This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review's weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. Money makes the world go round. And when it comes to energy, we’re seeing more investment than ever companies, research institutions, and governments are all pouring money into technologies that could help power our world in the future. The International Energy Agency just published its annual report on global investment in energy, where it tallies up all that cash. The world saw about $ trillion of investments in energy in 2022, with about $ trillion of that going into clean energy. That’s the biggest single-year investment in clean energy ever, and where it’s all going is pretty interesting. I have some good news, some bad news, and a couple of surprising tidbits to share. So grab some popcorn and let’s dive into the data. Fossil fuels are faltering Let’s start with what I consider to be good news there’s a lot of money going into clean energy—including renewables, nuclear, and things that help cut emissions, like EVs and heat pumps. And not only is it a lot of money, but it’s more than the amount going toward fossil fuels. In 2022, for every dollar spent on fossil fuels, $ went to clean energy. Just five years ago, it was dead even. Clean energy’s growing dominance is especially clear when it comes to solar power. In 2023, for the first time, investment in solar energy is expected to beat out investment in oil production. It’s a stark difference from what the picture looked like a decade ago, when oil spending outpaced solar spending by nearly six to one. While we’re on oil and gas, I think it’s worth pointing out one really interesting point while there’s a lot of money flowing to clean energy, it doesn’t make up a big share of spending by fossil-fuel companies. See those tiny dark slivers in 2021 and 2022? That’s the share of oil and gas companies’ spending that went toward clean energy. Spending on oil infrastructure has fallen which is what’s allowed solar to catch up, but companies are making up for it by paying out dividends, buying back stock, and paying back debt rather than putting more into low-emissions tech. Any investment and attention going to renewables and innovations that could help cut emissions is great, and I do think oil and gas companies can play a role in boosting new technologies, especially those where they have expertise I’m looking at you, geothermal!. But I think it’s important to keep that spending in context—oil and gas companies are putting less money into renewables than ad campaigns would have you think. Bring it on Within clean energy, the vast majority of spending is going into renewables like wind and solar, grid upgrades, and efforts to improve energy efficiency. But smaller sectors are growing quickly, especially when you look at projections for this year. I’m really excited to see how fast money is moving into electric vehicles spending went from $29 billion as recently as 2020 to an expected $129 billion in 2023. And spending on batteries for energy storage is set to double between 2022 and 2023. All that new money could change everything, and there are already big shifts in the battery industry because of it. We can’t seem to go more than a few days without an announcement of a new battery factory most recently, yet another multibillion-dollar factory in Georgia. If all these plans take shape, we’re going to reach nearly seven terawatt-hours of manufacturing capacity for lithium-ion batteries in 2030. That’s enough for over 100 million EVs annually. Most of it’s going to be in China, but the US and Europe are starting to make a dent in that country’s dominance of all things EV. The road ahead So this all sounds like a lot of money … but is it enough? To keep global warming below °C over preindustrial levels and avoid the worst impacts of climate change, we need to reach net-zero emissions around 2050. If we’re going to hit that goal, according to the IEA, annual investment needs to reach $ trillion in 2030—nearly triple current spending. Some technologies are actually in great shape. Solar spending just needs to keep growing as it has been for that sector to keep pace with the 2050 goal. But there needs to be much more spending in other areas, especially technologies like energy storage and transmission lines—that will help balance the grid as more solar and other intermittent renewable power sources come online. There’s also a huge geographical imbalance, and poorer countries will need a significant boost to help build up their electrical grids and establish new technologies. Investments are broadly on the right track, and I’m excited to see what next year’s report will hold. But there’s still definitely a long road ahead and a lot of building left to do. Keeping up with climate Induction stoves could replace your polluting gas range. They might seem like magic, but these futuristic appliances are powered by magnets. Canary Media This is a great comprehensive guide to “permitting reform,” a crucial policy fight in the energy space with what’s possibly the most boring name possible. Heatmap News Electric cooktops, heat pumps, and EV chargers can help save money and address emissions in homes. But progress isn’t always so simple when your landlord has the final say over changes. Washington Post → We’re going to need a lot more EV chargers. MIT Technology Review China was already the world’s largest EV exporter, and now the country is shipping even more cars around the world. Wall Street Journal The first new nuclear reactor at Plant Vogtle in Georgia finally reached its full power output this week, only seven years late and $17 billion over budget. Associated Press → Smaller nuclear reactors have been held up as a potential solution to delays and cost inflation. So where are they? MIT Technology Review Starting up on summer yard work? Here’s a guide for all the electric yard tools your heart could possibly desire. The Strategist
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Newspapers’ front pages displayed in a newsstand on June 9, 2023, in Bedminster, Photo Eduardo Munoz Alvarez I may have let out a weird animalistic hoot of joy when the news broke that former President Donald Trump had been indicted on federal charges. There’s something about Trump’s essence that maddens all former children who long ago always did the assigned reading, only to see their lazy bully classmate bloviate their way into the Ivy League thanks to their rich dad. “At long last he’s paying the price for not following the rules,” we think. And yet, there’s something discordant about hearing from the New York Times that this is “the first time a former president has faced federal charges.” The Washington Post made the same point, with a subheadline saying, “Political earthquake as GOP frontrunner is now first ex-president indicted by the DOJ.” Your disquiet may grow if you truly consider that no president has ever been impeached, convicted, and removed from office. Richard Nixon was not even impeached; he resigned before the House could vote after the Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment. Bill Clinton was impeached, and Trump was impeached twice, but both were acquitted in their Senate trials. How can this be? Trump is extremely bad, and honestly, I’m still smiling today as I imagine him screaming, “UNFAIR!” at the squirrels on his New Jersey golf course. But it makes no sense to believe he’s the only president in American history who’s ever acted so maliciously that he deserves to face potential consequences. To understand this, you might want to read “Murder on the Orient Express,” the 1934 mystery by Agatha Christie. In the novel, detective Hercule Poirot boards the famous train in Istanbul. There are only 14 other passengers in first and second class. On the second night, the train is forced to stop in Croatia due to a huge snowdrift, and the next morning, a businessperson named Samuel Ratchett is discovered dead in his cabin, indicating that the killer must still be on board. The evidence is peculiar. Ratchett has been stabbed 12 times, but some of the wounds appear to have been inflicted by someone who’s right-handed, and some appear to be from someone left-handed. Some came from someone extremely strong, some from someone weak. And a fusillade of other clues all point to different suspects on the train. Poirot considers it all and then gathers all the possible suspects together, along with his friend who’s a top executive of the railroad line. He suggests two theories of the case 1. The victim was murdered by someone who’s no longer on the train, who somehow got on board and then escaped unnoticed. 2. Ratchett was murdered by everyone. All the passengers had a motive to kill him, each one stabbed him, and no individual can rationally be held responsible separate from the others. Poirot says he’ll let his friend decide which theory makes the most sense. After pondering it briefly, his friend says it must have been the unknown stranger and that’s what he’ll tell the police. This is American politics — and politics generally — in miniature and why it’s nearly impossible for societies to punish the perpetrators of great crimes Anything terrible on a large scale demands broad elite endorsement and participation. When it comes to major evils, most people at the top must be guilty for it to happen in the first place. And so everyone gets away with it. Think about the Vietnam War. Lyndon Johnson and Nixon were most responsible for it, murdering perhaps two to four million people across Indochina. We don’t have a more exact number because we’ve never cared enough to make a serious effort to find out. But achieving this body count, far greater than any serial killer could ever dream of, obviously required buy-in from far more people than just these two presidents. How could any legitimate justice process convict just Johnson and Nixon? The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution passed in the House of Representatives 416-0 and in the Senate 88-2. Congress affirmatively voted to fund the war for years. Or take the war on terror, which appears to have caused million deaths. The post-9/11 Authorization for Use of Military Force flew through Congress with only a lone House member voting against it. Even Bernie Sanders voted yes. 296 members of the House and 77 senators voted for war with Iraq. As in “Murder on the Orient Express,” there was a lot of stabbing by a lot of people. This dynamic holds true to an extent even when a society is conquered. The Nuremberg trial process included prosecutions beyond the most famous Nazi officials. But of over 3,000 potential cases, most were dropped, and by the 1950s, those sentenced to prison had almost all been released — because the needed German elites to help us run Germany. The trials of Japanese war criminals were even less consequential for the same reasons, with Emperor Hirohito explicitly excluded from any responsibility. However, it is occasionally possible for societies to address minor crimes that major figures commit by themselves or with a small circle of cronies. Probably Trump’s most significant crime was his support for the Saudi war on Yemen, which has led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. But Trump shares his guilt with a large chunk of the political system, so that’s fine. It’s the hush money for Stormy Daniels and mishandling of classified documents that have tripped him up. I hate taking away from anyone’s enjoyment of Trump’s troubles, especially given the shameless delight that they’ve brought me. I understand the temptation to look at what’s happening and believe that the system works. The problem is that this is correct The system is working — it’s just not anything resembling a system of justice. Correction June 9, 2023, 316 ET A previous version of this article misstated the circumstances of Richard Nixon’s resignation.
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