Net Zero

1. EPA’s emissions gamble
2. Trump oversells US gas
3. Renewables vs. heat waves
4. Record coal consumption
5. Solar boom busts

Google’s plan to fight food insecurity across Africa using AI.

EPA’s emissions gamble

The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to publish as soon as today a proposal that will make it much harder for future administrations to regulate greenhouse gases, and cause major headaches for the auto and power industries.

The plan would rescind the 2009 “endangerment finding,” EPA’s legal basis for restricting carbon emissions from tailpipes and smokestacks on the grounds that they are harmful to human health. The immediate impact would be limited, since the Trump administration had already moved to toss Biden-era emissions regulations. And the repeal is expected to face legal challenges.

But if it goes through, the repeal would require future administrations to go through a tedious process to re-establish the endangerment finding before even beginning to work on restoring regulations. Automakers and utilities, meanwhile, would face years of confusion about their emissions obligations. And because the EPA’s current rule gives those companies a layer of protection from environmentalists’ lawsuits, the repeal may even “open the floodgates” for cases against major firms, said Charlotte Jenkins, energy analyst at the consulting firm Capstone.

Trump oversells US gas

The trade deal agreed this weekend between the US and the European Union hinges on natural gas — but both sides seem to have overpromised what each can realistically buy and sell.

In exchange for a modest reduction in economy-wide tariffs imposed by the US, and exemptions for aviation and some other sectors, EU officials agreed on Sunday to invest $600 billion in the US and to buy $750 billion in American energy products over the next three years. The investment promise is already crumbling, as the bloc has admitted it has no control over how the private sector spends its money.

The energy promise will be next to fall. It faces the same fundamental problem: Bureaucrats in Brussels and Washington can’t dictate the flow of global energy trade. And even if they could, the new target is far out of reach. Total US energy exports to the world were worth $318 billion last year, of which about $74.4 billion went to the EU, according to Rystad Energy. So to meet the target, the EU would need to more than triple its purchases of US fossil fuels — and the US would need to stop selling them to almost anyone else.

“These numbers make no sense,” said Anne-Sophie Corbeau, a researcher specializing in European gas markets at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy.

Renewables vs. heat waves

Clean energy is helping power companies prevent blackouts as record-breaking temperatures descend on the US. A heat dome over the eastern US is expected to put 150 million people — nearly half the country’s population — at risk of heat effects, and the US may see record-breaking temperatures in the middle of the week, Scientific American reported. Tampa Bay broke 100°F (37.7°C) for the first time in 130 years of records on Monday.

But solar panels, batteries, and virtual power plant technology have proven to be critical in keeping up the supply of power for air conditioners, and may have saved households in New England up to $20 million on their bills. Meanwhile, the Middle East and Europe are also sweltering under dangerous heat: Wildfires are raging in Greece and Turkey, and the latter saw its highest ever temperature, 50.5°C (122.9°F). Iran saw even higher readings last week, forcing banks and businesses in the capital to shut down because the power infrastructure, damaged by recent Israeli attacks, could not cope.

Record coal consumption

Metric tons of coal burned globally in 2024, a record. More than half of all coal consumption is for power plants in China, the International Energy Agency reported. And although demand in China and India is expected to dip a bit this year, it will likely tick up in the US and Europe, meaning another record year is likely for 2025. The figures underscore how economic development across developing countries, and rising power demand among richer peers, cancel out much of the gains of clean energy in driving down coal consumption, which is ultimately one of the top drivers of climate change.

Solar boom busts

Solar panel installations in China fell precipitously in June, as the government pulled back on subsidies after a record-breaking construction boom this year. Solar installations in May reached nearly 100 gigawatts, equal to installing 100 solar panels nearly every second, according to the Asia Society Policy Institute. But installations fell below 15 gigawatts in June as project developers face the end of receiving fixed high rates for solar power and are transitioned by grid officials to less predictable market rates.

China’s solar market has boomed a bit too much in recent years, some officials believe; at the same time subsidized power rates are being removed, the government also introduced new restrictions on price cuts for consumer products, including solar panels, meant to stem a tide of bankruptcies as overproduction and intense competition between manufacturers leads to an all-out price war that ultimately hurts the country’s green energy ambitions.

New Energy

• EU solar energy expansion is set to slow for the first time in more than a decade, as defence and local industries take priority over green initiatives.
• Fortescue reported record iron ore shipments but cut green hydrogen projects as US clean-energy support wanes.
• Despite the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the US wind industry is expected to add 9 GW annually through 2029.

Fossil Fuels

• Energy volatility, the clean energy transition, and rising resource nationalism could create conditions that make a ‘ChExxon’ merger plausible, according to a Reuters columnist.
• Eni expects green profits to match oil and gas within a decade, contrasting Shell and BP’s recent pullback from renewables.

Finance

• Brazil is in talks with global investors to raise $4 billion for climate projects, pushing green finance ahead of hosting COP30.

Tech

• The head of the European Climate Foundation proposed taxing AI to fund climate adaptation.

Politics & Policy

• China and the EU issued a joint statement urging major economies to step up efforts to address the threats posed by climate change.

COP30

• Love motels in Brazil are helping ease the accommodation shortage ahead of COP30 by tailoring their rooms for climate summit visitors.

James Manyika, SVP for research, labs, technology, and society at Google and Alphabet.

The conventional wisdom on the new American right is that President Donald Trump struggled in his first term because he hired the wrong people — but he has stunned loyalists by sweeping aside his new team of handpicked MAGA appointees, Semafor’s Ben Smith wrote.

So far, Trump has ignored his defense aides to attack Iran, hung right-wing bloggers out to dry on Jeffrey Epstein, and eschewed talk of sinister tech monopolies to embrace Big American Tech, refashioned as Big American AI.

“It turns out that personnel isn’t policy,” the executive director of The American Conservative told Smith.