Green Lights Feb. 6: 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 takes the temperature for the Olympic Games, ski resort operators and investors as rising temps melt hopes for sport-worthy snow around the globe. Mark Hulbert takes a close look at why BlackRock backed out of its renewable energy fund in New Zealand. Have a great weekend, enjoy the Olympics and the Super Bowl — and please subscribe to support our climate finance reporting.
. . . . Despite an 11th-hour snowstorm in the Italian Alps this week, most of the Olympic skiers in Cortina and Bormio (above) will be racing on machine-made snow in coming days, as climate change buffets yet another Winter Olympics. Below the surface, Olympic organizers know the future of the winter games is changing for good. And ski resorts — and investors — around the world are feeling the heat.
. . . . Candela says one of its P-12 electric ferries completed what it claims is the longest journey yet — a three-day, 160-nautical mile excursion from Gothenburg on Sweden’s West Coast to Oslo, Norway. Rather than rely on costly, permanent charging stations set up in strategic locations, Candela, a Swedish electric boat designer, relied in part on a portable charging station towed behind a Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck, which it said cost less than €200 ($236).
. . . . Renewable energy funds come and go, but the story of BlackRock’s New Zealand NetZero Investment Fund is one for the books, writes Mark Hulbert. Two weeks ago, the world’s largest investment fund manager closed the fund only 29 months after launching it to great fanfare, aiming to be the primary investment vehicle in helping the country move to 100% renewable energy (from 80% currently). Many things changed, including a new government, but Hulbert writes that the primary reason the fund closed is that BlackRock BLK -2.02%↓ never got around to investing in anything with it. So much for the world’s first entirely renewable energy country.
. . . . For all the damage the White House did to renewable energy projects and startups last year, the battery sector escaped mostly unscathed, and now two of the industry’s most notable startups over the past few years are maturing in the AI age. Form Energy and Redwood Materials, both run by former Tesla executives, are reportedly raising hundreds of millions of dollars this quarter as they prepare for the next stage of their growth.
. . . . Danish wind farm company Ørsted plans to sell its European onshore renewables business to private equity group Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners for €1.44 billion euros ($1.7 billion) as part of a plan to bolster its finances. The deal is part of broader efforts by Ørsted to raise cash after a crackdown on U.S. offshore wind development projects by the Trump administration.
More greenery . . . .
Keeping score: Can the Super Bowl Really ‘Go Green’? (Inside Climate News)
The chill is gone: Climate change is reshaping the Winter Olympic Games (Financial Times)
The human footprint: How babies, robots and climate change connect (The New York Times)
Down to earth: What Trump’s plans for the Arctic mean for the global climate crisis (The Guardian)