Record heat drives fossil fuel use

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♻️ This week’s sustainability news

The vicious cycle of heat and fossil fuel use

What’s happening: Global average temperatures passed 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial times for the first time last year, which was the hottest year on record. At the same time, the world’s demand for energy increased at over 2% in 2024, nearly double the growth over the previous ten-year average. A new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) has confirmed how this record heat and rise in energy demand are connected. The hotter weather caused an increase in the use of air-conditioning and other cooling appliances. This placed a strain on many electricity grids, with utility companies responding to this demand by burning even more coal and natural gas.

Why it’s happening: While many countries are scrambling to develop more renewable energy infrastructure, the most readily available way to meet the demand for energy to cool down homes and workplaces remained fossil-fuel energy plants. If we hadn’t experienced the extreme heat of 2024, the IEA estimated that the global increase in carbon emissions would have actually halved for the year. The record heat waves in the US, China and India, where temperatures in New Delhi reached an all-time record 52 degrees Celsius (126 degrees Fahrenheit), resulted in about 20% of the overall increase in demand for electricity. Some other energy-intensive industries also contributed to the need for energy, such as data centres in the US and China, which had a 20% increase in capacity. With some countries turning to coal to meet the increased demand for energy, it increased by one percent last year to reach a record. This entire increase in coal demand could be explained by the extreme temperatures, according to the IEA report. China burned 40% more coal than the rest of the world combined in 2024.

Why it’s important: This report clearly illustrates the deadly feedback loop that we’ll keep feeding if we don’t make the transition to clean energy. The IEA report found that without clean energy technologies like solar, wind, electric vehicles, and heat pumps, global carbon emissions would have been seven percent higher last year. Oil demand also slowed last year as more people made the switch to electric vehicles and other clean technologies. Nearly all the remaining oil demand was due to two categories: aviation and plastics, with the latter becoming a key focus of growth for oil companies.

📖 Read the full report: Global Energy Review 2025

Climate activists Just Stop Oil to cease direct action

What’s happening: Three years after starting their controversial protests, environmental activists Just Stop Oil (JSO) will have a final public protest in London’s Parliament Square on 26 April. The group’s supporters have been arrested 3,300 times and imprisoned 180 times during their three years of activity. The climate group has become renowned for their non-violent but disruptive protests that have gained news headlines around the world. They have included gluing themselves to various paintings and smearing vegan chocolate cake on a waxwork of King Charles III at Madame Tussauds. The group's road protests have been even more disruptive. In 2022, traffic was severely disrupted for more than four days as 45 JSO members climbed gantries around the M25. The estimated cost to the Metropolitan Police was £1.1 million while people missed flights, medical appointments and exams as their journeys were delayed for hours.

Why it’s happening: JSO says it’s ending public protests as their initial demands have been met by the UK government. Earlier this month, UK Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Ed Milliband confirmed that the government will ban all new oil and gas licences in the UK. In a statement, JSO said this marks the end of their public protests, but not “the end of trials, tagging and surveillance, fines, probation and years in prison”. According to their press release, seven people are now in prison serving sentences of up to four years with 16 supporters due to be sentenced in the next few months. For their role in the M25 actions in 2022, five activists were handed multi-year sentences which, even after an appeal this year, are still the longest jail terms for non-violent civil disobedience ever issued in the UK.

Why it’s important: The group says their activism will not be over after their final public protest on 26 April in London, but they will be taking a different approach. According to JSO, this new approach is needed as “corporations and billionaires corrupt political systems across the world”. They are therefore creating a new strategy to address this reality. While the UK government has said it does not plan to issue any new licences for oil and gas production, they strongly deny its policies have a link to JSO. Furthermore, the Prime Minister's official spokesperson told journalists: "We have been very clear when it comes to oil and gas that it has a future for decades to come in our energy mix."

📖 Read the press release: We are hanging up the high vis

Texas senate passes bill to favour gas over renewables

What’s happening: The Texas Senate passed SB 388 on Wednesday, which would set a target for 50% of new power plant capacity to be ​“sourced from dispatchable generation other than battery energy storage.” An earlier version of the bill required these plants ​“use natural gas.” If money isn’t invested as mandated, power plant owners and utilities would have to buy credits to comply.

Why it’s happening: The Texas Senate passed S.B. 388 by an 18-13 vote margin, mostly along partisan lines. Seventeen of 20 Republicans voted in favour, while 10 of 11 Democrats voted against. Republican Governor Greg Abbott has not publicly commented on S.B. 388, but in December boasted of his state’s “all of the above” approach to energy production.

Why it’s important: If the bill is passed by the Texas House and then signed into law by Governor Abbott, renewables and batteries will be penalised and the existing competitive energy system, which favours investors building the power plants the market wants, will be upturned as a result of political intervention. Renewables and battery developers have found success in Texas thanks to the wide-open competitive energy market, abundant land, relatively easy permitting requirements, and the fastest timelines to connect projects to the grid in the nation. Texas is currently building more solar and battery capacity than any other state in the US, including California, with about 1 gigawatt of new solar and batteries connected to the grid each month for the last year. If enacted, this bill and other proposed legislation attacking clean energy in Texas would derail the state’s leadership and slow down the country’s transition away from fossil fuels.

📖 Read the full article: Texas Senate passes bill to upend energy market, spur gas over renewables

😇 People doing great things

Medical groups stepping up to help explain climate change

Training on climate communication: Healthcare providers are used to having difficult conversations with their patients. From overcoming hesitancy with vaccines to explaining the shortcomings of fad diets, they are practiced in negotiation and truth telling. Climate change is increasingly becoming a topic of such conversations. Building on the trust they have with their patients, doctors are aiming to break through misinformation and political polarisation. According to various studies, Americans trust their primary care providers more than any other source for information on global warming. People who are disengaged, doubtful, or dismissive of climate change turn to their primary healthcare providers as their first or second most trusted source for climate change information, according to a joint study by Yale University and George Mason University. They rate trust in their primary healthcare providers even higher than public officials from agencies like NASA and news organisations. To help healthcare providers have the conversations their patients need, the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health and its 30 state-level affiliates are providing training on climate communication through fellowships, advocacy work, and educational materials. The National Academy of Medicine also launched the Climate Grand Challenge in 2020, a multi-year commitment to improve the communication of climate change as a health issue. The American Board of Pediatrics meanwhile has also officially recognised climate change as a health issue that requires dedicated education. The group has implemented two modules on the topic that paediatricians can take as part of maintaining their board certification.

Read the full article: The Fifth Vital Sign: Atlanta Doctors Are Talking Climate Change With Patients

⭐️ Weekly inspiration

Renewable energy capacity surged in 2024

Rate of growth hit a record high of 15.1%: The report from the International Renewable Energy Agency shows that more than 90% of total power expansion globally was renewables, with 585 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity added worldwide, with one gigawatt enough to power around 876,000 households for one year; almost 64% of the global added capacity was in China.

Massive Attack gig broke world record for sustainability

Slashed greenhouse gas emissions by 98%: A concert by UK trip-hop collective Massive Attack made history last year by breaking the world record for the lowest carbon emissions ever produced by a music event, according to the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, with the event 100% battery powered, serving 100% vegan food, and performers using low-carbon transport like coaches and ferries instead of planes.

Rivian spins off micro mobility company

New transport options on the way: The electric vehicle (EV) maker announced the new company, to be called ‘Also’ (as in, I have a car-size EV and also this smaller EV), will take over its project to develop a technology platform for smaller EVs, such as bikes, scooters, and golf carts, and has raised a $105 million Series B funding round.

Parisians vote to make 500 more streets for pedestrians

Will bring the total to 700 ‘green lungs’ in Paris: A referendum was held to pedestrianise a further 500 of the city's streets, giving fresh momentum to efforts by the French capital's left-leaning council to curb car usage and improve air quality, with 65.96% of Parisians voting in favour of the measure, while 34.04% rejected it.

Hyundai celebrates opening of $7.6 billion EV plant

Sprawls across 3,000 acres in southeast Georgia, US: While celebrating the opening of the plant, Hyundai took the opportunity to announce plans to expand its production capacity by two-thirds to a total of 500,000 vehicles per year; the plant produces two electric SUV models - the Ioniq 5 and the larger Ioniq 9, with plans to build hybrid models.

Federal judge allows natural gas ban in NY buildings

Reassures other states considering bans: A lawsuit brought by trade groups against a New York City ban on using natural gas in new buildings was dismissed by a federal judge; the standard that went into effect last year for smaller buildings effectively bans fossil-fuel powered appliances, such as gas-burning stoves, furnaces, and water heaters, with real estate developers having to install electric appliances instead.

US pilot project to test how EVs help the electricity grid

Rolling out over the next nine months: The V2X project will use $6 million in funding to give out about 100 free bidirectional chargers, the technology that allows electric vehicle (EV) owners to send power back to the electricity grid, with the chargers to go mostly to households but also to some commercial vehicle and school bus fleet operators.

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