Interesting Ideas

The publication of a new study by researchers associated with the University of Exeter and Carbon Tracker has reopened a debate that many policymakers and economists falsely assumed was settled. The study argues that widely used economic models underestimate the risks of climate change because they smooth impacts over time, ... [continued]

The post How Climate Economics Got the Risks Wrong appeared first on CleanTechnica.

States and financial bodies using modelling that ignores shocks from extreme weather and climate tipping points

Flawed economic models mean the accelerating impact of the climate crisis could lead to a global financial crash, experts warn.

Recovery would be far harder than after the 2008 financial crash, they said, as “we can’t bail out the Earth like we did the banks”.

XPENG’s sales abroad (outside of China) have been a very strong point of growth for the company in the past year. There are several markets outside of the main auto markets we typically talk about that are eager to electrify and actually doing so quite fast. XPENG is one of ... [continued]

The post Indonesia Gets Its First 480 kW Charging Station — Thanks To XPENG appeared first on CleanTechnica.

With government action stalled and living in ‘inhumane’ conditions, families in San José are making plans to relocate

In Emilio Peña Delgado’s home, several photos hang on the wall. One shows him standing in front of a statue with his wife and oldest son in the centre of San José and smiling. In another, his two sons sit in front of caricatures from the film Cars. For him, the photos capture moments of joy that feel distant when he returns home to La Carpio, a neighbourhood on the outskirts of Costa Rica’s capital.

Delgado migrated with his family from Nicaragua to Costa Rica when he was 10, as his parents sought greater stability. When he started a family of his own, his greatest hope was to give his children the security he had lacked. But now, that hope is often interrupted by the threat of extreme weather events.

Shas Sheehan challenges refusal to remove 25,000 tonnes of waste causing ‘grave environmental hazard’ near school

A 25,000-tonne illegal waste dump next to a primary school in Wigan presents “a grave environmental hazard” and should be cleared, the chair of the Lords environment committee has told the government.

Shas Sheehan challenged the refusal of the Environment Agency to clean up an illegal waste dump in Bolton House Road in the Greater Manchester town, given the agency was spending millions clearing up illegal waste deposited in Kidlington, Oxfordshire.

The leaked European Commission recommendation on electricity taxation landed quietly, but it said something that European energy policy has avoided stating plainly for decades. Electricity is still taxed and loaded with levies as if it were a polluting end product rather than the clean energy carrier Europe increasingly depends on ... [continued]

The post Europe Is Finally Admitting Electricity Is Overtaxed appeared first on CleanTechnica.

CAMERON PARISH, Louisiana — Yesterday, Cameron Parish was rocked by an explosion along the Delfin LNG pipeline near Holly Beach and Johnson Bayou that has left one person injured, a stark reminder of the dangers of fossil fuel infrastructure. In response, the Sierra Club and For a Better Bayou released ... [continued]

The post LNG Explosion in Louisiana appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Researchers say waste dumping and climate breakdown have contributed to rise in brick, concrete and glass on beaches

As much as half of some British beaches’ coarse sediments may consist of human-made materials such as brick, concrete, glass and industrial waste, a study has suggested.

Climate breakdown, which has caused more frequent and destructive coastal storms, has led to an increase in these substances on beaches. Six sites on the Firth of Forth, an estuary on Scotland’s east coast joining the River Forth to the North Sea, were surveyed to better understand the makeup of “urban beaches”.

With 2025 numbers in and the more basic US EV sales reports out, now is the time for one of my favorite topics of exploration — how fast different automakers are electrifying. Yes, it just hit me that we should really do an analysis like this for global sales — ... [continued]

The post Which Automakers Are Electrifying Fastest In USA? appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Castletown Bay, Isle of Man: The smell is unpleasant, but these slimy mounds are full of flies, molluscs and sand hoppers – all vital winter food

My British Trust for Ornithology wetland bird survey includes patrolling a storm beach, which, at this time of year, has huge piles of rotting wrack thrown up by the gales. They’re made up of hand-like fronds of laminaria, bladderwrack with its buoyant bubble vesicles, sugar kelp and the long “washing line” strands of non-native sargassum seaweed that arrived from Japan on Pacific oysters and ships’ hulls in recent years.

These slimy, smelly heaps are generally unpopular with passersby – some even call for their removal – but for wildlife they are a food source of the highest quality.

Known as ‘white gold’, lithium is among the most important mined elements on the planet – ideal for the rechargeable batteries used in tech products. Can Europe’s largest deposit bring prosperity to the local community?

It looks more like the past than the future. A vast chasm scooped out of a scarred landscape, this is a Cornwall the summer holidaymakers don’t see: a former china clay pit near St Austell called Trelavour. I’m standing at the edge of the pit looking down with the man who says his plans for it will help the UK’s transition to renewable energy and bring back year-round jobs and prosperity to a part of the country that badly needs both. “And if I manage to make some money in the process, fantastic,” he says. “Though that is not what it’s about.”

We’ll return to him shortly. But first to the past, when this story begins, about 275-280m years ago. “There was a continental collision at the time,” Frances Wall, professor of applied mineralogy at the Camborne School of Mines at the University of Exeter, explained to me before my visit. This collision caused the bottom of the Earth’s crust to melt, with the molten material rising higher in the crust and forming granite. “There are lots of different types of granite that intrude at different times, more than 10m years or so,” she says. “The rock is made of minerals and, if you’ve got the right composition in the original material and the right conditions, then within those minerals there are some called mica. Some of those micas contain lithium.”

With some of Ukraine’s most valuable biodiversity sites and science facilities under occupation, experts at Sofiyivka Park in Uman are struggling to preserve the country’s natural history

In the basement laboratory of the National Dendrological Park Sofiyivka, Larisa Kolder tends to dozens of specimens of Moehringia hypanicabetween power outages. Just months earlier, she and her team at this microclonal plant propagation laboratory in Uman, Ukraine, received 23 seeds of the rare flower.

Listed as threatened in Ukraine’s Red Book of endangered species, Moehringia grows nowhere else in the wild but the Mykolaiv region of Ukraine. Of those 23 seeds, only two grew into plants that Kolder and her colleagues could clone in their laboratory, but now her lab is home to a small grove of Moehringia seedlings, including 80 that have put down roots in a small but vital win for biodiversity conservation amid Russia’s war with Ukraine.

At a party event in a school hall in Lewisham, people told me how disillusionment with Labour has led to this moment

“How many?”

On the end of the phone is a nice press officer for the Greens, head full from a long day in Gorton, Manchester, showing off their would-be MP. And now, as Friday’s sky turns indigo, I’m calling about reports from Lewisham, south London, that tomorrow they’re expecting a flood of 500 Green activists. This comes as a surprise to the party’s own news machine.

Aditya Chakrabortty is a Guardian columnist

European Investment Bank approves ETS2 Frontloading Facility The European Investment Bank (EIB) board has approved a €3bn Frontloading Facility which provides revenues to countries to spend on preparing citizens for higher fuel costs, once the EU’s carbon price on heating and fuel (ETS2) kicks in. A further €3bn could be ... [continued]

The post European Investment Bank Gives Green Light to €3bn for Clean Transition appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Thanks to ZEMO, we are back with our second report on Latin America! This time, with over 110,000 registrations in the fourth quarter of 2025, EV sales have reached a new record in our region! This result pulls 24% ahead of the previous records (Q4 2024 and Q3 2025, which ... [continued]

The post Latin America EV Sales Report: Over 100,000 Units Sold in Q4! appeared first on CleanTechnica.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A coalition of health, consumer and environmental groups told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that its plan to gut fuel-economy standards for cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks is irrevocably flawed and should be withdrawn.   Comments submitted today from NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), the Sierra Club, Environmental Defense ... [continued]

The post NHTSA Urged to Maintain Fuel Economy Standards appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Industry bigger than all but seven world economies, and accounts for more than third of China’s economic growth

China’s clean energy industries drove more than 90% of the country’s investment growth last year, making the sectors bigger than all but seven of the world’s economies, a new analysis has shown.

For the second time in three years, the report showed the manufacture, installation and export of batteries, electric cars, solar, wind and related technologies accounted for more than a third of China’s economic growth.

Support from more than 20 countries propels National Trust to its target to protect chalk figure and local wildlife

It feels like a very British monument: a huge chalk figure carved into a steep Dorset hillside that for centuries has intrigued lovers of English folklore and legend. But an appeal to raise money to help protect the Cerne giant – and the wildlife that shares the landscape it towers over – has shown that its allure stretches far beyond the UK.

Donations have flooded in from more than 20 countries including Australia, Japan and Iceland, and on Tuesday, the National Trust confirmed it had reached its fundraising target to buy land around the giant.

CleanTechnica is back in Las Vegas for yet another Faraday Future product launch. In 2026, Faraday Future invited us out to NADA, the North American automotive dealerships annual meeting, to show off a trio of AI-enabled robots. Disclaimer: Faraday Future paid for the author’s travel and accommodations to attend this ... [continued]

The post Faraday Future Pushes Into the AI Future With Three New Robots appeared first on CleanTechnica.

In January 2026, over 12,000 Australian motorists joined the electric vehicle ecosystem. Out of 87,092 light vehicles sold, 7,409 were battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and 5,161 were plugin hybrids (PHEVs). That is a penetration rate of 16%. Not too shabby to start the year off. Remember that the penetration rate ... [continued]

The post Australia EV Sales — January 2026 Update, Spotlight on the BYD Atto 1 appeared first on CleanTechnica.