This edition explores bank pullbacks, AI’s energy strain, and supply chain shifts, plus bright spots in EV growth, clean power, air quality, and more!

LOOMING UNCERTAINTY: On April 29th and 30th, the 17th annual BloombergNEF Summit New York brought together more than 500 global leaders at the forefront of the energy transition. The event convened policymakers, financiers, executives, and technologists to examine the most pressing challenges and opportunities in clean energy, sustainable finance, and climate innovation. The most consistent throughline, however, was uncertainty. Banks are quietly exiting the frontlines of the transition by abandoning absolute emissions targets and leaving the Net Zero Banking Alliance, which has lost 40 percent of its assets in just the past four months. They’re also rethinking their support for green hydrogen and carbon capture, as well as storage as policy incentives come under threat. Data center demand surfaced repeatedly, with oil and gas firms positioning themselves as ready suppliers for a category expected to consume 9 percent of U.S. electricity by 2035. Potential tariffs have forced companies to shape supply chains around minimizing trade costs rather than reducing emissions. With COP30 in Brazil just six months ahead, there’s cautious optimism that multilateral alignment will focus on action (Bloomberg).

OKRs in the News

🚗 1.0 – Electrify Transportation

• Mineral Bottleneck: A single rare earth magnet, powered by dysprosium and refined almost entirely in China, is now at the center of U.S. electric vehicle manufacturing. As China slows exports, automakers face a potential supply crisis that threatens EV production and exposes the national security and climate vulnerability of relying on a monopolized mineral supply chain (Wall Street Journal).

• Breathing Room: Over the past two decades, Paris has reengineered its streets, swapping traffic lanes for bike paths, expanding green space, and eliminating 50,000 parking spots. The result: Air pollution has plummeted, with PM2.5 down 55 percent and nitrogen dioxide falling by half since 2005 (Washington Post).

OKR Highlight

Global EV sales jumped 24 percent in 2024, to more than 17 million units, and are projected to exceed 22 million in 2025—progress toward the 2030 target of 50 percent market share. China led with 65 percent of global EV sales, while Europe and North America showed slower growth, hindered by policy uncertainty and supply chain issues. In North America, EVs made up just 11 percent of new car sales last year, underscoring the need for stronger incentives, affordable models, and more robust EV charging infrastructure.

To meet Speed & Scale’s OKR 1.2, which calls for an annual 40-plus million EV sales by 2030, automakers and governments must act urgently to scale production and support adoption in lagging markets.

KNOWLEDGE HUB 🧠

Nuclear power accounts for almost 10 percent of electricity generation globally and is one of the critical energy sources in decarbonizing the grid.

How much do you know about the history of nuclear power? Take the WSJ quiz and find out: LINK

🐄 3.0 – Fix Food

• Beef Makes A Comeback: U.S. meat consumption rose nearly 7 percent above pre-pandemic levels in 2024, with sales hitting a record $104.6 billion (New York Times).

• The Compost Whisperer: Massachusetts is tackling methane-heavy food waste with a statewide ban on commercial food dumping. Any business that generates over half a ton of weekly waste must now compost instead (New York Times).

🌳 4.0 – Protect Nature

• Reef Grief: A sweeping marine heatwave has triggered the worst global coral bleaching event on record, with 84 percent of reefs exposed to dangerous levels of thermal stress since 2023. Driven by record ocean temperatures, acidification, and prolonged El Niño conditions, this mass bleaching threatens ecosystems that support one third of marine biodiversity and are worth billions of dollars in coastal protection (Washington Post).

• Weather Gets Dimensional: Macau-based startup Knoweather launched Kournal LENS, a 3D weather visualization tool that renders dynamic atmospheric data into interactive, real-time graphics—no code required. By moving beyond outdated 2D charts, it aims to enhance public understanding of complex weather systems and reduce climate misinformation (Bloomberg).

🧱 5.0 – Clean Up Industry

• Concrete Setback: Under the Trump administration, the EPA has canceled 21 grants aimed at cutting cement emissions. The stall in federal support has pushed states and Congress to fill the gap with “buy clean” laws, which have bipartisan momentum (Environmental Health News).

• China’s Magnetic Hold: Despite early warnings, the U.S. remains dependent on China for rare earth magnets. Beijing now controls 90 percent of these critical resources, a point of vulnerability for the clean energy and defense industries. Other countries have shown more foresight. After a 2010 Chinese embargo, Japan took action to build a resilient rare earth supply chain (New York Times).

🧹 6.0 – Remove Carbon

• Mine Over Matter: Carbon removal advocates are pitching U.S. mining operations on enhanced rock weathering, framing it as a Trump-aligned strategy to boost domestic production and outcompete China. The $100 billion-plus idea involves turning mining waste into stable minerals or dissolved carbonates to lock up CO₂ (Axios).

🏛️ 7.0 – Win Politics And Policy

• U.S. Absent at the Table: World leaders, including those from China, the EU, and Brazil, convened for a two-hour virtual meeting on climate action, with the U.S. notably left off the invite list. With COP30 on the horizon, and as the Trump administration retreats from global climate diplomacy, other countries are pressing forward on new emissions targets (Bloomberg).

• Charging the AI Race: To stay ahead in the AI race with China, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson argues that the U.S. must rapidly scale clean energy alongside natural gas. Without a national energy strategy, he suggests that rising power demands from data centers could derail both innovation and energy security (Financial Times).

• Trade War, Climate Casualty: The U.S. has slapped tariffs as high as 3,521 percent on solar imports from Southeast Asia, a major win for domestic manufacturers but a blow to clean energy deployment. With 77 percent of solar modules affected, the move deepens uncertainty for the United States’ clean energy buildout (Bloomberg).

🏃 8.0 – Turn Movements Into Action

• iProgress: Apple has cut global emissions by over 60 percent without any carbon offsets and remains on track to hit carbon neutrality by 2030. With recycled materials in all magnets and batteries, and suppliers sourcing 31 million MWh of clean energy, the tech giant is scaling sustainability across its entire supply chain (ESG Dive).

• Geothermal Gets Googled: Google just signed its first geothermal energy deal in Asia, partnering with global geothermal developer Baseload Capital to bring 10 MW of always-on clean power to Taiwan’s grid. The move supports Google’s 24/7 clean energy goal and helps unlock geothermal markets across the Asia-Pacific (Google).

• Balancing the Bank: Amid Trump-era scrutiny, the World Bank is softening its climate messaging and emphasizing jobs and energy security while standing by its climate financing goals. As pressure mounts from the U.S., its largest shareholder, the bank is treading carefully to protect funding and avoid stoking political backlash (Politico).

⚡ 9.0 – Innovate!

• Sunblock Trials: The UK is moving to approve geoengineering experiments that aim to reflect sunlight and cool the planet, including cloud brightening and aerosol injections. Backed by $66 million (£50 million) in funding, these trials reflect a growing concern that cutting emissions alone may not be enough to prevent catastrophic warming. Geoengineering remains controversial, however, due to possible unintended consequences (Telegraph).

• Seaweed to the Rescue: Islands in the Caribbean are turning a seaweed crisis into a climate opportunity, with Grenada aiming to transform 10,000 tons of sargassum seaweed into fuel and fertilizer by 2026. Startups like SarGas are converting the smelly algae into clean energy, offering a local fix to cut emissions, power homes, and protect tourism (Washington Post).

💰 10.0 – Invest!

• Young Money, Green Future: Eighty percent of Gen Z and Millennials report plans to increase sustainable investment allocations, according to Morgan Stanley’s 2025 global investor survey. Eighty-eight percent of investors globally say they’re interested in sustainable investing, while 85 percent believe sustainability and financial performance can go hand in hand (ESG Today).

• Green Bonds Go Dark: Facing political blowback and rising scrutiny, U.S. companies have mostly abandoned green bonds in 2025, with issuance down nearly 89 percent year-over-year in March 2025. As corporate America retreats from ESG-labeled debt, global markets press ahead, leaving the U.S. climate finance effort quieter and more cautious than ever (Bloomberg).

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