Hey Everyone,

This week was relatively light in Climate Optimism (let’s be real, some weeks just are), so we decided to share some of our own optimism. 

A few of you might have seen from social media that we both have exciting developments - Francis, a new addition to his family arriving later this year, and Julia, a new opportunity that will take her to the East Coast for next year. Rest assured that this gang is staying together: we’ll be continuing to deliver you the news, data, research, and stories you need to remain Climate Optimists. Our work at Twoº & Rising will also continue, taking on select clients and projects in line with the norm we set when we started this company - that it would be a workplace that honored professional and home lives and allowed for thriving in both. 

Alright, enough sappy stuff. Thanks for being wonderful readers and partners-in-climate, and here’s the news for this week.

WHAT’S HAPPENING

Curated finds from around the web

One in 4 cars sold in 2025 will be electric. The undisputed sales leader? China, where more than half of cars sold in 2024 were electric. HALF. Meanwhile, one Chinese EV battery manufacturer has almost 40% of global market share. Although its largest customer, Tesla, is facing slumping sales in the U.S., sales of Chinese EVs are up in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. In fact, 2/3rds of EVs sold in China in 2024 were cheaper than gas cars. 

Something strange is happening in energy lobbying. As the federal budget for next fiscal year makes its way through the U.S. Congress, unlikely bedfellows of oil lobbyists, renewable energy developers, and environmental advocacy groups are pressing Democrats and Republicans to retain the tax credits passed through the Inflation Reduction Act. The reality is that most of the IRA money is being spent in Republican districts, and access to more, more reliable, and cheaper energy is increasingly a non-partisan issue.    

If you still don’t understand what we mean when we say FOAK, check out Climate Drift’s FOAK Starter Pack that explains from F to N (sorry, we couldn’t help ourselves with the first- and nth-of-a-kind puns). MPP and RMI’s report on Clean Industrial Hubs (authored in part by Julia) also serves as a good primer for FOAK lessons for heavy industry and transport projects in California and Texas.

A new set of tools and models is helping us understand how rising temperatures affect snowpack and water levels. It turns out that the U.S. snow survey program started at the beginning of the 20th century with a simple device that calculated the snow’s water content at mountain monitoring sites called the SNOTEL network (we really don’t know how to name things anymore!). Researchers today are coming up with new tools and models that keep track with the non-historic weather patterns of modern times and allow us to manage water in areas around the U.S. West.   

Spain is cracking down on vacation rentals in an effort to alleviate a national housing crisis, especially in highly touristed, highly beautiful Spanish cities. Although this may not seem like a climate story, one of our favorite things to do is remind people that research has shown that housing and land use can make or break emissions reductions in cities globally. Housing, and where it’s built, can save building energy, vehicle miles traveled, and emissions by as much as  ~15%.

QUOTE

DETOURS

Jeopardy! Champion Ken Jennings has a new YouTube series about public transit around the world. We guess it’s not that surprising that a trivia nerd would like public transit, but it’s always fun when someone from outside the field gives their own spin on it.

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