Energy

Over the past several weeks, I’ve explored both potential pathways (such as direct-to-customer online car sales and subscription services) and obstacles (such as charging availability and reliability, and battery issues) to accelerating electric vehicle (EV) adoption. I also briefly touched on something else I want to dig deeper into this week — financial incentives for

In this article 9503.T-JP RDSA-GB EQNR-NO Statkraft Norway’s Statkraft said Tuesday that a long-term purchasing agreement related to a floating offshore wind farm dubbed “the world’s largest” had started, in another step forward for the energy sector. The Kincardine Offshore Windfarm is a six turbine, 50 megawatt facility located in waters off the coast of

It’s Climate Week, a sprawling mélange of events, webinars, workshops, private dinners and other meetups — mostly virtual, but plenty of them taking place in New York City. And did I mention reports? Lots of them, last week and this. Call me jaded, but it’s hard to get overly excited about the litany of pronouncements and

September 19, 2021: Prime Minister Boris Johnson boards RAF Voyager at Stansted Airport ahead of a visit to the United States. Stefan Rousseau – PA Images | PA Images | Getty Images There is a six out of 10 chance an agreement on climate finance will be reached before the forthcoming COP26 climate change summit,

Earlier this summer, a slew of headlines showered doom and gloom on clothing rental schemes, proclaiming them “the worst green option,” “worse for the planet than just throwing [clothing] away” and “no cure for fast fashion.” All this vitriol came in the wake of a Finnish report that compares the global warming potential of a

Aman Sharma | Getty Images LONDON — Britain’s energy industry could be headed for a significant shakeup, industry insiders have warned, as countries all over Europe grapple with an unprecedented crisis in the power sector. Wholesale gas prices have spiked across the region, with the U.K. being hit particularly hard. The front-month gas price at the

This article originally appeared on the NRDC Expert Blog. It’s well known that cutting carbon emissions is necessary to achieve a clean and safe future. That’s because carbon dioxide (CO2) — a potent greenhouse gas — makes up 75 percent of the human-caused emissions currently accelerating climate change. One proposal for reducing CO2 is “carbon

In this article AIR-FR BMW-DE RR.-GB Matt Cardy | Getty Images News | Getty Images Rolls-Royce’s first all-electric aircraft has completed its maiden flight, soaring across skies in the U.K. for around 15 minutes this week. In a statement, the company said the aircraft’s trip on Wednesday marked “the beginning of an intense flight-testing phase”

A new model compost procurement policy developed by the Environmental Law Institute and NRDC could help municipalities around the country in their efforts to divert food scraps and other organic materials from their landfills and incinerators and, in so doing, realize myriad economic and environmental benefits. The model policy, which is designed to be an off-the-shelf, easily adaptable tool,

An Emirati woman paddles a canoe past skyscrapers in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019. Christopher Pike | Bloomberg | Getty Images Abu Dhabi’s property market is showing signs of steady growth, as the oil rich capital of the United Arab Emirates recovers from the deep blows of the coronavirus pandemic.

Long-duration energy storage — defined as a system that can store energy for more than 10 hours — is often called the Holy Grail of clean energy. It is the linchpin technology that will allow the economy to truly run off intermittent renewable energy sources and backup power after grid disruptions.  It’s been the Next

In this article TSLA Smith Collection/Gado | Archive Photos | Getty Images Tesla is trying to placate some solar customers who say they faced sudden price hikes earlier this year, according to new filings with the U.S. district court in San Jose, California. In a Thursday filing, customers’ attorneys wrote, “Tesla informed counsel for Plaintiffs that Tesla had

Deforestation has been the poster child of the environmental movement for decades. For good reason, as healthy forests are of primary importance for biodiversity, climate and local livelihoods. But they’re not the only ecosystem we should be concerned about.  In the U.S., temperate grasslands, savannas and shrublands, mostly found in the Great Plains, are the

An iceberg is seen at the shore of a graveyard in Nuuk, Greenland, September 13, 2021. Hannibal Hanschke | REUTERS To mitigate the effects of climate change, the world will have to spend at least 50% of total climate finance on adaptation, such as shoring up land at risk from rising sea level and relocating

This week’s run time is 41:38. WEEK IN REVIEW (5:00) FEATURES Corporate sustainability’s diversity challenge (24:30) New research out this week from Diversity in Sustainability offers insights into the barriers that must be addressed to attract and include more Black, Indigenous, LatinX and Asian individuals in the corporate sustainability profession. Co-founder Heather Mak weighs in. 

In this article @NG.1 Natural gas prices are making some unnatural moves. After a nearly 40% rally in the last month — an unusually outsized move for any commodity — the charts are now flashing warning signs, Miller Tabak’s Matt Maley told CNBC’s “Trading Nation” on Thursday. Natural gas prices fell by about 3.5% on

In 1918, German chemists Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch created a process to produce ammonia fertilizer that was cheap and effective. It’s still the most commonly used fertilizer on fields today. Pivot Bio and its CEO, Karsten Temme, are working on changing that.  The Haber-Bosch method pulls nitrogen from the air (a process called nitrogen-fixing)

Round bales of straw drying on the field are seen in front of the power station operated by RWE AG near Rommerskirchen, Germany on August 10, 2021. The cost of natural gas and electricity has surged across Europe. Ying Tang | NurPhoto | Getty Images LONDON — European power prices have spiraled to multi-year highs

This article originally was published on WRI.org.  The start of the 2021 monsoon season was a promising time for India’s farmers and water users. Heavy rains in June and the beginning of July filled the country’s reservoirs in states such as Maharashtra and Telangana. Abundance of water was also good for the country’s thermal power

In this article UBER PDG-GB A space for electric vehicle charging in London, U.K. Keith Mayhew/SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images The CEO of major automotive retailer Pendragon has acknowledged the challenges facing the electric vehicle sector but believes that adoption rates will increase going forward. Speaking to CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Wednesday,

This week brings part one of a two-part conclusion to my mini-series about pathways and obstacles to getting more people into electric vehicles (EVs). Learning new EV jargon, particularly related to EV charging, can be really daunting for most first-time buyers or lessees. Finding easily accessible, comprehensible information on the topic can be really difficult

In this article ENGI-FR This image shows Orbital Marine Power’s 2 megawatt turbine, the Orbital O2. Scottish engineering firm Orbital Marine Power is to lead a consortium focused on the commercial deployment of floating tidal energy. In a statement on Monday, the company, which has previously described its 2 megawatt O2 tidal turbine as the “world’s

Further down the road, there will be an extended and passionate debate on when, how and why humanity lost the opportunity to mitigate the expanding climate crisis. For now, it’s all hands on deck. Several recent developments illustrate the increasing dimensions of the crisis: Intensifying and widening risks: According to the sixth assessment report of

Peter Cade | Stone | Getty Images The solar industry is among many sectors feeling the pinch of higher prices, according to a report released Tuesday by the Solar Energy Industries Association and Wood Mackenzie. Prices rose quarter over quarter and year over year across every solar segment during the period. It’s the first time

Date/Time: October 12, 2021 (1-2PM ET / 10-11AM PT) Today, supply-chain and sustainability executives are being held to a higher degree of responsibility from both customers, regulatory officials and investors. A global study by Unilever found one in three customers purchasing from brands with perceived social or environmental impact. As a result, more companies are

Demonstrators display signs and a banner during a “No Climate, No Deal” march on the White House, in Washington, DC, June 28, 2021. Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters After a summer of astonishing climate extremes, a landmark scientific report on climate change provides another stark warning.  It states we have less than a decade to stabilize

In the coming weeks, the world’s nations will converge under the auspices of the United Nations to address one of the most critical issues of our time — one that has existential implications for every living thing. The decisions made at that summit, and whose views dominate, could be momentous, with long-lasting impacts for companies,

Adriana Van De Wal | EyeEm | Getty Images The chairman of the Energy Transitions Commission has highlighted the role both companies and governments can play when it comes to reducing emissions, emphasizing the importance of the upcoming COP26 summit on climate change. In a wide-ranging interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” at the end

Climate change is rattling the world’s central bankers. With unprecedented heat and wildfires in the American West and southern Europe, and record floods racing through German towns and Chinese megacities in recent weeks, fears are growing among regulators of a coming cascade of climate-induced economic blows potentially more far-reaching and intractable than the financial crash

In this article BRK.A MAERSK.B-DK whitemay | iStock Unreleased | Getty Images Denmark’s Maersk has invested in WasteFuel, a California-based start-up centered around the conversion of agricultural and municipal waste into fuels, in order to “develop green bio-methanol production in the Americas and Asia.” In an announcement Wednesday, the world’s largest container shipping firm explained

This week’s run time is 31:41. WEEK IN REVIEW (6:10) FEATURES COP26 (20:00) This week, several high-profile environmental groups called for COP26 to be postponed, over potential inequity of access by developing names. James Murray, editor in chief of BusinessGreen, chats about what’s in store — at least for now.  *Music in this episode: ”Curiousity,” “Old

choja | E+ | Getty Images The White House on Wednesday outlined a plan for solar energy to supply nearly half of the nation’s electricity by 2050. The ambitious goal would see solar rising from 3% of generation in 2020 to 40% by 2035 before ultimately hitting 45% by 2050. Heavy spending across industries will

Date/Time: October 7, 2021 (1-2PM ET / 10-11AM PT) The last five years have seen significant growth in the number of Americans who say they want to buy eco-friendly products — 42% as of January 2021, according to the latest Shelton Group research. There has also been significant growth in the number of people who

In this article DVN RRC COG AR LNG Flames from a flaring pit near a well in the Bakken Oil Field. The primary component of natural gas is methane, which is odorless when it comes directly out of the gas well. In addition to methane, natural gas typically contains other hydrocarbons such as ethane, propane,

This story originally was published Sept. 12, 2011. On that sunny September Tuesday, as the planes hit their targets, I was sitting in a windowless conference room about 130 miles away, inside a Sheraton Hotel sandwiched between Terminals A and B at Bradley International Airport, just north of Hartford, Connecticut. I was part of a

Streetlights, headlights, and apartments with lights on around noon on Sept. 9, 2020, in Russian Hill, San Francisco. Christina Farr | CNBC One year ago today was the most terrifying day of my life. I’ve faced personal tragedies and professional setbacks, but there are templates to deal with those. You rely on friends and family,

This story originally appeared in Eos and is republished here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalistic collaboration to strengthen coverage of the climate story. Nitrogen use efficiency, an indicator that describes how much fertilizer reaches a harvested crop, has decreased by 22 percent since 1961, according to new findings by an international

In this article NES.N-CH The CEO of consumer goods giant Nestle told CNBC Thursday that sustainability concerns among its younger customers were “off the charts” and a major influence on purchasing decisions. “If you win their hearts and minds, I mean, this is the future growth of the business,” Mark Schneider, a founding member of

The Biden administration is pushing to turbocharge the U.S. shift from fossil fuels to cleaner energy as part of its massive infrastructure upgrade and battle against climate change. Modernizing the aging U.S. electrical grid needs to be part of this push — and new thinking, investment and innovation must be part of the plan. To

The CFS and MIT teams working on the magnet. Credit: Gretchen Ertl, CFS/MIT-PSFC, 2021 Fusion took a key step forward in its movement from the lab to commercial viability with the successful test of a key technology — a very powerful magnet that uses very little energy. Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s

The Jones family has a simple mantra: “There’s no need to boast about doing good, just do good.” That mindset has guided four generations of family leadership at Seaman Paper as it quietly grew from a small paper mill in Massachusetts to a global company, employing 1,000, with sustainability as a top priority. As of

In this article 7267.T-JP 7203.T-JP BMW-DE The Hyundai Xcient Fuel Cell truck on display during the 3rd China International Import Expo (CIIE) at the National Exhibition and Convention Center on November 5, 2020 in Shanghai, China. Zhang Hengwei | China News Service | Getty Images The Hyundai Motor Group plans to develop hydrogen fuel cell

In the Conshohocken borough of Pennsylvania, IKEA is buying back furniture from customers. At least until later this month. The buyback program, part of the company’s effort to become a circular business by 2030, is a pilot that started Aug. 30 and will run until Sept. 19. “This means transforming the current linear business model

In this article HOL.N-CH GE SGRE-ES ENR-DE RWE-DE Wind turbine in backlight Jorg Greuel | DigitalVision | Getty Images Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy said Tuesday it had launched a recyclable wind turbine blade, a move which represents the latest example of how the industry is attempting to find ways to re-use materials. In a statement,

2021 has been a scorching year for extreme heat events across North America — cities across the usually temperate Pacific Northwest reached temperatures as high as 117 degrees Fahrenheit in July.  Across the border into Canada, temperatures in Lytton, British Columbia, broke the country’s all-time national high temperature with a high of 116 degrees F

Longtime market bull Tom Lee is predicting a profitable period for investors in September. According to Lee, the S&P 500 is positioned to surge more than 100 points this month. However, he warns the positive momentum has an expiration date. “We could have a really strong rally in September,” the Fundstrat Global Advisors’ co-founder and

Fungi-focused food startups are starting to sprout almost overnight. New producers are finding innovative ways to supply the growing market for alternative proteins, alongside plant-based burgers, sausages and “chicken” nugget substitutes made from soy, pea or other proteins. Fermenting the root-like spores of specific mushrooms (using the same, age-old process that creates beer and bread)

An E10 petrol pump in Kettering, England, photographed on September 1, 2021. Joe Giddens | PA Images | Getty Images The U.K. government has started the rollout of E10 gasoline to pumps, claiming the fuel, which contains ethanol, could cut carbon dioxide emissions from transport by 750,000 tonnes each year. This equates to removing 350,000