Green Lights July 12: Top stories this week
Don't miss a single story of the best from Callaway Climate Insights.
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. . . . Welcome back to Green Lights. Here’s our weekly roundup of the best of Callaway Climate Insights. David Callaway says a week is a long time in politics, and he spotlights elections in France, the UK and the U.S. Plus, could Donald Trump gut Joe Biden’s climate law? Bill Sternberg writes that executive actions and lack of hiring could maim it, but the business lobby will fight back. Please stay cool, drink plenty of water and have a safe summer weekend.
. . . . France woke up to parliamentary chaos on Monday after the shock comeback of the political left in the second round of voting over the weekend. David Callaway says there are three major lessons we can draw from France here in America as Biden tries to defend his candidacy from rising calls to pull out of the race.
. . . . Supporters of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which has pumped tens of billions of dollars into clean energy projects in the past two years, are fearful that climate law could become one of the early victims of a second Trump term, writes Bill Sternberg. While he can be expected to use executive actions to maim the law and not hire enough staff to continue managing it, Trump will probably not be able to wipe it out, in part because the business lobby that supports him also supports the investments. For political climate watchers, it may all come down to a specific Senate race in Utah on election night.
. . . . For Tesla investors, this week’s news that its U.S. market share of electric vehicles had finally fallen below the 50% threshold was a long time coming and more of an excuse to look for dips to buy than anything else. That could suggest the worst may be behind for the U.S. EV industry.
. . . . As record heat waves kill people across the U.S. and Europe this summer and stall economic growth as outside workers can’t do their jobs, one silver lining is that clean energy usage is surging as electric grids seek to keep the air conditioning on. Growing solar and wind energy surpassed nuclear energy as the largest forms of renewable energy in the U.S. for the first time in the first six months of this year.
. . . . The new UK governing Labour Party fulfilled a clean energy promise in its campaign manifesto this week by quickly reversing the ban on onshore wind projects imposed by the Conservatives last year. New Prime Minister Keir Starmer (above) and his team have pledged to double wind power, triple solar and quadruple offshore wind by 2030 as part of a plan to make the UK a “climate superpower” in Europe.
. . . . Even accounting for the massive surge in data demand on tech giants from AI development, Google’s admission last week that its greenhouse gas emissions were up 48% in 2023 over what they were just before Covid was a shocking number. AI development is expected to be one of the battlefields of the coming transition to renewable energy from fossil fuels, as demand soars.
More greenery . . . .
Broiling: Extreme heat waves across the U.S. are not normal (The Conversation)
Wisconsin’s clean energy boom: Just don’t mention climate change (InsideClimateNews)
Impact on allied security: NATO’s 2024 Climate Change and Security Impact Assessment Report (NATO)