Connect with us

Published

4 years ago

on

Demonstrators display signs and a banner during a “No Climate, No Deal” march on the White House, in Washington, DC, June 28, 2021.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

After a summer of astonishing climate extremes, a landmark scientific report on climate change provides another stark warning. 

It states we have less than a decade to stabilize the Earth’s climate and that this will require big and immediate cuts in carbon emissions. And given the planet is already 1.1 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial times, the need to adapt to higher temperatures could not be clearer.

This window for action is getting narrower by the day, but it is still open. We are being given one final opportunity to stave off catastrophic climate change, and we must seize it.

The report, by the world’s foremost climate scientists at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, calls for “immediate, rapid, and large-scale reductions” in emissions. If we stop pumping heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere altogether, scientists believe we may be able to contain warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. If we fail, the consequences for our planet will be dire.

Climate change is a long-term, systemic threat that requires immediate and adequate action that must be sustained over decades. What is required is nothing less than the total transformation of our economic and social systems, from where we source our energy to how we transport goods and people, where we live and work, and what we buy.

Reaching net-zero carbon emissions requires vast amounts of funding. The International Monetary Fund estimates that 6-10% of global GDP — somewhere in the region of an additional $6 trillion to $10 trillion — needs to be invested in the next decade to green our economies.

These are huge sums, but they should not be viewed as a sunk cost — like the expense of cleaning up after flooding, wildfires, and other ravages of extreme weather. Greening our economies is above all an economic opportunity that will create jobs, drive innovation, and boost economic growth.

The coronavirus pandemic proved that vast resources can be marshalled quickly when governments are faced with an existential threat.

In addition to ramping up investment, we need three things to address our climate crisis quickly and at scale.

First, we need a global price on carbon, beginning with a price floor agreement among major emitters that also distinguishes according to countries’ income levels. This could take the shape of taxes, trading schemes, or measures that achieve the same outcome, such as combinations of feebates or regulations at the sectoral levels. Either way, the goal should be to price fuel appropriately and incentivize the switch to cleaner alternatives. Without an appropriate price on carbon, we will not get to net-zero emissions before it is too late.

Second, we need to set aside funds to help millions of people across the world adapt to climate change, especially in developing countries that may not have the resources for the large investments needed. Coastal cities, riverside towns and small island states are vulnerable to storm surges and rising sea levels. Farming communities everywhere need to improve their water efficiency and switch to drought-resistant crops. Because even if we were able to halt all planet-warming emissions tomorrow, scientists warn we will be living in an era of climate extremes for centuries.

Third, the cost of transforming economies to be greener and more resilient must be shared. The transition must be just, both across and within countries. Climate change affects everyone, but it affects the poorest and those who have contributed the least to global warming the most. So far, the sums raised for climate action have fallen far short of the $100 billion a year agreed by the world’s leaders more than 10 years ago. We must now find a way to magnify the impact of climate funding, and transform the billions currently being invested in climate solutions into trillions.

Investing in climate resilience would be a good start. GCA research shows that investing $1.8 trillion globally until 2030 in five climate-adaptation areas — early warning systems, climate-resilient infrastructure, improved dryland agriculture, mangrove protection, and increasing water resilience — could result in $7.1 trillion in net benefits. Adapting now is in everyone’s strong economic self-interest. Beyond preventing dramatic human and economic losses, adaptation policies can pave the way for high-return investments that would not otherwise be viable due to climate risk.

The IMF is doing its part. Its largest allocation of Special Drawing Rights in its history — equivalent to $650 billion  — is now effective and provided a welcome boost to member countries. Options are now being explored to channel SDRs from wealthier to poorer and more vulnerable member countries to support their pandemic recovery and achieve resilient and sustainable growth. A new Resilience and Sustainability Trust is being considered for this purpose.

The world is not short of money or ideas needed to fight climate change. What we need now is for the international community to seize this historic opportunity and act together to create a greener, more equitable and prosperous world for us all.

Kristalina Georgieva is managing director of the International Monetary Fund. Patrick Verkooijen is CEO of the Global Center on Adaptation.

Related Topics:
Continue Reading

Environment

Musk will ask Tesla shareholders to vote on bailout for twitter/xAI

Published

3 hours ago

on

July 14, 2025

By

Musk will ask Tesla shareholders to vote on bailout for twitter/xAI

Tesla shareholders will vote on whether to invest into xAI, Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s private company, according to a post by Musk on twitter today.

Elon Musk is not just the CEO of Tesla, the electric car company that you may have heard about from time to time in Electrek’s coverage, but several other companies as well. And, famously, Musk companies often share resources – there has been much talk of incorporating SpaceX technology into Tesla vehicles, and putting xAI/twitter’s “MechaHitler”…. er, I mean, “Grok”…. feature into Tesla cars, among other collaborations that have happened over his various companies’ histories.

And today, Musk made it official that he will seek greater collaboration between three of his companies: Tesla, xAI, and twitter, in the form of an investment into xAI by Tesla.

The situation is a little more complicated than that, though.

Advertisement – scroll for more content

Tesla is a public company, owned by shareholders. Musk is the largest shareholder, but only owns around 12% of the company himself.

This is a different situation than xAI, which is a private company, owned by Musk. While there are other investors, he can exercise much more direct control over the company, and doesn’t have to put big decisions up to a vote.

One of the recent decisions he made with xAI was to purchase twitter in March. You may say, “wait, I thought he bought twitter back in 2022?,” and you’d be correct. Musk purchased twitter for $44 billion in 2022, which was widely agreed to be far too high a price, and then rapidly saw the company’s valuation drop to under $10 billion.

Then, in March 2025, Musk had xAI purchase twitter in an all-stock deal, valuing twitter company at $45 billion – again, far too high of a valuation, but considering he purchased the company from himself, he could set the price at whatever he wanted.

The move was widely considered to be a bailout of twitter, and the numbers involved considered arbitrary, perhaps partially to help save face for Musk after he made one of the worst business deals of all time.

Now the two are the same entity, and it seems clear that he would like to bring Tesla into the fold, in some way or another.

Musk has already improperly used resources from Tesla, a public company, to boost xAI and twitter, his private companies. Last year, he gave up Tesla’s priority position for highly sought-after NVIDIA H100 GPUs, instead shipping those GPUs to xAI and twitter. Tesla could have used these GPUs for training its FSD/Robotaxi systems, which Musk has claimed is the most important thing to Tesla’s future, but instead graciously sent them to his other company that used them to, uh, train a bot to say Nazi stuff apparently.

xAI has also poached talent from Tesla, multiple times, showing how Musk is using Tesla as a farm team for his private company.

So it hasn’t been a secret that Musk would like to use public money to bail out his private companies, as he’s been setting the stage for for a while now.

Musk has previously “discussed” getting Tesla to invest in xAI in the past, but the idea was never made official until today, when Musk said that he will put the idea to a shareholder vote.

In response to one of his superfans asking for the the opportunity to waste money on an overvalued social media app (which would mark the third time it has been overpaid for in as many years), and the backend fueling “MechaHitler,” Musk said this:

Tesla traditionally holds its annual shareholder meeting around the middle of the year, so if it were a normal year, this shareholder vote might be imminent.

But it’s not a normal year, as just last week Tesla announced an exceptionally late shareholder meeting, pushing it back to November, the latest it has ever held the meeting.

This means that Musk will have around four months to campaign for this idea – something that he’ll perhaps have more time to do, now that he’s no longer cosplaying as a government official.

We don’t know what the structure of the deal might look like yet, but Musk has been clear in the past that he wants more shares in Tesla. After selling many of his shares in order to buy twitter, he later complained that he doesn’t feel comfortable having less than 25% of Tesla. Given that his recent xAI/twitter deal was an all-stock deal, Musk could attempt to fund any investment of Tesla into xAI via shares, giving himself more Tesla shares in exchange for the company gaining a portion of xAI. Though to get him to 25% voting shares in Tesla, that would require either an enormous valuation for xAI, a small valuation for Tesla, or purchasing a large percentage of xAI (or, perhaps, all three, given how much higher TSLA’s valuation is than xAI’s).

We may however have a hint as to how that vote will go, because the last time Musk campaigned for a clearly terrible idea, Tesla shareholders ate it up.

In mid-2024, Musk ended his yearslong absenteeism at Tesla in a flurry of activity, hoping to persuade enough shareholders to vote for his illegal $55B pay package.

That flurry involved firing 10% of the company (supposedly in order to save money – though Tesla’s earnings have dropped drastically since), including important leadership and successful teams, which caused chaos with Tesla’s projects. He also pushed back an all-important affordable car project (which we’ve still heard nothing about) and held Tesla’s AI projects hostage while shifting both resources and staff from Tesla to his private AI company, even as he claims that AI is the future of Tesla.

In the end, these bad decisions worked, and shareholders voted to give their bad CEO his $55B pay package, even though it was later ruled to still be illegal.

So it looks like we’ve got another campaign coming up, and if last time was any indication, expect some really bad decisions along the way. It worked last time, didn’t it?

Republicans recently killed a number of home energy efficiency credits, including the rooftop solar credit. That means you only have until the end of this year to upgrade your home before republicans raise the cost of doing so by an average of ~$10,000. So if you want to go solar, get started TODAY, because these things take time and the system needs to be active before you file for the credit.

To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.

Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here. – ad*

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Continue Reading

Environment

E-quipment highlight: Perkins TracStar battery electric power unit

Published

6 hours ago

on

July 14, 2025

By

E-quipment highlight: Perkins TracStar battery electric power unit

Perkins develops a drop-in battery electric power unit

The off-highway equipment experts at Perkins and McElroy have teamed up to develop a plug-and-play battery electric power unit designed to help equipment OEMs and upfitters to seamlessly transition from diesel to battery electric power.

Designed to occupy the same space as the companies’ diesel-engined power units, Perkins dropped its new battery power unit into the similarly new McElroy TracStar 900i pipe fusion machine (specialized equipment used to join thermoplastic pipes like HDPE or polypropylene by heat-welding them end-to-end to form a continuous length pf pipe).

Perkins’ battery electric power unit replaces the company’s proprietary 134 hp, 3.6 liter 904 Series Tier V diesel engine, enabling units that are already deployed to be quickly upgraded to electric power – and helping trade allies and development partners to easily retrofit existing equipment in order to add zero-emission options to their operational fleet.

“We’re actively helping customers navigate the shift in power system requirements, with a range of advanced power systems including electric, diesel-electric and alternative fuel compatible engines,” says Jaz Gill, vice president, global sales, marketing at Perkins. “When it comes to the innovative fully integrated battery electric power unit, it can be ‘dropped in’ to a machine to replace a diesel engine. The system consists of a Perkins battery along with inverters, motors and on-board chargers – all packaged up into a compact drop-in system to support seamless transition from diesel to electric for our customers looking to make that move.”

Advertisement – scroll for more content

McElroy believes that an electric, emissions-free power unit like this one will open new opportunities and applications for its customers.

“Their team has done a phenomenal job of integrating their battery electric system into our TracStar 900i,” explains McElroy President and CEO Chip McElroy. “We’re really excited to see what the market thinks about this concept.”

Development of the battery electric powered pipe fusion machine was completed in about nine months. Future Perkins-powered electric equipment running the 904 diesel (small excavators, telehandlers, pumps, and gensets) could be developed even more quickly. You can find out more in the company’s promo video, below.

Perkins electric power unit

SOURCE | IMAGES: McElroy, Perkins.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Continue Reading

Environment

Upcoming electric Bentley blends 1930s style with 2030s tech

Published

12 hours ago

on

July 13, 2025

By

Upcoming electric Bentley blends 1930s style with 2030s tech

EXP 15 design vision concept: A story reimagined for the future

British ultra-luxe brand Bentley is teasing the upcoming, first-ever all electric model that will take it into the 2030s with a new concept car inspired by the iconic 1930 “Blue Train” Speed Six coupe – and it looks fantastic!

More than any other brand, Bentley was defined by its engine. For decades, in fact, the only meaningful mechanical difference between a Rolls-Royce and a Bentley was the 6.75L twin-turbocharged V8 engine under the flying B hood ornament.

That all changed at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Rolls-Royce was acquired by BMW, while Volkswagen took the reins at Bentley, setting both brands on distinct paths. Now, without its own engine, Bentley faces the challenge of proving to discerning buyers that its cars justify a premium over its mechanical cousins at VW, Audi, and Porsche. That’s why the company is looking to it pre-Rolls merger past, all the way back to the legendary 1930 “Blue Train” Speed Six coupe.

Bentley Blue Train EXP 15 concept

EXP 15 concept and 1930 Blue Train; via Bentley.

“Bentley’s then-chairman Woolf Barnato had a Speed Six four-door Weymann fabric saloon by H J Mulliner, which he used to race the Blue Train in 1930,” explains Darren Day, Bentley’s Head of Interior Design. “Meanwhile, he had a unique one-of-one Speed Six coupe being built, with a body by Gurney Nutting. Even though the coupe wasn’t finished when the race took place, it’s that car (the coupe) that’s become associated with it and has since become an iconic Bentley. What we were influenced by is the idea of a three-seat car with a unique window line and super slick proportions used for grand tours.”

Advertisement – scroll for more content

The EXP 15 concept car features a unique, three-door, three-passenger layout under a sweeping, dramatic roofline lifted from the 1930 tourer. “The seat can rotate and you step out, totally unflustered, not trying to clamber out of the car like you see with some supercars,” continued Day, before dropping the biggest hint yet as to who they’re building the car for. “You just get out with dignity and the Instagram shot is perfect.”

Bentley EXP 15 interior

While almost no technical specs have been revealed other than “full electric,” Bentley says its new concept’s innovative interior layout allows passengers to stretch out in comfort alongside accessible storage compartments that can house a bar, hand luggage, or even pets. The EXP 15 even offers tailgate seating for outdoor parties or suburban soccer games.

But, while the new concept is tall, Bentley hopes it manages to offer the commanding driving position and comfort of an SUV while giving off the “vibe” of a classic grand tourer – something Bentley thinks could be the next wave of the luxury car market.

“The beauty of a concept car is not just to position our new design language, but to test where the market’s going,” offers Robin Page, Bentley Director of Design. “It’s clear that SUVs are a growing segment and we understand the GT market … but the trickiest segment is the sedan because it’s changing. Some customers want a classic ‘three-box’ sedan shape, others a ‘one-box’ design, and others again something more elevated. So this was a chance for us to talk to people and get a feeling.”

As before: no specs, no range estimates, and no promises about if and nothing definitive about when the oft-promised all-electric Bentley will finally bow – but this is certain: when it does arrive, it will be big, brash, and fast.

Electrek’s Take

Now that SUVs are everywhere and in every segment, automakers are desperate to explore or open new niches, hoping to find that next “SUV-like” growth segment. As weird as the three-door, three-seat EXP 15’s interior layout is, you have to admit that it’s different. And, for a vehicle that spends 90% of its time with just one person inside it, it might be more than practical enough.

Let us know if you think Bentley has a winner, or just another concept car gimmick on its hands in the comments.

SOURCE | IMAGES: Bentley.

he 30% federal solar tax credit is ending this year. If you’ve ever considered going solar, now’s the time to act. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them. 

Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Continue Reading

Trending