April 9, 2022

Weekend Reads: Unpacking the New UN IPCC Report; Baseball Plays with Clean Energy

It's the weekend! Kick back and catch up with these must-read articles from around the web.

Five Takeaways from the UN’s Latest 3,000-Page Climate Report (Bloomberg) The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has released its latest 3,000-page look at how humanity can avoid compounding catastrophe if nations take sufficient action to do so. So far humanity hasn’t, the report concludes. Left unchanged, the world’s current emissions trend could result in warming of more than twice the target limit set forth in the 2015 Paris Agreement of no more than 1.5° Celsius (2.7° Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. The new report updates previous work by the IPCC — its last work on this topic came out in 2014 — as well as assessing the potential of technology and offering evidence that climate action, done right, can improve the health and wellbeing of people around the world. Here are five top takeaways.

Putting The World First: The Role Of The Tech Sector In Promoting Sustainable Business (Forbes) What a change we’ve seen in just the past few years. Ten years ago, corporate sustainability initiatives were largely regarded as publicity stunts, environmental stewardship was considered the purview of NGOs and consumers, and serious sustainability was about as far from most companies’ corporate radars as possible. Now, a greater number of companies than ever before are stepping up to do the very real work that’s needed around sustainability in order to ensure that we continue to have a safe and healthy planet on which to do business decades from now. Leaders like Jeff Bezos and Larry Fink are taking a stand for green business practices and driving their vast networks of suppliers, investors, customers and partners in the direction of greater sustainability.

Supply-chain squeeze: Solar, storage industries grapple with delays, price spikes as demand continues to grow (Utility Dive) Project developers across the country are seeing the ripple effects of supply chain constraints squeezing both the solar and storage sectors. Multiple factors are contributing to the problem, experts say, from upstream shortages in labor and equipment parts to more intermediate issues like transportation backlogs and the unavailability of shipping containers. On the storage side, developers have been experiencing tight supply conditions that make it difficult for them to access lithium-ion batteries, as well as other equipment they need to build facilities. The solar sector, meanwhile, has witnessed labor crunches at ports, nautical shipping challenges and other constraints that have contributed to a demand-supply imbalance.

Misinformation is derailing renewable energy projects across the United States (NPR) On a winter night in early 2016, Jeremy Kitson gathered in his buddy's large shed with some neighbors to plan their fight against a proposed wind farm in rural Van Wert County, Ohio. The project would be about a mile from his home. From the beginning, Kitson — who teaches physics and chemistry at the local high school — knew he didn't want the turbines anywhere near him. He had heard from folks who lived near another wind project about 10 miles away that the turbines were noisy and that they couldn't sleep. "There were so many people saying that it's horrible, you do not want to live under these things,'" Kitson says. He and his neighbors went on the offensive. "I was just like, there's got to be a way to beat 'em," he says of the developer, Apex Clean Energy. "You got to outsmart them. You got to figure out the science. You got to figure out the economic arguments. You got to figure out what they're going to say and figure out how to counter it."

Hitting a Home Run for Clean Energy (Energy Saver) The spring season's gentle breezes, blooming flowers, and warm sunshine mark the beginning of fun outdoor activities—picnics, camping, hiking, and the classic  American pastime—baseball. Today is opening day and fans everywhere around the country will be flooding ballparks to cheer on their favorite team. Many major league baseball teams have made great strides in making their home parks green over the last decades. Here are several examples of teams that are hitting a home run for clean energy

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