Sign In or Create an Account.

By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy

Technology

A New Coalition Is Pushing Governments to Make More Ambitious Climate Plans

On Mission 2025, Heirloom’s new facility, and geoengineering’s unintended consequences

A New Coalition Is Pushing Governments to Make More Ambitious Climate Plans
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Excessive rainfall in the Swiss Alps triggered a landslide • Power was restored in the Balkans following a massive outage that left people sweltering • Flood waters are receding in Rock Valley, Iowa, after 1,500 people were forced to evacuate.

THE TOP FIVE

1. ‘Mission 2025’ coalition launches to encourage governments to improve climate plans

A group of influential leaders across business and politics have formed a new coalition, called Mission 2025, aimed at pressuring governments to “align their upcoming national climate plans with the Paris Agreement target of limiting global warming to 1.5°C.” These plans, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs), outline how countries will cut their emissions. There is a February 2025 deadline for new, updated NDCs to be submitted to the United Nations, so Mission 2025 is pushing governments to set ambitious goals. The coalition points to recent data showing that more than two-thirds of annual revenues across the world’s largest companies are now aligned with net zero, which is an increase of 45% over the last two years. Backers of Mission 2025 include IKEA, Unilever, Mastercard, and the heads of C40 Cities, among others. The coalition is spearheaded by Christiana Figueres, who helped shepherd leaders toward the Paris Agreement in 2015 and is now the co-founder of nonprofit Global Optimism. “The launch of Mission 2025 today is a clear rebuttal to everyone claiming that moving faster on tackling the climate crisis is too difficult, too unpopular or too expensive,” Figueres said.

2. Heirloom will move a giant DAC project to Shreveport

Bay Area-based carbon removal company Heirloom announced today that it’s moving its half of the Department of Energy-funded Project Cypress DAC hub from coastal Calcasieu Parish inland to Shreveport — and that it will be building a second facility, capable of removing 17,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, on the same site. As Heatmap’s Kate Brigham reported, once the two facilities reach full scale, they will have the capacity to suck up a combined 317,000 metric tons of CO2 per year. Project Cypress is a partnership between Heirloom, the Swiss DAC company Climeworks, and project developer Battelle. As per the initial plan, Climeworks will still build out its portion of Project Cypress in southwest Louisiana, and together with Heirloom’s Shreveport plant, the two facilities will pull a combined megaton of CO2 out of the atmosphere every year. Heirloom expects its new 17,000 ton facility to be operational by 2026, while its larger Project Cypress plant is planned to come online in 2027. Initially, this larger facility will remove 100,000 metric tons of CO2 annually, eventually ramping up to 300,000 metric tons. For both projects, Heirloom is partnering with the carbon management company CapturePoint to permanently sequester CO2 in underground wells.

3. Hajj death toll hits 1,300

The death toll from this year’s Hajj keeps climbing. Saudi Arabia now says at least 1,300 people died during the pilgrimage, which took place during an extreme heat wave. Temperatures in the holy city of Mecca reached 125 degrees Fahrenheit at one point. “May Allah forgive and have mercy on the deceased,” Health Minister Fahd Al-Jalajel said. Meanwhile, at least 1,400 heat records were set last week as temperatures soared across five continents. In the U.S., more than 100 million people were under heat warnings as of Sunday. The East Coast is getting some relief, but a heat dome is now situated over states in the Plains and the South and the heat index could reach 110.

Weather.gov/NOAA

4. Study suggests West Coast geoengineering projects would bake Europe

A new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change found that geoengineering projects off the West Coast of the U.S. could inadvertently lead to more intense heat waves over Europe. The paper examines “marine cloud brightening,” which would involve spraying aerosol particles into the atmosphere to reflect solar radiation. The researchers concluded that this process would indeed lower temperatures in Western states, but only temporarily. By 2050, if temperatures increase by 2 degrees Celsius, the researchers’ models suggest cloud brightening would be ineffective and would actually lead to temperature increases in Europe.

5. EU and China to negotiate over EV tariffs

China and the European Union agreed during a call on Saturday to negotiate over the EU’s planned tariffs on Chinese EVs. EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis and his Chinese counterpart Wang Wentao had a “candid and constructive” discussion that ended with an agreement to “engage at all levels.” The EU has threatened levies as high as 48% and accused China of unfairly subsidizing its EV production. Bloombergreported that China hinted that Germany’s luxury carmakers could benefit from relaxed tariffs in China if Berlin “convinces” the EU to drop its tariffs. The discussions come weeks after President Biden announced that U.S. tariffs on electric vehicles made in China will quadruple from 25% to 100%.

THE KICKER

Researchers have created a new kind of fabric that they claim can keep wearers up to 16 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than traditional silk.

Yellow

You’re out of free articles.

Subscribe today to experience Heatmap’s expert analysis 
of climate change, clean energy, and sustainability.
To continue reading
Create a free account or sign in to unlock more free articles.
or
Please enter an email address
By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy
Climate

The Bill Gates Era of Climate Giving Has Ended

Breakthrough Energy is winding down its policy and advocacy office, depriving the Inflation Reduction Act of a powerful defender.

Bill Gates.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

This is part of a Heatmap series on the “green freeze under Trump.

A major chapter in climate giving has ended.

Keep reading...Show less
Blue
Elon Musk.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images, Tesla

Tesla already looked beleaguered last week as a tumbling stock price tied to public anger at CEO Elon Musk wiped out more than a half-billion dollars in value. The slide erased all the gains the company had garnered since new Musk ally Donald Trump was reelected as president. On Monday the stock went into full freefall, losing 15% of its value in one day. By Tuesday, Trump had to pose with Tesla vehicles outside the White House to try to defend them.

With a crashing market valuation and rising rage against its figurehead, Tesla’s business is in real jeopardy, something that’s true regardless of Musk’s power in the federal government. If he can’t magically right the ship this time, this self-sabotaging MAGA turn will go down as one of the great self-owns.

Keep reading...Show less
Politics

AM Briefing: Climate Grants Terminated

On Lee Zeldin’s announcement, coal’s decline, and Trump’s Tesla promo

The EPA’s $20 Billion Climate Grants Have Been Terminated
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: Alaska just had its third-warmest winter on record • Spain’s four-year drought is nearing an end • Another atmospheric river is bearing down on the West Coast, triggering evacuation warnings around Los Angeles’ burn scars.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Zeldin terminates $20 billion in climate grants

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said yesterday he had terminated $20 billion in congressionally-approved climate change and clean energy grants “following a comprehensive review and consistent with multiple ongoing independent federal investigations into programmatic fraud, waste, abuse and conflicts of interest.”

Keep reading...Show less
Yellow