(Bloomberg) —
The sixth issue of Bloomberg Green’s magazine is here, and that means it’s time to return to one of our customary fixtures: a round-up of good news about climate change and the energy transition. Covering the climate beat, with its ominous indicators and frequent disasters, can sometimes make it harder to highlight the progress. That’s why we save the last page of the magazine for just optimistic developments.
But this issue of Bloomberg Green has evidence of progress across its pages, and several of those stories are already available to read online. Take, for example, this profile of a reformer trying to remake the industry that sells cheap and often useless carbon offsets. Or this examination of the innovative and inexpensive net-zero playbook being created by India, which has the distinction of being the poorest super-emitter and therefore a model for developing economies looking to cut carbon. There’s also a fascinating story about the French insurance giant Axa, one of the greenest players in finance, that looks at what it means to choose between burning carbon and burning relationships with clients.
Also in this issue: read about New York’s new climate law that’s putting even some famously green skyscrapers under pressure to improve, how London’s race to build affordable housing means embracing more flood risk, the movement to build super-efficient houses, the case for recycling wastewater at home, and how to convert a classic car into an EV. There’s still time to subscribe and receive the new magazine.Now, on to the good climate news…
Green Lights Save Sharks
LEDs can save more than energy. When green-light-emitting diodes were attached to 16,000 feet of fishing nets off Mexico’s Pacific coast, the unintended catching of sharks and rays was reduced by 95%, according to a paper published in Current Biology.
Companies Plug Into Renewables
Corporations purchased a record 31 gigawatts of renewable energy in 2021, up 24% from a year earlier, according to a report from BloombergNEF. Online retail giant Amazon.com Inc. alone accounted for 20% of the capacity bought by companies last year.
Central Park Joins Climate Fight
The custodian of New York’s most famous park has launched a research facility to provide climate adaptation strategies for urban green spaces. The Central Park Climate Lab will leverage decades of data recorded about the park’s wildlife, vegetation, and soil. And it will eventually acquire information from parks in other cities to suggest new protocols for fighting deterioration.
EV Models Ready to Double
Electric vehicle options in the U.S. will more than double this year. Thirty all-new models are poised to hit the streets, according to researcher IHS Markit Ltd., mostly created by luxury brands. The designs include at least 14 SUVs, a van, and four pickups, most notably a battery-powered version of the Ford F-150.
More Tree Types to Love
There are approximately 73,000 species of trees globally, according to a study published in January in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. That’s 14% more than researchers had estimated. Almost half the Earth’s tree species are in South America.
Investors Turn Up the Pressure
More than nine investor campaigns seeking increased sustainability are under way, and activists have become more aggressive. Investors are pressing companies from Unilever Plc to TotalEnergies SE to do everything from reallocate capital to overhaul management teams. That’s a long way from two years ago, when investors were only requesting more detailed climate-related disclosures.
Trading Site Reduces Waste
The pandemic brought new traffic to the Freecycle Network, an online exchange where people can swap stuff instead of buying new things or trashing the old. About 1,000 tons of items change hands via Freecycle globally every day, the company says. That’s roughly equivalent to the amount of daily trash that ends up in a midsize landfill.
World Recovers a Little Greener
As the world economy recovered last year, global carbon dioxide emissions rose 4.3%—not as much as some experts expected. The post-lockdown rebound was less carbon-intensive than the recovery following the financial crisis a decade earlier, thanks in part to clean energy investments.
Investors Flock to Faux Lamb
California startup Black Sheep Foods, with its meatless “lamb,” is hoping to become the next Impossible Foods Inc., whose products imitate beef and pork. Black Sheep, which has raised $5.25 million in seed funding, looks to repeat Impossible’s strategy of starting distribution in restaurants before expanding to grocery stores.
Greener Grains Are Possible
Rice production is responsible for as much as 34 million tons annually of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. But a group of researchers recently took a major step toward altering the genomes of microbes living in soil, a critical move to curb emissions from the crop.
Leslie Kaufman writes the Climate Report newsletter about the impact of global warming.
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