The hottest Emissions Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Cold Truths

Doomberg • 18571 implied HN points • 17 Jan 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Emissions
  1. Human life depends on a narrow band of temperature and humidity, so societies spend massive amounts of energy on heating and cooling to maintain thermal comfort. Because the planet’s average temperature is well below comfortable indoor levels, some argue modest warming would reduce the energy gap needed for decent living.
  2. Intermittent renewables like solar and wind often underperform in the coldest periods when heating is most needed, so they can’t by themselves guarantee reliable winter energy. Poor insulation and high energy costs leave many households unable to stay warm, creating real hardship and political backlash.
  3. Energy availability and infrastructure shape national power and prosperity; countries with abundant, secure energy tend to flourish while those without are vulnerable. Attacks on power plants in wartime show how denying energy can directly harm civilians and be used as a weapon.

Assisted Thinking

Doomberg • 8288 implied HN points • 20 Jan 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Emissions
  1. China relies heavily on coal, with coal making up roughly 58% of its primary energy and the country burning over half of the world’s coal.
  2. Western media often praises China’s climate leadership, but that praise can be misleading because China’s emissions and coal use remain very large and have grown.
  3. Headlines saying renewables have overtaken coal or that China is leading a clean-energy revolution can depend on specific accounting choices and short-term data, so those claims need careful scrutiny against broader energy statistics.

My native intelligence considers AI data centers

The Crucial Years • 2700 implied HN points • 21 Feb 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Emissions
  1. The fast rush to build AI data centers could massively raise electricity use and lead to lots of onsite gas plants, heavy water use, and local pollution unless projects are powered by new clean energy.
  2. There’s real uncertainty about how much useful, profitable demand AI will actually create, so many proposed data centers may be speculative and the industry could be in a bubble.
  3. Communities and advocates are calling for pauses and stronger rules because of climate and local harms, and there’s a growing need for transparency and clean-energy requirements if these projects move forward.

Does Peak Population Mean Peak Energy?

The Honest Broker Newsletter • 1629 implied HN points • 23 Feb 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Emissions
  1. A smaller global population does not automatically mean lower energy use. Rapid development in large, low-income countries means total energy demand can keep rising even if population peaks.
  2. Even with fewer people overall, the number of wealthy people will likely keep growing, driving up demand for energy-intensive services like air conditioning and air travel. So per-person energy use and some forms of total energy demand can still increase.
  3. Lower population projections imply lower future CO2 emissions and mean many climate scenarios are outdated; updating population and growth assumptions points to less warming by 2100, though climate risks still remain.

War’s Hidden Fallout: How Conflict Fuels Climate Chaos

Adetokunbo Sees • 312 implied HN points • 08 Mar 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Emissions
  1. Modern combat — from fighter jets and rockets to detonations — releases huge amounts of greenhouse gases and other pollutants during the fighting.
  2. Rebuilding and cleanup after wars add large, long‑lasting emissions and pollution, sometimes rivaling the annual output of whole countries.
  3. Multiple current conflicts together are a significant, often overlooked driver of the climate crisis, so cutting fossil fuel use in military operations could reduce that harm.
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Does that use a lot of energy? [Update]

Sustainability by numbers • 575 implied HN points • 03 Mar 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Emissions
  1. An interactive tool lets you compare the energy use of different products and activities so you can better judge their relative scale and importance.
  2. The tool was updated after lots of user feedback, with many improvements documented in a changelog, while deliberately leaving out some suggestions to avoid making it too complex.
  3. A major visible change is the addition of rough country-level energy cost comparisons to make results more meaningful, and the tool is available to use and share while remaining open to further (less frequent) feedback.

Watch Those Assumptions!

The Honest Broker Newsletter • 1864 implied HN points • 22 Jan 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Emissions
  1. Population projections for 2050 have been revised downward. Yet global energy demand is still expected to grow a lot, so fewer people doesn't automatically mean less energy use.
  2. Electric vehicle adoption is projected to rise dramatically around the world, especially in developing regions, and that could sharply reduce demand for liquid fuels if it accelerates. Small changes in EV trends can ripple across many other energy projections.
  3. Fossil fuels are likely to remain a large part of the energy mix through mid-century, with oil and gas plateauing and coal declining more slowly than hoped. The fastest way to cut emissions quickly would be to replace coal-fired power plants.

Does that use a lot of energy?

Sustainability by numbers • 583 implied HN points • 16 Feb 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Emissions
  1. Energy use and emissions are hard to judge without context, so comparing common household activities helps show what’s actually big or small.
  2. The numbers are rough, based on typical usage, and the tool is deliberately simple to show order-of-magnitude differences rather than exact watt-hours.
  3. Users are invited to give feedback on wrong assumptions, broken components, missing items, or useful features, and the tool may later be expanded to include carbon-emissions comparisons.

My book is published in the US today, and I'm shortlisted for the Unwin Award

Sustainability by numbers • 454 implied HN points • 17 Feb 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Emissions
  1. An energy comparison tool got lots of user feedback and will be updated; a change log will be added and a carbon-emissions-equivalent feature is planned.
  2. Clearing the Air has been published in North America and is now available from major book retailers.
  3. Shortlisted for the Unwin Award, a recognition that highlights early-career non-fiction authors whose work makes a significant contribution.

The Paris Delusion

The Honest Broker Newsletter • 2070 implied HN points • 22 Nov 25
🌞 Climate & Environment Emissions
  1. Saying the Paris Agreement alone caused a big drop in projected warming is misleading; the apparent improvement mostly reflects earlier scenarios that over‑predicted coal use and were therefore wrong, not clear policy-driven emissions cuts.
  2. Actual data show no acceleration in global decarbonization since Paris: emissions per unit of GDP have fallen at about 2% per year, far below the roughly 8% per year sustained cuts needed for deep decarbonization and never achieved by any country.
  3. We need honest, evidence‑based policymaking — stronger and effective measures to speed real decarbonization are required, while also protecting energy access, supply reliability, and affordability, instead of celebrating questionable success stories.

The German Grid Montage

Gordian Knot News • 102 implied HN points • 02 Mar 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Emissions
  1. The dominant technology depends heavily on nuclear overnight cost: if nuclear is cheaper than about $3,000/kW (2020 USD) you get low-cost, low-CO2 grids dominated by nuclear, but if nuclear is much more expensive the model shifts to coal or big wind/solar builds with much higher emissions.
  2. Dispatchable generation like nuclear reduces the need for massive wind/solar overbuild and backup gas because it can reliably follow load, while wind/solar force huge capacity, land use, and storage investments and still require substantial gas backup.
  3. The model is biased optimistic for renewables (no transmission costs, perfect foresight, no inertia/ancillary requirements), so the already-expensive high-renewable solutions in the runs understate real-world costs; batteries are rarely chosen and very high nuclear costs produce politically and economically extreme grids with high curtailment and embedded emissions.

Dunkelflauten Clusters (aka Winter)

Gordian Knot News • 168 implied HN points • 16 Feb 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Emissions
  1. Dunkelflauten—multi-day clusters of very low wind and solar—can last weeks and stress the grid far more than average capacity factors indicate.
  2. Detailed hour-by-hour, multi-year weather modeling shows a pure wind/solar/battery/hydrogen system for Germany needs massive overbuild and nearly 50,000 GWh of H2 storage, causing huge curtailment and very high electricity costs.
  3. Real-world constraints like missing north–south transmission, low gas reserves, and storage limits make heavy reliance on intermittents and LNG/hydrogen risky, while a nuclear-centered plan would likely be cheaper and cleaner.

Leader’s with Blind Spots: Climate Change’s Human Toll

Adetokunbo Sees • 104 implied HN points • 21 Feb 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Emissions
  1. Leaders who downplay climate risks and choose short-term economic gains over mitigation drive higher emissions and worsen environmental damage.
  2. Both historical and recent leadership choices have caused large environmental and human costs, and projections show hotter temperatures, higher seas, longer heatwaves, and economic losses by mid-century.
  3. Grassroots activism, informed voting, and public awareness campaigns are practical ways to push leaders toward stronger climate action and reduce future harm.

Decarbonization and climate change hysteria died this winter

Unreported Truths • 57 implied HN points • 03 Mar 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Emissions
  1. The EPA's endangerment finding was revoked, removing a key legal basis for aggressive U.S. decarbonization, and this policy reversal drew surprisingly little public protest.
  2. Many decarbonization policies depended on expensive subsidies and immature technologies like intermittent wind and solar without cheap storage, and Europe’s energy crisis plus China’s rising coal use undermined those efforts.
  3. Political and cultural momentum for radical climate action has faded: voters rejected big green subsidy programs in 2024, legal fights over regulation will likely shift decisions to Congress, and climate activism no longer mobilizes mass protests.

A (highly visual) follow-up to yesterday's piece on the death of climate change hysteria

Unreported Truths • 52 implied HN points • 04 Mar 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Emissions
  1. Global carbon dioxide emissions have risen about 60% since 2000, so the world is emitting more CO2 now than ever.
  2. The US, EU, and Japan cut emissions roughly 25% and now make up only about one-fifth of global emissions, while China emits far more and is rapidly adding coal-fired power plants.
  3. Emphasizing Western cuts while ignoring booming emissions elsewhere weakens climate messaging and breeds skepticism, and clear charts or examples of elite hypocrisy can be persuasive to doubtful audiences.

Has the Rate of Global Warming More Than Doubled?

God's Spies by Thomas Neuburger • 160 implied HN points • 11 Feb 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Emissions
  1. Global warming has clearly accelerated since about 2015, with recent warming rates more than double the long-term 1970–2010 trend.
  2. If the next La Niña low is higher than past El Niño highs, that would confirm the faster warming and make 2°C of global warming likely in the 2030s instead of midcentury.
  3. The practical response is to plan and prepare to adapt to greater climate risks while still living well and focusing on what matters in daily life.

A bunch of handy charts about climate change

Noahpinion • 21882 implied HN points • 13 Feb 24
🌞 Climate & Environment Emissions
  1. Climate change is becoming increasingly severe, evidenced by events like record-breaking heat, melting sea ice, and more frequent natural disasters.
  2. Efforts to address climate change are promising, with advancements in green technologies like solar power and batteries offering hope for managing the crisis.
  3. The responsibility for carbon emissions is shifting, with developed countries like the US and Europe reducing emissions significantly, while countries like China remain major contributors.

What happened on energy and climate in China this year?

Sustainability by numbers • 475 implied HN points • 05 Dec 25
🌞 Climate & Environment Emissions
  1. China’s total CO2 emissions were basically flat this year, showing almost no growth despite rising energy demand.
  2. A huge buildout of renewables and nuclear pushed electricity emissions down and rapid EV adoption cut oil use in transport, backed by a massive rollout of chargers.
  3. Industrial emissions rose and new coal plants are still being built, which offsets some gains and makes the timing of an emissions peak uncertain.

Top Links 925 China's CO2 emissions plateau. Arizona's emerging chip cluster. Asian water wars and the "camp life" of revolution.

Chartbook • 443 implied HN points • 18 Nov 25
🌞 Climate & Environment Emissions
  1. China's carbon dioxide emissions might be leveling off, which could be a significant step towards fighting climate change.
  2. Arizona is becoming a new hub for chip manufacturing, showing a shift in technology production in the U.S.
  3. Water conflicts in Asia are becoming more serious, reflecting growing tensions over resources and living conditions.

Mining the Earth, Polluting the Future: The Impact of Gold Extraction on Climate Change

Adetokunbo Sees • 416 implied HN points • 21 Jun 25
🌞 Climate & Environment Emissions
  1. Gold mining is causing a lot of deforestation around the world, damaging many forests. In some places, thousands of hectares of land have been lost due to illegal mining activities.
  2. The process of extracting gold emits a significant amount of carbon dioxide, contributing to climate change. In the coming years, this could exceed 100 million tonnes of emissions each year.
  3. To help reduce the negative impacts of gold mining, we need to focus on using renewable energy and new technologies that lower energy use. This could greatly help the environment.

Warming in the pipeline: Decoding our climate commitment

The Climate Brink • 569 implied HN points • 22 May 23
🌞 Climate & Environment Emissions
  1. Emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases have a long-lasting impact on warming the Earth because they remain in the atmosphere for a really long time.
  2. There's a scientific question about future warming if emissions stopped today, known as 'warming in the pipeline', with varying viewpoints based on assumptions.
  3. Different assumptions made in calculations determine whether there will be little warming in the coming decades or significant warming over thousands of years, emphasizing the long-term effects of greenhouse gases.

Low Hanging Fruit

The Honest Broker Newsletter • 1511 implied HN points • 30 Nov 23
🌞 Climate & Environment Emissions
  1. Replacing 150 coal power plants with nuclear power can reduce global emissions by 25% by 2035.
  2. The cost of replacing these plants with nuclear power is significantly lower than other emissions reduction measures.
  3. If the world is to achieve net-zero carbon emissions, retiring or retrofitting coal plants is necessary, and nuclear power provides a feasible alternative.

Got bail?

The Crucial Years • 906 implied HN points • 09 Jan 24
🌞 Climate & Environment Emissions
  1. Protest outside the Department of Energy in early February against permitting new LNG export terminals
  2. Arguments against granting new export licenses include high greenhouse gas emissions and negative impact on local communities
  3. Participate in peaceful civil disobedience or support rallies, with options for training sessions and online nonviolence training

Private Jets: The Luxury with A Huge Carbon Footprint

Adetokunbo Sees • 104 implied HN points • 05 Jul 25
🌞 Climate & Environment Emissions
  1. Private jets cause a lot of pollution. They can emit as much carbon dioxide in a year as 177 cars.
  2. The number of private jets is increasing, leading to more greenhouse gas emissions over time. They are often used for short trips, which makes the pollution worse.
  3. Using private jets is a luxury that only a small percent of the world enjoys. Reducing their use could help lessen the environmental impact.

Greenhouse Gases Deadly Dance: CO2, N2O and CH4 Emissions' Alarming Card

Adetokunbo Sees • 208 implied HN points • 23 Nov 24
🌞 Climate & Environment Emissions
  1. Carbon dioxide emissions are still rising and could reach over 41 billion tons this year, which is concerning for our climate.
  2. Methane and nitrous oxide emissions are also increasing, with agriculture being a major contributor to nitrous oxide levels.
  3. To tackle these issues, we need to cut down on fossil fuels and change how we farm and use land to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Build Nuclear. Frak. Drill.

Erik Torenberg's Thoughts • 455 implied HN points • 14 Nov 23
🌞 Climate & Environment Emissions
  1. Nuclear energy is a cost-effective and clean solution for reducing dependence on fossil fuels.
  2. Modern nuclear energy plants are safe, produce minimal waste, and are more efficient than other renewable energy sources.
  3. Choosing nuclear energy is crucial for addressing climate change and has been successfully implemented in countries like France.

Good Grief

Field Guide to the Anthropocene • 98 implied HN points • 17 Mar 23
🌞 Climate & Environment Emissions
  1. The Anthropocene is a period of irreversible ecological disruptions caused by humans, requiring acceptance of losses and a commitment to stabilizing the environment.
  2. In the face of global-scale grief and loss in the Anthropocene, finding small but vital lights of hope is crucial.
  3. Individuals making dedicated efforts to protect and heal ecosystems and species offer paths forward in the challenging Anthropocene era.

Are Bicycles Becoming Less Sustainable?

Fight to Repair • 59 implied HN points • 12 May 23
🌞 Climate & Environment Emissions
  1. Some argue the sustainability of bicycles is decreasing with the introduction of e-bikes and resource-intensive materials, prompting a need to return to simpler designs and materials.
  2. Not all bicycles have the same environmental impact, especially when considering their lifecycle, repairability, and the materials they are made of.
  3. Repairing bicycles is a crucial way to extend their lifespan and combat the disposable culture in the cycling industry, emphasizing the importance of prioritizing repair over constant innovation.

China is building more coal plants but might burn less coal

Sustainability by numbers • 201 implied HN points • 14 Feb 24
🌞 Climate & Environment Emissions
  1. China is constructing more coal plants, but they might end up burning less coal by running those plants less frequently.
  2. Despite the increase in coal plant construction, China's coal plants are operating at lower capacity factors, indicating a trend towards burning less coal in the future.
  3. Many of China's coal plants are operating at a financial loss due to high coal prices, and the country is shifting towards using coal as 'peaker plants' as renewable energy sources grow.

The U.S. Rich caused 40% Emissions, China's Rich 32%, Europe's Rich 40%: Blame the Rich for causing Emissions

Adetokunbo Sees • 208 implied HN points • 26 Aug 23
🌞 Climate & Environment Emissions
  1. The rich in different countries are responsible for a significant portion of greenhouse gas emissions.
  2. Investments in polluting industries, superyachts, and private planes contribute to high levels of emissions by the wealthy.
  3. To address climate change, the rich need to reduce their carbon footprint from extravagant spending.

Competition is good for net zero

Klement on Investing • 1 implied HN point • 26 Jan 26
🌞 Climate & Environment Emissions
  1. Cutting import tariffs causes domestic firms to cut their greenhouse gas emissions, with affected companies showing about 20–25% lower scope 1 intensity and 5–10% lower scope 2 in the year after a tariff reduction.
  2. The reason is competition: cheaper imports push firms to innovate, switch to greener products that fetch a premium, or invest in modern, less emissions‑intensive machinery to protect margins.
  3. Broadly protecting home markets with higher tariffs can weaken competitive pressure to decarbonize, though targeted border measures aimed at preventing regulatory arbitrage can still be useful.

Watershed

next big thing • 32 implied HN points • 01 Feb 24
💼 Business Emissions
  1. Footwork invests in exceptional companies that deserve exceptions.
  2. Watershed is a leading enterprise climate platform with a focus on reducing emissions.
  3. Investing in Watershed was a deviation from Footwork's core strategy due to potential market growth and team execution.