Climate Now

Season Finale: Live from Climate Week

15 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Our Season One finale brings you a debate about the pace of the energy transition that was recorded live at NYC Climate Week three weeks ago.  How fa...

Navigating Recent Changes to Voluntary Carbon Markets

10 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Voluntary Carbon Markets, or VCM, are the decentralized marketplaces where carbon credits, used to offset greenhouse gas emissions are traded. Each cr...

Climate News Weekly: Exonn-Mobil oil projections, closing on coal in the UK, and more...

10 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On this week's edition of Climate News Weekly, James Lawler and Julio Friedmann discuss Exxon-Mobil's projections of flat oil demand by 2050...

Climate News Weekly: Climate policy impacts, mapping emissions with precision, hydrogen infrastructure updates, and more

28 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Climate News Weekly is back to cover the week’s biggest stories in climate news with host James Lawler, joined by Julio Friedmann and Darren Hau. Th...

Partner Episode: Energy vs Climate's "Buzzkill: Understanding the Shift in Media Perception Towards EVs"

20 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As a Climate Now listener, we know you appreciate frank and thoughtful debate about the climate crisis. So we'd like to share an episode from a p...

Climate News Weekly: Carbon market upheaval, Tropical Storm Debby, Tim Walz's VP candidacy, and more

14 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Climate News Weekly is back to cover the week’s biggest stories in climate news with host James Lawler, joined by Dina Cappiello and Julio Friedmann...

Sustainable Aviation Fuel: Episode 4

06 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The United States' Renewable Fuel Standard Program requires a certain volume of renewable fuel be used to replace or reduce fossil fuel use. Each...

Climate News Weekly: Kamala Harris and climate, a turning point for China, the Cape Wind accident, and more...

29 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

James Lawler is joined by Carbon Direct's Julio Friedmann for Climate News Weekly. Join James and Julio as they discuss what Kamala Harris'...

Sustainable Aviation Fuel: Episode 3

23 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ethanol-to-jet is one pathway to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Until recently, this pathway was out of reach for commercial production. Tha...

Climate News Weekly: Hurricane Beryl, Tesla's minority market share, peak oil predictions, and more...

16 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Climate News Weekly is back to cover the week’s biggest stories in climate news. James Lawler, Julio Friedmann, and Darren Hau begin this episode wi...

Sustainable Aviation Fuel: Episode 2

09 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Sustainable aviation fuel can use a variety of feedstocks, from used cooking oils to oily seeds. When those feedstocks are heated under high pressure ...

Climate News Weekly: The end of Chevron deference, special report on solar, anti-greenwashing lawsuits, and more

02 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the latest installment of Climate News Weekly, James Lawler and Dina Cappiello (RMI) discuss a variety of stories on climate, sustainability, and t...

Sustainable Aviation Fuel: Episode 1

01 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Aviation accounts for 12% of CO2 emissions from transportation and 2% of all CO2 emissions globally. Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is fuel made not ...

Climate News Weekly: Hajj aftermath, European climate law, changing benchmarks, and more...

24 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Climate News Weekly is back to cover the week’s biggest stories in climate news. Host James Lawler, joined by Julio Friedmann (Carbon Direct), begin...

Clearing the Air: How the DOE is Tackling Carbon Dioxide Removal

17 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The US Department of Energy (DOE) was established in 1977 with two key missions: to carry out defense responsibilities relating to nuclear weapons, an...

Climate News Weekly: Europe's elections, climate impacts around the world, NYC congestion pricing, and more

17 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On this week's Climate News Weekly, James Lawler and Julio Friedmann discuss the latest in global climate news. Up first, James and Julio cover t...

Climate News Weekly: Kenya's president visits US, DOE announcements, Microsoft's AI emissions, and more

04 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Climate News Weekly is back to cover the week’s biggest stories in climate news. Emma Crow-Willard and co-hosts Julio Friedmann (Carbon Direct) and ...

Climate News Weekly: Record CO2 accumulation, US-China climate collaboration, Climeworks opens DAC plant, and more

21 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Climate Now is back to tackle six of the biggest stories in recent climate news. James Lawler, Julio Friedmann, Dina Cappiello, and Darren Hau discuss...

Climate Change Bites: The Proliferation of Vector-Borne Diseases

15 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

According to the CDC, the spread of vector-borne diseases (those spread by blood-feeding bugs like mosquitos, ticks, and fleas) is linked to climate c...

Climate News Weekly: Tesla Layoffs, World Bank Investment, G7 Coal Phaseout

06 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Julio Friedmann and Darren Hau join James Lawler to discuss the latest climate news: Tesla lays off its supercharger team, historic flooding and heat ...

Are cleaner hydrocarbons possible?

30 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Just over 70% of humanity’s energy consumption comes from hydrocarbons like coal, oil, and natural gas. The world is dependent on hydrocarbons, not ...

Climate News Weekly: Coal and wind rise in 2023, we have more than two years, advances in home insulation

22 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This week, Julio Friedmann and Darren Hau join James Lawler to talk about the latest climate news. The news of the week covers Executive Director of t...

Climate News Weekly: SEJ, green banks, solar sheep, and more

12 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Climate News Weekly, James Lawler is joined by Dina Cappiello. They discuss the latest on green banks, the recent turmoil at the SBTI, t...

Climate News Weekly: Richard Benedick, geoengineering test, and more

08 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Climate News Weekly, James Lawler sits down with Julio Friedmann and Darren Hau. They discuss the passing of climate leader Richard Bened...

Climate News Weekly: Coal plants closing, AI for climate, decarbonizing industry, and more

01 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Climate News Weekly, James Lawler and Julio Friedmann discuss coal-fired power plant closures in New England, how the DOE is spending bil...

How climate changes where people live

26 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the U.S. alone, 162 million people will experience a worse quality of life due to the changing climate within the next 30 years. Rising sea levels ...

Climate News Weekly: Increasing electricity demand, building more battery storage, and more

25 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Climate News Weekly, James Lawler is joined by Julio Friedmann and Canary Media Reporter Julian Spector. Julio reports on his experience ...

Charging Electric Fleets (3/3)

21 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 2023, electric vehicle drivers reported that, when pulling up to one of the more than 140,000 EV public charging stations across the United States,...

Climate News Weekly: SBTI updates, CERAWeek, and more

20 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Climate News Weekly, James Lawler is joined by GreenBiz Editor at Large Heather Clancy, as well as regular contributors Dina Cappiello an...

Climate News Weekly: MethaneSAT and the SEC Climate Risk Guidelines

11 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This week we're joined by Dina Capiello and Julio Friedmann to talk about the latest climate news. The IEA released its global warming emissions ...

Charging Electric Fleets (2/3)

27 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Today, given route lengths and cargo capacity, it is possible to electrify 65% of medium-duty and 49% of heavy-duty trucks. Commercial fleets’ are r...

Climate News Weekly: Natural gas prices, EV leasing, and more

26 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's episode of Climate News Weekly, James Lawler, Julio Friedmann, and Darren Hau discuss falling natural gas prices and the impact of...

Charging Electric Fleets (1/3)

20 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the United States, nearly one quarter of national greenhouse gas emissions come from the 280 million vehicles that drive on the nations roads each ...

Climate News Weekly: IEA's birthday, Siemens transformers, and more

20 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On today's episode of Climate News Weekly, James Lawler and Julio Friedmann discuss the IEA's 50th anniversary, Siemens' plans to open ...

Living outside our comfort zone

13 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the late 1970’s, English chemist Dr. James Lovelock and American biologist Dr. Lynn Margulis published a research paper hypothesizing that living...

Climate News Weekly: California flooding, heat pumps in the news, and more

13 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of Climate News Weekly, James Lawler sits down with Julio Friedmann and Darren Hau to discuss potential responses to California's...

The emerging market that is unlocking renewable projects

30 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Passage of the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in 2022 was a game changer in the United States’ effort to address climate change. The hundreds of...

Climate News Weekly: Delayed approval on LNG terminal, Europe's energy choices, extra wind power, and more

29 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On this week's episode of Climate News Weekly, James Lawler and Julio Friedmann discuss the consequences of the Biden administration's decis...

Climate News Weekly: EVs face the cold, British carbon capture, Hawaii's new virtual power plant, and more

23 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Climate News Weekly, host James Lawler is joined by Julio Friedmann, Darren Hau, and Canary Media Reporter Julian Spector. They discuss t...

Virtual power plants and next-gen batteries

16 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Since 2019, the cost of wind and solar electricity production has been lower than that from fossil fuels, and costs are projected to continue falling ...

Climate News Weekly: Auxin solar case continues, emissions went down, climate senate race in Utah, and more!

15 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Julio Friedmann, Dina Cappiello, Darren Hau and Eric Wesoff  join James Lawler to discuss this week's climate news. Why is the Auxin solar tarif...

Climate News Weekly: Green hydrogen tax credit rules, Chinese EVs dominate, Louisiana LNG exports, and more

09 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this week’s episode of Climate News Weekly, Julio Friedmann, Dina Cappiello, and Darren Hau join James Lawler to discuss the US Treasury’s new ...

(3/3) The Voluntary Carbon Offset Market

01 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In January of 2023, a headline from Boston Consulting Group read: The voluntary carbon market [VCM] is thriving. Their evidence? A 4-fold increase in ...

(2/3) The Voluntary Carbon Offset Market

25 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Join us for the second of our three-part series on voluntary carbon offset markets, where we take a look at three companies that have very different s...

(1/3) The Voluntary Carbon Offset Market

19 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The voluntary carbon offset market (VCM) – in which customers can pay for third-parties to avoid emitting CO2 or remove it from the atmosphere on th...

Climate News Weekly: Top Stories of 2023, including COP28 deal, methane tracking, climate risks, and more

18 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For our last episode of Climate News Weekly this year, we're reviewing the top climate space stories of 2023 according to our series regulars Jul...

Roads to CO2 Removal

11 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How much CO2 is it possible to remove in the United States and at what cost? Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists and researchers from mo...

Climate News Weekly: COP28 coverage, including global health, carbon capture, and "phase out vs phase down"

11 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today in Climate News Weekly, we continue our coverage of COP28 with three people who each covered a different aspect of the conference. First, we spe...

Climate News Weekly: Roads to Removal Report preview and live from COP28

04 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On this week's episode of Climate News Weekly, host James Lawler sits down with Dr. Jennifer Pett-Ridge, Senior Staff Scientist at Lawrence Liver...

When insurers can no longer afford the risk

28 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2023, two major insurers joined a growing list of companies that will no longer offer new home insurance policies in California. In Florida, the si...

Climate News Weekly: US-China Climate Statement, More Lithium, Fifth National Climate Assessment, Taylor Swift, and more

20 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On this week's episode of Climate News Weekly, James Lawler is joined by Julio Friedmann and Darren Hau as they discuss the latest US-China clima...

Climate News Weekly: 2023 Elections Recap, EV adoptions, new DAC facility breaks ground, and more

13 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's episode of Climate News Weekly, James Lawler and Ben Hone, Climate Now's Marketing Manager sit down with Nathaniel Stinnett, ...

Climate Now Debates: Solar Radiation Management (SRM)

07 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

“Geoengineering” refers to the intentional intervention in Earth processes for the purpose of mitigating climate change. A controversial topic, ge...

Climate News Weekly: Remembering Saleemul Huq, Panama Canal Troubles, US Offshore Wind Power Saga Continues

06 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On today’s Climate News Weekly episode, James Lawler is joined by Julio Friedmann. They pay tribute to Saleemul Huq, leading climate action advocate...

Climate News Weekly: Chevron acquires Hess, what happens to captured CO2 today, Hurricane Otis, and more

30 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On today’s Climate News Weekly episode, James Lawler is joined by Dina Cappiello to discuss Chevron's latest acquisition of Hess, what really h...

Pope Francis’ Laudate Deum: uniting faith and science in a call to climate action

24 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2015, Pope Francis - head of the Catholic Church - published Laudato Si: On Care For Our Common Home, a “papal cyclical,” or open letter, to th...

Climate News Weekly: Grid Upgrades, Species Extinction, New European Reporting Rules, and more

23 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On today’s Climate News Weekly episode, James Lawler, Julio Friedmann, and Dina Cappiello discuss the need to invest in our grids to ensure a reliab...

Climate News Weekly: Tesla Price Drop, Exxon Buys Pioneer, New Hydrogen Hubs, and more

16 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On today’s Climate News Weekly episode, James Lawler, Julio Friedmann, and Dina Cappiello discuss Tesla's new prices for their electric vehicle...

Energy Superhighways: Bridging the Gap for Clean Energy

10 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The US's energy system is at a crossroads. As more and more renewable energy projects come online and demand for electricity keeps rising, many u...

Climate News Weekly: Paying Firefighters, Oil Conference, Pope's Message on Climate Action, and more

09 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On today’s Climate News Weekly episode, James Lawler and Julio Friedmann discuss how a US government shut down could impact firefighter pay, the oil...

Climate News Weekly: Climate Week NYC recap, IEA's new 1.5°C scenario, new geothermal plant, and more

02 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On today’s Climate News Weekly episode, Dina Cappiello recaps her Climate Week NYC experience. We discuss the International Energy Agency’s update...

Two views on the future of the US electricity grid

26 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The United States’ aging electricity grid is a problem. Over 70% of the major transmission networks – which transfer electricity from power genera...

Climate News Weekly: Decarbonizing Heavy Industry, Europe's Deadly Air Quality, Insurance at Risk, and more

25 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From a new White House climate jobs training program that echoes the Civilian Conservation Corp of the FDR era, to UK’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak r...

Climate News Weekly: Apple's Green Ad, Peak Fossil Fuels, G20, and more

18 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This has been a big week for nations and companies ‘talking the talk’ about reducing their emissions footprints, from updated commitments at the G...

The IRA Progress Report

11 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act was signed into law in August 2022, policy analysts predicted that the incentives it provided for renewable ener...

Climate News Weekly

04 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This past week the climate has been busy inundating every aspect of life: Hurricane Idalia caused damages across Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas, ...

Made in America: The next generation of solar

28 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

You may recall an Auxin Solar tariff case in which a small domestic solar PV manufacturer, Auxin Solar, alleged that solar cells produced in Cambodia,...

Building Solar Neighborhoods

21 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

There are over 8 billion square meters of rooftops in the US that are viable for solar energy generation, and could produce as much as 40% of national...

Climate Now Debates: Carbon Capture and Storage

14 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

One of the most controversial parts of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act - the most ambitious climate spending bill in history - was the large pot of f...

Revolutionizing ammonia production

07 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Nobel-prize winning discovery of how to create synthetic ammonia has been called the “most momentous technical advance in history,” and for go...

What happens after forests burn?

24 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

2020 was a record breaking season for forest fires in California. Over 4 million acres burned, releasing enough CO2 into the atmosphere to wipe out th...

Tracking Methane Leaks for Planet and Profit

17 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In September 2022, two pipelines carrying natural gas from Russia across the floor of the North Sea were sabotaged, rupturing and emitting an estimate...

Getting on track with home decarbonization

11 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Biden Administration in the U.S. has set a goal of achieving a net-zero emissions economy by 2050, which among other things means that U.S. househ...

In the Navy! There is a climate action plan

26 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2003, the U.S. Department of Defense released a report entitled, “An abrupt climate change scenario and its implications for United States nation...

Less waste, more energy

20 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Landfills emit about 2% of the world's greenhouse gases, but in terms of lowering global emissions, they represent some of the lowest hanging fru...

June 12: This Week in Climate News

12 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Climate Now is taking a break this week - but will be back on June 20 with one more solution we can include in our portfolio of opportunities to tackl...

What could climate instability mean to you?

05 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Since humans began settling down and building civilizations 10,000 years ago, the Earth's climate has been relatively stable. But before that, th...

100th episode: How to talk about climate change

29 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A 2022 study by Yale University found that two thirds of Americans (67%) rarely or never talk about climate change, and rarely or never hear people th...

The evidence for peak fossil electricity

22 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1909, headlines declared the U.S. would run out of petroleum by 1940. In 1945, the estimate was that the U.S. had 13 more years of petroleum reserv...

Fixing the problems with ESG investing

15 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

According to a 2022 poll from the Associated Press, although 93% of Americans acknowledge that human activity impacts climate, nearly half of American...

What will happen when the permafrost thaws?

08 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Since the Industrial Revolution nearly 150 years ago, global average temperatures have increased by more than 1 degree C (1.9 degrees F), with the maj...

LEED certifying buildings and cities, and why it matters

01 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The built environment represents one of society’s largest environmental impacts - contributing nearly one fifth of global GHG emissions, not to ment...

The debate about nuclear's role in the clean energy transition

25 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Every approach to decarbonizing the energy sector comes with its share of costs and benefits: renewables are cheap and clean, but require enormous amo...

What is the future of agriculture in California?

12 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On March 30, 2023, in partnership with the Livermore Lab Foundation and The Maddy Institute, Climate Now hosted a one day summit in Fresno, CA, examin...

Making hydrogen and carbon black out of renewable natural gas

03 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Renewable natural gas (RNG), made from the decomposition of organic waste like livestock manure, is not necessarily net-zero if it's burned to ru...

Minerals discovery and mining for the energy transition

27 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As we transition to a clean energy economy, demand for minerals like copper, cobalt, nickel, and lithium is projected to skyrocket. According to a 202...

Decarbonizing a city with heat pumps and thermal energy networks

20 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For a building owner, building decarbonization has myriad benefits: lower utility bills, lower maintenance, healthier and more comfortable living. But...

Net-zero cities: Making decarbonization work for everyone

13 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Reducing average global temperatures. Preserving biodiversity. Decreasing the risk of droughts, floods and hurricanes. Reducing air pollution. Reducin...

Low carbon fuel standards: what, why, and how?

06 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On February 15, 2023, the U.S. Senate held a hearing considering a national clean fuels program, modeled after California’s state-wide Low-Carbon Fu...

The road to decarbonized trucking

27 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

2022 potentially marked a turning point for the U.S. electric vehicle (EV) market, with new EV car sales increasing by 65% over 2021 sales, and now ac...

Updates to the GHG protocol: Scope 1, 2, 3 and more?

20 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

More than one third of the world’s 2,000 largest publicly traded companies have made some kind of net-zero commitment, and the list is growing quick...

Decarbonizing diesel: cleaner fuels and engines

13 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Electrification is going a long way in decarbonizing small vehicles (like passenger cars) in the global transportation sector, which produces about 16...

How to decarbonize a city

06 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In November 2021, the City of Ithaca announced the approval of a plan to decarbonize all of its buildings by 2030. In this first-of-its-kind decarboni...

Bill McKibben’s take on building a successful climate movement

30 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On April 22, 1970, 20 million people across the U.S. marched, attended speeches and sat in teach-ins, marking the first Earth Day, and spurring on the...

How to fix the clean energy bottleneck

23 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2021, U.S. President Biden signed an executive order with the directive to achieve 100% carbon-pollution free electricity in the United States by 2...

Farm to stable CO2 storage

16 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The agricultural sector produces about a tenth of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, and while most of that comes from livestock (about 2/3), emi...

Inside the DOE: Understanding the role of the US Department of Energy in the energy transition

09 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

“We've built an entire industrial economy around a set of energy sources, and we're now thinking about diversifying way beyond that. And t...

Breaking the link between how much we consume and economic growth

22 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The carbon footprint of stuffFor the last two centuries, continuous economic growth (the increase in the quantity and quality of the economic goods an...

An interview with the scientist who achieved fusion ignition

19 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Last week, LLNL's National Ignition Facility successfully 'ignited' a nuclear fusion reaction equivalent to what takes place in the sun...

What lies beneath? Efficient heating and cooling.

12 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Can Earth’s geothermal heat warm - and cool - your home?The hottest day ever recorded on Earth was on July 10, 1913. Thermometers in California’s ...