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One of the biggest names in direct air capture is now selling other companies’ credits.
The first Quilt units will be available to San Franciscans in just a few weeks.
That’s how much the U.S. should be spending per year by 2050 to achieve net zero, according to a new Rhodium Group report.
On Ukraine aid, a solar geoengineering test, and California snowpack
On carmakers’ quarterly reports, Shell’s climate case, and solar panel fences
Current conditions: The Ohio and Tennessee Valleys could experience long-track tornadoes today • Gale-force winds killed at least four people in China’s Jiangxi Province • A winter storm watch is in effect across New England.
Major U.S. electric vehicle manufacturers including Tesla and Rivian are expected to report on their first-quarter sales and deliveries this week. Expectations for Tesla are pretty low, according toBloomberg, with analysts forecasting global deliveries of about 449,080 vehicles, down 7%. “Some on Wall Street are even braced for Tesla’s first sales decline since the early days of the pandemic.” But hey, Tesla might win back its title of “biggest EV seller” after Chinese rival BYD reported a 43% drop in quarterly sales. Analysts expect Rivian to deliver 16,608 vehicles, up 18.9% over Q4 of 2023. Stellantis, Ford, Toyota, GM, and Honda will also release Q1 reports this week, so stay tuned.
Fossil fuel giant Shell is arguing in The Hague this week that a landmark emissions ruling was legally defunct. In 2021, a district court ruled in favor of environmental group Friends of the Earth Netherlands and ordered Shell to cut its greenhouse gas emissions (including scope 3 emissions) by 45% by 2030. “This was the mother of all climate cases against corporations” because it opened the door to copycat cases, Klaas Hendrik Eller, an assistant professor at the University of Amsterdam’s center for transformative private law, told the Financial Times. Shell is appealing, insisting the order lacks legal basis and that companies cannot be held responsible for their clients’ emissions. Friends of the Earth will argue that the scientific evidence shows burning fossil fuels is causing global warming and that “Shell has a responsibility to act in accordance with climate science and international climate agreements.” A ruling is expected in the second half of this year.
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More than 30,200 fires were detected in Venezuela between January and March, the highest number ever recorded for that three-month period. The region is suffering from intense drought driven by human-caused climate change and the El Niño weather pattern. Researchers are worried these fires are a sign of things to come. “Everything is indicating we’re going to see other events of catastrophic fires – megafires that are huge in size and height,” Manoela Machado, a fire researcher at University of Oxford, told Reuters. More than half of all the fires burning in the Amazon rainforest are located in Venezuela.
A case of avian flu has been detected in a human in Texas, marking the first such case since the virus was recently identified in cows across several states, and only the second case in U.S. history. The current outbreak of H5N1 has decimated bird populations across the world and also spread to mammals, including seals, mink, and now cows. Health experts worry the virus could mutate to become easily transmissible between humans, but so far there is no evidence of that happening. Still, “every single time is a little bit of Russian roulette,” said Ashish Jha, who led the Biden administration’s pandemic response. “You play that game long enough and one of these times it will become fit to spread among humans.” Researchers say climate change is altering birds’ breeding habits and migratory patterns in ways that leave them more vulnerable to bird flu.
The price of solar panels has dropped so significantly that some households in Europe are using them as fencing in their yards, the Financial Timesreported. Skyrocketing production out of China means solar panels are cheap and getting cheaper. But at the same time, installation costs for rooftop solar remain high, prompting some DIY-minded homeowners to roll up their sleeves and install panels as fencing. The panels don’t get quite as much sun as they would on a rooftop, but they still work. No word on what the neighbors have to say about it. Peculiar garden aesthetics aside, the solar glut has “brought Europe's solar makers to their knees,” Politicoreported recently. Manufacturers want the European Commission to step in and help them. In the U.S., the cost of a solar panel is now half of what it was last year, and falling.
As of yesterday, anyone living in Colorado can get a $450 discount when buying an e-bike thanks to the nation’s first statewide e-bike tax credit.
On methane emissions, an extreme heat summit, and endangered species
Current conditions: Cyclone Gamane killed at least 18 people in Madagascar • A Saharan dust storm is choking tourist hot spots in the Mediterranean • It’ll be wet and stormy across large parts of California for Easter weekend.
A new study suggests America’s landfills are releasing 40% more methane than what’s being reported. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas responsible for about one-third of global warming since pre-industrial times. It spews from landfills as organic waste breaks down. Most U.S. landfills have to measure their methane emissions, but this new study suggests current monitoring methods – which usually involve sending a worker to check for emissions by walking around the landfill armed with a sensor – are falling short. The research, published in the journal Science, utilized aerial surveys to identify emissions from more than 200 active landfills in 18 states between 2018 and 2022. The researchers detected methane plumes at 52% of the landfills and found most releases went on for months if not years. “If we’re going to hit our climate targets, reductions in methane emissions can’t come from oil and gas alone,” Daniel Cusworth, the study’s lead author and scientist with the non-profit Carbon Mapper, told CNN. “Landfills should be garnering a similar type of attention as oil and gas.”
Starting next week, Ford will begin cutting the workforce at its F-150 Lightning plant in Michigan. Only about 700 of 2,100 workers will remain at the facility. The rest will either be transferred, reassigned, or take a retirement package. Demand for Ford’s electric pickup truck has been “slower than expected,” the company said in January. “The workforce reduction comes as Ford shifts plans from larger EVs to smaller, more affordable ones,” noted Peter Johnson at Electrek, adding that the company faces mounting pressure from competing pickup manufacturers like Tesla, Rivian, and Chevy.
The Biden administration yesterday reinstated regulations in the Endangered Species Act that protect threatened species and their habitats. Under the Trump administration, the regulations were weakened to protect “endangered” but not “threatened” species. The new rules also say agencies can no longer consider economic impacts when deciding whether to list a species as threatened or endangered. “As species face new and daunting challenges, including climate change, degraded and fragmented habitat, invasive species, and wildlife disease, the Endangered Species Act is more important than ever to conserve and recover imperiled species now and for generations to come,” said Martha Williams, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The first ever Global Summit on Extreme Heat took place yesterday. The virtual event, co-hosted by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), aimed to highlight the growing dangers of extreme heat and encourage commitments from governments to develop heat action plans. “At a time when some have grown numb with increasingly familiar headlines about ‘hottest days on record,’ we absolutely need to resolve never to get used to the scale of this problem, never to get used to the threat it poses to human life,” said USAID administrator Samantha Power. The summit ended with the launch of an online Heat Action Hub “where people can share experiences and best practice when it comes to tackling extreme heat.”
In case you missed it: Oregon finalized its right-to-repair law this week. It’s the fourth state to enact Right to Repair rules for consumer electronics, but the new law, SB 1596, is the first in the nation to ban manufacturers from “parts pairing,” a gatekeeping practice in which a device’s software must “pair” with a replacement part in order for that part to work. Banning such practices will make it easier for consumers to fix their devices rather than throw them away. “Electronic waste is growing five times faster than our electronics recycling capacity,” said Nathan Proctor, director of the PIRG Right to Repair Campaign. “We need to cut down the insane cycle of churning through personal electronics — and that starts by empowering repair.” The law will take effect next year.
America's largest banks and asset managers enable substantial greenhouse gas emissions with their investments. If these emissions were to be compared to those of other nations, they would represent the third-largest emitting country in the world, behind China and the U.S.
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