Green Lights June 22: Top stories this week
Green Lights June 22: Top stories this week
Don't miss a single story of the best from Callaway Climate Insights.
. . . . Welcome back to Green Lights. Here’s our weekly roundup of the best of Callaway Climate Insights. This week, David Callaway says even though interest rates haven’t yet started falling, utility stocks have had an early rally this year, courtesy of the AI data boom. Plus, read about the UK’s Labour Party’s latest green moonshot, and what Elon Musk’s pay package means for climate investors. Have a wonderful weekend. For more great climate finance journalism, please support us and subscribe.
. . . . With interest rates set to start coming down later this year, coupled with the insatiable demand for AI data by tech giants, this year’s early rally in utility stocks could have more room to run, writes David Callaway. The estimated price-to-earnings ratio of the S&P utility sector is about 19.8% this week, which is high, but not way overvalued by any means. That points to a better outlook for both utilities and energy companies, as long as the summer stock rally holds.
. . . . The UK’s Labour Party latest green moonshot: Keir Starmer’s pledge to create new green jobs and a state renewable energy body really won’t move the needle in this election. It’s pretty much already moved in Labour’s favor. But as a template for how voters will be able to hold the first Labour government in 14 years accountable on climate change, these green ambitions are at least a decent start.
. . . . Tesla shareholders’ approval of Elon Musk’s $50 billion pay package underscores an old rule on Wall Street: Shareholders will approve most anything as long as you make them money.
. . . . A long, hot summer. From CAL FIRE via X: “We have seen more acres burned in our Lake-Napa counties unit (in Northern California) over the past three days (11,209 acres) than we saw in the previous three years combined (4,442 acres from 2021-23).” The state’s firefighting agency said on Thursday it had dropped 1.1 million gallons of water and 861,000 gallons of fire retardant from June 15-19.
. . . . One of fastest-growing electricity suppliers in the UK, Octopus Energy, is taking its digital strategy to the U.S., announcing this week it is buying two solar farms in Ohio and Pennsylvania, as part of a plan to invest $2 billion into renewable energy projects in the next six years.
. . . . More than 1 billion people around the world live in energy poverty, despite rising electricity access, says the World Bank. Access to electricity has increased dramatically across the globe since 2000, jumping from 75% of the global population to 90% by 2020. But that means little when the power is not working, is unreliable, or is too expensive, the organization says in a new paper, titled Lost in the dark: A survey of energy poverty from space.
More greenery . . . .
It’s Show Your Stripes Day: Each stripe represents one year, with colors transitioning from cool blues to warm reds to represent the increases in temperature (World Meteorological Organization)
Drugs and drought: It’s getting harder for Afghans to grow other field crops and fruits, but hardy opium poppies thrive (Washington Post)
Build fewer highways: Hawaii Settles Climate Change Lawsuit Filed By Youth Plaintiffs (Honolulu Civil Beat)
Worth reading: NASA Releases Updated Climate Change Adaptation, Resilience Plan (NASA.gov)
What’s ahead for your neighborhood? New app shows how the local climate is set to change as the globe continues to warm (Newsweek)