In today’s edition:

💰 UK budget and climate tech

🇯🇵 Japanese green steel

🗞️ IPCC report summary

Forwarded on this email by a friend?

📩 Submit deals, announcements, events & opportunities, or general curiosities for the newsletter here.

💼 Big Business (1-minute read)

Japan's top steelmaker eyes Green Steel investment

Japan’s biggest steelmaker, Nippon Steel, is exploring projects that could cost an estimated $733mn. The plans include boosting the use of hydrogen in existing Japanese furnaces, building 100% green hydrogen-powered furnaces outside of Japan (so it's closer to the source of iron-ore) and increasing the use of recycled metal in the production process — reducing overall waste.

Importance: The steel industry is one of the biggest global polluters, particularly in Asia, which accounts for 70% of global steel output. Nippon Steel is the largest steelmaker outside of China, so a successful transition into Green-Hydrogen steel production could set an example for other producers.

What the UK's budget means for Climate Tech

The UK’s treasury, led by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, unveiled fresh funding for carbon capture technologies and nuclear power as part of the Spring Budget.

Carbon Capture: Hunt confirmed $20bn would be ringfenced for early carbon capture technology projects. The treasury claims the finance will support around 50k jobs and help capture 20-30 million tonnes of CO2 annually by 2030.

Nuclear energy: Details of an innovation fund competition for Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) (which has been in the pipeline since 2015) were confirmed — aimed at ensuring nuclear power provides 25% of the UK’s electricity needs by 2050

Criticism: The budget failed to address calls for a broader package of support for various low-carbon tech, specifically for at least £6bn to be set aside to support improvements in the energy efficiency of buildings and the installation of heat humps.

US companies dominate in corporate clean power purchases

US companies are the most prolific clean energy buyers, purchasing over half the 37 gigawatts of clean power sold to corporations globally last year. Technology firms, such as Amazon, Meta and Google, are the world’s top buyers of clean power. It’s not just lower bills driving these corporate purchases, as the increased use of artificial intelligence means the energy consumption of these tech companies is growing, so purchasing increasing amounts of renewable energy supports their sustainability credentials and net-zero ambitions.

🤿 Deep Dive (2-minute read)

Your summary of the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report

A long but important one from us… The IPCC yesterday issued its starkest call yet: we are running out of time. We’ve taken a deep dive into the 2000+ pages to pick out some of the bits you might not see in broader coverage.

• New targets: The report offers a new benchmark for countries to aim for -- 60% emissions reductions vs 2019 levels by 2035 to have a slight chance of limiting warming to the 1.5°C Paris target. Currently, we're WAY off that pathway. A reminder of the state of play at 2 Degrees warming:

  • Lift sea levels by 56 centimetres. Eight of the world’s ten largest cities are coastal and would face substantial flooding, erosion, and storm surges, as would many island nations.

  • Almost all Coral reefs die off, and habitat loss for all species would double or triple if temperature increases went from 1.5 degrees to 2 degrees

  • 37% of the planet is exposed to an extreme heat wave at least once every five years, and 36% of the land would be exposed to extreme rainfall

• Small change counts: Every bit of warming matters. The warmer the planet gets, the more widespread and pronounced the changes in average climate and climate and weather extremes become.

• Infrastructure: Continuing to use existing fossil fuel infrastructure to the end of its useful life would eat up all of humanity's remaining "carbon budget" to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius -- the most ambitious goal of the Paris agreement. = So, some existing fossil fuel infrastructure will have to be abandoned, and no new fossil facilities should be built if we plan to reach 1.5 degrees - thousands are currently in the pipeline.

• Inequality: “The 10% of households with the highest per capita emissions contribute 34-45% of global consumption-based emissions, while the bottom 50% contribute 13-15%” At the same time, The adoption of low-emission technologies lags in most developing countries, due to limited finance, technology development and transfer, and capacity = the climate crisis is also a crisis of injustice.

• What can be done (From most impactful…): expand solar and wind power. Improve energy efficiency. Make cities more friendly for walkers and cyclists. Reduce nitrogen pollution from agriculture. Eat better. Reduce food waste. Strengthening social safety nets for those most vulnerable, including health insurance - all are technically viable and increasingly cost-effective = We have the tools we need

• But…Carbon Capture no silver bullet: Whilst Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) and Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) have their place in hard-to-abate sectors the IPCC report explicitly frames over-reliance on CDR, particularly tree planting and biomass crops paired with CCS, as a "risk". = Greater scrutiny is needed to ensure higher quality offsets and we should default to proven ‘tools’ listed above

The report is crystal clear: We are not doing nearly enough to avoid dangerous impacts, let alone achieve the targets of the Paris Agreement. The existing policy trajectory is insufficient (See the second image below) = We need much more aggressive mitigation and stronger international cooperation.

💰 Deals of the Week (1-minute read)

🛵 Viridos, Inc., the leading algae biofuel company dedicated to creating sustainable, low-carbon, algae-based jet and diesel fuel, raised a $25M Series A equity investment. The Series A was led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) and joined by Chevron U.S.A. Inc. and United Airlines Ventures.

🍎 Andes Raises USD 15 Million in Series A Funding. Through its novel seed treatment technology, called ‘Microprime’, Andes is reducing the need for synthetic fertilizers. By integrating microbes into the seed’s root structure

⚡️ Solarcycle, an Oakland, California-based Solar panel recycling company focused on producing sustainable materials for the solar industry, raised $30 million in Series A funding

☀️ Sunhero has just secured €10 million in Series A funding that helps customers facilitate the installation of photovoltaic solar systems on their residential properties.

💭 Little Bytes

Quote: “The climate time bomb is ticking. But today’s IPCC report is a how-to guide to defuse the climate time bomb. It is a survival guide for humanity.” UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres.

Stat: Emissions must peak before 2025 for a 50% chance to hit 1.5C with little or no overshoot - IPCC

Watch: Nasa plans to launch its first space-based pollution monitor

🗞 In other news…

• Two companies developing technology to suck carbon out of the air, Switzerland's Climeworks and California's Heirloom, have teamed with non-profit firm Battelle to bid for a $500 million U.S. grant to commercialize the climate-friendly technology.

• The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank is unlikely to have a "material" impact on the availability of capital for climate-related technologies, Mark Carney, the United Nations Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance, said on Wednesday.

• A leisure centre in Devon, England, is harnessing waste heat from a local data centre — providing enough heat to bring the pool to 30C for 60% of the opening hours at no cost.

• The European Commission has unveiled a “Hydrogen Bank” with €800m of initial funding to lower hydrogen prices by subsiding production — although critics have questioned the size of the funding given the EU’s production goals.

🎣 Gone Phishing

Three of these stories are true, one we've made up. Guess which...

• Farming mushrooms in the desert

• New species of squirrel discovered in the Andes

• Roll-Rolls developing power source for moon base

• Japanese company grows the world’s heaviest radish

Written by Colin and Ollie - Drop us a message!