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Daily Personalized Newsletter

Earth Catalyst gathers & hand-filters the most recent updates from over 1,000 green tech and sustainability organizations. Here are all of the updates; if you subscribe to our free newsletter, we'll send you 3 each weekday we think will be meaningful to you.

Welcome to 2025

Writer's picture: Marshall KirkpatrickMarshall Kirkpatrick

We're back to publishing this newsletter, we've got big plans for 2025. I hope you'll join us next Tuesday for a Zoom call to learn all about it and meet some other interesting people at the Earth Catalyst Winter 2025 Zoom Party & Knowledge Exchange.


Today: The top story across the green tech and sustainability world is China's announcement of the world's fastest bullet train, which will run across 60,000km of tracks - roughly the distance of 13 trips from Florida to Seattle. The renewable energy and technology transfer context is well-discussed by Clean Technica's Steve Hanley this morning. I recommend checking that out and then Exponential View's essay: The year-end wake-up: The ‘Chinese Sputnik’ that demands our attention. And how to maintain peace and prosperity in 2025 That essay shook me up this week and made resolve to think harder about how to effectively support private sector and deep cultural transformation, at a time of great power shifts.

 

Thanks for joining us here. Let's dig into your personal recommendations.


-Marshall Kirkpatrick

Earth Catalyst: Boosting your impact, with my experience, network, and technology.

 
Today and every day, our system scans over 1,000 green tech and sustainability organizations for updates. Below, you'll find:

  • A Visual of the Day

  • A digest-style Table of Contents for 130 selected updates from around the green tech and sustainability world

  • (If you subscribe by email) 3 personalized selections just for you and your work

 

Did a friend forward you this newsletter? Welcome! You can subscribe here and get your own personal recommendations each day.

 


Visual of the Day

Seeing Wings in Timeless Motion

IRENA has published a collection of charts demonstrating the opportunity, need, and shortfall of dramatic investment in renewable energy sources, worldwide. This chart shows that the levelized cost of energy from solar power has dropped most dramatically over the past 13 years, though onshore wind remains a touch cheaper according to this data.

 


Today's Updates



Today's Updates

Table of Contents

  • Agriculture (8 stories) - Autonomous weeders in Salinas Valley, Soul Fire Farm's BIPOC support, Rock Hollow Dairy's silvopasture methods, and RHS frost data shape evolving agricultural landscape amid rising agtech investment forecasts

  • Carbon (5 stories) - Ice core studies reveal Antarctic temperature record reliability issues while global heat records continue breaking, with Australia hitting +1.46C and 2025 forecast for +1.29-1.53C above baseline

  • Circular (1 story) - Areca palm leaves and sugarcane bagasse emerge as key materials in biodegradable tableware transition

  • Ecosystems (17 stories) - Arbor Day Foundation's 10M-tree initiative, drone surveillance in Bangladesh, and wildlife crossings highlight conservation efforts, while new tarantula species, and jaguar sightings advance biodiversity research

  • Efficiency (5 stories) - Ground-source heat networks hit 400% efficiency as heat pumps deliver $3k savings; desert data centers and Carter-era wood stoves show efficiency's evolution

  • Finance (5 stories) - Carbon finance platform ETA Secretariat debuts, EU deforestation rules drive satellite tech adoption, Nevada launches C-PACE program, GFANZ relaxes net-zero requirements, Energy Central releases industry paper directory

  • Grid (7 stories) - PNNL's flow battery tool, Pakistan's 1,200-MWe Hualong One reactor, Trina Storage's 7GWh milestone, and Koeberg's return shape evolving grid landscape amid 20% global demand surge

  • Indigenous (12 stories) - Guna people face Panama island relocation; Amazon airstrip investigations; tribal fire management partnerships in California and Montana; global indigenous burn training unites 8 nations; Brazilian farming wisdom shared

  • Industry (7 stories) - Zijin Mining faces illegal operators in Colombia, REC Silicon closes US polysilicon plant, HIUV plans India expansion, Honda-Nissan merger talks surface amid Foxconn concerns

  • Policy (27 stories) - $5.8M in climate resilience grants to 400 U.S. organizations, $7,500 EV tax credit debates, $200M US Forest Service wildfire program, while Trump administration plans 300 climate policy reversals

  • Renewables (16 stories) - Record solar installations, China's 250-mile Kubuqi Desert project, ACWA Power's 1 GW China expansion, and efficiency breakthroughs from Huasun, LAPLACE, and EliTe Solar mark major industry growth

  • Transport (20 stories) - BMW leads US legacy automakers in EV sales while BYD surpasses VW globally; Tesla cuts prices as Chinese brands NIO, Li Auto, XPENG surge; Toyota slashes bZ4X pricing amid fierce competition


Agriculture

Autonomous weeders in Salinas Valley, Soul Fire Farm's BIPOC support, Rock Hollow Dairy's silvopasture methods, and RHS frost data shape evolving agricultural landscape amid rising agtech investment forecasts



Carbon

Ice core studies reveal Antarctic temperature record reliability issues while global heat records continue breaking, with Australia hitting +1.46C and 2025 forecast for +1.29-1.53C above baseline



Circular

Areca palm leaves and sugarcane bagasse emerge as key materials in biodegradable tableware transition



Ecosystems

Arbor Day Foundation's 10M-tree initiative, drone surveillance in Bangladesh, and wildlife crossings highlight conservation efforts, while new tarantula species, and jaguar sightings advance biodiversity research



Efficiency

Ground-source heat networks hit 400% efficiency as heat pumps deliver $3k savings; desert data centers and Carter-era wood stoves show efficiency's evolution



Finance

Carbon finance platform ETA Secretariat debuts, EU deforestation rules drive satellite tech adoption, Nevada launches C-PACE program, GFANZ relaxes net-zero requirements, Energy Central releases industry paper directory



Grid

PNNL's flow battery tool, Pakistan's 1,200-MWe Hualong One reactor, Trina Storage's 7GWh milestone, and Koeberg's return shape evolving grid landscape amid 20% global demand surge



Indigenous

Guna people face Panama island relocation; Amazon airstrip investigations; tribal fire management partnerships in California and Montana; global indigenous burn training unites 8 nations; Brazilian farming wisdom shared



Industry

Zijin Mining faces illegal operators in Colombia, REC Silicon closes US polysilicon plant, HIUV plans India expansion, Honda-Nissan merger talks surface amid Foxconn concerns



Policy

$5.8M in climate resilience grants to 400 U.S. organizations, $7,500 EV tax credit debates, $200M US Forest Service wildfire program, while Trump administration plans 300 climate policy reversals



Renewables

Record solar installations, China's 250-mile Kubuqi Desert project, ACWA Power's 1 GW China expansion, and efficiency breakthroughs from Huasun, LAPLACE, and EliTe Solar mark major industry growth



Transport

BMW leads US legacy automakers in EV sales while BYD surpasses VW globally; Tesla cuts prices as Chinese brands NIO, Li Auto, XPENG surge; Toyota slashes bZ4X pricing amid fierce competition


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