Climate Solutions News | Insights on Sustainability & Climate Solutions

Africa skipped the landline and went straight to mobile phones. Can it do the same with electricity?

Dominic Shales, CSN publisher, speaks to Wangari Muchiri, founder and CEO of RE.Think Energy, a Nairobi-based think-and-do tank working to scale renewable energy across Africa. Wangari is a Kenyan renewable energy engineer and former Africa Director at the Global Wind Energy Council, where she led Africa Wind Power across more than 15 countries. She now advises the Global Wind Energy Council and the Global Solar Council.

They discuss the rooftop solar boom in Lagos and why households are moving faster than utilities. Wangari explains how aggregating demand from hospitals, farms and schools can make projects bankable. She also covers South Africa’s licensing reforms, local manufacturing of panels and batteries, and the shift towards renewables at African Energy Week 2026.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:01 Why clean energy, and coming home to Kenya
02:52 What RE.Think Energy does
04:59 Can energy follow mobile phones and leapfrog?
06:08 Off-grid and grid power working together
08:08 Solar in Nigeria, batteries and cold chains
10:49 Policy as a signal for investors
11:54 Linking power supply to demand
15:04 The next five years
16:09 African Energy Week 2026

Read the full feature on Climate Solutions News: https://climatesolutions.news/spotlight/building-renewable-energy-in-africa-from-the-ground-up

RE.Think Energy: https://re-thinkenergy.org/
Climate Solutions News: https://climatesolutions.news

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Turning Sewage Into Jet Fuel.

Aviation is the hardest transport sector to decarbonise. Batteries are too heavy, hydrogen is years away at scale, and most sustainable aviation fuels depend on feedstocks in short supply. So what if the answer is a waste stream we produce every single day?

In this episode of the Climate Solutions News Podcast, Dominic Shales talks to James Hygate, founder and CEO of Firefly Green Fuels, the Bristol company turning treated sewage, known as biosolids, into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Firefly has a first UK plant in development at Harwich and a 15-year offtake deal with Wizz Air worth close to a billion dollars.

We cover how Firefly found its feedstock by elimination, why the route of spreading biosolids on farmland is closing over forever chemicals and microplastics, how hydrothermal liquefaction works, the 92% lifecycle carbon saving verified by Cranfield University, and the partnerships with Chevron Lummus Global, Altaca and Boeing that are getting the fuel to market.

Read the full article: https://climatesolutions.news/spotlight/the-waste-no-one-wanted-becomes-aviations-cheapest-fuel

Subscribe for more interviews on the technology, finance and policy behind real climate solutions. Like the episode, leave a comment, and follow Climate Solutions News across your favourite platforms.

Chapters

00:00
Introduction to the challenge of decarbonizing aviation

00:27
James Highgate introduces Firefly Green Fuels

01:02
The journey from waste oil to sewage-based fuels

02:07
Why sewage biosolids are an abundant resource

03:17
Scale of global sewage resource and SAF potential

05:19
Developing proprietary technology and partnerships

07:16
Hydrothermal liquefaction process explained

10:09
Carbon savings and lifecycle analysis

12:46
Supply chain and international partnerships

15:56
Project timeline and future plans

22:09
Policy landscape and its impact on investment

23:54
Future expansion and global outlook

28:26
Final thoughts and optimism for the future

Roughly half of global final energy demand is heat, and most of it still comes from burning fossil fuels. Solar PV and heat pumps dominate the conversation. Solar thermal barely gets a mention.

Christian Albrecht, group business development director at Naked Energy, wants to change that. His argument is counterintuitive: the cleaner Britain's grid becomes, the stronger the case for solar thermal gets. Gas emits a fixed amount of carbon per kilowatt hour and always will. Grid electricity is projected towards near zero. Over a 25-year asset life, rooftop PV stops saving carbon while solar thermal carries on displacing gas.

Dominic Shales talks to Albrecht about the physics of why PV wastes most of the sunlight it receives, how Naked Energy fits 85 per cent of a roof with collectors, and how the company put the UK's largest solar thermal installation on the Grade I listed British Library. They also cover a multi-million capital problem behind industrial decarbonisation, the heat as a service model built with E.ON, the absence of UK subsidy support since the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme closed, and why solar thermal and heat pumps work better together than apart.

More at nakedenergy.com and climatesolutions.news.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Solar Thermal Technology

05:03 Understanding the Efficiency of Solar Thermal

10:10 Innovative Installation Techniques

15:06 Navigating Planning Regulations

20:04 Heat as a Service Model

25:13 Government Support and Market Dynamics

30:01 Future Plans and Investment Strategies

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Textile dyeing is one of the most polluting stages in fashion, and one of the least visible. It accounts for a large share of the sector's carbon emissions and around a fifth of global industrial water pollution. In this episode, Dominic Shales speaks with Philippe Berlan, CEO of EverDye, the French green-chemistry company rethinking how fabric is coloured.

Berlan explains why conventional dyeing depends on energy-hungry petrochemical chemistry, and how EverDye's bio-based alternative bonds colour to fibre at room temperature instead. The result is up to 90% less energy use, lower water consumption, and a process that runs on existing factory equipment. He talks through which fibres the technology covers, the challenge posed by polyester, and how the company verifies its emissions claims with life-cycle assessment.

The conversation widens to the industry itself: why brands have tackled their own offices and shops while leaving manufacturing emissions largely untouched, why the sector is so resistant to new technology, and what role regulation and consumer transparency could play. Drawing on three decades in retail, including a spell running La Redoute, Berlan offers a pragmatic view of how a slow-moving industry actually changes.

A clear, practical look at where fashion's emissions really sit, and what it takes to cut them.

Guest: Philippe Berlan, CEO, EverDye

EverDye: https://everdye.fr

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/philippeberland

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Green hydrogen has had a punishing few years, with cancellations, cost overruns and demand that arrived late. So why did Schroders Capital keep investing while others retreated?

Holly Turner and Duncan Hale join Climate Solutions News ahead of Reset Connect London 2026 to explain the firm's approach. Duncan walks through the Barrow Green Hydrogen Project in Cumbria, which will supply hydrogen to a Kimberly-Clark factory making Andrex and Kleenex, and the subsidy model borrowed from wind and solar.

Holly maps where climate capital flows next, the growing case for adaptation and resilience, and how European regulation is reshaping what counts as a sustainable investment.

A conversation about sticking to your convictions, delivering energy transition projects and where the next phase of the transition gets funded.

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How is AI changing the way we measure the carbon cost of what we build? One Click LCA founder and CEO Panu Pasanen joins the Climate Solutions News podcast to explain.

Life cycle assessment counts the full environmental cost of a product or building, from raw material to disposal. It is rigorous work, and traditionally slow. Pasanen explains what the discipline involves, why embodied carbon is so much harder to act on than the energy a building uses, and how his company cuts an assessment that once took weeks down to something that fits the pace of a live project.

He also looks ahead to AI that proposes whole low-carbon design options, with the human expert steering rather than building. On whether that output can be trusted, his answer is blunt: control, not trust. The platform monitors its AI constantly, tests it against large datasets, and grades the confidence of every proposal.

Recorded ahead of Reset Connect London, 23 and 24 June 2026, where Pasanen is speaking on supply chain decarbonisation and Climate Solutions News is a media partner.

Read more at https://climatesolutions.news/sectors/we-dont-trust-it-we-control-it-one-click-lca-uses-ai-to-cut-embodied-carbon

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Britain retrofits fewer than 100,000 buildings a year. To hit net zero it needs between one and 1.5 million.

Andrew Spencer, Energy and Carbon Services Director at Equans UK and Ireland, joins Dominic Shales to explain the gap and what closes it.

The conversation covers the 200,000 to 500,000 skilled workers the industry lacks, the £10-20 billion annual funding requirement, and the policy instability that stops the supply chain investing. Spencer argues retrofit should be treated as national infrastructure rather than a construction problem, and explains the place-based model behind the UK's first net zero neighbourhood in Brockmoor, Dudley.

Read more at climatesolutions.news.

00:00 "We're not meeting our targets."

06:27 "We need something in the region of 400,000 people."

09:49 "I am optimistic about the UK."

12:53 "Every place is different."

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Retrofit and Equans

03:07 The Urgency of Scaling Retrofit

06:05 Workforce Challenges in Retrofit

09:12 Place-Based Decarbonisation Explained

11:54 The Role of Local Authorities

15:02 Networking and Future Outlook

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UNDO Carbon can prove its science works. The harder problem is paying for the years between spending on deployment and earning the carbon credits back, and that financing gap, more than the chemistry, is what now decides how fast enhanced rock weathering can grow.

Dominic Shales speaks with Alex Bury, head of finance at UNDO, about the economics of scaling carbon removal. They discuss why enhanced rock weathering leans on existing mining and farming infrastructure rather than expensive capital equipment, the move from upfront payments to payment on delivery, and UNDO's debt deal with the Inlandsis Fund alongside a Microsoft offtake. Bury also covers carbon removal insurance, the significance of Farm Credit Canada's investment, the measurement challenge behind lender confidence, and what it takes to bring a first-time buyer like Barclays into the voluntary carbon market.

UNDO was a winner in the $100 million XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition. Its buyers include Microsoft, Barclays, British Airways and McLaren Racing.

More at https://climatesolutions.news

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Heavy industry produces the materials that the modern world runs on. It also produces around a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions. Cement alone accounts for roughly 8% of global CO₂, a share that has barely moved in decades. Most of the plants responsible are old, complex, and still running on control systems that were never built for the world they operate in today.

This week, Dominic Shales speaks with Buffy Price, co-founder of Gigaton, the AI company replacing control software in energy-intensive industries. Formerly known as Carbon Re and spun out of the University of Cambridge and UCL, Gigaton has just announced a $26 million Series A led by Plural, taking total funding past $35 million.

Buffy explains how Gigaton's self-learning platform takes autonomous control of industrial processes, delivering up to $3 million in annual operational savings per plant for customers including Adani Cement, Heidelberg Materials, and Holcim. She talks through the journey from recommendation dashboards to direct plant control, the rise of dark factories in China, and the company's plans to expand from cement into steel, glass, and petrochemicals.

They also discuss what it takes to raise a Series A in the current climate investment market, how CBAM and ETS are shifting producer incentives, and why carbon capture and AI process control are complementary rather than competing solutions.

Find climate tech news, analysis, and interviews at Climate Solutions News.

Chapters:

00:00 The Impact of Heavy Industry on Climate Change

03:02 Gigaton's Mission and Ambitions

06:11 Funding and Financial Viability in Tough Times

08:48 Automation and AI in Cement Production

11:54 Cultural Shifts in Industry and AI Adoption

15:11 Global Expansion and Market Strategy

17:57 Policy Impacts on the Cement Industry

21:10 Expanding into Other Hard-to-Abate Industries

23:53 Buffy's Journey and Vision for the Future

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The headlines say climate investment is in retreat. Duncan Reid is not convinced.

In this episode of the Climate Solutions News podcast, Dominic Shales sits down with the chief executive of Reset Connect, the green investment event that anchors London Climate Action Week. Reid has spent 25 years in events and now watches climate capital up close, with investors, founders and corporate buyers gathering under one roof each June.

His argument is that the money has changed hands and crossed borders, away from the loudest US funds. Large managers have stepped back as Washington unwinds its climate incentives. Yet pension funds and institutional investors keep allocating, because their obligations stretch across decades. As Reid puts it, "if the UK is all on fire or underwater, people don't need pensions."

The conversation turns to the war in the Gulf and the rise of energy sovereignty, the maturing of the sector since 2022, the long struggle to fix the grid, and why Reid believes the economics of clean power now win whatever the politics.

Read the article here.

Reset Connect London returns to Excel on 23 and 24 June 2026, as the flagship event of London Climate Action Week. Entry is free.

Listen, follow and share.

Climate Solutions News covers the people and ideas driving the climate transition. More at climatesolutions.news

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