| | | | | Happy Tuesday. Rio de Janeiro is pioneering an approach to urban development, as it aims to transform the city’s natural landscape, boost biodiversity & address health challenges.
In today’s edition:
⚡️Biden unveils $20 billion for clean energy and pollution-cutting projects | 🚜 Using tech to boost animal welfare & sustainablity in egg production | 🌳 10-meter square biodiversity boost in Rio | Which part of the newsletter do you get most value from? | |
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| | | | | 🔋 Energy (1-Min Read)
$20bn funding to create ‘green banks’ in the US | What happened: Biden officials just unveiled organisations that will receive $20 billion designed to flow into tens of thousands of clean energy and pollution-cutting projects nationwide. | How it works: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) -led program is funding nonprofits to form “green banks. They will provide low-cost loans and other aid to climate focussed projects. The recipients committed to spending $7 in private sector funding for each $1 from the federal investment money. | The numbers: At least $14 billion of the $20 billion announced is reserved for low-income and rural areas, neighborhoods of color, "energy communities" (like regions with closed coal mines) | One pillar of the investment, Power Forward Communities, will receive $2 billion to focus on decarbonized, affordable housing Another pillar is the $6 billion Clean Communities Investment Accelerator to build "hubs" that provide technical aid and lending for clean tech projects.
| Why it matters: Disadvantaged communities are often passed over by commercial banks and investors yet are disproportionately impacted by climate change. | Yes, but: Republicans say EPA is ill-equipped to handle the huge fund effectively and have floated legislation to repeal it. (Full story here) | 🔋 Energy Deals: Got deals we should know about? Drop us a note! - Alsym Energy, a Woburn, MA-based developer of non-flammable rechargeable batteries for stationary storage, marine and mobility applications, raised $78M in funding. - Raven SR, a Pinedale, WY-based renewable fuels company, raised $15M in funding. - Polar Night Energy secured €7.6m in seed funding. This significant investment will play a crucial role in realizing for its low carbon industrial heating solutions - Ammobia, a San-Fran based Green ammonia start-up has closed a $4.2mn seed round |
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| | | | | 🚜 AgriTech (1-Min Read)
Using tech to drive more sustainable egg production | What Happened: Every year in the US, over 300 million male chicks are hatched and typically killed within a day due to their lack of egg-laying ability or meat value through a process known as chick culling. Egg producers want to use new technology to stop chick culling. | Details: The technology, called in-ovo sexing, determines chick sex before hatching. This allows any unwanted eggs to be destroyed without causing pain to the embryos. Several European countries have banned chick culling and utilise in-ovo sexing, while the US has lagged behind due to scaling concerns, despite criticism from animal rights groups. | A Positive Step: In-ovo sexing could reduce the costs and inefficiencies of egg production. It does this as by allowing producers to identify male chicks without the need for incubation until they hatch, while also improving animal welfare. (Full story here). | 🚜 Agritech Deals: Got deals we should know about? Drop us a note! - Onego Bio has closed a $40M Series A funding round to commercialise its animal-free egg protein, Bioalbumen. - REDUCED, a Copenhagen-based company that uses fermentation technology to transform food and agriculture industry side streams into natural food ingredients, today announced it has secured EUR 6 million in new financing - Agteria Biotech secures €1.4M to combat methane emissions - Time-travelling Milkman (TTM) has raised €850,000 to scale production and expand the market entry of Oleocream, a sunflower fat designed to replace palm and coconut oil in plant-based dairy - Swedish startup Ironic Biotech has raised €1M Pre-Seed for its plant-derived proteins that allow iron to be easily absorbed into the blood. |
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| | | | | 🐘 Nature (1-Min Read)
Revitalizing Rio's urban ecosystems | What Happened: Two non-profit organisations and a Brazilian financial institution have joined forces with Rio de Janeiro municipality to develop an urban biodiversity credit programme. | Details: In a first-of-its-kind initiative, the Rio municipality will issue credits to developers who improve biodiversity in 10-meter-square areas throughout the city, such as by planting trees alongside motorways, streets, or a river. The biodiversity improvements will be determined by measuring the diversity, abundance, and resilience of species within these areas. | Welfare & Nature Benefits: Biodiversity restoration could help Rio’s institutions and communities tackle major health and nature threats linked to deforestation, such as dengue fever and heat waves. By creating habitats for natural predators of the insect that carries dengue fever, authorities in Rio hope to reduce instances of the disease within the city. (Full story here). | 🐘 Nature Deals: Got deals we should know about? Drop us a note! - Iceberg DataLab, a provider of Biodiversity footprints, has raised $10 million to expand its global presence. - BurnBot, a San Francisco, CA-based company providing mechanized vegetation management and fuel treatment solutions, raised $20M in Series A funding |
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| | | | | 💭 Little Bytes (1-Min Read) | 💬 Quote: ““Gas is the only cost-efficient energy generation capable of providing the type of 24/7 reliable power required by the big technology companies to power the AI boom.” Doug Kimmelman, ECP founder and senior partner. | 📊 Stat: The loss of primary forests - those untouched by people and sometimes known as old-growth forests - in the tropics declined 9% last year compared to 2022 - Global Forest Watch | 📺️ Watch: A new wind farm will power 600,000 homes in New York |
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| | | | | 🛗 Snippets for your lift conversations (1-Min Read) | The Biden administration restored some protections under the Endangered Species Act, which was rolled back under former President Donald Trump, giving the federal government more leeway to designate plants or animals as threatened or endangered. Battery recycler Li-Cycle plans to lay off 17% of its staff - including three senior executives - as it pares its ambitious global growth plans to save cash and focus on building a crucial processing facility in New York. The U.S. government is finalising tighter tailpipe emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles like semi-trucks and buses. Still, the new rules would not be as strict as initially proposed in 2023. This year, a hot winter in Canada has delayed the opening of a 400-kilometre (250-mile) ice road that is rebuilt yearly as the main conduit for major diamond miners to access their diamond mines in the remote Arctic region. There could be a record number of bee farms in the U.S. right now, according to a new analysis from the Washington Post. Unusually high hive losses in the early 2000s ignited fears that the domesticated western honey bee, an integral part of the world's food system, was headed for widespread population collapse. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink's stemwinder on "energy pragmatism" contained a kernel of truth about the global shift away from fossil fuels.Solar panels have become so cheap that they are being used to build garden fences in the Netherlands and Germany, as a boom in Chinese production saturates the global market. Shell will fight to convince judges to repeal a landmark order to cut greenhouse gas emissions, in a closely watched test of polluters’ ability to keep climate change-related court action at bay. Startup, Infinium, is making fuel from water and carbon dioxide and has fuel buyers that include Amazon and American Airlines, as the company tires ot scale. The European Union is not planning to delay a new law to crack down on the import of commodities linked to deforestation, despite some governments urging Brussels to postpone the landmark rules. Rivian Automotive beat estimates for quarterly deliveries, fueled by strong demand for its electric pickup trucks and SUVs, although its shares fell 5% as Tesla's weak numbers fanned concerns about an EV market slowdown. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is pausing the implementation of its new climate disclosure rule while it defends the regulation in court.
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| | | | | 🎣 Gone Phishing (1-Minute Read) | Three of these stories are true, one we've made up. Guess which: | Canadian town plagued by invasion of moose Italian island overrun by goats Botswana threatens to send 20,000 elephants to Germany Irish basketball teams ordered to replay last 0.3 seconds of quarter-final
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| What did you think of this week's newsletter? | | Written by Colin and Ollie - Drop us a message! |
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