Happy Tuesday. Rio de Janeiro is pioneering an approach to urban development, as it aims to transform the city’s natural landscape, boost biodiversity & address health challenges.
In today’s edition:
⚡️Biden unveils $20 billion for clean energy and pollution-cutting projects
🚜 Using tech to boost animal welfare & sustainablity in egg production
🌳 10-meter square biodiversity boost in Rio
🔋 Energy (1-Min Read)
$20bn funding to create ‘green banks’ in the US
What happened: Biden officials just unveiled organisations that will receive $20 billion designed to flow into tens of thousands of clean energy and pollution-cutting projects nationwide.
How it works: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) -led program is funding nonprofits to form “green banks. They will provide low-cost loans and other aid to climate focussed projects. The recipients committed to spending $7 in private sector funding for each $1 from the federal investment money.
The numbers: At least $14 billion of the $20 billion announced is reserved for low-income and rural areas, neighborhoods of color, “energy communities” (like regions with closed coal mines)
One pillar of the investment, Power Forward Communities, will receive $2 billion to focus on decarbonized, affordable housing
Another pillar is the $6 billion Clean Communities Investment Accelerator to build “hubs” that provide technical aid and lending for clean tech projects.
Why it matters: Disadvantaged communities are often passed over by commercial banks and investors yet are disproportionately impacted by climate change.
Yes, but: Republicans say EPA is ill-equipped to handle the huge fund effectively and have floated legislation to repeal it. (Full story here)
🚜 AgriTech (1-Min Read)
Using tech to drive more sustainable egg production
What Happened: Every year in the US, over 300 million male chicks are hatched and typically killed within a day due to their lack of egg-laying ability or meat value through a process known as chick culling. Egg producers want to use new technology to stop chick culling.
Details: The technology, called in-ovo sexing, determines chick sex before hatching. This allows any unwanted eggs to be destroyed without causing pain to the embryos. Several European countries have banned chick culling and utilise in-ovo sexing, while the US has lagged behind due to scaling concerns, despite criticism from animal rights groups.
A Positive Step: In-ovo sexing could reduce the costs and inefficiencies of egg production. It does this as by allowing producers to identify male chicks without the need for incubation until they hatch, while also improving animal welfare. (Full story here).
🐘 Nature (1-Min Read)
Revitalizing Rio’s urban ecosystems
What Happened: Two non-profit organisations and a Brazilian financial institution have joined forces with Rio de Janeiro municipality to develop an urban biodiversity credit programme.
Details: In a first-of-its-kind initiative, the Rio municipality will issue credits to developers who improve biodiversity in 10-meter-square areas throughout the city, such as by planting trees alongside motorways, streets, or a river. The biodiversity improvements will be determined by measuring the diversity, abundance, and resilience of species within these areas.
Welfare & Nature Benefits: Biodiversity restoration could help Rio’s institutions and communities tackle major health and nature threats linked to deforestation, such as dengue fever and heat waves. By creating habitats for natural predators of the insect that carries dengue fever, authorities in Rio hope to reduce instances of the disease within the city. (Full story here).
💭 Little Bytes (1-Min Read)
💬 Quote: ““Gas is the only cost-efficient energy generation capable of providing the type of 24/7 reliable power required by the big technology companies to power the AI boom.” Doug Kimmelman, ECP founder and senior partner.
📊 Stat: The loss of primary forests – those untouched by people and sometimes known as old-growth forests – in the tropics declined 9% last year compared to 2022 – Global Forest Watch
📺️ Watch: A new wind farm will power 600,000 homes in New York
🛗 Snippets for your lift conversations (1-Min Read)
The Biden administration restored some protections under the Endangered Species Act, which was rolled back under former President Donald Trump, giving the federal government more leeway to designate plants or animals as threatened or endangered.
Battery recycler Li-Cycle plans to lay off 17% of its staff – including three senior executives – as it pares its ambitious global growth plans to save cash and focus on building a crucial processing facility in New York.
The U.S. government is finalising tighter tailpipe emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles like semi-trucks and buses. Still, the new rules would not be as strict as initially proposed in 2023.
This year, a hot winter in Canada has delayed the opening of a 400-kilometre (250-mile) ice road that is rebuilt yearly as the main conduit for major diamond miners to access their diamond mines in the remote Arctic region.
There could be a record number of bee farms in the U.S. right now, according to a new analysis from the Washington Post. Unusually high hive losses in the early 2000s ignited fears that the domesticated western honey bee, an integral part of the world’s food system, was headed for widespread population collapse.
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink’s stemwinder on “energy pragmatism” contained a kernel of truth about the global shift away from fossil fuels.Solar panels have become so cheap that they are being used to build garden fences in the Netherlands and Germany, as a boom in Chinese production saturates the global market.
Shell will fight to convince judges to repeal a landmark order to cut greenhouse gas emissions, in a closely watched test of polluters’ ability to keep climate change-related court action at bay.
Startup, Infinium, is making fuel from water and carbon dioxide and has fuel buyers that include Amazon and American Airlines, as the company tires ot scale.
The European Union is not planning to delay a new law to crack down on the import of commodities linked to deforestation, despite some governments urging Brussels to postpone the landmark rules.
Rivian Automotive beat estimates for quarterly deliveries, fueled by strong demand for its electric pickup trucks and SUVs, although its shares fell 5% as Tesla’s weak numbers fanned concerns about an EV market slowdown.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is pausing the implementation of its new climate disclosure rule while it defends the regulation in court.
🎣 Gone Phishing (1-Minute Read)
Three of these stories are true, one we’ve made up. Guess which:
Canadian town plagued by invasion of moose
Italian island overrun by goats
Botswana threatens to send 20,000 elephants to Germany
Irish basketball teams ordered to replay last 0.3 seconds of quarter-final
