1. Fewer than one in 200 companies have credible climate plans, says CDP
Reporting by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes; editing by Jonathan Oatis, Reuters, February 8, 2023
Fewer than one in 200 companies who submit climate change-related data to a leading environmental disclosure platform have credible climate transition plans, the nonprofit platform CDP said on Wednesday in its latest review of corporate submissions.
Our take: Turns out just saying that you are into ESG is not enough, who woulda thought?
2. Artificial intelligence is a powerful tool. But in the climate fight, humans still reign supreme
By Frederick Hewett, WBUR Commentary, February 7, 2023
AI models can reveal relationships and correlations within complex data that are not detectable by humans. Building managers use them to control heating, cooling and lighting, which reduces carbon emissions. AI is critical for water management in areas stricken by climate-induced drought. The World Economic Forum has developed software to predict wildfires. And scientists are using machine learning to study ocean currents disrupted by warming.
Machine learning will undoubtedly be invaluable for advancing technologies we need to decarbonize the world's economies but understanding its limitations and inherent fallibilities is essential. Policymakers must balance the economic and technological optimizations that AI prescribes with social and political values equally. For example, an AI model might advise a course of action requiring increased mineral extraction without taking into account the environmental cost, the impact on indigenous peoples, or the effect it would have on future generations.
The ultimate irony of using machine learning to address the climate crisis is that machine learning itself isn't climate-friendly.
3. Ever wonder what a paleoclimatologist is? (The world is so amazing.)
4. Tesla Co-Founder's EV Battery Firm Gets $2 Billion Federal Loan
By Tom Randall and Ari Natter, Bloomberg Green, February 9, 2023
“This is a super-exciting moment,” Straubel said. “It is the very tangible beginning of a US supply chain for battery materials, and we’ll be ramping that up for quite a long time to come.”
Between the lines: Domestic supply chains are only as substantive as domestic mineral production allow them to be. See the image to view the existing supply chain Redwood seeks to eliminate.
