Apple decarbonization, Affordable EVs, Anti-ESG

Debrief for 2022-10-27

Welcome to Climate Brief’s weekly debrief with links and TLDRs on the business of climate change and decarbonization.

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Big Business 👩🏼‍💼

Apple announced new initiatives and investments aimed at helping decarbonize the global economy and promote innovative climate solutions for communities. Apple has been carbon neutral for its global corporate operations since 2020, and is laser-focused on its ambitious goal to become carbon neutral across its entire global supply chain and the life cycle of every product. Apple is encouraging suppliers to address the greenhouse gas emissions beyond their Apple production, prioritizing clean energy. Apple will partner with suppliers that are working with urgency and making measurable progress toward decarbonization.

Toyota is considering a reboot of its electric-car strategy to better compete in a booming market it has been slow to enter. Toyota has halted some work on existing EV projects, four people with knowledge of the still-developing plans said. The proposals under review amount to a dramatic shift for Toyota and rewrite the $38-billion EV rollout plan the automaker announced last year. Toyota said it was committed to carbon neutrality but declined to comment on specific initiatives. The company had assumed demand for EVs would not take off for several decades, the four people said.

Startups & Tech 🚀

Bay Area startup Zevvy wants to make electric cars accessible to millions of Americans who commute many miles each day and tens of thousands of miles each year. The company raised $5.4 million in seed funding led by MaC Venture Capital. Founder Andrew Krulewitz says the EV market hasn’t found a way to reach these customers effectively. The startup calculates the fixed fee to be cheaper than a monthly loan payment, and the per-mile fee should result in drivers saving money compared to what they’d pay to keep burning gasoline.

Chris Sacca's investment firm Lowercarbon Capital is managing $2 billion in capital across one fund that’s focused on nuclear fusion, another fund focused on carbon removal. Sacca dismissed questions around whether efforts like carbon capture can work at scale. He also said he has “no doubt we will have multiple companies worth trillions of dollars that emerge from our portfolio” Sacca: “The naysayers kind of fuel me, actually” He said the Inflation Reduction Act allocates more than $300 billion to energy and climate reform, $60 billion for boosting renewable energy infrastructure.

Society & Policy 📄

U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations is turning $25 billion into $8 billion for clean hydrogen projects. The grants are meant to fund six to 10 sites capable of producing hydrogen without carbon emissions via a variety of technologies. Breakthrough Energy has raised more than $2 billion in committed capital to focus on technologies with much longer timelines to commercialization than typical venture-backed companies. But scaling up these kinds of technologies will require government support to make the case for broader private-sector investment.

Conservatives have identified the popular investing strategy as part of a broader narrative about left-wing overreach and “wokeness” run amok. Utah Treasurer Marlo Oaks calls it “corporate cancel culture” behind the rhetoric lie policies designed to sap the momentum of one of Wall Street’s most successful initiatives. If it works, it will firmly ensconce ESG in the culture wars, galvanize voters and weaken the resolve of big asset managers to act on climate change and other big, societal issues.

Adventure & Life 🏔

SpaceX has announced that its Starlink for RVs satellite internet service will be available for moving vehicles starting in December 2022. The company has been building to this capability for a while, but the FCC only granted authorization to use the system on moving vehicles earlier this summer. The service will cost $135 a month for the “Best Effort” internet connection. Customers in “select markets” are currently able to order it, and SpaceX only promises “high-speed, low latency” service in certain areas.

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