Patrick Greenfield in The Guardian writes on how a $5 billion donation is aiming to protect nature. “Last week, a group of nine philanthropic foundations made the largest ever donation to nature conservation, pledging $5bn to finance the protection of 30% of land and sea by the end of the decade.” Read the full article here.

Devin Coldewey on TechCrunch reports that DroneSeed has received $36 million in new funding. “DroneSeed started as a tech-powered alternative to the backbreaking work of large-scale tree planting, but this important task is only one small part of forest restoration, the infrastructure for which is being pushed to the breaking point by wildfires.” Read the...

"With RegenConnect, Cargill has effectively decided to create its own branded marketplace instead of partnering with an outside firm. It remains to be seen whether other large food companies active on sustainability, such as Danone and General Mills, will follow Cargill’s lead and create their own marketplaces."

"The 400-MW U.S. plant is just a starting point, with the company stating it expects to grow into multiple gigawatts of capacity of solar modules for residential, commercial and utility-scale applications. The first iteration of the U.S. plant should be operational by the end of 2022 and employ hundreds of manufacturing workers."

"This 'affordable gas from fracking' thing saved American residential, commercial, and industrial gas users a staggering $650 billion in energy costs from 2008-2018 alone."

"The foundation 'will focus on initiatives and ideas that will aid underserved communities who are most impacted by climate change,' an official tells Axios."

It is much more important for China—the world’s biggest consumer and producer of coal—to make a similar commitment at home. China added around three-quarters of the world’s new coal plants last year, according to Global Energy Monitor. Coal-power capacity outside China has been declining since 2018, as the U.S. and Europe had retired their plants.

"Iron Ox grows plants under natural sunlight, leveraging photosynthesis — the 3-billion-year-old process by which plants use energy from the sun to turn atmospheric CO2 into plant biomass, and the most scalable carbon capture technology on Earth."

Emily Holbrook of Energy + Environment Leader reports on how L’Oreal USA achieved carbon neutrality across all U.S. sites. “Since 2005, L’Oréal USA has been advancing its renewable energy ambition through a multi-pronged approach aimed at improving energy efficiency and transitioning to 100% renewable energy.” Read the full article here.

Alexis Benveniste of CNN Business reports that more than 200 companies have signed on to Amazon’s Climate Pledge. “Together, the signatories of the climate pledge generate more than $1.8 trillion in total global annual revenue and have more than 7 million employees across 26 industries in 21 countries, according to Amazon (AMZN). Visa (V), Pepsi (PEP), Heineken (HEINY) and Alaska Airlines (ALK) are among the list of...