?? The Grumpy Optimists #104

Happy Monday. ??

Welcome back to another episode of The Grumpy Optimist and your weekly positive climate news recap. This week we’re looking at:

????LEGO invests $1.4 billion to reduce its emissions.

?????EU fossil fuel usage hits record low.

????Google Maps uses AI and machine learning for sustainability.

But first…

?? My adventure at the ballet.

Last week I visited the ballet (I know, how cultured) and interestingly, the second act was interrupted by a climate protest. The group drew attention to the fact that Barclays sponsored the venue and highlighted their ties to fossil fuel financing. While the protest was interesting in and of itself, the biggest takeaway for me was that around 90% of people in the theatre supported the protestors. There were a few boos, jeers and shouts of ‘off’ but for the most part, there was a lot of applause and cheering. It was an interesting cultural moment to be a part of and it surprised me how many people were in support.

?? Articles to read

????LEGO to invest $1.4 billion to reduce its emissions. The Danish toy company will look to invest the money over the next three years, primarily focusing on making all of their factories and offices run on renewable energy. The company also plan to reduce its scope 3 supply chain emissions. This may be quite a challenge given that they make mini plastic bricks from fossil fuels.

???’Brought to you by big oil’. Climate activist group Fossil Free Media launched a series of billboards in Arizona, Texas and California last week highlighting the role big oil and gas play in contributing to climate disasters. This comes after July was marked as the hottest month on record since 1880 while record heat domes formed in the US. Personally, I think this is a really cool ad campaign and shows that what we’re experiencing now is no accident.

????Google Maps uses AI and machine learning for sustainability. Google is using its Maps data to make it easier for businesses to reduce their emissions. Google plans to create Project Sunroof, using AI to provide data on potential rooftop solar opportunities across 320 million buildings, Air Quality API to offer reliable data based on traffic pollutants and Pollen API to provide allergy information to over 65 countries. Opening access to data for health and planetary benefits is something to celebrate.

?????UK funds 13 decarbonisation projects with ￡1.2 million in funding. I’m not going to lie I did think twice about putting his one in the newsletter this week, I mean, ￡1.2 million? That’s pretty pathetic, but over ￡16 million has been invested over the last two years. The funding will go towards exploring opportunities for green hydrogen, carbon capture and turning waste CO2 into chemicals. It’s great the state is supporting decarbonisation, but crikey, software startups get more funding for a project management tool. Frustrating!

?????Australia acknowledges the climate risk of government bonds. The Australian government settled a groundbreaking court case, acknowledging climate change as a systemic risk that affects bond value after a class action by Melbourne University student Katta O’Donnell. The settlement marks an important step in recognising the climate risks associated with finance and hopefully, will link climate risk and finance more closely.

?????EU fossil fuel usage hits record low. A combination of falling demand and increases in renewable energy resulted in EU fossil fuel generation hitting record lows. Coal consumption fell by 23% and gas by 13%. Electricity demand also fell by 5% due to price pressure and emergency measures over Winter as a result of the illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Solar rose by 13%, wind by 5% and hydro by 11%. Interestingly, 17 countries achieved record renewable power shares with Denmark and Portugal breaking 75%.

???Apple formally endorses right-to-repair legislation. The tech company has shifted its policy and indicated that the company recognised the need for consumers and repair shops to be able to fix their products. With over 50 million tons of e-waste created every year, support from Apple could go a long way to preventing excessive e-waste.

?????Vehicle sharing GoCar gets €10 million to expand their fleet. Did you know cars are driven for just 4% of their lifetime? We have built infrastructure around something people use often less than one hour a day, instead, we have hundreds of cars lining up on every street in the Western world, often at the expense of proper cycling and walking infrastructure - leading to pictures like this . I like the idea that people can share cars, and I think a rise in funding for shared mobility is a positive sign that people’s perceptions of mobility are changing for good.

???Tesla’s prices fall by as much as 34% to take advantage of subsidies. Elon Musk started Tesla with a slightly expensive ‘Roadster’ as a way of driving demand with the end goal being to make the price of EVs more affordable over time. It looks like he’s heading in the right direction as the price of a new Tesla Model X has fallen by roughly 34% since the start of the year. This has been motivated by a desire to make Tesla’s more affordable and therefore grow its market share, but also to make them eligible for EV subsidies in the US. If we’re not going to have shared mobility, it may as well be an EV.

???Are fossil fuels really the solution? Seen as though we’ve had a couple of car-related pieces of good news, I thought I’d leave you with a parody I saw last week. This article talks about internal combustion engines in the same way the media does about electric vehicles, it’s quite funny. Let me give you one of my favourite quotes.

At first glance fossil fuel cars seem to be quite an interesting idea: You can fill them up in a few minutes and they go for hundreds and hundreds of miles before you need to top them up again. In fact if you’re using ‘diesel’ (and we’ll get to the different types of fossil fuels in a moment) you can get the best part of 1000 miles on a ‘tank’ in some cases.

That’s all from me this week folks. I wrote this newsletter to some wonderful country music and a delightful sunset. Who said trying to find positive news in the face of climate disaster isn’t fun, ey?

As a side note, on Wednesday I convinced myself to sign up for a 70.3 ironman next year, so my weekend was spent running to and from the gym, sleeping and questioning why I have chosen to pay hundreds of pounds for pain (secretly I love it and can’t think of anything better to spend my money on).

If you would like to support my endeavours, please do think about being a paid subscriber to my email newsletter , I’ll love you forever and you can be happy in the knowledge you probably helped buy a new inner tube for the amount of punctures I get cycling in London.

George, the Grumpy Optimist. ??