Tag Archives: Axios

Corporate giants back clean energy standard

At-a-Glance:

Over 75 companies including names like General Motors, Apple, Unilever and eBay are urging lawmakers to require that power companies supply rising amounts of zero-carbon electricity. A new open letter shows an effort to keep a proposed “clean energy standard” (CES) in the mix on Capitol Hill despite huge political hurdles. To learn more, read “Corporate giants back clean energy standard.”

Key Takeaways:

  • The effort is organized by the sustainable investment advocacy group Ceres, the Environmental Defense Fund and others.
  • “A federal clean electricity standard should achieve 80 percent carbon pollution-free electricity by 2030 on the pathway to 100% clean power by 2035,” the letter states.
  • “Millions of Americans are already feeling the impacts of climate change. From recent extreme weather to deadly wildfires and record-breaking hurricanes, the human and economic losses are profound,” the letter continues.

Path to 100% Perspective: 

The eyes of the world are now on the energy sector. Global leaders now expect power producers to deliver the lion’s share of emissions cuts that are so vital for meeting national decarbonisation goals. Investment remains a key hurdle, especially in the post-COVID world. The International Energy Agency (IEA) calculates that investment in clean electricity must leap from $380 billion to $1.6 trillion by 2030 to put us on a path to net zero by 2050. As a result, oncoming incentives and regulation are set to ensure clean power is always the most attractive option. 

 

Photo by Laurenz Heymann on Unsplash

Exclusive: Major companies united to push climate solutions

At-a-Glance:

A group of eight large companies, including tech and entertainment heavy hitters such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, Disney and Netflix, are joining environmental groups and the U.N. to devise ways to scale funding for climate solutions. The collective will be called the Business Alliance to Scale Climate Solutions (BASCS), and will serve as a knowledge-sharing network that has the potential to accelerate companies’ emissions reduction efforts. To learn more, read “Exclusive: Major companies united to push climate solutions.”

Key Takeaways:

  • The new alliance allows firms that might otherwise compete with one another to launch clean energy projects to collaborate before engaging in such competition.
  • The alliance is explicit about preventing companies from simply trying to offset their emissions, and firms that join need to agree to core principles that emphasize the need for absolute emissions cuts.
  • Max Scher, who heads clean energy and carbon programs at Salesforce, told Axios that the alliance is unique in that it’s by businesses for businesses, and aims to break down silos in which many currently operate.

Path to 100% Perspective:

The global energy market is constantly evolving. Current market trends show the energy landscape is in transition towards more flexible energy systems with a rapidly increasing share of renewable energy, declining inflexible baseload generation and wider applications of storage technology. The declining costs of renewables have begun to reduce new investments into coal and other inflexible baseload technologies; a transition which will eventually cause renewables to become the new baseload. In 2017 itself, 14% of electricity generation worldwide was attributed to wind and solar. A focus on a renewable energy future is now unwavering for collaborators across public and private sectors alike.