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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.

CLIMATE ON THE GLOBAL DOCKET: Over 76 countries—including the United States and India, two of the top five emitters—will hold elections this year. That’s 2 billion people voting. It’s a pivotal moment in the fight against global warming. Elected leaders will confront crucial challenges on climate disclosure, the phasing out of fossil fuels, expanding renewable energy, and lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

Big Picture

HEATING UP IN THE U.S.: With John Kerry, President Joe Biden’s climate envoy, stepping down from his post, the U.S. is losing its most prominent climate figure on the international stage. Kerry had the rare political capital to meet with heads of state and climate policy counterparts alike. His departure may slow the momentum of recent U.S.-China climate agreements. And an even larger potential threat looms: another Donald Trump presidency. During his last term, Trump showed his cards by pulling the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement and casting doubt on mainstream climate science. Kerry calls Biden’s reelection the “single biggest” factor for climate progress this year. Put simply, the stakes in 2024 are high.

OKRs in the News

🚗 1.0 – Electrify Transportation

• EVs Drive Growth: Despite signs of cooling demand, BMW reports strong orders for EVs. The company’s CEO argues that demand for gas-powered cars peaked last year, and that growth in all-electric models will cover new demand and lead growth for the company.

• But Not for All: With demand for electric vehicles continuing to weaken, Ford will be making cuts and reducing workforce for its F-150 Lightning truck.

• Tesla’s Down: Tesla stock fell 10 percent after narrowly missing earnings estimates. The company warned that its growth rate will be “notably lower” this year.

• GM Invests in South America: General Motors plans to invest $1.4 billion in operations in Brazil over the next five years to accelerate adoption and production of electric vehicles.

• Toyota’s EV Skepticism: Toyota Motors Chairman, Akio Toyoda, estimated that fully electric cars will win only 30 percent of the market, with the remainder captured by hybrids or vehicles using hydrogen technology.

• Electric Trucks: The fleet of electric trucks is small but growing, with up to 13,000 on the road this year. Some companies and trucking associations, citing such burdens as upfront vehicle costs and limited charging infrastructure, worry that electrification is happening too fast.

💡 2.0 – Decarbonize the Grid

• Global Renewable Capacity Grows: Capacity additions increased by almost half to nearly 510 gigawatts in 2023, the fastest growth rate in two decades.

• U.S. Emissions Down: In 2023, for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began, both the U.S. economy and its carbon emissions moved in the right direction, according to an annual estimate by the Rhodium Group. U.S. greenhouse gas pollution fell by 1.9 percent year over year.

• First Major U.S. Offshore Wind Farm On Line: More than 30 miles out in the Atlantic Ocean, the first colossal steel turbines started spinning at South Fork Wind, turning offshore breezes into electricity that lights homes on Long Island.

• Biggest U.S. Renewable Energy Project Underway: A major U.S. wind and power transmission project secured $11 billion in funding, but faces difficulties due to sluggish infrastructure timelines and a grid that’s unprepared for surging electricity demand.

• Record-High Coal Exports: Worldwide electricity generation from coal hit record highs in October 2023, up 1 percent from the same period in 2022. While the world accelerates deployment of renewable energy, it also needs to address its reliance on fossil fuels.

🐄 3.0 – Fix Food

• Denmark’s Food for the Future: Denmark became the first country to unveil a formal action plan for plant-based foods. It called these vegan foods “the future” and laid out steps to increase both supply and demand.

🌳 4.0 – Protect Nature

• Drought Affects One Quarter of Humanity: The UN reports that 1.8 billion people worldwide endured drought in 2022 and 2023, with the harm concentrated in low-income countries. The burning of fossil fuels has worsened these conditions. In Syria and Iraq, for example, a three-year drought would have been highly unlikely without climate change.

• Snow Problem: A new report finds human-caused warming has caused steep declines in the Northern Hemisphere March snowpack. This will hurt spring snow water storage at the hemispheric and river-basin scales, posing risks to water supplies.

🧱 5.0 – Clean Up Industry

• Cementing a Place in History: A Massachusetts-based startup is making serious strides toward producing the first-ever zero-carbon cement.

• World’s First Green Steel: A Swedish startup, H2 Green Steel AB, secured its biggest-ever financing package as it proceeds with the world’s first large-scale green steel plant.

• Decarbonize Cement and Concrete: Ten startups, now the The Decarbonized Cement and Concrete Alliance (DC2), have initiated a unique project to promote the use of cleaner building materials in the U.S. construction market. Their goal is to encourage government policies to support the purchase of low-carbon products for buildings and infrastructure projects.

• Plastic Bags Bans: A new Op Ed argues that ditching plastic bags brings marginal benefits to the environment at best—and may even be making things worse.

🧹 6.0 – Remove Carbon

• Carbon Removal at Davos: Carbon removal advocates aim to leverage the World Economic Forum meeting to boost the industry’s visibility, capitalizing on increased interest from corporations and policymakers in deploying removal to address global warming.

🏛️ 7.0 – Win Politics and Policy

• China’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory: The Chinese government announced plans to create an annual inventory of greenhouse gas emissions, aiming to strengthen carbon trading capabilities and ensure alignment with climate targets. This is part of China’s broader strategy to curb emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.

• Koch Industries’ Comeuppance?: The U.S. Supreme Court will allow Minnesota’s climate deception lawsuit to proceed against ExxonMobil, the American Petroleum Institute, and three Koch Industries entities. They’re accused of defrauding Minnesotans through deceptive portrayals of their products’ impact on climate change.

• Overturn Chevron: The conservative Supreme Court justices in the majority seem inclined to limit or overturn the 1984 Chevron decision, a move that could change the regulatory environment for the environment, healthcare, and consumer safety. The doctrine requires judges to defer to agencies’ reasonable interpretations of ambiguous statutes.

🏃 8.0 – Turn Movements into Action

• COP29 Boys’ Club: COP29, set for Azerbaijan this coming November, is already getting flack for its all-male organizing committee, with She Changes Climate and other groups calling for gender parity in governance. By contrast, 63 percent of the members of the COP28 organizing committee were women.

• School’s in Session: New York may soon join a growing number of states seeking to incorporate climate change into school lesson plans.

• Exxon Suit: ExxonMobil is suing to halt a vote on a climate resolution by a green activist, a move closely monitored by global fossil fuel companies.

• Down on ESG: Despite setting net zero targets, eight major asset managers supported fewer than half of all climate-friendly resolutions, exposing a gap between rhetoric and action.

⚡ 9.0 – Innovate

• Solar Cell Tech: Tandem solar cell technology—the pairing of new perovskite cells with standard silicon cells—could be critical for expediting the global clean energy transition. Seeing record-breaking efficiencies in power conversion, researchers are urging global leaders to invest in solar cell research and manufacturing.

• Volcano-Powered Energy: Scientists in Iceland plan to drill into a volcano’s magma chamber to source an abundant amount of clean, super-hot geothermal energy. Iceland is already a leader in deploying geothermal energy, which heats nine of ten homes in the country.

💰 10.0 – Invest

• Climate Tech Slump: New data from Sightline Climate shows that climate tech companies raised $32 billion in 2023, a 31 percent drop off from the previous year. For the first time since 2020, and in a significant departure from recent trends, there were fewer deals overall.

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