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Hi there,

Hope those of you who were in New York for Climate Week had a blast—I sure did. It was lovely meeting many of you at the happy hour I co-hosted with Louie over at Climate Proof as well. I’m excited to continue the conversations that were catalyzed there, as well as elsewhere across the city last week. I’ll put pen to paper on my observations from the week for Thursday’s send this coming week.

Before that, here’s all the non-climate week news that’s fit to print from the week gone by.

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ONE STORY IN A SENTENCE AND A CHART

• Agricultural growth and efficiency, as measured by total yields for several major staple crops, continue to improve, though, as per Jevons’ paradox, that hasn’t yet translated to lower land use or environmental externalities. Link.

NEWS, DATA, AND HEADLINES

• China pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions between 7% and 10% by 2035, its first absolute emissions reduction target, though experts note the country may have already peaked and has historically exceeded its climate targets ahead of schedule. Other onlookers were hoping for much more ambitious targets; from my vantage point, any new target, especially from the world’s number one GHG emitter, is a welcome step forward in the current geopolitical environment. Link.

• The Tennessee Valley Authority agreed to develop a 350-megawatt fusion plant with Type One Energy using stellarator fusion technology while Commonwealth Fusion Systems and oil giant Eni inked a $1 billion+ power purchase agreement for fusion power from CFS's 400 MW ARC plant in Virginia, which is expected to connect to the grid in the early 2030s. Link. Link.

• Peak Energy announced that the world's largest sodium-ion battery unit is operational at SolarTAC in Colorado. The 3.5 MWh sodium-ion storage system also features proprietary passive cooling technology. Peak Energy plans to scale commercially in 2027. Link.

• Oklo, the only company in the DOE's Reactor Pilot Program to secure two projects aimed at proving that new reactor technologies can sustain fission reactions (reactor ‘criticality’) by July 2026, broke ground on its debut microreactor plant at the Idaho National Laboratory. Link.

• The U.S. Energy Department is reportedly set to announce $900 million or more to boost uranium enrichment for nuclear power as the country prepares to cut off Russian uranium imports. In parallel, Centrus announced a ~$1.6 billion expansion of its Ohio facility to produce both low-enriched uranium and HALEU for next-generation reactors. Link. Link.

• A federal judge ruled Orsted can resume construction on its 80%-complete Revolution Wind project off Rhode Island during its lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's stop-work order, allowing the Danish energy giant to continue building the wind farm intended to power hundreds of thousands of homes. The plot thickens! Link.

• The times they are a’changin: BYD outsold Tesla in the European Union again in August (9,130 vehicles versus Tesla's 8,220). BYD's year-to-date sales in the EU have grown 244%, while Tesla's shrank 43% compared. All that said, Tesla still maintains a higher overall European sales figure for the year, by nearly 20,000 units. Link.

• Microsoft announced a deal to buy green steel from Stegra's first-of-a-kind facility in northern Sweden, working with equipment suppliers to ensure the near-zero emission metal is used in European data centers while purchasing environmental attribute certificates to help make green steel cost-competitive with fossil-fueled alternatives. Link.

• The Trump administration wants a small equity stake (potentially up to 10%) in Lithium Americas as it renegotiates the company's $2.26 billion DOE loan for Nevada's Thacker Pass project, which it wants to develop in partnership with GM. Lithium America’s stock jumped 68% in pre-market trading on the news of the potential deal structure. Link.

• NASA launched three satellites aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center to study space weather and its effects on Earth. The SWFO-L1 spacecraft will serve as NOAA's first fully dedicated observatory for space weather observations and early warning of solar storms. Link.

• Technosylva launched the world's largest dedicated supercomputers for wildfire modeling with PSSC Labs, simulating over one billion fire scenarios daily and applying AI to decades of fire weather data to identify threatened communities and electric lines up to five days in advance. Link.

The U.S. Forest Service has granted Perpetua Resources permission to begin construction next month on Idaho's Stibnite mine, which will produce gold and antimony, potentially supplying up to 35% of America's needs for the semiconductor-critical metal, currently controlled by China. Link.

• Solar company Blue Ridge Power, a subsidiary of Pine Gate Renewables, announced it will lay off 517 workers in North Carolina and end its business due to the Trump administration’s rollback of clean energy subsidies. Link.

• The Production Gap Report found the world's 20 most polluting countries, including China, India, and the U.S., are planning higher levels of fossil fuel output than in 2023, with 2030 production set to be more than double what's compatible with limiting warming to 1.5 °C. Link.

• Average U.S. residential electricity rates rose 6.6% over last year as of June, with the biggest increases coming in the Northeast. Link.

• Only 5% of large global companies report putting an internal “shadow price” on their water use despite being exposed to $339 billion in water shortage risks, according to a Carbon Disclosure Project analysis of 8,500 companies. 25% of companies analyzed employ a carbon emissions price internally, as a reference point. Link.

CURATED DEALS

Larger funding rounds:

• Waat, based out of Paris, raised €100 million (~$117 million) in equity funding led by DWS and Bpifrance for its EV charging infrastructure for private parking spaces. Link.

• Nxtfood, based out of Lille, France, raised €49 million (~$57.3 million) in Series A funding from Clay Capital and IRD Invest for its plant-based meat alternatives made from locally grown wheat and pea proteins. Link.

Medium-sized funding rounds:

• The Protein Brewery, based out of Breda, Netherlands, raised €30 million (~$35.1 million) in Series B funding from Invest-NL, Brabant Development Agency, Novo Holdings, Unovis Asset Management, and Madeli for its fungi-based food ingredients. Link.

• Cylib, based out of Aachen, Germany, raised €26.1 million (~$30.5 million) in grant funding from the European Union's Just Transition Fund to build an end-to-end battery recycling facility. Link.

• Revyve, based out of Wageningen, Netherlands, raised €24 million (~$28.1 million) in Series B funding co-led by ABN AMRO Sustainable Impact Fund and Invest-NL for its yeast-based proteins that replace eggs and additives in food production. Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij, Lallemand Bio-Ingredients, Grey Silo Ventures, Oost NL, and Royal Cosun participated. Link.

• Corintis, based out of Lausanne, Switzerland, raised $24 million in Series A funding led by BlueYard Capital for its microfluidic cooling systems for computer chips (traditional chip air cooling is a very energy-intensive component of data center applications). Founderful, Acequia Capital, Celsius Industries, and XTX Ventures participated. Link.

• Telo, based out of San Carlos, California, raised $20 million in Series A funding co-led by Yves Béhar and Marc Tarpenning with support from Marc Benioff, TO VC, E12 Ventures, and Neo for its compact electric pickup trucks designed for city driving. Link.

• Sunhat, based out of Cologne, Germany, raised €9.2M (~$10.8 million) in Series A funding led by CommerzVentures for its platform that helps enterprises automatically validate and share ESG and compliance data. Capnamic, EnBW New Ventures, xdeck, and WEPA Ventures participated. Link.

Smaller funding rounds

• enaDyne, based out of Leipzig, Germany, raised €7M (~$8.2 million) in seed funding co-led by Amadeus APEX Technology Fund and Energy Capital Ventures to make plasma catalysis reactors that convert CO₂ into valuable chemicals. Antares Ventures and Possible Ventures also participated. Link.

• Earthmover, based out of Berkeley, California, raised $7.2 million in seed funding led by Lowercarbon Capital for its platform that helps companies manage and analyze large-scale weather and geospatial datasets. Costanoa Ventures and Preston-Werner Ventures also participated. Link.

• ArkeaBio, based out of Cambridge, Massachusetts, raised $7 million in Series A1 funding co-led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures and AgriZeroNZ for its methane emissions reducing vaccine for livestock. Link.

• FREDsense, based out of Calgary, Canada, raised $7 million in Series A funding led by HG Ventures, with Emerald Technology Ventures participating, for its portable water testing devices that detect PFAS contaminants. Link.

• Brineworks, based out of Amsterdam, Netherlands, raised €5 million (~$5.9 million) in seed funding led by SeaX Ventures for its direct air capture systems that also produce hydrogen for sustainable aviation and shipping fuels. Pale Blue Dot, First Momentum, AiiM Partners, Energie360°, and Katapult also participated. Brineworks also raised €1.8 million (~$2.1 million) in grant funding from the European Innovation Council. Link.

• Scindo, based out of London, U.K., raised $5.4 million in seed funding co-led by Kadmos Capital and Clay Capital for its AI-driven enzymes that create sustainable alternatives to petroleum-based chemicals. PINC, Synbioven, AgFunder, SOSV, Farvatn Venture, and Savantus Ventures also participated. Link.

Not saying how much rounds

• Microsoft made an undisclosed investment through its Climate Innovation Fund in Fortera to secure rights to its ReAct low-carbon cement and environmental attribute certificates for future data center projects, supporting construction of Fortera's first full-scale facility to produce 400,000 tons of green cement annually. Link.

Talk Thursday,

— Nick