and the impact of that on the energy transition, how leasing companies are responding to the EV industry, the need for more sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), and more. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

In the United States, nearly one quarter of national greenhouse gas emissions come from the 280 million vehicles that drive on the nations roads each year. And while fleet vehicles – including the ~5 million buses, garbage trucks, law enforcement vehicles and more that make up public fleets, and the ~6.5 million rental cars, taxis, delivery trucks, long-haul trucks, and more that make up commercial fleets – represent only a small fraction of those vehicles, they are an excellent target for early electric vehicle (EV) adoption, by virtue of their affordability through bulk pricing, their ability to demonstrate EV technology to a wide audience, and the outsized impact fleet electrification could have in reducing air pollution that stems from auto emissions.  But critical to the wide-spread adoption of electric fleets, is wide-spread development of charging infrastructure that will support those fleets, which have unique charging demands in comparison to the personal EV. In this first installment of a three-part series examining the state and future of electric fleet charging, Climate Now is joined by EV charging entrepreneurs Nathan King (itselectric), and Arcady Sosinov and Rob Anderson (Freewire Technologies) to explore the current EV charging landscape in the US, what makes fleet charging a challenge, and new strategies and technologies that are helping existing infrastructure meet the growing demand for EV charging. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

On today's episode of Climate News Weekly, James Lawler and Julio Friedmann discuss the IEA's 50th anniversary, Siemens' plans to open a US-based transformer plant, Ireland's energy woes, and more.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

In the late 1970's, English chemist Dr. James Lovelock and American biologist Dr. Lynn Margulis published a research paper hypothesizing that living organisms – without intention or agency – could have a regulatory effect on their environment that helped ensure their continued habitability. While the Gaia hypothesis they originated has remained controversial for the last four decades, it has provided a provocative explanation for why the Earth remained more or less clement over its ~4 billion year history, even though the sun that warms it has grown about 30% brighter over that time span. Of course, there have been notable catastrophic exceptions to Earth's habitable stability – in the form of cataclysmic Snowball Earth events that froze the entire planet at least twice in its first 3.5 billion years of existence.  In our latest episode, Probable Futures founder Spencer Glendon explores another application of the Gaia Hypothesis, as it applies to human civilizations. In a December 2023 newsletter, Mr. Glendon examines how for much of the last 12,000 years, humans have been agents in shaping the stable global climate from which we are a beneficiary, through the expansion of agriculture and its related deforestation. By releasing CO2 at rates that balanced the cooling effects of various planetary orbital shifts, humans helped avoid the planet plunging into another Ice Age. But, much like the Snowball Earth events of the Precambrian Era, the advent and acceleration of fossil fuel combustion then shifted people's relationship with climate from stabilizing to potentially catastrophic. The difference between the ancient and modern examples is that now – with awareness of the problem – humans can impact their environment with intention and agency. Join us as we examine how past climate stability has shaped much of humanity's world view, and how that might impact our approach in responding to climate change now.  Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

In this episode of Climate News Weekly, James Lawler sits down with Julio Friedmann and Darren Hau to discuss potential responses to California's most recent torrential rains, how both California and the UK are responding to heat pumps, the EU's new emission targets and plan, and more.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

Passage of the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in 2022 was a game changer in the United States' effort to address climate change. The hundreds of billions of dollars the IRA has made available for clean energy and climate mitigation projects will likely double the pace of U.S. decarbonization. While this rapid expansion in clean energy development is tied to the sheer scale of the IRA (it is the largest climate spending bill ever passed), how climate spending from this bill is taking place is also a critical.  Most of the IRA funding for climate change mitigation is in the form of generous tax credits for developing a new project, or producing clean energy. But, most developers that could receive credits for large capital projects don't have enough tax liability to use them. As a solution, for the first time ever, IRA tax credits for clean energy development were made transferable, meaning that the credits can be sold for cash to third parties. To understand what this finance rule change means, Climate Now sat down with Crux CEO Alfred Johnson, whose startup company provides a comprehensive platform for buyers and sellers in this new transferable tax credit market. Alfred explains how tax credit transfers work, why they are so important to unlocking the financing potential of the IRA, and Crux's role in cultivating the clean energy tax credit ecosystem. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

On this week's episode of Climate News Weekly, James Lawler and Julio Friedmann discuss the consequences of the Biden administration's decision to delay the approval of a LNG export plant in Louisiana, some European countries' plans to transition away from coal, what happens when storms super charge windmills, and more.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

This week on Climate News Weekly, host James Lawler is joined by Julio Friedmann, Darren Hau, and Canary Media Reporter Julian Spector. They discuss the various issues facing EV users and owners during the US' recent cold snap, new developments in British carbon capture projects, concerns that recent US electricity demand will strain the grid, and the latest developments in Hawaii's newest virtual power plant. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

Since 2019, the cost of wind and solar electricity production has been lower than that from fossil fuels, and costs are projected to continue falling well into the next decade. But for renewable energy to truly dominate the electricity market, it needs to be cheap and reliable, even when the sun is not shining and the wind is not blowing. That means the battery market needs to grow, too.So far, short-duration lithium batteries have dominated the market of grid-scale battery storage, but a recent report from the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory has highlighted the importance of developing longer-duration and lower cost storage options as a key to greater integration of renewable energy into the national grid. So what types of long-duration batteries are emerging as contenders for widespread, gridscale storage? And what needs to happen to incorporate these batteries into the grid? Climate Now sat down with two leaders in the emerging grid storage market: Jeff Chapin, co-founder of Haven Energy, and Antonio Baclig, founder of Inlyte Energy, to get a read on the state and future of the quickly growing battery storage industry.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

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.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

In this week's episode of Climate News Weekly, Julio Friedman, Dina Cappiello, and Darren Hau join James Lawler to discuss the US Treasury's new guidance for what can qualify for a "green hydrogen" tax credit, Tesla no longer being the world's largest EV manufacturer, the EPA granting Louisiana the right to manage applications for deep geologic storage of CO2, and an update on a proposed Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) project in the Gulf Coast.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

In January of 2023, a headline from Boston Consulting Group read: The voluntary carbon market [VCM] is thriving. Their evidence? A 4-fold increase in the value of the market in the course of a year, to a valuation over $2 billion USD and growing. Nine months later, Reuters headlined a very different take: Carbon credit market confidence ebbs as big names retreat, citing the first dip in the number of credits used by companies in at least 7 years. What was causing such rapid growth in the VCM? What caused the decline? And, what is the chance of the VCM recovering? In the final episode of our 3 part examination of VCMs, we take a look at how these markets have evolved in terms of their growth and their efficacy, how they are operating right now, and what their future could look like. To shape our conversation, we are joined by a group of VCM buyers, sellers, consultants and skeptics: Katie Sierks (Microsoft), Laura Zapata (Clearloop), Dr. Colin McCormick and Alex Dolginow (Carbon Direct), and Dr. Joe Romm (Penn Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media).Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

Join us for the second of our three-part series on voluntary carbon offset markets, where we take a look at three companies that have very different strategies for removing carbon from the atmosphere. Vesta aims to increase the amount of atmospheric carbon that the ocean can absorb by infusing coastal systems with sand composed of naturally reactive minerals like olivine. Mast Reforestation generates carbon offsets by maintaining and protecting forests in wildfire-prone areas. And Climeworks uses a mechanical system to filter carbon straight from the atmosphere to sequester it underground.For each of these companies, we will explore how their company's carbon removal techniques work, and examine whether (and how) they can provide measurable and verifiable offsets to ensure that the carbon credits they sell are providing a viable benefit to climate mitigation.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

The voluntary carbon offset market (VCM) – in which customers can pay for third-parties to avoid emitting CO2 or remove it from the atmosphere on their behalf – has existed for over 30 years, and has been controversial for nearly as long. On the one hand, the VCM can provide a path for hard-to-decarbonize sectors or businesses to reach net-zero emissions goals, and it can help finance development of important carbon removal technologies, like direct air capture. On the other hand, the market is rife with opportunities for exploitation and the sale of ineffective carbon credits.In the first of a three-part episode exploring the current and future state of the voluntary carbon offset market, Climate Now is joined by Dr. Colin McCormick, Alex Dolginow, Derik Broekhoff and Dr. Mark Trexler – four experts in the VCM space, to examine why it is so difficult to create an effective and reliable carbon offset market, and whether there is a path forward for doing so. For a full transcript and sources, go here: https://climatenow.com/podcast/episode-1-of-3-the-voluntary-carbon-offset-market/ Editor's note: At 30:12, Derik Broekhoff mentions "carbon credit rating agencies." Here are some of these which he shared with us after the recording:Calyx Global (https://calyxglobal.com/)BeZero (https://bezerocarbon.com/)Sylvera (https://www.sylvera.com/)Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

For our last episode of Climate News Weekly this year, we're reviewing the top climate space stories of 2023 according to our series regulars Julio Friedmann, Dina Cappiello, and Darren Hau. Climate Now Host James Lawler and Managing Producer Emma Crow-Willard moderate a conversation spanning the latest COP28 deal, new developments in methane regulation and tracking, the climate crises that struck the world, EV growth, and more. Thank you for joining us, and see you next year!Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

How much CO2 is it possible to remove in the United States and at what cost? Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists and researchers from more than a dozen institutions have completed a first-of-its-kind national assessment of carbon dioxide removal options, ranging from the role of cropland soils, carbon capture, CO2 transport, and more. In today's episode, Climate Now interviewed several of the report's authors to provide an overview of the negative emissions pathways—ones that physically remove CO2 from the atmosphere—that can help the United States reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, or sooner.  You can read the new report and learn more at https://livermorelab.info/Roads2RemovalFollow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

Today in Climate News Weekly, we continue our coverage of COP28 with three people who each covered a different aspect of the conference. First, we speak with Julian Moore of Climatebase to discuss this COP's focus on how climate change impacts global health, while Julio Friedmann, regular contributor, sent us an updated on-the-ground recording of this experiences in Dubai. Finally, we invited Dina Cappiello to sit down with us after her return from the conference to give us her post-COP28 reflections and a look at what we should be tracking as the conference winds down.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

On this week's episode of Climate News Weekly, host James Lawler sits down with Dr. Jennifer Pett-Ridge, Senior Staff Scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Lab, to discuss an upcoming report on carbon dioxide removal, or CDR, titled "Roads to Removal: Options for Carbon Dioxide Removal in the United States." Additionally, two of our regular Climate News contributors, Dina Cappiello and Julio Friedmann, share their impressions, thoughts, and reactions to COP28, which is taking place in Dubai in the UAE this year. Both Dina and Julio joined us both from the ground at the conference.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

In 2023, two major insurers joined a growing list of companies that will no longer offer new home insurance policies in California. In Florida, the situation is worse, with more than a dozen large home insurance companies retreating from the state. Both states have seen devastating property losses due to extreme forest fires and hurricanes - risks that are only increasing due to the changing climate.But why can't the insurance companies simply adjust premiums to reflect the changing risk that climate change is bringing, rather than leaving a market entirely? Because like many economic models, insurance risk is assessed based on historical data (in some cases, by law), which is not particularly reflective of future (or even present) risk. Dr. Spencer Glendon, Founder of Probable Futures and former Head of Research at the investment firm Wellington Management, returns to Climate Now to examine how much our historical experiences can be used to inform how we should respond to our rapidly changing world, and how the roles of quantitative data, empirical analysis, and storytelling may need to shift for us to make the most of our collective wisdom in preparing for challenges of the future.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

On this week's episode of Climate News Weekly, James Lawler is joined by Julio Friedmann and Darren Hau as they discuss the latest US-China climate statement ahead of COP28, new developments in the EV space, the US's Fifth National Climate Assessment, the impact of climate change on Taylor Swift concerts, and more.Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.Contact us at contact@climatenow.comVisit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.