Interesting Ideas

The story of the United States corn ethanol industry is a story about a sector that grew rapidly under a very specific set of policy, technology and market conditions. It filled a gap when gasoline demand was rising, when climate policy focused on incremental change, and when EVs were still ... [continued]

The post The Coming Slow Fade of America’s Corn Ethanol Industry appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Dealing with the health and environmental risks from recycling lead used in batteries is something most car makers want nothing to do with.

The post Recycling Lead-Acid Batteries Has Significant Health Risks appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Destruction wrought by pig-borne disease is thining the canopy of bunya pine forests and the problem is getting worse, experts say

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High up in an ancient conifer rainforest, at what was once the largest Indigenous gathering place in eastern Australia, there is sunlight where there shouldn’t be.

Among the eponymous pine trees of the Bunya Mountains, in south-east Queensland, a deadly disease has taken root. Walking through the forest, Adrian Bauwens, a Wakka Wakka man, says pockets of sunlight have replaced what is “usually quite a dense canopy where’s it’s quite heavily shaded”.

Exclusive: Unknown culprit suspected of spraying glyphosate on protected trees hoped to stop peat erosion and flooding

Trees planted as part of a nature restoration project on Prince William’s land in Dartmoor national park have been deliberately poisoned with herbicide, sparking outrage and a hunt for the culprit.

The willow trees, on Duchy of Cornwall land, were planted as part of a project to stop peat erosion, store carbon and reduce the risk of flooding.

In this week’s newsletter: Ultimately, climate progress will come from real-world action, and this year’s summit made some promising strides on that front

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Some commentators have called Cop30 a failure. An attempt to insert plans for a route to the phaseout of fossil fuels into the legal text was stymied, consideration of how to improve countries’ emissions-cutting plans was put off till next year, and although developing countries got the tripling of finance for adaptation that they were seeking, it will not be delivered in full until 2035 – and will come out of already promised funds.

Look beyond the headlines, however, and the Cop achieved a great deal more. Take the outcome on fossil fuels – it seems absurd, but until 2023 three decades of annual climate summits had failed to address fossil fuels directly.

UK can create 5,400 jobs if it stops plastic waste exports, report finds

Zombie fires: how Arctic wildfires that come back to life are ravaging forests

There’s a catastrophic black hole in our climate data – and it’s a gift to deniers | George Monbiot

US, Russia and Saudi Arabia create axis of obstruction as Cop30 sputters out

We delivered a clear message at Cop30: the delayers and defeatists are losing the climate fight | Ed Miliband

Another Cop wrecked by fossil fuel interests and our leaders’ cowardice – but there is another way | Genevieve Guenther

Bill Gates pictures himself as a technology and system innovator. In October, the billionaire philanthropist recontextualized climate action, global health, and development as mutually exclusive and in competition with each other in advance of the international climate summit, COP30. With his status as one of the original Silicon Valley tech ... [continued]

The post Michael Mann To Bill Gates: What World Are You Living In? appeared first on CleanTechnica.

With a new technology, if you really want it to be adopted quickly, you offer incentives to get more people to buy it. In the case of clean, the motivation is obvious — we need to stop global heating (which means we need to cut CO2 emissions) and humans would ... [continued]

The post Stupid — UK Putting Road Tax on EVs in 2028 appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Tesla reports that it is seeing strong demand for the Model Y produced in its German factory, such that the company has switched to two full shifts per day. Now, before we get deeper into the news, note that Tesla transitioned to three shifts at the end of 2022. So, ... [continued]

The post Tesla Ramping Up Model Y Production In Germany appeared first on CleanTechnica.

BEVs reach 21% market share! EVs are picking up in Europe, with some 346,000 plugin vehicles being registered in Europe in October, 229,000 of them being BEVs. Overall, plugin vehicles were up 36% YoY. Expect December 2025 to establish a new record score, maybe even above the 425,000 unit mark. ... [continued]

The post What Falling Sales? BEVs Jump 34% YoY in October in Europe! appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Photographers Mathias BraschlerandMonika Fischercapture the families, farmers and fishers who have been forced to leave their homes by extreme weather – and the landscapes they left behind. Introduction by Dina Nayeri

In 2009, Swiss photographers Mathias Braschler and Monika Fischer set out to document the people suffering the first shocks of the climate crisis. They had just returned from China, where rapid, unregulated development has ravaged the natural landscapes. Back home, though, the debate still felt strangely theoretical. “In 2009, you still had people who denied climate change,” Braschler recalls. “People said, ‘This is media hype.’” So the couple, working with the Global Humanitarian Forum in Geneva and supported by Kofi Annan, began The Human Face of Climate Change, a portrait series that showed the people on the frontline of a warming world.

Sixteen years later, climate change is no longer up for debate; the urgent discussions now revolve around solutions. Braschler and Fischer, too, have shifted their focus. “This is going to be one of the central issues for humanity,” says Braschler, “and we want to make sure that people know that the major effect of climate change will be displacement.”

Exclusive: Concerns over impact on health and environment, as well as £1.63bn in avoided landfill tax

The UK is estimated to have at least 8,000 illegal waste sites, containing approximately 13m tonnes of rubbish, research has revealed.

The scale of the criminal dumping means at least £1.63bn of landfill taxes have been avoided, according to an analysis of data from the satellite company Air & Space Evidence, shared with the Guardian and Watershed Investigations.

Biden earmarked billions for former coal communities in Appalachia – and his successor came and took it away

For a moment, Jacob Hannah saw an unprecedented opportunity to make Appalachia great again.

In 2022, the Biden administration earmarked billions of dollars to help revitalize and strengthen former coal communities. The objective was to lay down building blocks for the region to transition from extractive industries like coal and timber to a hub for solar and other advanced energy technologies, with a view to long-term economic, climate and social resilience.

Experts lay out scale of changes needed in ‘first-of-its-kind national emergency briefing’ in Westminster

A host of eminent scientists have warned politicians, business and community leaders that the UK risks severe climate-related risks to its economy, public health, food systems and national security.

According to its organisers more than 1,000 corporate bosses, senior civil servants and civic leaders were set to assemble in the Methodist central hall in Westminster for the “first-of-its-kind national emergency briefing” on Thursday morning.

Unique properties of fungi have led to groundbreaking innovations in recent years, from nappies to electronics

From the outside, it looks like any ordinary nappy – one of the tens of billions that end up in landfill each year. But the Hiro diaper comes with an unusual companion: a sachet of freeze-dried fungi to sprinkle over a baby’s gloopy excretions.

The idea is to kickstart a catalytic process that could see the entire nappy – plastics and all – broken down into compost within a year.

Exclusive: UCL scientists find large swathes of southern Europe are drying up, with ‘far-reaching’ implications

Vast swathes of Europe’s water reserves are drying up, a new analysis using two decades of satellite data reveals, with freshwater storage shrinking across southern and central Europe, from Spain and Italy to Poland and parts of the UK.

Scientists at University College London (UCL), working with Watershed Investigations and the Guardian, analysed 2002–24 data from satellites, which track changes in Earth’s gravitational field.

Paul Brown looks back at his career reporting on the climate crisis, failed summit and nuclear power – and how to do it well

Paul Brown was the Guardian’s environment correspondent from 1989 until 2005 and has written many columns since. He submitted his last column last week after being diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. From his hospital bed in Luton, Paul offers his reflections on 45 years writing for the Guardian.

We, in the climate business, all owe a great deal to Mrs Margaret Thatcher. Her politics were anathema to me and to many Guardian readers. But she prided herself on being a scientist before she was a politician.

The Chinese government has made developing humanoid robots a top priority in its latest 5 year plan. Will anyone be able to compete?

The post Humanoid Robots Labeled Next Big Bubble For Chinese Companies appeared first on CleanTechnica.

It was just several weeks ago that the planned installation of 750 to 800 public EV chargers was announced in San Diego. Not long afterwards, an announcement about 850 or more planned public EV chargers was made for Central and Northern California. The joint EV charging venture IONNA also made ... [continued]

The post Over 2,000 New Public EV Chargers Planned Or Installed In California In November? appeared first on CleanTechnica.

KRW 1.2 trillion investment to establish Hyundai Motor Group’s first comprehensive battery research and development hub in Anseong, Korea, by the end of 2026 To internalize core battery technologies — cell design, process engineering and integrated control systems — to optimize EV performance and enable seamless vehicle integration High-precision validation ... [continued]

The post Hyundai Motor Group Drives Next-Generation Battery Innovation with Future Mobility Battery Campus appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Hyundai Motor and Kia expand Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) services, enabling electric vehicles (EVs) to store, supply and share electricity with grids and homes Launch Korea’s first Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) pilot service for customers, supporting Jeju’s renewable-energy goals Expand Europe’s EV energy services by advancing from Smart Charging (V1G) service to bidirectional V2G capabilities, starting with the Netherlands Broaden Vehicle-to-Home (V2H) services ... [continued]

The post Hyundai Motor Group Expands EV Energy Services with Vehicle to Grid and Vehicle to Home appeared first on CleanTechnica.