December 17, 2022

Weekend Reads: Prioritizing ESG During a Recession; A Look Into The Fusion Energy Breakthrough

It's the weekend! Kick back and catch up with these must-read articles from around the web.

Why your business should prioritize ESG, even in the midst of a financial downturn (Fast Company) In a flashback to the 2008 financial crash, concern is mounting that as a global recession approaches, business leaders may slash their ESG budgets. We’ve seen this scenario play out before. After barely a month into the war on Ukraine, we’d already witnessed grocery chains roll back pledges to eliminate palm oil and investment firms reverse sustainability policies. With history as our witness, it’s clear that sustainability is often the first item put on ice when companies grapple with decisions that might affect short-term financial returns.

We have a genuine fusion energy breakthrough (Vox) Researchers at the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, California, home of the world’s most powerful laser, announced on Tuesday that they crossed the critical threshold in their pursuit of fusion power: getting more energy out of the reaction than they put in. This is 1) a massive scientific advancement, and 2) still a long, long (long) way off from harnessing fusion, the reaction that powers the sun, as a viable source of abundant clean energy. On December 5, the team fired 192 laser beams at a tiny fuel pellet, producing slightly more energy than the lasers put in, “about 2 megajoules in, about 3 megajoules out,” said Marvin Adams, deputy administrator for defense programs at the National Nuclear Security Administration, at a press conference Tuesday.

3 challenges en route to electric vehicle batteries driving the circular economy (World Economic Forum) Between 2020 and 2021, electric vehicle (EV) sales increased by 50% to 6.6 million vehicles. By 2030, EVs could exceed 50% of total automotive sales in markets, backed by major markets’ internal combustion car phase-out regulations. As cars, trucks and buses are increasingly battery-powered and generate zero tail-pipe emissions, the increasing demand for road mobility can be met without compromising global warming and people’s health. But what happens when the battery that powers an electric vehicle is no longer fit for use? Are we resolving one challenge by creating the next big one?

Vietnam Seals $15.5 Billion Deal with Rich Nations to Exit Coal (Bloomberg) Vietnam has landed a $15.5 billion partnership with funders led by the European Union and the UK to help finance its transition away from coal. The Southeast Asian nation will receive half of the allotted package of grants and loans from country donors, with the other 50% coming from a group of investors known as Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero. The funding will go toward cleaning up Vietnam’s power sector by moving away from coal, one of the dirtiest fossil fuels.

Demand soars for EV charging at multifamily properties (Utility Dive) In late 2021, after apartment owners and operators started inundating Park City, Utah-based RET Ventures about EV charging stations, the multifamily-focused technology investment firm created a working group and launched a comprehensive evaluation of the technology. It found a lot of dissatisfaction. “The chargers are offline a lot. They’re broken a lot. Residents start calling the leasing office, and the people in the leasing office aren’t EV charging experts and don’t know how to troubleshoot,” RET vice president Jameson Hartman said. “It just creates this headache from an operational standpoint and general dissatisfaction for the residents.”

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