Climate Now

Voluntary Carbon Markets, or VCM, are the decentralized marketplaces where carbon credits, used to offset greenhouse gas emissions are traded. Each credit offsets a metric ton of carbon dioxide emissions. The VCM has existed since the 1980s with recent updates to the types of activities that count as offsets.

On July 30 of this year, the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) updated their recommendations for corporate carbon accounting standards that affect how corporations should count carbon offsets towards their net-zero goals. Dr. Jennifer Jenkins, chief science officer at Rubicon Carbon, joined us to talk about changes to the VCM and how they affect the way corporations can use carbon credits to meet their net-zero goals.

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On this week's edition of Climate News Weekly, James Lawler and Julio Friedmann discuss Exxon-Mobil's projections of flat oil demand by 2050, closing the last coal-fired power plant in the UK, disproportionate impacts of climate change in Africa, and more.

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Climate News Weekly is back to cover the week’s biggest stories in climate news with host James Lawler, joined by Julio Friedmann and Darren Hau. The team kicks off this week's coverage with an analysis that uses artificial intelligence to determine the impacts of 1500 climate policies on emissions. Up next, Julio and James discuss a new CarbonMapper satellite that can detect methane and carbon dioxide emissions with high precision. The team also discusses the hydrogen industry's struggle to go green and the looming reality of irreversible climate tipping points.

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As a Climate Now listener, we know you appreciate frank and thoughtful debate about the climate crisis. So we'd like to share an episode from a podcast that looks at how climate change is changing our energy systems.

Energy vs Climate is a podcast featuring energy experts David Keith, Sara Hastings-Simon, and Ed Whittingham. They break down the hard truths and tough choices posed by the energy transition from the heart of Canada’s oil country. Through their topics and their guests, David, Sara, and Ed bring new honesty around the sharp trade-offs between climate action and economic progress .

The episode we're sharing with you is called, "Buzzkill: Understanding the Shift in Media Perception Towards EVs," with special guest Dr. Simon Evans, deputy editor and policy editor at Carbon Brief. Together, they tease apart EV fact from fiction. We think you'll really enjoy it.

Listen to Energy vs Climate wherever you get your podcasts and check out energyvsclimate.com for their next live webinars, where you too can join in on the discussion.

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Climate News Weekly is back to cover the week’s biggest stories in climate news with host James Lawler, joined by Dina Cappiello and Julio Friedmann. The team kicks off this week's coverage with upheaval in the voluntary carbon market. Up next, Julio and Dina discuss developments in politics, from Kamala Harris' VP pick to a Brazilian oceanographer's appointment as Secretary-General of the International Seabed Authority. Later, our team covers extreme weather events and China's latest emissions goals. 

In other news this week, shareholders at Glencore fought for the company to retain its coal business - and won.

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The United States' Renewable Fuel Standard Program requires a certain volume of renewable fuel be used to replace or reduce fossil fuel use. Each gallon of renewable fuel is assigned a Renewable Identification Number or RIN, which allows renewable fuel volumes to be tracked, traded, bought, and sold. These multifunctional numbers affect the entire fuel industry, including both conventional and renewable fuel producers. 

According to one of our next guests in the series, RINs are little-known and poorly understood - even in the renewable fuel industry. Discover how the RIN system functions as a subsidy, mandate, tax, and a financial asset all at once. Tune in as we dissect the "most complex environmental credit ever written" with two experts in the field: George Hoekstra, President of Hoekstra Trading, and Brooke Coleman, the Executive Director of the Advanced Biofuels Business Council.

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James Lawler is joined by Carbon Direct's Julio Friedmann for Climate News Weekly. Join James and Julio as they discuss what Kamala Harris' candidacy and potential presidency could mean for climate policy, followed by positive signs that China's emissions may be hitting a turning point. The team also covers the accident involving a wind turbine off the coast of Massachusetts, bipartisan grid permitting reform legislation, and the EPA's latest round of funding for climate pollution. The team rounds out their coverage of this week's news by discussing wildfires sweeping the Northwestern U.S. and Canada, the (new) hottest day on record, and a power grid struggling to withstand the impacts of climate change.

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Ethanol-to-jet is one pathway to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Until recently, this pathway was out of reach for commercial production. That changed this year when LanzaJet opened the world's first ethanol-to-SAF plant, the Freedom Pines Fuels Plant, in Soperton, Georgia. LanzaJet projects that the plant will produce nine million gallons of SAF in its first year in operation.

In our third installment of our sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) series, we sat down with LanzaJet's Vice President of Commercial, Stéphane Thion. Tune in to hear from Stéphane about drop-in fuel standards, SAF supply chains, LanzaJet's offtakers and partners, and the company's plans for ethanol-to-SAF plants around the world.

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Climate News Weekly is back to cover the week’s biggest stories in climate news. James Lawler, Julio Friedmann, and Darren Hau begin this episode with a discussion of the latest extreme weather events, including Hurricane Beryl and record-breaking heat over the last year. Up next, James, Darren, and Julio discuss developments in the EV industry like Tesla's market share falling below 50 percent and falling battery prices. Later, Darren and James discuss a copper deposit discovered with the help of AI. To round out this week's headlines, the team covers a report predicting that oil demand will peak in 2025.

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Sustainable aviation fuel can use a variety of feedstocks, from used cooking oils to oily seeds. When those feedstocks are heated under high pressure with a catalyst, the process produces hydrocarbons - the essential component in fuel. This process is called HEFA, Hydro-processed Esters and Fatty Acids. One company using this process to produce sustainable aviation fuel is Montana Renewables, based out of Great Falls, Montana, where they reconfigured equipment previously used in petroleum refining. 

In part two of four, we'll be sitting down with Bruce Fleming, who serves as Executive Vice President of Calumet Specialty Products Partners and CEO of Calumet subsidiary Montana Renewables. Bruce will take us behind the scenes of the biofuel industry, discussing Montana Renewable's approach to feedstocks, infrastructure, and and other challenges to scaling SAF.

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