Climate Economics with Fexingo: Carbon Pricing, Green Policy, and Sustainability Costs

Episode 54 of Climate Economics with Fexingo dives into the rapidly evolving world of carbon accounting software. Lucas and Luna explore how tools like Salesforce's Net Zero Cloud and Microsoft's Emissions Impact Dashboard are moving beyond compliance to reshape corporate strategy. They discuss the $12 billion market projected by 2030, the challenge of Scope 3 data, and why companies like JPMorgan...

Steel production accounts for about 7 percent of global CO2 emissions, but a quiet revolution is underway. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how green hydrogen-based steelmaking is moving from pilot plants to commercial scale, with a focus on Sweden's HYBRIT project and the emerging market for 'green steel' premiums. They break down the economics: why a ton of fossil-free steel costs roughly...

In this episode of Climate Economics with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore the rise of green leases — contractual clauses that force landlords and tenants to share energy data, meet efficiency targets, and split the cost of retrofits. They dive into a specific case: the 2024 retrofit of One Manhattan West in New York, where a green lease helped cut common-area energy use by 28 percent in 18 months....

Episode 51 of Climate Economics with Fexingo. Carbon credits used to be bespoke, opaque, traded one-off. That's changing. Lucas and Luna break down how the market is standardizing around two distinct tiers—compliance-grade removal credits and voluntary offset credits—and why this shift matters for anyone buying or selling carbon. They walk through the specific contract structures that emerged in e...

Episode 50 of Climate Economics zooms in on a rift that's quietly reshaping the voluntary carbon market. Lucas and Luna examine the growing split between engineered carbon removal credits—like direct air capture and enhanced weathering—and nature-based offsets such as tree planting. They walk through a specific deal: in March 2026, Frontier, the buyer consortium backed by Stripe, Alphabet, and Met...

Lucas and Luna dive into the emerging market for carbon insurance—policies that protect carbon credit buyers if the underlying offsets fail to deliver promised emissions reductions. With the voluntary carbon market projected to hit $50 billion by 2030, insurers like Swiss Re and specialist underwriters are launching products that verify and guarantee carbon removal credits. Lucas breaks down how a...

Lucas and Luna explore how cement — responsible for 8% of global CO2 emissions — is finally getting a low-carbon revolution. They examine why startups like Sublime Systems and Brimstone are attracting major venture capital, how the carbon price in Europe is reshaping cement imports, and what this means for construction costs in 2026. A specific, numbers-driven look at an industry that must change...

Episode 47 of Climate Economics with Fexingo: Lucas and Luna drill into the Federal Reserve's 2025 climate scenario analysis — the one that forced the six largest U.S. banks to model loan losses under a 3-degree warming path. They walk through the specific assumptions: flood risk on coastal commercial real estate in Miami-Dade, drought impacts on agricultural loans in California's Central Valley,...

In this episode of Climate Economics, Lucas and Luna explore the emerging market for carbon credits generated by regenerative agriculture. They focus on the specific case of Indigo Agriculture, a company that has developed a system for verifying and selling carbon credits from improved soil management practices. Lucas explains the scientific basis for soil carbon sequestration, the challenges of m...

Episode 45 of Climate Economics with Fexingo: Lucas and Luna dig into how carbon pricing is reshaping business travel in 2026. They focus on the new 'carbon surcharge' policies at major airlines, how companies like Microsoft and Salesforce are internalizing carbon costs into travel budgets, and why a single round-trip flight from New York to London now carries a hidden $50–$70 carbon price. The ho...

The global shipping industry is about to get a lot more expensive thanks to the EU's extension of its Emissions Trading System to maritime emissions starting in 2024. Lucas and Luna break down how this works: shipowners now must purchase allowances for 40% of their emissions on voyages to and from European ports, rising to 100% by 2027. They use the real-world case of a Maersk container ship trave...

Concrete production accounts for about 8 percent of global CO2 emissions — more than aviation. But a wave of startups and legacy cement makers are now commercializing 'green concrete' that cuts emissions by 30 to 70 percent. In this episode, Lucas and Luna dig into the chemistry behind cement, the economics of carbon capture at kilns, and why a concrete plant in Norway just became the first to del...

Carbon removal is no longer a futuristic concept — it's a real market with real contracts. Lucas and Luna dig into the companies actually buying and selling permanent carbon removal credits in 2026, from Microsoft's multi-year offtake agreements to Stripe's Frontier fund. They explain why the cost per ton has dropped from $600 to under $200 in three years, how direct air capture firms like Climewo...

Green bonds have exploded into a trillion-dollar market, but a growing gap between what issuers label 'green' and what actually gets funded has regulators circling. In this episode, Lucas and Luna drill into the specific case of a controversial 'green' bond from a major European utility that raised €500 million for what turned out to be a mix of renewable energy and natural gas infrastructure. The...

Episode 40 of Climate Economics with Fexingo: Carbon labels are appearing on everything from milk cartons to t-shirts. Lucas and Luna look at one specific example: the carbon footprint label launched by Oatly in 2020 and now used across its product line. They break down how the label works, what it actually tells consumers, and whether it changes purchasing behavior. They also discuss the broader...

Lucas and Luna dig into the hidden carbon cost of business travel — specifically, how a single transatlantic flight in economy class generates roughly one metric ton of CO2 per passenger, and how companies are starting to price that into internal travel budgets. They examine Microsoft's internal carbon fee of $15 per metric ton, why that number is probably too low, and how a handful of firms are n...

Lucas and Luna drill into the single most carbon-intensive component of an electric vehicle: the cathode. They trace the supply chain from a hypothetical mine in Indonesia to a battery factory in China, breaking down the specific emissions per kilowatt-hour at each step. The episode explains why cathode chemistry matters more than the car's assembly, how a new dry-coating process from a startup ca...

In this episode of Climate Economics, Lucas and Luna explore the growing trend of carbon labeling on consumer products. They discuss a recent study from the University of Oxford that found products with carbon labels see a 6-10% shift in consumer choice toward lower-carbon options. The conversation covers real-world implementations by companies like Oatly and Unilever, the challenges of standardiz...

The European Union's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is now in its second year, and it's already reshaping how goods flow across borders. Lucas and Luna break down the specific impact on steel imports from China and aluminum from Russia, using real data from the first quarter of 2026. They explain how the tax works, why it's controversial in developing nations, and what it means for comp...

Lucas and Luna zoom in on the carbon footprint of a single smartphone — from mining rare earths to chip fabrication to shipping and charging. Using a specific 2025 flagship model as a case study, they break down which lifecycle stage emits the most CO2 and why most consumers are looking at the wrong number when they check a phone's 'environmental report card'. The episode also covers how Apple, Sa...

Episode 34 revisits a bold policy experiment the hosts discussed months ago: British Columbia's carbon price floor. Lucas and Luna dig into new data from the Canadian Institute for Climate Choices, showing that the province's steadily rising carbon tax — now at $80 per tonne — has cut emissions per capita by 19 percent since 2008, without tanking the economy. They contrast it with the EU's uneven...

Episode 33 of Climate Economics examines the UK's carbon price floor, introduced in 2013, which set a minimum price on carbon emissions for power generation. Unlike the EU's more volatile Emissions Trading System, the UK's floor provided a stable price signal that drove a massive shift from coal to gas and renewables. Lucas and Luna break down the specific number — the price floor started at rough...

Episode 32 of Climate Economics with Fexingo dives into a blind spot for most investors: the carbon footprint embedded in equity and bond portfolios. Lucas and Luna explore how the 'financed emissions' of banks and asset managers dwarf their direct operational emissions, using JPMorgan Chase's 2025 climate report as a case study. They unpack why Scope 3 category 15 emissions—those attributable to...

Episode 31 of Climate Economics with Fexingo digs into a surprising source of emissions: supermarket loyalty programs. Lucas and Luna examine how personalized discounts, driven by AI and consumer data, create a 'rebound effect' that increases food waste and carbon footprint. Using the UK's Tesco Clubcard as a case study, they break down the numbers: how targeted offers push shoppers to buy more th...

Every time you stream a show in 4K, you're burning coal — or at least, you might be. In this episode, Lucas and Luna dig into the surprisingly large carbon footprint of the internet: from data centers that each gulp as much electricity as a mid-size town, to the hidden geography of where your Netflix binge actually runs. Lucas breaks down the numbers — a single hour of HD streaming emits roughly 5...