Climate+Positive Investing Alliance

Fascinating chart showing how $1 invested in the US stock market in 1871 would likely be over $31,000 by January 2025 (even after inflation adjustments). It's a good reminder about the remarkable resilience of long-term index investment returns despite periods of national and global uncertainty. For most of the past decade our Etho Capital team has had a mission to empower investors to get the benefits of diversified index investing without all the negative impacts on #climate and social inequities (ethocapital.com for more info). It's been a bumpy ride at times, but I'm proud we're still going strong despite our challenging times! Here's a link for more complete analysis: https://lnkd.in/gn5WMgWr And of course, to keep our regulatory overlords happy, I should always remind you that past performance can't guarantee future results, and all investments carry the risk of loss! #climatesolutions #esg #climateinvesting

What's the best way to electrify long-haul trucking? According to the folks at Janus Electric : keep most of the truck, just replace the fossil fuel burning bits with an electric motor and swappable batteries + clean energy and supporting systems! Added bonuses?: 1) electric trucks run on 100% solar are MUCH cheaper to operate, 2) quieter and smoother EV truck operation leaves drivers feeling healthier, and 3) we're all breathing less toxic diesel fumes that make us sick and overheat our #climate. Thanks yet again to the FullyCharged.SHOW & Everything Electric teams for their inspiring reporting, and to Lex Forsyth and his Janus team for pioneering an awesome EV tech I hope comes to America soon! https://lnkd.in/gymaBtVy #climatesolutions #evtrucks

Last week I had the opportunity to present my thoughts on the evolving landscape of solar and storage as our industry navigates shifting policy dynamics. One constant over the past two decades? The upward trend in new solar installs — regardless of political cycles (bit.ly/doesolar). The need for flexible, distributed generation and lower-cost electricity is more urgent than ever. With rising energy demand, an aging grid and increased power outages from extreme weather, accelerating solar and storage deployment is critical. Big thanks to Ian for leading the lively Q&A with the E-Discuss SF crew, and to Matthew for fostering the dynamic community of climate tech founders and investors at 9Zero Climate Innovation Hub. Excited for what’s ahead!

Exciting to see Australia leading the charge (pun intended) on Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) rollout! : https://lnkd.in/gWtDQEmg Kudos to Simone Annan and the FullyCharged.SHOW & Everything Electric teams for their inspiring reporting on all the #climatesolutions that keep charging forward, despite our current geopolitical ridiculousness, and thanks to Matthew Downie and his V2Grid Australia team for their great V2G work! Maybe you can bring your V2G tech here to help Mayor Daniel Lurie 丹尼爾·羅偉 decarbonize City and County of San Francisco next?

Inspiring to see this fully Electric Cherries farm in New Zealand! One of my longer-term goals is to transform my family farm near the City of Ukiah and Frey Vineyards LTD into an education center for rural climate solutions and resilience. Would any of you LinkedIn friends like to help out and/or have other clean energy farming models to point us towards? MANY thanks also to Robert Llewellyn, Imogen Bhogal, Jack Scarlett, Elliot Richards, and all the rest of the delightfully entertaining and insightful teams at the FullyCharged.SHOW & Everything Electric shows for your wonderful reporting on climate solutions around the world! You and CleanTechnica are my go-to sources of climate optimism that many things ARE going in the right direction, despite our gloomy mainstream media and assorted political insanities! https://lnkd.in/gHA_zXz9 #climatesolutions #solar #electricfarm #agrivoltaics #fullychargedshow #everythingelectricshow #homeenergy

Thanks for the thoughtful post, Susan Su! I'm happy to report that your scenario #1 "clean energy catches up" is already mostly winning the day. Solar is already the cheapest source of electricity almost everywhere in the world, and batteries are now cheap enough that new solar+battery systems for 24/7 clean electricity are getting cheaper than new-build peaker gas or existing coal (Lazard LCoE studies & RMI reports + Joe Romm, Ph.D., Jason Kaminsky, & Mark Jacobson have some good recent posts). Beyond the cost advantages for solar+battery systems, even more importantly they're now MUCH (2x) faster to deploy than even the fastest new-build fossil (gas) systems, and solar+battery systems for AI data centers don't need to be grid-connected, saving on the grid interconnection delays that are slowing down utility-scale renewables. While there's been a lot of AI energy demand hype driving SMR nuclear and fossil speculation, the real money and planning has been going towards increased solar, wind, hydro, geothermal and battery energy storage from all the major players (including Google/Alphabet Inc., Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic, Oracle, SoftBank Group Corp., Apple etc), and this AI trend towards clean energy is continuing despite Trump (kudos for Tim De Chant at TechCrunch for keeping up reporting on this) : https://lnkd.in/gfm32yKX https://lnkd.in/gre9RCcy https://lnkd.in/g8asTqej https://lnkd.in/g7qCHrP2 https://lnkd.in/gG9dN8sn https://lnkd.in/gffUbUtv Even before DeepSeek AI rattled expectations and markets, folks like (my Solving Climate Change co-author) Jonathan Koomey who are deep in both data center computing and energy worlds could see that supposedly skyrocketing AI-driven energy demand was way overblown, possibly intentionally so for utilities, fossil companies, and associated regulators wanting to justify more infrastructure spending: https://lnkd.in/gpGchEzp As for the "Jevons paradox" that we'll use more AI as it gets exponentially cheaper / more energy and resource efficient, I'm sure we'll see a bit of that. But I also think the additional AI uptake will be less substantial and slower than many AI boosters hope, to the point that efficiency improvements will keep up with it. Folks deep in AI often overlook the regulatory, management, behavioral psychology, perverse incentives, and other resistance to change that perpetuate inertia and slow tech uptake. Most AI providers are still solutions in search of real problems and willingness-to-pay.

Is climate change worsening the extreme winds that drive wildfires? Short answer: Yes. Winds are driven by air moving to equilibrate differences in temperature and pressure. Climate change is making these temperature and pressure differences more extreme and less predictable, leading to more extreme and less predictable winds as Earth shifts around the excess heat energy trapped in our land, oceans, (melting) ice, and atmosphere. Average wind speeds have been increasing globally due to climate change: https://lnkd.in/gqHqgKZ3 Extreme wind events are becoming more extreme: https://lnkd.in/gmZsuE8H Melting arctic sea ice and other climate feedback loops are weakening the polar jet stream and making the polar vortex much less sable, contributing to both extreme cold "polar vortex" and "heat dome" events: https://lnkd.in/gB5zfU-X Jet stream winds are accelerating and becoming less predictable as our climate warms: https://lnkd.in/gY-cTHHP Land has been warming ~2x faster than our oceans, while the arctic has been warming ~4x faster than our planet, changing local and regional temperature gradients that can impact winds: https://lnkd.in/gutB5_9i These climate-driven wind volatility and extreme amplification factors + climate-driven changes in extreme drought and rain events + warmer average temperatures (which dry vegetation) = bigger, faster, more destructive, and more deadly wildfires. For these reasons, along with other climate chain reactions we're still working to understand, melting arctic sea ice has been directly linked to increasingly destructive wildfires in North America (image below), Europe and Asia: https://lnkd.in/gqbfkscV https://lnkd.in/gi9pvy-8 Scientists are still working to better predict exactly how our warming world will impact the "Santa Ana" winds that have fanned the flames around Los Angeles, as well as the "Diablo" winds that have devastated so many communities in Northern #California (including my own). But we're already 100% certain that climate change is dramatically increasing the probability that extreme winds will blow on dry land that is primed to burn, leading to explosive fires that are nearly impossible to contain: https://lnkd.in/gP4b5a82 Climate-driven #wildfire danger is increasing nearly everywhere around the world, and it will keep getting worse as long as our world keeps warming. The only way to fully stop these fires is to stop burning the oil, coal, and gas fossil fuels that are (by far) the largest causes of #climate change. #LAFires #Palisades #EatonFire #Altadena #climatechange #climaterisk #climatesolutions

?? ?? Only a few more days to get your FREE copy of "Solving Climate Change: A Guide for Learners & Leaders". Please share our solveclimate.org free ebook link with all your friends, family, students, teachers, and colleagues interested in learning more about climate solutions. We'd like to get as many free copies into the world as we can before our book bumps back up to the ~$130 sticker price! A few nice things folks are saying about our book (w/ more at solveclimate.org) “Solving Climate Change is the best primer and action guide I know: magnificently terse, clear, accurate, and inspiring. Read it. Do it. Spread it.” – Amory Lovins, Professor, Stanford University; Co-Founder, RMI “There are a lot of climate books out there today, but if I had to pick just one for my shelf, this would be it. If you’re a climate investor or entrepreneur, this is the single must-have resource for ensuring that your decision-making is grounded in fact and that your efforts are directed to the areas of highest impact.” – Susan Su, Partner, Toba Capital; Host, Climate on the Edge “If you’re looking for a go-to text that covers the science, impacts, economics and policy dimensions of the climate crisis, look no further than Solving Climate Change. This highly readable text doesn’t shy from the key science and policy details, making it the perfect choice for an introductory college course on the climate crisis.” – Michael Mann, Presidential Distinguished Professor, University of Pennsylvania #climatesolutions #climate #climateaction Jonathan Koomey

Excited to share that our full book Solving Climate Change is now available for FREE for the next few weeks. Download a copy at https://ow.ly/Hbjk50U0701 now to save ~$100 vs what you'd pay on Amazon, and please share widely with friends building, funding, studying, &/or teaching climate solutions! Thanks to IOP Publishing for sharing our book around the world and helping it become one of their most widely used textbooks. Jonathan Koomey and I are already ideating for a 2nd edition, incorporating more great work and #climatesolution case studies from the inspiring climate leaders and orgs we've collaborated with, like RMI, Sustainable Ocean Alliance, The Change Climate Project, Climate+Positive Investing Alliance, Intentional Endowments Network, E-Discuss SF, Climate Changemakers, Climate Governance Malaysia, 2050NOW La Maison (ex-Netexplo), Business France, American Sustainable Business Network, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, One Earth and Etho Capital. #climatesolutions #COP29 COP29 Azerbaijan

Proud to organize and host 70+ climate investors, experts and climate justice activists for a Climate+Positive future at New York Climate Week for C+PIA’s Annual Forum. Our biggest annual forum yet - we hosted presentations, breakout sessions and networking for investors and experts to convene towards a Climate+Positive future by 2030. Special thanks to my co-founder Ian Monroe, Etho Capital and Catherine Luo for their support. Thank you to our friends at Intentional Endowments Network for their partnership and collaboration. It started with *Investing in Tangible Climate Impact*, where Milti Chryssavgis from Drashta Impact and Analise Roland from Anura Capital discussed how investors can achieve meaningful climate impact while maintaining financial returns and managing risk. They highlighted resilient financial strategies, circular economics, and the importance of measuring impact (MRVs). Gaya - founder of Dashboard.Earth shared innovative ways to build *Climate-Positive Cities*, showing how data-driven urban climate solutions and creative financing can support climate tech startups and reshape urban landscapes and get citizens involved in climate action. Greg Reitman and Christabel Reed’s session on *Galvanizing Public Action* was a powerful reminder of how grassroots movements, storytelling, and nature restoration can drive climate action. They emphasized the role of narratives in shifting public perception and sustaining initiatives. Yejide Olutosin, MBA and Nisaa Jetha’s session, *Beyond Net Zero*, explored how companies can integrate Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) principles with SDGs to create climate-positive business models. They discussed reducing Scope 3 emissions and supporting BIPOC-led renewable energy projects, moving beyond traditional net-zero goals. In *Measuring What Matters*, Aicha Ly from Intentional Endowments Network and Aparna R. from BlueMark highlighted the importance of impact benchmarking for investment performance. Aparna shared insights from assessing over 200 impact funds, emphasizing how accurate measurement can guide better capital allocation and accelerate progress toward sustainability and climate goals. My deepest gratitude to R.E.M. Residential and Rashaad Middleton for their support and collaboration. Thank you to the speakers and moderators! Look forward to making our 2025 Climate Week programming even better and welcoming you all back to New York. #climateweeknyc #climateweek2024 #climateweek #unga #unga2024