🌡 CLIMATE CHANGE

Countries’ climate promises still not enough to avoid catastrophic global warming: UN report (quick read)

Greenhouse gas emissions reductions promised by signatories to the Paris Agreement are nowhere close to sufficient to limit global temperature increases to 1.5°C (2.7°F). Countries are bolstering their commitments in an effort to more drastically cut emissions.

Most in U.S. want more action on climate change, are unfamiliar with new law (quick read)

Some two-thirds of Americans are frustrated with insufficient efforts to combat climate change by the US government; many don’t realize that President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act could cut carbon emissions by two-fifths and electricity production emissions by 80%, by 2030

EU countries agree to hike climate change target next year (quick read)

EU countries have agreed to increase their greenhouse emissions reductions target by the end of this year with 12 new laws on the books scheduled to be voted on by the end of this year; amongst the broad sweeping changes is a ban on new internal combustion engine car sales by 2035.

🔋 CLEAN ENERGY

Renewables provided nearly one-quarter of US electrical generation to August 2022 (quick read)

The aggregate of all renewable energy in the US spanning solar, wind, geothermal, hydropower, and biomass, now accounts for about 25% of all electrical power generation in the US. As a whole, renewable energy outperformed coal by nearly 18% and nuclear by about 32%.

GM says it will power all of its US sites with clean energy by 2025 (quick read)

GM is five years ahead of schedule in upgrading all of its production sites to clean energy by 2025 instead of 2030 as originally planned. Its “four-pillar” strategy spans energy efficiency, sourcing of renewable energy, battery storage deployment, and policies that enable net-zero carbon systems for vehicle production.

Amazon’s first wind farm and solar farm in China are generating clean energy, spurring job creation, and increasing educational opportunities in Chinese economies (quick read)

Amazon is launching its first two renewable energy projects in China — a wind farm and a solar farm — that will generate enough electricity for some 250,000 homes, on the order of 200 MW of power producing nearly 500,000 MWh. The solar farm, about 480 km (300 mi) south of Beijing, covers 1.5 square miles with 420,000 solar panels, while the 100 MW wind farm will produce 340,000 MWh of power.

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🚗 AUTONOMOUS & ELECTRIC VEHICLES

Ford, VW-backed Argo AI is shutting down (long read)

Argo, launched in 2017 with a $1B blessing from Ford and VW, is being shut down and absorbed into Ford and VW. The decision was based on Argo’s inability to land new investment and failure to bring to market its envisioned robotaxi solution. The focus henceforth for both companies is to focus on relatively less sophisticated drive assistance technologies such as adaptive cruise control and lane keep assist similar to Tesla’s implementation of its infamous Autopilot and so-called Full Self Driving.

Bosch dives deeper into the EV industry with +$260M electric motor expansion (quick read)

Bosch, the largest supplier of automotive components in the world, is developing a new electric motor division at its Charleston, South Carolina USA facility. The factory will build rotor and stator components and assemble the electric motors. Specifications peg the motors’ output at 50 kW to 500 kW, with torque outputs of 150 Nm to 1000 Nm.

The largest electric school bus fleet in the US just launched in Maryland (quick read)

A school district in the US state of Maryland, Montgomery Public Schools, has just added an additional 61 electric school buses to its fleet bring its total to 86. The plan is to replace 326 diesel buses with EV buses by 2025, eventually converting its entire bus fleet to electric buses by 2032. The conversion saves some 6,500 gallons of diesel fuel per day, resulting in a whopping 50% in cost cutting for the school district. The buses utilize a 226 kWh battery and provide a range of 222 km (138 mi).