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Climate

China Unveiled Another Massive Wind Turbine

On offshore giants, cheap EVs, and heat tolerant coral

China Unveiled Another Massive Wind Turbine
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: The U.K. government is warning people to prepare for flooding this winter • Hurricane forecasters are keeping a watchful eye on another storm lurking in the Atlantic • The Orionid meteor shower will peak this week, but a bright moon is likely to reduce visibility.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Report: Hurricanes don’t change GOP lawmakers’ views on climate

Despite two back-to-back devastating, record-breaking hurricanes in the southeast in recent weeks, Republican lawmakers are not considering pushing for more government action on climate change, E&E News reported. The outlet contacted 42 members of the House and Senate, “asking if they believed the severity of the storms were exacerbated by global warming and if those storms would motivate lawmakers to endorse reducing greenhouse gas emissions — many of them from burning fossil fuels — that scientists call the major cause of climate change.” Just three of the politicians responded, and none of them were willing to connect the storms’ severity to climate change, let alone fossil fuel emissions.

2. Carmakers show of low-cost EVs at Paris Auto Show

The Paris Auto Show, the largest car show in Europe, kicks off today. The focus this year is on low-cost electric vehicles as some governments cut their EV subsidies, EU emissions standards loom next year, and European manufacturers try to compete against Chinese rivals. Some new models to know about, and their European price tags:

  • Renault: The R4 (€35,000) and R5 (€25,000), the Dacia Bigster SUV, and a prototype for the electric Twingo (€20,000)
  • Stellantis: The Leapmotor B10 SUV (expected for less than €37,000), and Citroën C3 Aircross compact SUV (€27,400)
  • BYD: The electric Sea Lion 07 SUV, which will rival the Tesla Model Y

Nine Chinese brands will be unveiling their latest models, Reutersreported, and BYD will have the largest presence.

The Renault R4 Renault

3. Study: Selective breeding can boost coral heat tolerance

The first attempt to selectively breed adult coral to be more tolerant to heat looks like it was a success. In a study published today in the journal Nature Communications, researchers found that selecting parent colonies for high heat increased the heat tolerance of adult offspring. “Our finding on the heritability of coral heat tolerance indicates that selective breeding could be a viable tool to improve population resilience,” the researchers wrote. But they also warned that the tolerance they selected for is unlikely to be enough to keep up with the pace of global warming. They call for further research to scale and optimize selective coral breeding.

4. China unveils world’s first 26 MW offshore wind turbine

Chinese company Dongfang Electric Corp. over the weekend announced it has built a new offshore wind turbine with a power-producing capacity (26 megawatts) that is 31% bigger than its nearest competitor (18 MW), and “surpasses even the largest models announced but not yet constructed,” Bloombergreported. Big turbines that generate lots of power can reduce the costs of offshore wind operations by limiting the amount of equipment needed. China is a leader in both offshore wind installations and large turbines. Last week another Chinese company, CRRC Corp., said it had made the world’s largest floating offshore wind turbine, with “a diameter of 260 meters and a swept area of 53,100 square meters, roughly the size of seven standard soccer fields.”

5. Biden administration to designate Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary

The White House today will commemorate the designation of the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary, a 4,543-square-mile area of ocean off the coast of California that is to be protected from oil and gas drilling and mining. The sanctuary will be the third largest in the U.S., and the first to be led by Indigenous people, the Northern Chumash Tribe. NPR noted that the protected area is smaller than initially proposed in order to accommodate potential offshore wind operations and subsea electrical transmission cables, but NOAA said it “will consider a potential expansion of the sanctuary in the coming years, after transmission cables have been laid.”

Chumash Sanctuary

THE KICKER

“I’m sure when we went from buggies to cars people complained about that. It’s a transition.”–Andy Edmondson, a school superintendent in Illinois, on community skepticism around electric school buses.

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Politics

AM Briefing: Climate United Sues the EPA

On the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, Canada’s new prime minister, and CERAWeek

The Battle Over Climate Grants Is Heating Up
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: Firefighters successfully controlled brush fires in Long Island that prompted New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to declare a state of emergency • Brisbane, Australia, recorded its wettest day in more than 50 years • Forecasters are keeping an eye on a storm system developing across the central U.S. that could pack a serious punch this week.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Nonprofit sues EPA, Citibank, over missing climate funds

The nonprofit Climate United filed a lawsuit over the weekend against the Environmental Protection Agency and Citibank for withholding $7 billion in climate funds awarded as part of the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act. The move escalates a dispute over some $20 billion in grants from the IRA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which was designed to help mobilize private capital toward clean energy and climate solutions. President Trump’s EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has been on a mission to claw back the funds, claiming their distribution was rushed and mismanaged. In its lawsuit, Climate United says it has been unable to access the $7 billion it was awarded, and that the EPA and Citibank have given no explanation for this. It wants a judge to order that the money be released. “We’re not trying to make a political statement here,” Beth Bafford, chief executive of Climate United, toldThe New York Times. “This is about math for homeowners, for truck drivers, for public schools — we know that accessing clean energy saves them money that they can use on far more important things.” The Trump administration has reportedly demanded that the eight organizations tapped to receive the money turn over records to the FBI and appear in federal court later this month.

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Climate Tech

AI Weather Forecasters Still Need NOAA

While they’re getting more accurate all the time, they still rely on data from traditional models — and possibly always will.

A robot forecaster.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has had a bruising few weeks. Deep staffing cuts at the hands of Elon Musk’s efficiency crusaders have led to concerns regarding the potential closure of facilities critical to data-gathering and weather-forecasting operations. Meteorologists have warned that this could put lives at risk, while industries that rely on trustworthy, publicly available weather data — from insurance to fishing, shipping, and agriculture — are bracing for impact. While reliable numbers are difficult to come by, the agency appears to have lost on the order of 7% to 10% of its workforce, or more than 1,000 employees. NOAA’s former deputy director, Andrew Rosenberg, wrote that Musk plans to lay off 50% of the agency, while slashing its budget by 30%.

Will that actually happen? Who the heck knows. But what we can look at are the small cracks that are already emerging, and who could step in to fill that void.

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Climate

AM Briefing: U.S. Abandons a Key Climate Financing Coalition

On energy transition funds, disappearing butterflies, and Tesla’s stock slump

America’s Shrinking Climate Financing Footprint
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: Australians have been told to prepare for the worst ahead of Cyclone Alfred, and 100,000 people are already without power • Argentina’s Buenos Aires province has been hit by deadly flooding • Critical fire conditions will persist across much of west Texas through Saturday.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Trump administration questions aid programs about their climate ambitions

Many foreign aid programs have reportedly received a questionnaire from the Trump administration that they must complete as part of a review, presumably to help the government decide whether or not the groups should receive any more federal funds. One of the questions on the list, according toThe New York Times, is: “Can you confirm this is not a climate or ‘environmental justice’ project or include such elements?” Another asks if the project will “directly impact efforts to strengthen U.S. supply chains or secure rare earth minerals?” President Trump issued an executive order freezing foreign aid on his first day back in office. The Supreme Court subsequently ruled that aid must be released. The Times notes that “many of the projects under scrutiny have already fired their staff and closed their doors, because they have received no federal funds since the review process ostensibly began. … Within some organizations, there are no staff members left to complete the survey.”

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