Green Lights Dec. 12: Top stories
Don't miss a single story from the best of Callaway Climate Insights.
. . . . Welcome back to Green Lights. Here’s our roundup of the best of Callaway Climate Insights. This week, David Callaway looks at the EU’s agreement to dramatically scale back sustainability rules intended to require climate risk reporting. He also considers the Fed’s rate cut and bullish trends in energy consumption and AI data centers. Have a great weekend and please subscribe to support our climate finance reporting.
. . . . European leaders faced a barrage of hostility from President Donald Trump this week as he escalated his criticisms of their economies in hopes of securing his Ukraine peace plan by Christmas. While the leaders held firm on Ukraine, they folded another hand in a battle over climate regulations, ending years of planning with a whimper. The European Union’s agreement to dramatically scale back sustainability rules intended to require climate risk reporting and monitoring of supply chains effectively guts the rules for all but the largest European companies and international trading partners.
. . . . With the Fed’s final rate cut out of the way this week, the starting gun on 2026 has been fired, writes David Callaway. After a record year for commodities such as gold and silver, for U.S. stocks and particularly AI stocks and renewable energy stocks, investors will spend the last few weeks of December positioning their portfolios for an economy next year that looks to be slowing, but still with several bullish trends in energy consumption and AI data centers.
. . . . One of the biggest efforts to curb pollution in the U.S. this past year was New York City’s traffic congestion pricing initiative, which made the Big Apple the first city in America to try what many European and Asian cities have done to reduce traffic, auto pollution, and raise money for transportation. The congestion pricing initiative cut pollution by as much as 22%, according to a Cornell University study, which tracked air quality monitors throughout the city each day.
. . . . Surging growth in renewable energy, electrification and AI data centers has created a bull market for green jobs, according to two reports this week from the International Energy Agency and LinkedIn. But hiring companies are finding trouble bringing on employees with enough skills to match the open positions.
. . . . A federal judge has ruled that a Trump executive order earlier this year to halt offshore wind projects was illegal. But Trump’s America, for now, is still a tough place for wind investors. The good news is that as the rulings stack up, the case for more energy from any type of developer also grows as the need for AI data centers continues to surge. At some point, we expect, demand for energy will cause the White House to ultimately let some wind projects through despite the rhetoric.
. . . . Humans and livestock make up 95% of the world’s mammal biomass; wild mammals are just 5%, a new report from Our World in Data points out. Humans account for more than one-third of mammal biomass. Farmed pigs weigh as much as all of the world’s whales, orcas, sea otters, seals, and dolphins combined. All the dogs in the world, including pets and feral dogs, weigh as much as all wild mammals on land.
More greenery . . . .
Adapting to the heat: Changes in polar bear DNA may help them survive (The Conversation)
Speak no evil: EPA Erases Mention of Humans Causing Climate Change From Some Web Pages (The New York Times)
Capturing the heartache: Photographers document the impact of climate change in 2025 (The Associated Press)
Spreading problem: Climate change influences risks of catching diseases from animals (Natural History Museum)
No big party: Paris climate pact turns 10 (E&E News)