Labor Protections Are So Hot Right Now

Current conditions: Temperatures are expected to hit 99 degrees Fahrenheit today in Chico, California, hampering efforts to quell the country’s largest wildfire • North Korean state media says over 4,000 homes have been flooded after heavy rainfall near the Chinese border • Strong winds and high temperatures are fanning wildfires in Greece, Croatia, and North Macedonia.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Americans support extreme heat protections

Earlier this month, the Department of Labor proposed a new rule that would require employers to take steps — such as mandatory rest breaks and illness prevention plans — to protect workers from extreme heat. A new poll from Data for Progress suggests that the rule is broadly popular, with 90% of respondents either “strongly” or “somewhat” supporting the requirements.

The Biden Administration is framing the rule as part of a broader response to extreme weather during a summer when wildfires, tropical storms, and extreme heat are afflicting large swaths of the country. Texas Rep. Greg Casar, a Democrat and an outspoken supporter of the rule, said in a statement, “Protecting workers from the heat unites voters across the aisle in a way that virtually nothing else does.”

Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images.

2. Methane levels rise dangerously

Methane has long been recognized as a dangerous greenhouse gas, shorter-lived in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, but more than 80 times more potent in its first 20 years there. A new paper in Frontiers in Science finds that methane emissions are growing at an alarming rate. Annual emissions in the 2020s are clocking in at about 30 million tons more than during the previous decade. While the study acknowledges there is no single reason for this, the authors point to fossil fuel processing, livestock, and wetlands as contributing factors. This spells trouble for the climate, particularly over the next couple decades. “Reducing CO2 will protect our grandchildren — reducing methane will protect us now,” one of the study’s authors told The Guardian.

3. Kairos Power begins construction on a new reactor

Kairos Power, a nuclear technology company founded in 2016, began construction on its Hermes Low-Power Demonstration Reactor in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the company announced on Tuesday. The reactor uses a modular design, allowing Kairos to manufacture it in Albuquerque before shipping it to the construction location, and employs fluoride salt cooling technology, a departure from the light water cooling that is the norm in the U.S. nuclear industry. In fact, the reactor was the first non-light water reactor to receive construction approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in more than 50 years when the agency issued it a permit last year. Kairos aims to have the reactor operational in 2027.

4. New climate change accounting standards

The International Accounting Standards Board sets the norms for companies in 140 jurisdictions — including the U.S., Canada, the E.U., and Japan — on how to record and report financial data. On Wednesday, the Board proposed guidance for companies to show how climate change might affect their bottom lines. Both climate impacts (like floods and extreme heat) and targets (like net-zero strategies) have a bearing on a firm’s financial performance, the IASB said. Wednesday’s guidance, which now enters a consultation period, aims to provide a standardized approach to reporting these factors to investors.

The guidance follows a March announcement by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it will require companies to disclose climate change-related information to investors. As Heatmap’s Emily Pontecorvo wrote at the time, “The rule is also set to spark an explosion in the businesses of corporate emissions accounting and climate risk analysis,” making robust standards that much more important.

5. Meet Maximo, the solar-panel-installing robot

On Tuesday, electric utility AES introduced a new hire: Maximo, a pickup truck-sized robot charged with installing panels at the company’s solar farms. AES says Maximo can install these heavy panels at twice the rate a human could, using artificial intelligence to line them up. The company plans to employ Maximo first on its solar-plus-battery project in Kern County, California, later this year.

If Maximo proves effective, he may get some siblings. Large solar farms can take 12 to 18 months to build and often require workers to operate in extreme heat. Robots could reduce risks to workers and help companies accelerate their construction timelines. The flipside? The number of solar workers in the U.S. is expected to double by 2033, and these workers may find some stiff competition from Maximo.

Image courtesy of AES.

THE KICKER

Add exploding Siberian craters to the list of climate-change-related hazards. Ongoing research suggests that longer thawing periods are allowing buildups of gas to escape (or detonate) from beneath the permafrost.