Climate Now

In the U.S. alone, 162 million people will experience a worse quality of life due to the changing climate within the next 30 years. Rising sea levels stand to displace 13 million Americans in the long run while wildfires and other risks are likely to displace millions more . With 3.2 million American climate migrants to-date, it’s time to start thinking about what our country’s future might look l...

This week on Climate News Weekly, James Lawler is joined by Julio Friedmann and Canary Media Reporter Julian Spector. Julio reports on his experience at CERAWeek, and discusses rising energy demand. Julian shares his thoughts on new battery construction projects. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn , Facebook , and Instagram . Contact us at contact@climatenow.com Visit our website for all of our conten...

In 2023, electric vehicle drivers reported that, when pulling up to one of the more than 140,000 EV public charging stations across the United States, something went wrong about 21% of the time , leaving them unable to charge their vehicles. Such unreliability in charging availability could be crippling to what needs to be rapid growth in the EV market , and produces particular challenges to fleet...

This week on Climate News Weekly, James Lawler is joined by GreenBiz Editor at Large Heather Clancy, as well as regular contributors Dina Cappiello and Julio Friedmann. They discuss the latest updates to the Science Based Targets Initiative dashboard and what they really mean for companies' climate goals, what happens at the Aspen Ideas: Climate festival and CERAWeek, as well as the DOE'...

This week we're joined by Dina Capiello and Julio Friedmann to talk about the latest climate news. The IEA released its global warming emissions report for 2023 , and emissions continue to rise, but at a slower rate than in previous years. Meanwhile, to better track those emissions, EDF launched its long-anticipated MethaneSAT  on March 4th, a satellite that will measure methane pollution wor...

Today, given route lengths and cargo capacity, it is possible to electrify 65% of medium-duty and 49% of heavy-duty trucks . Commercial fleets’ are responding to this promise, with announced commitments to electrification surpassing 140,000 vehicles in 2022 in the United States alone. Still, the number of electric fleet trucks currently on the road in the US is well under 1% of all medium and heav...

In this week's episode of Climate News Weekly, James Lawler, Julio Friedmann, and Darren Hau discuss falling natural gas prices and the impact of that on the energy transition, how leasing companies are responding to the EV industry, the need for more sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), and more.  Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn , Facebook , and Instagram . Contact us at contact@climatenow.com Vi...

In the United States, nearly one quarter of national greenhouse gas emissions come from the 280 million vehicles that drive on the nations roads each year. And while fleet vehicles – including the ~5 million buses, garbage trucks, law enforcement vehicles and more that make up public fleets, and the ~6.5 million rental cars, taxis, delivery trucks, long-haul trucks, and more that make up commercia...

On today's episode of Climate News Weekly, James Lawler and Julio Friedmann discuss the IEA's 50th anniversary, Siemens' plans to open a US-based transformer plant, Ireland's energy woes, and more. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn , Facebook , and Instagram . Contact us at contact@climatenow.com Visit our website for all of our content and sources for each episode.

In the late 1970’s, English chemist Dr. James Lovelock and American biologist Dr. Lynn Margulis published a research paper hypothesizing that living organisms – without intention or agency – could have a regulatory effect on their environment that helped ensure their continued habitability. While the Gaia hypothesis they originated has remained controversial for the last four decades, it has provi...

In this episode of Climate News Weekly, James Lawler sits down with Julio Friedmann and Darren Hau to discuss potential responses to California's most recent torrential rains, how both California and the UK are responding to heat pumps, the EU's new emission targets and plan, and more. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn , Facebook , and Instagram . Contact us at contact@climatenow.com Visit...

Passage of the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in 2022 was a game changer in the United States’ effort to address climate change. The hundreds of billions of dollars the IRA has made available for clean energy and climate mitigation projects will likely double the pace of U.S. decarbonization. While this rapid expansion in clean energy development is tied to the sheer scale of the IRA (it is th...

On this week's episode of Climate News Weekly, James Lawler and Julio Friedmann discuss the consequences of the Biden administration's decision to delay the approval of a LNG export plant in Louisiana, some European countries' plans to transition away from coal , what happens when storms super charge windmills , and more. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn , Facebook , and Instagram . C...

This week on Climate News Weekly, host James Lawler is joined by Julio Friedmann, Darren Hau, and Canary Media Reporter Julian Spector. They discuss the various issues facing EV users and owners during the US' recent cold snap, new developments in British carbon capture projects , concerns that recent US electricity demand will strain the grid , and the latest developments in Hawaii's ne...

Since 2019, the cost of wind and solar electricity production has been lower than that from fossil fuels , and costs are projected to continue falling well into the next decade . But for renewable energy to truly dominate the electricity market, it needs to be cheap and reliable, even when the sun is not shining and the wind is not blowing. That means the battery market needs to grow, too. So far,...

Julio Friedmann, Dina Cappiello, Darren Hau and Eric Wesoff  join James Lawler to discuss this week's climate news. Why is the Auxin solar tariff case still a thing? How did we manage to reduce global emissions while increasing GDP last year? China works to establish a vehicle-to-grid (VTG) case study.  Meanwhile, more of Biden's 2020 voters now list climate change as their top priority....

In this week’s episode of Climate News Weekly, Julio Friedmann, Dina Cappiello, and Darren Hau join James Lawler to discuss the US Treasury’s new guidance for what can qualify for a "green hydrogen" tax credit , Tesla no longer being the world's largest EV manufacturer , the EPA granting Louisiana the right to manage applications for deep geologic storage of CO2, and an update on a...

In January of 2023, a headline from Boston Consulting Group read: The voluntary carbon market [VCM] is thriving . Their evidence? A 4-fold increase in the value of the market in the course of a year, to a valuation over $2 billion USD and growing. Nine months later, Reuters headlined a very different take: Carbon credit market confidence ebbs as big names retreat , citing the first dip in the numb...

Join us for the second of our three-part series on voluntary carbon offset markets, where we take a look at three companies that have very different strategies for removing carbon from the atmosphere. Vesta aims to increase the amount of atmospheric carbon that the ocean can absorb by infusing coastal systems with sand composed of naturally reactive minerals like olivine. Mast Reforestation genera...

The voluntary carbon offset market (VCM) – in which customers can pay for third-parties to avoid emitting CO2 or remove it from the atmosphere on their behalf – has existed for over 30 years , and has been controversial for nearly as long . On the one hand, the VCM can provide a path for hard-to-decarbonize sectors or businesses to reach net-zero emissions goals, and it can help finance developmen...

For our last episode of Climate News Weekly this year, we're reviewing the top climate space stories of 2023 according to our series regulars Julio Friedmann, Dina Cappiello, and Darren Hau. Climate Now Host James Lawler and Managing Producer Emma Crow-Willard moderate a conversation spanning the latest COP28 deal, new developments in methane regulation and tracking, the climate crises that s...

Today in Climate News Weekly, we continue our coverage of COP28 with three people who each covered a different aspect of the conference. First, we speak with Julian Moore of Climatebase to discuss this COP's focus on how climate change impacts global health, while Julio Friedmann, regular contributor, sent us an updated on-the-ground recording of this experiences in Dubai. Finally, we invited...

How much CO2 is it possible to remove in the United States and at what cost? Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists and researchers from more than a dozen institutions have completed a first-of-its-kind national assessment of carbon dioxide removal options, ranging from the role of cropland soils, carbon capture, CO2 transport, and more. In today’s episode, Climate Now interviewed sever...

On this week's episode of Climate News Weekly, host James Lawler sits down with Dr. Jennifer Pett-Ridge, Senior Staff Scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Lab, to discuss an upcoming report on carbon dioxide removal, or CDR, titled "Roads to Removal: Options for Carbon Dioxide Removal in the United States." Additionally, two of our regular Climate News contributors, Dina Cappiel...

In 2023, two major insurers joined a growing list of companies that will no longer offer new home insurance policies in California. In Florida, the situation is worse, with more than a dozen large home insurance companies retreating from the state. Both states have seen devastating property losses due to extreme forest fires and hurricanes - risks that are only increasing due to the changing clima...