Changing of the guard on climate disclosure as methane satellite launches
Plus, how climate-induced drought is holding back hydropower gains
In today’s edition:
— As the U.S. government retreats on climate disclosure plans, technology steps in
— New York restarts two big wind projects with major new commitment
— A bad year for hydropower kept global emissions from falling in 2023 for the first time
— Population collapse. Is Elon Musk right?
— As powerful rains and floods increase, a rare opportunity appears for cities in stormwater capture technology




The evidence of this past weekend’s blizzard from the Palisades Tahoe ski resort in Olympic Valley, Calif., clockwise: the bottom of the lift, the buried top of one of the lifts, the roof of the patrol shack, and snow cornices on the base area buildings.
A changing of the guard this week in climate disclosure for investors as a nonprofit successfully launches a new satellite to detect harmful methane plumes while the U.S. government scales back its efforts to enforce more transparency in the face of bitter, partisan politics.
MethaneSAT, an 800-pound satellite developed by the Environmental Defense Fund along with Harvard and the New Zealand Space Agency, successfully launched from California into orbit on Monday. The $88 million satellite is expected to circle the earth 15 times a day, scanning an area about 125 miles wide, making it the largest methane detector satellite among many already in space. First photos and data were not yet available as of press time here.
It’s also the first satellite developed by a nonprofit focused on the environment, an important development as breakthroughs in climate mitigation have increasingly been led by non-profits, as opposed to public companies or governments. EDF pledged that the data will be available not only to government, academics and businesses, but directly to the public.
The data will show where the troubled methane releases are on a real-time basis, exposing fossil fuel companies with the most leaks. But also recording improvements being made as companies work to reduce emissions.
The big step forward in climate disclosure comes as the Securities and Exchange Commission prepares to vote Wednesday on a two-year-old proposal to require public companies to disclose emissions data, putting the U.S. in line with Europe, parts of the Asia-Pacific, and some states such as California. But the SEC has reportedly stepped back from a controversial proposal to include data on supply chains in the requirement, effectively taking away most of the new rule’s value in the face of legal threats from anti-climate forces.
Two steps forward, one step back. Technology once again outpaces regulation.
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