This edition zeroes in on the fall clean energy to-do list—before tax credits vanish. From Ford’s EV reset to China’s clean tech dominance and the race against rising heat in Paris, see where progress is accelerating and where the stakes are climbing.

CLEAN ENERGY TO-DO LIST: As kids go back to school and fall home improvement projects are upon us, make sure to add this to the top of your list: Take advantage of clean energy tax credits before they’re gone.

With the passage of the Trump Administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill, a range of tax credits will expire over the next several months. But there’s still a window to benefit from some key programs—while lowering your energy bills and investing in energy-efficient vehicles and home improvements. You can make your plan here.

• September 30, 2025 – Electric Vehicles Tax Credit: Up to $7,500 for new vehicles or $4,000 for used. For information on restrictions based on income or vehicle price and model, see here.

• December 31, 2025 – Solar Panels Tax Credit: An uncapped 30 percent, including labor and some piping and wiring.

• December 31, 2025 – Energy Efficiency Tax Credit: Up to $1,200 for a 30 percent credit for new insulation, doors or windows, or an energy audit. Plus an additional $2,000 for qualified heat pumps, water heaters, and biomass stoves or boilers.

• June 30, 2026 – EV Charger Tax Credit: $1,000.

Everyone is needed to advance clean, accessible, low-cost energy options for all and a habitable planet for our future. Add a ✅ next to your fall to-do list.

Resources: IRS FAQ and Time: How to Use Federal Clean Energy Tax Credits Before They Disappear

OKRs in the News

🚗 1.0 – Electrify Transportation

• Built to Budget: Ford is investing $5 billion to create smaller, affordable EVs. Starting with a $30,000 mid-sized electric pickup in 2027, the move marks a dramatic shift from Ford’s earlier big-EV strategy and aims to compete with Chinese rivals through efficiency and innovation (Bloomberg).

• Power in Reverse: Massachusetts is piloting a 100-site Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) program to test how EVs can send power back to buildings and the grid. The idea is to provide backup during blackouts and payouts during peak demand. With federal funding and a 2030 target of 900,000 EVs, the pilot aims to boost resilience and EV adoption (Tech Brew).

🐄 3.0 – Fix Food

• Credits for a Cause: Food banks in the Global South are turning food rescue into climate action by tracking avoided methane emissions and piloting a new carbon credit system. The revenue could help them scale operations, reduce food waste, and meet rising demand as global aid budgets shrink (Grist).

🌳 4.0 – Protect Nature

• Paris Under Pressure: Paris is preparing for a future where 122°F heat waves could cripple its infrastructure, close hospitals and schools, and endanger lives. With climate-driven extremes arriving faster than expected, the city is racing to green its streets, cool its buildings, and transform urban design before it’s too late (New York Times).

• Fire Forecast: In both Washington state and California, climate change is fueling longer, drier, and more dangerous fire seasons, with California now seeing peak wildfire activity creep into spring and Washington bracing for an “inevitable” megafire in its wettest forests. As fire seasons shift and accelerate, emergency planners are racing to adapt strategies, protect communities, and confront the growing strain on firefighting resources (New York Times and New York Times).

🧱 5.0 – Clean Up Industry

• Strategic Misfire: While China’s export restrictions on rare earth elements have rattled global markets, the move is accelerating efforts to diversify supply chains and develop alternatives. Governments and companies are ramping up investments in mining, recycling, and rare-earth-free technologies to reduce dependence on a single country (The Economist).

• Check It Out: In an effort to reduce waste and expand access, a public library in Maine is redefining community sharing with a free “Library of Things,” offering everything from ukuleles to tomato strainers. With over 1,500 borrowable items and growing local interest, the model is catching on at other libraries across the state (New York Times).

🧹 6.0 – Remove Carbon

• Big Bets and Careful Steps: Tech giants are taking different approaches to decarbonization. Microsoft is leading the carbon removal market with bold, early investments across dozens of technologies, aiming to scale supply and lower costs. Meanwhile, Amazon is taking a slower, more selective approach, prioritizing ecosystem integrity, market access for smaller players, and high-quality project standards (Wall Street Journal).

• Seas of Change: Frontier, a coalition of corporate buyers accelerating carbon removal, has signed a $31 million offtake with Planetary, a company using ocean alkalinity enhancement to remove CO₂. The deal funds the scalable, low-cost removal of 115,000 tons of CO₂ by 2030, while also fighting ocean acidification and benefiting coastal marine ecosystems (Frontier Climate).

🏛️ 7.0 – Win Politics And Policy

• The Right to Conserve: Conservative groups like the American Conservation Coalition are pushing for a “nature is nonpartisan” approach to environmental stewardship, even as federal policies expand fossil fuel development and roll back protections. The tension reflects a broader challenge: aligning bipartisan values with urgent climate action before time runs out (Grist).

• Fueling a New Future: India is investing $92 billion to become a global green hydrogen hub. The country aims to create 500K jobs, cut fossil fuel imports, and capture 10 percent of the global market by 2030. With costs falling and international partnerships growing, the challenge now lies in scaling infrastructure, technology, and policy to match ambition (South China Morning Post).

• All-Electric Empire State: New York has become the first state to require all-electric new buildings, phasing out gas in most structures by the end of this year to cut emissions, lower energy bills, and improve air quality. The new code survived legal challenges and industry pushback, marking a major win for building decarbonization and environmental justice (Canary Media).

🏃 8.0 – Turn Movements Into Action

• Clock’s Ticking: With only 28 countries submitting updated climate plans ahead of COP30, Brazil is making a last-ditch appeal for stronger commitments by the UN’s September deadline. As host of the summit, Brazil faces both logistical hurdles and high diplomatic stakes in showing where the world stands on climate progress–and how countries can work collectively to limit global warming (The Guardian).

• Climate to State of Mind: A global study analyzing 1.2 billion social media posts across 157 countries found that extreme heat significantly worsens people’s negative feelings, especially in lower-income nations, where mood declines were three times more severe. As climate stress rises, emotional well-being is emerging as a critical, unequal dimension of global adaptation (MIT News).

OKR Highlight

FROM LOW-TECH TO HIGH-TECH DOMINANCE, PATENT PROMINENCE: Once seen as a copycat, China is now the world’s driving force for innovation in solar and wind power, electric cars, and EV batteries. In 2000, according to an analysis in the New York Times, Chinese applicants filed just 18 high-quality clean energy patents. In 2022, they filed over five thousand, more than twice as many as in the United States. In battery technology, for example, nearly two-thirds of widely cited technical papers are coming from China, versus 12 percent from the U.S. In July, China moved to restrict any transfer of eight Chinese battery technologies to other countries. As the Times noted, “That would very likely cement China’s dominant role…unless other countries invest similarly in research.”  

Driven by state-backed investment, research dominance, and aggressive industrial policy, China’s breakthroughs are reshaping the global energy transition. They mark the culmination of “Made in China 2025,” a 10-year program to dominate the world’s high-tech markets—including clean energy. What’s next: The innovation powerhouse is turning its attention to newer technologies, including carbon capture, smart grids, and the electrification of heavy industry.

⚡ 9.0 – Innovate!

• Hydrogen Harbor: After launching the United States’ first commercial hydrogen-powered ferry in San Francisco, Switch Maritime is now tapping a $2 million state grant to develop a larger, faster vessel for New York City. Switch aims to prove that green hydrogen can scale to power maritime transit if fuel supply challenges can be met (Canary Media).

• Recharge, Reuse, Repeat: Toyota is repurposing old EV and hybrid batteries into a flexible energy storage system to help power Mazda’s Hiroshima factory with solar energy. The system offers a scalable second-life solution for clean energy and circular manufacturing for aging batteries (Heatmap).

💰 10.0 – Invest!

• AI Fuels Green Rebound: As AI supercharges U.S. electricity demand, green tech firms tied to data centers—especially in nuclear, geothermal, and energy storage—are seeing a surge in investment. Moreover, global renewable energy investment hit a record $386 billion in the first half of 2025, led by offshore wind and small-scale solar. While Trump-era rollbacks threaten parts of the sector, innovation backed by Big Tech is giving new life to next-gen climate solutions (Bloomberg and BloombergNEF).

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