The Cook Islands just might hold the key to a more secure and sustainable critical minerals future.
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Climate change is warming public opinion to nuclear power
"So, today, some leaders of the anti-nuclear community are headed to the exits, while a new generation of pro-nuclear climate activists enters to take their place — although, admittedly, the shift is not universal. It is a change mirrored in Congress and among the public. In the face of the existential risk of climate change, there has been a significant reconsideration of nuclear energy and, I believe, it will lead to the widespread deployment of a new generation of advanced nuclear units. What a difference."
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Europe’s pro-nuclear leaders seek atomic energy revival
"The statement also commits to the construction of new nuclear power plants and the early deployment of advanced reactors, including small modular reactors worldwide while maintaining the highest levels of safety and security."
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Amid all the climate gloom, let’s not ignore the good news
"Clean energy is also benefiting from a flurry of technological innovation. After concerns that supply bottlenecks for critical minerals such as lithium could hamper the production of EV batteries, the industry responded by quickly bringing to market new battery chemistries that will reduce their dependence on key minerals. And innovation is moving fast in other emerging low-emissions technologies such as electrolysers for producing hydrogen and new processes for making green steel."
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U.S., UK, Canada Ink Trilateral Memo to Cooperate on Advanced Reactor Licensing
"The MOC will supersede earlier bilateral agreements between the entities. These include separate memoranda of understanding (MOU) for cooperation and exchange of information 'in nuclear regulatory matters' between the NRC and the CNSC, signed in March 2023; an MOU between the NRC and the ONR, signed in October 2020, and an MOU between the CNSC and the ONR, signed in October 2020."
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How African companies are solving the continent’s solar finance problem
"For African countries, the biggest obstacle to building out the solar industry is that the financing tricks used in China, Europe, and the U.S. to clear the way for widespread solar adoption — government subsidies and utility payments to solar-equipped customers — can’t work in places where states, utilities, and households are all chronically strapped for cash. At the same time, supply chain problems and the widespread perception by financial institutions that investments in Africa are high-risk mean that the cost of solar is far higher than in other places — the same solar system costs twice as much in Ghana as in the U.S. Bringing down the cost of capital requires a stronger track record of profitable investments than what the industry has been able to show so far. That means new business models are needed to make solar affordable for a broader base of customers."
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Sorry, Tucker, Russia is Filthy
If Carlson succeeds in anesthetizing the United States into accepting the authoritarianism he reveres in Putin’s Russia, he won’t have to travel far to see how smothering freedom can damage our natural and economic environment.
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In India, battery swapping fuels electric market for 2 and 3 wheels
"Battery swapping in India has taken off in the past five years through a confluence of technological advances and social and economic forces. Batteries have improved as their costs have fallen dramatically. Meanwhile, India has furiously built digital infrastructure and Indians have snapped up smart phones, allowing even some of the lowest-income people to tap into digital networks."
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Market-Based Solutions at Sea: Leveraging the WTO to Save Our Oceans
Harmful subsidies have incentivized overfishing and depletion of our natural resources.
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America Wanted a Homegrown Solar Industry. China Is Building a Lot of It.
"China-based companies are behind nearly a quarter of the roughly 80 gigawatts in new solar-panel capacity that has been announced since that legislation, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal. That positions them to be big beneficiaries of government subsidies as well—as much as $1.4 billion a year collectively if the panel factories announced so far are built, according to Journal calculations."
