Sweeping political changes are nothing new. While the recent U.S. elections pose challenges for climate progress, we must not waver. Now is the time to double down on efforts to zero out emissions. Here’s what’s top of mind for us at Speed & Scale: 🧵

In a recent edition of Zeroing In, we look at where climate progress is scaling, from electric two-wheelers in Pakistan to the first U.S. commercial flight on carbon-based jet fuel. Check it out: mailchi.mp/speedandscale.com…

CHINA TAKES THE WHEEL 🚗 China now builds roughly 75% of the world's EVs, and the scale shows: five-minute charging and battery swapping are becoming standard features. The competitive question is no longer whether China can build EVs. It's where the surplus goes. Read more: mailchi.mp/speedandscale.com…

Contrails account for about 35 percent of aviation's climate impact, roughly 600 megatons of CO2e a year. In a trial with American Airlines, Google's AI model helped pilots reroute around them, cutting contrails by 54 percent at a cost of 0.3 percent more fuel across the fleet. Read more: mailchi.mp/speedandscale.com…

In a recent edition of Zeroing In, we take a look at where climate progress is scaling, from an EV mandate in Delhi to a milestone in carbon removal. Check it out: mailchi.mp/speedandscale.com…

RENEWABLES RISING IN THE EAST 💡 China's new five-year plan targets 370 GW of new wind and solar by 2030, enough for 70 million homes and half the country's total power capacity. China hit its last big renewables target six years early. Read more: mailchi.mp/speedandscale.com…

Europe just had its fifth heatwave since May, revealing the need for a better cooling system. Global demand for space cooling is projected to rise more than 50 percent over the next decade. The latest heat pumps can already boost efficiency by up to 4x. Read more: mailchi.mp/speedandscale.com…

In the latest edition of Zeroing In, we look at where clean energy is gaining ground, from EV sales in Germany to a record half-year for climate tech investment. Check it out: mailchi.mp/speedandscale.com…

U.S. STILL IN THE GAME 🔋 China leads the battery storage market, but U.S. manufacturers are holding their own. Tesla ranks second globally and Fluence seventh, according to Wood Mackenzie. Meanwhile, Ford Energy plans to supply at least 20 GWh of U.S. battery storage a year, using a Kentucky plant to turn EV batteries into grid storage. Read more: mailchi.mp/speedandscale.com…

The last total eclipse over mainland Europe was in 1999. On Wednesday it happens again, this time over Spain, where solar now supplies 18.4% of electricity. Two minutes without the sun, but the grid won't blink. Building storage is how that resilience scales. Read more: speedandscale.com/okrs/2-0-d…

The Iowa State Fair opens in just a few days and while it's open, roughly a million people will walk past prize corn, show cattle, and the machinery that produces both. What they won't see is the nitrogen. Roughly half the nitrogen applied to the world's fields as fertilizer never reaches the plant. Better growing practices and more precise application cut both the cost and the emissions related to fertilizer. Read more about Speed & Scale's OKR to fix food and cut emissions: speedandscale.com/okrs/3-0-f…

School's out, but climate class is in session. In the latest edition of Zeroing In, we visit @TED_ED's Earth School, whose top 30 climate animations have drawn nearly 30 million views. Read more: mailchi.mp/speedandscale.com…

Five years ago, only 415 of America's school buses were electric. Today it's about 5,100. Still just 1% of the country's 490,000 buses. As we approach the start of a new school year, progress will need to continue to meet Speed & Scale's KR 1.3 which sets a target of 2 million electric buses worldwide by 2035. Read more: electricschoolbusinitiative.… firstcoastnews.com/article/n…

In the latest edition of Zeroing In, we look at proof that clean energy keeps advancing, from EV batteries to direct air capture, even as political headwinds build. Check it out: mailchi.mp/speedandscale.com…

There are 11 stadium tours taking place this summer, and most of these shows still run on diesel generators. Ultra Music Festival just proved a stage can run an entire weekend on grid-charged batteries instead. Speed & Scale's KR 2.2 wants this at grid scale: 5 TWh of storage by 2035. Read more: umfworldwide.com/ultra-music…

MEETING THE MOMENT 💰 Climate mitigation funding from foundations hit $6 billion in 2024, up 30 percent from 2023 and more than double 2020 levels. This marks progress, but still only a fifth of the way to Speed & Scale's $30 billion annual target. Read more: mailchi.mp/speedandscale.com…

New MIT research reveals that the IRA's climate impact in the power sector remains largely intact, even after the OBBBA rolled back tax credits. Through 2035, 74 percent of renewable capacity gains and 67 percent of pollution cuts are projected to hold. The bigger bottleneck is permitting and transmission, not tax credits. Read more: mailchi.mp/speedandscale.com…

As Shark Week returns for its 38th year, global oceans are under increasing duress. Temperatures have risen roughly 1°C since 1900, degrading the reefs and prey populations sharks depend on. Speed & Scale's KR 7.5 calls for expanding protected oceans to 30% by 2035, to help ecosystems like these withstand a warming planet. Read more: fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-s…

A new TIME piece argues that the business case for climate action is becoming harder to ignore, with companies looking at climate through energy costs, supply chains, resilience, risk, and growth. That is also the investment challenge behind OKR 10.0. Speed & Scale calls for climate technology spending to rise to $5T per year, alongside stronger incentives, R&D, venture capital, and philanthropy. Explore OKR 10.0: speedandscale.com/okrs/10-0-…

A recent Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit report found that 72% of 2,500 stories about June’s record heatwave left out any mention of global heating or climate change. Speed & Scale’s OKR 8.0 focuses on turning movements into action. Better reporting that makes the climate connection clear is critical to building public understanding and sustaining progress. Read more: theguardian.com/environment/…

A single El Niño cycle could cut Brazil’s expected coffee harvest by 15 to 20%. Reuters reports that heat and irregular rainfall could disrupt the 2026 crop, a reminder of how quickly climate extremes can shake one of the world’s most familiar commodities. Read more: reuters.com/business/environ…