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Welcome to Zeroing In by Speed & Scale, where we cut through the noise to deliver a data-driven update on progress toward net zero.

POLICY PUSH FOR CLEANER VEHICLES: The Biden administration and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) moved forward a key component of its ambitious climate agenda by releasing new regulations designed to drive down U.S. transportation emissions. This new regulation gradually tightens the limits on how much pollution cars can release. By 2032, car companies will need to sell mostly electric vehicles (cars with no tailpipe emissions) to meet these stricter standards. The EPA estimates this rule will avoid over seven billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions over the next 30 years. To put it in perspective, that would be equivalent to eliminating all greenhouse gas emissions from the U.S. for an entire year.  

OKRs in the News

🚗 1.0 – Electrify Transportation

• Charging Roads: Electreon is piloting wireless charging roads–which can recharge a car’s battery while driving on the roads–throughout the U.S., which could address concerns about the range for electric vehicles. (The Wall Street Journal)

• Price Parity: New electric car prices dropped by about $2,000 in the U.S. last month, bringing EVs closer to price parity with gas-powered cars. (The Washington Post)

• EV Lifecycle: From the manufacturing of batteries to the usage of the vehicle, EV lifecycle emissions can be 70% lower than combustion vehicles. (Bloomberg)

• Electrify Trucking: The Biden administration is rolling out its plan for deploying electric vehicle charging and hydrogen fueling infrastructure for long-haul trucking, including increasing the amount of charging stations along key shipping routes. (Bloomberg)

OKR Highlight

OKR Highlight: 1.0 Electrify Transportation

Electrifying transportation isn’t just about passenger cars. We have to slash gigatons in aviation, trucking, and shipping as well. The transportation sector is home to some of the biggest emissions offenders, generating 31% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. It also faces barriers to decarbonization, including unrelenting demand for shipping and high upfront costs. Sustainable aviation fuel alternatives are the path forward, and we’re seeing serious investment in this space. But current sustainable aviation fuels only partly offset emissions from their own combustion. Flying guilt-free in the decades ahead will require scaling the innovations we are seeing in renewable fuel alternatives.

Read more about alternative fuels that could power our planes at speedandscale.com.

💡 2.0 – Decarbonize the Grid

• New Advanced Purchasing Mechanism to Spur Clean Energy Innovation: Microsoft, Google, and Nucor are partnering to develop a new demand aggregation model for clean electricity technologies to help bring first-of-its-kind commercial projects to the market. (Google)

• Offshore Wind Win: The first big offshore U.S. wind farm, South Fork Wind, is complete. The 132 MW wind farm can power 70,000 homes in New York. (Canary Media)

• IEA Methane Tracker: The IEA reports the fossil fuel industry—which hit record emissions last year—must cut methane emissions 75% by 2030 in order to be on pace for net zero emissions in 2050. The report’s proposed interventions, including changes in operator behavior, equipment upgrades, and capture technology, would require an estimated $170 billion investment by the end of the decade, or roughly 5% of the industry’s 2023 revenue. (Bloomberg)

• Electricity Demand Surge: The demand for electricity in the United States is unexpectedly surging due to the rise of data centers, factories, and electric vehicles. The nationwide electricity demand is projected to jump from 2.6% to 4.7% in growth over the next five years. (The New York Times)

• Electricity Demands Investors’ Thoughts: Data center energy demands dominated climate talks at CERAWeek, highlighting the growing competition for limited electricity resources in the U.S.—and AI could make it worse. (Axios)

🐄 3.0 – Fix Food

• Missing Meat: The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)’s food system roadmap does not include a plan for curbing meat consumption, which is one of the most effective ways to cut food emissions. Researchers published a piece calling the FAO out for less-than-transparent methodology and lacking justification for missing these critical interventions. (The Guardian)

• Reducing Food Waste at Sea: The world’s largest cruise ship serves 10,000 people a day. It reduces food waste by putting leftovers through a microwave-assisted process that turns the food scraps into pellets that can be used as fuel for the ship. (The Wall Street Journal)

🌳 4.0 – Protect Nature

• Cool Trees: Researchers found a “warming hole,” in the southeast of the U.S. where temperatures have actually cooled over the last 50 years; the result of a reforestation effort in the region. In all, the newer forests cool the eastern U.S. by 1°C to 2°C (1.8°F to 3.6°F) each year. (The Guardian)

• Climate Policy Tradeoffs: The EU’s upcoming rule bans imports linked to deforestation. It will require companies to tackle deforestation throughout their supply chains for a variety of products. However, companies will need to bring the countries they import from along for the ride, raising questions on how to navigate the economic and political trade-offs demanded by climate change. (The New York Times)

• Black-led Conservation: The 40 Acre Conservation League, California’s first and only Black-led land trust, is preparing to break ground after acquiring 650 acres of land in Placer County last year. (Essence)

🧱 5.0 – Clean Up Industry

• Race to Make Concrete Green: Concrete accounts for more than 7 percent of global carbon emissions, according to some estimates, and it is the second-most used material in the world after water. Now, investors are competing to develop more sustainable production methods, including big names like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos putting their hats (and wallets) in the ring. (The Wall Street Journal)

• Holcim, For Example: Holcim, the giant Swiss cement and concrete manufacturer and the largest producer outside China, continues to lobby governments to enact legislation that supports the development of lower-carbon materials and incentivizes the implementation of carbon-capture initiatives. (Fast Company)

• Plastics Treaty: A treaty on plastic reduction, which is likely to cover everything from plastics production to ocean clean-up, is imminent. It’s already gained backing from big purchases of plastic, including companies such as Coca-Cola Co. and Unilever. (Bloomberg)

• DOE Cleans Up Industry: The Department of Energy announced a $6 billion investment to support clean energy projects in hard-to-abate industries, including cement and steel. This is a monumental move as researchers project a long-term rise in demand for cement in developing countries. (The New York Times)

🧹 6.0 – Remove Carbon

• Multi-Million Removals: Google will match the U.S. federal government’s purchase of $35 million in carbon removal credits through the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Carbon Dioxide Removal Purchase program. (Google)

• Major Price Milestone: Spiritus announced plans to build its first direct air capture project in Wyoming and shows serious promise that it can bring costs down to less than $100 per ton, a key benchmark for the technology’s scalability. (Heatmap)

• Metal Capable of Removing CO2 From the Air: Researchers at Oregon State University have achieved a breakthrough in direct air capture (DAC) technology: When molecules of the metal vanadium are bound with oxygen, they can pull carbon dioxide from the air. This paves the way for the development of more efficient methods for CO2 sequestration. (Oregon Capital Chronicle)

• We Need to Talk Removal: Representatives of EU member governments warned that large-scale carbon dioxide removal must be a key part of any successful response to climate change. (Financial Times)

🏛️ 7.0 – Win Politics and Policy

• Growing Market for Green Tax Credits: President Biden’s climate law has created a growing market for green tax credits. Treasury Department data shows companies have registered 45,500 projects for possible sale on a new tax-credit marketplace. (The New York Times)

• Stubborn Fossil Fuel Subsidies: President Biden’s budget request to Congress was his fourth attempt to eliminate what he called “wasteful subsidies” to an industry that is enjoying record profits. But, the tax incentives have proven difficult to do away with. (The New York Times)

🏃 8.0 – Turn Movements into Action

• Big Oil Questions Energy Transition: Unsurprisingly, Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said the current energy transition strategy is failing. He argued the focus should be on reducing emissions, not phasing out oil and gas that are the most serious emissions offenders, because alternative energy sources will be unable to displace fossil fuels at scale. (CNBC)

• Equitable Clean Energy Access: Microsoft signs on to financially support a new clean energy initiative, the development of Hickory Solar Park, a new community solar project that will facilitate more equitable paths to renewable energy. (ESG Today)

• Cancer Alley: Residents of “Cancer Alley,” in Louisiana, where people live on the frontlines of some 200 fossil fuel and petrochemical operations, are demanding action from state and federal regulators to protect the air, land, water, and health of Louisiana residents from harms caused by the fossil fuel and petrochemical industry. (Human Rights Watch)

⚡ 9.0 – Innovate!

• EV Price Competition Heats Up: The world’s largest maker of batteries for electric cars, China’s CATL, claims it will slash the cost of its batteries by up to 50% this year, amid a price war with the second-largest maker in China, BYD subsidiary FinDreams. (The Conversation)

• Powering the Future: A new battery technology is helping light up Australia’s homes and businesses without using lithium. Instead, these batteries rely on sodium – which is more plentiful – and they could be another step in the quest for a truly sustainable battery. (BBC)

• Green Hydrogen is the New Oil: The green hydrogen market is projected to expand from about $1 billion today to $30 billion in 2030, according to MarketsandMarkets. Forbes reports that green hydrogen has the potential to be this century’s “energy king,” with the UAE, Germany, Japan, and South Korea leading the charge on investment. (Forbes)

💰 10.0 – Invest!

• Climate Adaption Investing: Amid some of the most extreme weather events of our lifetime, “climate adaptation” companies are attracting increased attention from big investors, with BlackRock Investment Institute calling adaptation an emerging investment theme. (Reuters)

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