Climate is the overwhelming story of our generation. Each week, this email reports the science, often frightening, and the tech, mostly encouraging. Please share to help others appreciate the problem, and that we have solutions. Free sign-up at www.maxaitken.com 

Next weekend is a holiday here in the UK so taking a break. Happy Easter 🐣.  

What you need to know

Global carbon tax on ships incoming. This is big, big, big

Why this matters? A world-first: planet-wide mandatory carbon tax. On ships.
Impact? Massive. 1bn tonnes of carbon (and growing) - 3% global emissions.
What will happen? Starts a race for new fuels: hydrogen (maybe), ammonia (perhaps) and methanol (my bet).
Timeline? Many unknowns but IMO says 2027.
Read more: Bloomberg

Planet’s core to help save us? US government says yes, because humans clever & invent stuff

Why this matters? Geothermal pulls zero-carbon heat from the decaying radioactivity of the earth’s core. But old tech limited where we could build.
Could it get big? US Department of Energy reported this week on ‘enhanced’ geothermal - ironically using gas fracking tech - could provide 10% of US power. Using 1% US potential would replace 21bn barrels of oil.
Read more: Utility Dive reports on DOE; FT on hot rocks; read Jordan Taylor on the tech ‘The Forge of Hephaestus’

Lithium: stop complaining, not a problem, up 10x in 10 years

Why this matters? Naysayers bleat: we don’t have enough minerals for the energy transition.
They’re wrong? And how. When we need it, we find it. Huge lithium discoveries all over planet. And cobalt prices down - there’s too much.
Read more: Bloomberg on lithium discoveries; FT on cobalt prices

One thing to worry about

1bn people work in the tropical sun. What happens when climate gets too hot?

A new study suggests heavy work will soon be cut by 50%: construction, farming, fishing. Halving output of some of the poorest on the planet.

Think this is outlandish? African temps are out of control - almost every country broke multiple records this month. This week South Sudan closed all schools and banned children from playing outside.

One thing to be optimistic about

Solar puts industrial infrastructure on agricultural land - but they can live together. A new study shows UK solar is great for biodiversity. Hares, skylarks, butterflies, wild flowers love the space around the panels.

Combining solar with farming is increasing. Ohio has a $1bn ‘agrivoltaic’ project combining farmland and solar over 6,000 acres (Canary Media). French to use panels to protect olive trees from the weather… caused by global warming (PV Magazine).

If you’ve got more time, read this…

The European Environment Agency produced its first report on EU climate risk, asking: are we ready for what’s coming? Not really seems the answer.

Assaad Razzouk summarised it on X/Twitter: “The situation is completely, utterly out of control already - and the scientists are clearly struggling to how not say it…”

To cheer you up (or not) here’s a nice European pic, showing how much ice Greenland loses in an hour (30 million tonnes).

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