View this email in your browser

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

CARBON REMOVAL GUIDANCE NEEDED: Who’s buying carbon removal—and are they buying the right amount? Skeptics may look at carbon removal purchasing as a distraction from the primary task of emissions cuts, but the fact remains that it’s an essential ingredient for getting the world to net zero emissions by 2050. Some corporations are already purchasing carbon removal, helping to kickstart a nascent industry. But most companies have yet to do so and are without guidance on just how much of it should be bought, when, and what kind of removal is most effective. Speed & Scale offers a POV on what needs to happen to ensure the world can remove its leftover emissions in time. Read it here.

Big Picture

*Microsoft and Orsted received support from the Danish government for a mammoth 2.7M ton project.

OKRs in the News

🚗 1.0 – Electrify Transportation

• No, EV Sales are Not Slowing: Data from Bloomberg NEF shows that EV sales were up 47 percent year-over-year and are projected to be up another 32 percent in 2024.  

• Foreign Manufacturer’s Super Bowl: While the U.S.’s “big three” automakers bailed on EV ads during the Super Bowl, four foreign manufacturers filled the gap with ad spots on their EV efforts.

💡 2.0 – Decarbonize the Grid

• Record-Breaking Solar Power: Texas set records for solar power, which now accounts for 36 percent of the electricity on the state’s power grid. Renewable energy is helping Texas weather storms more effectively.

• Record-Breaking Oil Payout: The oil industry’s record $114 billion cash return to investors in 2023 was 76 percent higher than the average payout during its heyday from 2011 to 2014.

• Orsted’s New Strategic Plan: The offshore wind company’s update to shareholders will make the case that supply chain issues and soaring costs are now contained, laying the basis for a comeback after a very tough year in 2023.

• M&A Wave in Shale: Diamondback Energy Inc. agreed to buy fellow Permian Basin driller Endeavor Energy Resources LP for $26 billion. The consolidation marks another mega-deal in the long-fragmented shale industry.

• China Building Coal Plants With “Off Switches”: Renewables are getting cheaper and China’s fossil fuel emissions are set to peak within the next few years. But China is still building coal plants that will run about half the time. They’re turned on or ramped up as needed.

🐄 3.0 – Fix Food

• Better-Tasting, (Mostly) Plant-Based Foods: Some food startup companies are using meat production byproducts, including animal fat, to make their predominantly plant-based products taste better.

🌳 4.0 – Protect Nature

• Protecting Coral Reefs: The U.S. Government Accountability Office calls for better budget and accounting practices to conserve our coral reefs.

• Climate Corp Update: We’re seeing Biden’s American Climate Corp initiative in action. The United States Department of Agriculture is launching the Working Lands Climate Corps to train at least 100 future conservation and climate leaders in climate-smart agriculture.

• Regenerative Agriculture Gaining More $upport: The global regenerative agriculture market is anticipated to grow from $6 billion to over $24 billion over the next 10 years. This is largely due to rising public sector investments that incentivize this type of farming.

🧱 5.0 – Clean Up Industry

• Promise of Hydrogen: Hydrogen may be our best bet for decarbonizing heavy industry and long-haul transportation, and China is leading the charge. Most of the hydrogen it makes today comes from fossil fuels, but the country has big plans to scale up green hydrogen production and use the fuel to slash emissions from steel and chemical production.

• Renewable Cement: A new project that pairs state-of-the-art solar panels with cutting-edge energy management technology may unlock emissions cuts in the cement industry.

• Cup Craze Backfires: In theory, reusable cups should be better for the environment. But people are buying so many of them as collectibles that it’s actually worse.

• Electrifying Industry: An electrical revolution is coming to heavy industry, The Economist reports. Cement manufacturers are turning to alternate modes of production, relying on electrolysis or “heat batteries” to decarbonize the industry.

🧹 6.0 – Remove Carbon

• Novel Government Guidance: The Council of the European Union and the European Parliament have agreed to establish an EU carbon removals certification framework. This guidance is intended to accelerate deployment of high-quality carbon removal and soil emissions reduction activities.

• Promising Signs for Carbon Removal: CDR.fyi’s end-of-year report contains some important insights. Overall carbon removal purchases grew to 4.5 megatons, up from 0.6 megatons in 2022—a step in the right direction, but not nearly where we need to be. Actual carbon removed has doubled, to 125,000 tons.

• World’s Biggest Carbon Removal Facility: With Bill Gates’ support, a startup is gearing up to kickstart operations this week for what might just become the largest carbon removal facility on the planet. The approach? Move fast and sell cheap, with a sales price of $100 per ton. By the end of this year, the plant is projected to remove 15,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

OKR Highlight

OKR Highlight: 6.0 Remove Carbon

To enable carbon removal technology to be scaled, the Speed & Scale team urges voluntary standards setters to give companies more clarity on how much removal to purchase. Our plan’s target for engineered carbon removal is to remove one gigaton of CO2—one billion tons—per year by 2030, then three billion tons by 2040 and five billion tons by 2050. How can we get there?

For our answer, check out this blog on the Speed & Scale website.

🏛️ 7.0 – Win Politics and Policy

• Natural Gas Permit Freeze: President Biden put a temporary pause on permit approvals for new liquid natural gas (LNG) export facilities while the Department of Energy reviews the issue. The U.S. has sharply expanded LNG exports over the last few years, and questions abound. Does exporting more LNG harm or help the environment? What will happen to domestic electricity and heating prices if we export more LNG? Will the European Union have enough LNG without higher levels of U.S. exports?

• EU’s IRA: The EU passes the Net-Zero Industry Act, which aims to boost industrial deployment of net-zero technologies needed to achieve their climate goals. The idea is to leverage the strength of a vast single market to reinforce Europe’s leadership in industrial green technologies.

• Podesta Replaces Kerry: POLITICO reports that John Podesta has been tapped to replace John Kerry as Biden’s climate envoy. The veteran Democratic strategist has a long history in climate politics, both at home and on the international stage.

• Peak Emissions for China?: China is rapidly expanding its use of renewable energy, to the point that international climate monitors predict the country’s greenhouse gas emissions will peak earlier than expected, possibly as soon as this year.

• GDP and GHG Should Cut Ties: Through most of modern economic history, economic growth has been closely tied to a rise in greenhouse gas emissions. But the IEA reports that this relationship is changing.

• New Carbon Rules for China: New rules give China’s ecological environment department responsibility for managing the country’s carbon emissions trading scheme, including a crackdown on false information.

🏃 8.0 – Turn Movements into Action

• Norway Criticizes ExxonMobil Suit: Norway, which boasts the world’s biggest sovereign wealth fund, has sharply criticized ExxonMobil for suing two shareholders who pushed the fossil fuel giant to set more aggressive emissions reduction targets.

⚡ 9.0 – Innovate

• Gold Hydrogen: With a boost in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy and interest from several climate tech startups, underground drilling just might be a way to scale hydrogen production.

• Climate Emissions Disclosure Pressure: Software startups that help companies track and reduce their greenhouse gas pollution are raising serious cash. Watershed has raised $100 million in its Series C fundraising, bringing its valuation to $1.8 billion and reflecting the growing movement around carbon disclosure.

💰 10.0 – Invest

• Go Green: A new investment fund, Brookfield, raises $10 billion for clean energy deployment despite recent challenges facing these projects and rising anti-ESG sentiment in the financial services industry.

• Climate Tech Investing: Despite the obstacles of high interest rates and rising costs, climate tech venture investment stayed relatively steady, totaling $51 billion in 2023.

• Investing in Developing Nations: While emerging economies suffer the most from the climate crisis, they lack funding for renewable energy solutions because investors are wary of the risks. A new public-private partnership, The Green Guarantee Company, aims to help fix that problem by guaranteeing climate-linked loans. The GGC recently launched with $100 million in funding.

For more, follow Speed and Scale on LinkedIn and X.

Share this email with a friend by forwarding it!