?? The Grumpy Optimists #117

Happy Monday. ??

Welcome to the final The Grumpy Optimist newsletter of the year. This year has been quite a good one for me at The Grumpy Optimist, especially in the last few months.

I’ve probably shared over 400 pieces of positive climate news, we’ve managed to add just under 1,000 grumpy optimists to the email newsletter and over 3,500 on LinkedIn, that’s bonkers! Some of you even pay to support these newsletters (yes, one is my mum) but still, I’m incredibly grateful. For me, the best part of this blog is sharing my opinion on things that matter to me and getting such positive messages from you, the reader. Each comment and appreciation means a lot, so thank you.

However, I’m always one for improvement so I’d love to know what else I could do to make the newsletter better next year. Please leave your feedback here.

Let’s get on with the final episode, shall we?

?? Articles to read

?COP28, should we be grumpy or optimistic? I’m not going to spend too much time on COP28, not because it’s not important, but because it can seem all a bit too confusing. I’ve linked a great summary from Climate Brief here for you to read, but let’s look at two key things I took away from the conference as well as a great podcast to understand why it was almost set up to fail.

• ???A loss and damage fund worth $700m pledged, but that covers just 0.2% of what’s needed. It is, however, a historic move and hopefully the start of more climate finance by the countries that cause the most damage.
• ??? Nearly all countries have agreed to "transition away from fossil fuels," for the first time in 28 years of climate negotiations. However, some are dissatisfied with the absence of a clear call for a fossil fuel "phase-out" this decade and are concerned about potential "loopholes" allowing continued coal, oil, and gas production and consumption.

???Carbon removal needs to scale by 2050 to help tackle climate change. Investment in carbon removals is far below where it needs to be to reach the goals set by the Paris Agreement. There is currently between $5-$13 billion invested in removals, with $100-$400bn expected by 2030, but that falls well short of the $0.5-$2 trillion required by Net Zero. The CDR market needs innovation to lower costs, with technology-based removals expected to decline by at least 30-60% through 2035. While not positive, I did think this was a fascinating paper and I’d be keen to hear your thoughts.

???US startup raises $7m to make surplus food cheaper. Martie partners with brands to sell their surplus stock at discounts of up to 70%, saving consumers money and helping reduce food waste. Interestingly, the founder, Louise Fritjofsson , started the company after setting up a food brand and realising the amount of waste that can be created, finding a problem and building a product around it. According to the UN, over 1.3 billion tons of food are wasted globally each year, that’s a shocking figure that apps like Martie and TooGoodToGo can help solve.

???Could fermented eggs be the future? The EVERY company, a US startup that produces henless ‘egg’ products using precision fermentation served their products at Eleven Madison Park, a renowned New York City restaurant. The company’s EVERY Egg offers a plant-based alternative to traditional eggs, removing the need for chickens which is a win for both welfare and environmental reasons. This article is particularly interesting to me after reading George Monbiot’s Regenesis and realising the impact the poultry industry has on our planet, it’s killing an entire river in the UK. Precision fermentation offers an opportunity for food production to become more secure and sustainable, it’s probably one of my biggest trends for 2024 (I’ll be doing more on that in 2024 ??).

???US outlines $8bn to improve its rail network. The US lags massively behind the developed world with their train network but self-confessed rail fan Joe Biden is investing $8.2 billion in passenger rail projects. There will be a high-speed train from LA to Las Vegas as well as connections in Virginia, North Carolina and Washington D.C. The president's goal is to have world-class high-speed rail in the United States, and this investment is a step in the right direction.

???How batteries helped save the UK energy grid. On the 1st of December, the UK experienced cold weather, 23% higher than average energy usage and low wind. A perfect recipe for a problem. The UK grid put out a call looking for more energy to be produced, often causing gas or coal plants to fire up, but this time, Axle, a UK startup used the 2,000 home batteries they control to help give the grid the energy it needed. This saved their customers ￡26,000 and the battery owners didn’t have to do a thing. This is a really great write-up highlighting the benefits of a flexible energy grid.

???Carbon accountants come together for a shared methodology. Over 180 organisations have come together to help create a working group to solve the challenges of the carbon accounting industry and to promote the development of robust standards. While this may be slightly niche good news, it’s still important, especially for me and my ‘real job’ running Zevero. Interestingly, all of the members within the group measure only 50,000 companies collectively, that’s it, globally. If you think about how many millions of businesses need to measure their impact in the future, the future of carbon accounting is bright…

?????Australia’s new premier goes big on climate action. For many years Australia has been a climate laggard, opening coal mines and generally disregarding climate action. However, in the last year with a new government, the tables have turned and Queensland’s new premier, Steven Miles, has given bold reduction targets of 75% by 2035. To illustrate the change, the previous target was just 30% by 2030. The state and the country have gone from stalling over climate to leading the way.

???UK Supermarkets combine to tackle their emissions. Ten major UK supermarkets have partnered with M2030, a software platform for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions accounting to help their suppliers reduce their emissions. Suppliers gain access to hundreds of best practice projects, a range of learning tools, and one-to-one support services.

??Videos to watch

Beau Miles is potentially one of my favourite storytellers, he’s whacky, doesn’t care what people think, he combines excessive exercise with climate action and his videos are incredibly well produced. Two years ago he planted a tree a minute for 24 hours, a pretty mean and enviable feat. Two years later he’s created a video where he’s gone back to visit and it’s just really quite cool. If you watch this and don’t feel inspired or good about what we can achieve as humans, I don’t know if we can be friends.

That’s all from me this week and this year folks. For those of you who get to this bit of the blog each week, you’re my favourite, I like you.

This week’s episode was written after a weekend of sleeping off an illness but also taking the time to switch off and not feel guilty for sleeping all day. I’ve been loving some country music recently, essentially anything from this Zach Bryan album, but this song in particular.

If I could ask for one Christmas present it would be the dopamine rush from you leaving a like on this post, sending it to a friend or just saying internally that you enjoy reading this each week. Thank you and see you in the New Year.

George, the Grumpy Optimist ??