Climate Senior

10/15/2026

"China's 350 million electric scooters have displaced more oil than all the world's electric cars — the biggest clean transport revolution in history happened on two wheels and barely got covered.

The EV story everyone knows: Tesla. BYD. Premium sedans. Gigafactories. Charging speeds. Which software update fixed which problem. The coverage is exhausting. The oil displacement is real but modest compared to what is happening on two wheels.

350 million electric scooters in Chinese cities. Each one costs $400 to $600. Each one charges from a household socket. Each one replaces a petrol motorbike that would otherwise burn fuel every single day.

Add them up: more than 800,000 barrels of oil per day that China is not consuming. More oil displacement than the entire global fleet of premium electric cars produces. A revolution that started when Chinese cities banned petrol motorcycles for air quality reasons in the late 1990s and electric scooters filled the gap naturally, practically, affordably.

No press conference launched this. No celebrity founder drove one across a stage. No gigafactory announcement. 350 million people made the obvious choice when an affordable, practical, rechargeable alternative to a banned vehicle was available.

The most transformative vehicle in the history of clean transport costs $500 and charges from a wall socket. It has displaced more oil than Tesla's global car fleet for years. The world is still mainly talking about the cars.

Source: China Association of Automobile Manufacturers & Bloomberg New Energy Finance, 2023

10/15/2026

Hydro generates 55% of Canada’s electricity. Wind & solar are our fastest-growing power sources. Behind them? Standards that help energy technologies operate safely, efficiently, and reliably. They may be invisible, but their impact isn’t. 🇨🇦 💧⚡

United Nations UNESCO

10/12/2026

Good for Canada

A green future may be powered by wind, solar and electric vehicles—but all of it starts with minerals. Nova Scotia has known or potential deposits of several critical minerals the world increasingly needs. As the province looks to expand mining activity, one big question remains: can Nova Scotia embrace the industry that could help supply the future?

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10/12/2026

"The UAE contracted solar electricity at one cent per kilowatt-hour. That is cheaper than the fuel cost alone of running a gas turbine.

Al Dhafra, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Al Shuaibah — solar parks in the Arabian desert that together represent the cheapest electricity ever generated from any source in human history. At $0.0104 per kilowatt-hour, UAE solar undercuts every fossil fuel plant on operating cost alone before capital cost is considered. Coal burns money. Gas burns money. The desert sun charges nothing.

The UAE is not building solar because it ran out of oil. Its reserves last generations. It is building solar because solar is cheaper — and every kilowatt-hour from the desert frees one more barrel for export at $80 rather than burned domestically for a cent.

Each successive DEWA tender produced a lower price: $0.18 in 2012, $0.0584, $0.0299, $0.0173, $0.0104. No negotiation. The developers competed. The technology improved. The price fell.

The world's largest oil exporter is building the world's cheapest electricity. The irony is deliberate. The maths made it inevitable.

Source: Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) & Saudi Power Procurement Company, 2023

10/12/2026

⚡️UK drivers are ditching petrol and diesel in record numbers, with electric car sales surging 36% last month! High fuel prices and more affordable EVs are pushing the switch. Is the electric revolution finally here for the everyday motorist?

September saw battery electric vehicles (BEVs) make up 28% of all new cars registered. Petrol registrations dropped 7%, and diesel is now just 4% of new car sales. This tenth consecutive month of growth shows a clear shift.

It's not just rising fuel costs (like diesel hitting £2 a litre!) but also a growing range of cheaper EV options. Models starting under £25,000 (after grants) with decent range are hitting the market, making them a real alternative.

📈 EV sales up 36% in September
📈 BEVs now 28% of new car registrations
📈 Plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) also surged 55.5%
📈 More affordable models making EVs accessible

This shift could mean big savings for drivers and a greener future for our roads. But there are still concerns about charging infrastructure and upfront costs.

10/12/2026

Why does progress always cost us more?

10/12/2026

🇨🇭 Switzerland is advancing direct-air-capture research, a technology designed to remove carbon dioxide directly from the surrounding atmosphere rather than only capturing emissions from factories.

Direct air capture uses chemical materials, filters, or specialized surfaces that selectively bind with carbon dioxide in the air. The captured gas can then be separated from the material using heat, pressure, moisture, or another regeneration process. Afterward, the carbon dioxide may be stored underground or used in selected industrial applications.

Swiss researchers and climate-technology companies are developing more efficient capture materials and systems that require less energy than earlier designs. This is important because carbon dioxide is present in the atmosphere at relatively low concentrations, making direct capture more energy-intensive than capturing emissions from a concentrated industrial exhaust stream.

Direct air capture is not a replacement for reducing emissions at their source. It is being studied as a possible tool for addressing residual emissions from sectors that are difficult to decarbonize, such as aviation, shipping, and certain industrial processes. Its usefulness will depend on energy efficiency, cost, reliable storage, and independently verified carbon-removal results.

Source: ETH Zurich, 2026

09/11/2026

Solar Is Now the Cheapest Energy Source in Human History - In the World's Sunniest Regions It Costs Just $0.02/kWh, Cheaper Than Coal, Gas and Even Wind

Solar power has undergone one of the largest cost reductions in the history of energy. In particularly sunny regions, utility-scale solar projects can achieve extremely low electricity costs, with some estimates approaching $0.02 per kilowatt-hour under favorable conditions.

The exact cost depends heavily on location, financing, technology, land, grid connection and whether the calculation includes storage and other system costs. That is why $0.02/kWh should be understood as a favorable project-level figure rather than a universal global price.

Solar's biggest advantage is the dramatic decline in photovoltaic module and installation costs over the past several decades. Once installed, sunlight itself has no fuel cost.

The challenge is timing. Solar production changes throughout the day and disappears at night, meaning grids with large amounts of solar may also need batteries, transmission, flexible demand and other generation sources.

Even with those limitations, the economics of solar have transformed electricity markets around the world. In many sunny locations, generating electricity from sunlight is now extraordinarily inexpensive.