Search Climate Insights Directory

The Private Equity Stakeholder Project and a group of residents are calling on Brookfield Asset Management to implement strict standards for resident protections—including a 3% annual rent cap and the allowance of window A/C units—should it acquire Yes! Communities. The letter highlights a pattern of rent hikes and poor maintenance at Yes! Communities parks in Michigan, Florida, Tennessee, Indiana, Iowa, and Texas, and expresses concern over the management record of RHP, a previous Brookfield partner, citing issues in New York, Colorado, and North Carolina.

RMI highlights the transition from climate commitments to action across several global regions. China is leading in renewable deployment and clean tech exports, while Brazil focuses on low-carbon shipping and ambitious NDCs as the COP30 host. India is pursuing energy independence by 2047 through clean mobility and cooling innovations. Southeast Asia is scaling clean infrastructure and battery storage, and the United States continues to see subnational progress in grid optimization and clean industrialization despite federal delegation concerns.

PJM is facing a capacity crisis driven by surging demand from data centers and a slow interconnection process that takes over eight years to bring new generation online. This delay has caused capacity market prices to skyrocket, with the total capacity bill rising from $2.2 billion in December 2022 to $16.1 billion in the latest auction. The author identifies long study timelines and high transmission network upgrade costs as primary barriers, noting that PJM has connected fewer new resources relative to peak demand than ERCOT or CAISO. To fix this, the document recommends implementing third-party automation software, reforming Energy Resource Interconnection Service (ERIS) to be a faster pathway, integrating advanced transmission technologies (ATTs), and prioritizing proactive regional transmission planning.

The report analyzes methane abatement policies across various jurisdictions, including the US, Canada, EU, Mexico, Nigeria, Colombia, and Norway, while detailing technical requirements for controlling emissions from equipment such as pneumatic controllers, pumps, and storage tanks.

The report critiques the 'firm fixation' approach where utilities meet surging data center demand by adding gas plants or refurbishing coal units. It identifies six defining features of data centers—agency, clustering, consumption profiles, flexibility, backup requirements, and modularity—that make them unsuitable for simple one-to-one matching with firm power plants. Instead, the author advocates for a 'system of systems' approach combining clean energy portfolios, battery storage, and demand-side flexibility. Key recommendations for policymakers include using the interconnection process as leverage to ensure cost causation and exploring demand-side resources, such as sponsoring household energy upgrades, to free up grid capacity.

The 2025 State Healthcare Policy Review tracks a national trend of state-level efforts to regulate private equity in healthcare. It categorizes legislative approaches into transparency and reporting, approval and enforcement authority, targeted prohibitions, and Corporate Practice of Medicine (CPOM) enforcement. The report details laws passed in states like Massachusetts, California, Indiana, Oregon, New Mexico, Washington, and Maine, while also tracking pending and failed legislation in other states.

The report argues that KKR's use of leveraged buyouts (LBOs) often leads to financial instability and labor abuses in its portfolio companies. It documents a pattern of health and safety violations, anti-union activities, and wage theft across various sectors, including healthcare and landscaping. The document also highlights KKR's role in high-profile bankruptcies, such as Toys "R" Us and Envision Healthcare, and alleges that the firm has engaged in antitrust violations by obscuring information from the US government during mergers and acquisitions.

Private equity firms have invested nearly $200 billion in data center-related industries since January 2022, driving a strategy of acquiring vertically integrated retail energy utilities and fossil fuel power plants to secure power for AI infrastructure. BlackRock's Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) has acquired ALLETE Inc. and is pursuing a $38 billion takeover of AES, while Blackstone has invested in the Potomac Energy Center and is seeking to acquire TXNM Energy. The report argues that this expansion risks creating stranded high-emitting assets if AI demand is overestimated, while already causing increased electricity costs for ratepayers—rising up to 267% in some data center hubs—and significant environmental degradation. Organized community resistance has already delayed or blocked $64 billion in data center projects across 24 U.S. states.

The document examines the critical backlogs in interconnection queues in the U.S. and UK, where over 2,500 GW and 750 GW of generation and storage are awaiting connection, respectively. It details a shared shift toward 'first ready, first served' principles, utilizing cluster study approaches and stricter financial requirements to eliminate speculative projects. However, it highlights a key divergence: while the U.S. generally maintains an open-access model based on readiness, the UK's 'first ready and needed, first connected' approach allows the government to prioritize resources that align with national policy targets. The primer also notes the emergence of hybrid models in constrained U.S. regions like California, where the CAISO uses a 'first ready, first scored' system to align connections with state resource plans.

Texas can leverage its existing oil and gas infrastructure, geological assets, and federal tax credits under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to become a global leader in carbon management, potentially attracting up to $94 billion in investments and creating up to 211,000 jobs by 2050.

The report outlines a comprehensive toolkit for U.S. states to decarbonize heavy industry, emphasizing a combination of financial incentives, demand-side market policies, and regulatory reforms. It identifies four critical subsectors—petroleum refining, chemicals, cement, and iron and steel—which together account for approximately 40 percent of U.S. industrial emissions. The guide details technology pathways including electrification, CCUS, and alternative production processes, while providing case studies from Missouri, Louisiana, and Colorado to illustrate effective state-level implementation of these strategies.

The statement highlights the legacy of George Meléndez Wright, the first Latino National Park Service employee of El Salvadoran heritage, who modernized wildlife management at Yosemite National Park and established the National Park Service's Wildlife Division. It notes that despite his contributions—including creating the first wildlife management plans and personally funding surveys—there is no commemoration of his work at Yosemite. The text concludes by criticizing the Trump Administration for government shutdowns, federal labor force reductions, and the erasure of climate change interpretation in national parks.

The October 2025 briefing reports that global temperatures remained exceptionally high, with the month ranking as the third warmest on record. In the U.S., warming fall temperatures have delayed the first freeze in 88% of analyzed cities, while significant drought persists across 67% of the contiguous U.S. despite localized heavy rainfall in Southern California.

The Union of Concerned Scientists analyzed nearly eight million affordable homes and found that 79.1% were located in counties experiencing at least one week's worth of heat alerts in 2024. The report highlights that people of color, older adults, and individuals with disabilities are disproportionately affected due to substandard housing, the urban heat island effect, and energy insecurity. Key recommendations include increasing funding for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), implementing cooling inspection standards for subsidized homes, and updating building codes to improve heat resilience.

The Union of Concerned Scientists analyzed the intersection of the housing crisis and extreme heat, finding that residents of affordable housing—particularly people of color, older adults, and people with disabilities—face significant risks. Analysis of 2024 heat alerts shows that the highest shares of exposed affordable housing are in the Northeast and Southeast, while Texas, California, and New York have the highest total number of exposed homes. The report advocates for increased investment in climate-resilient affordable housing and the expansion of the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program to improve cooling and building efficiency.

The report argues that interconnectors are critical for European energy security, having prevented three major blackouts in the last five years and providing a lifeline to Ukraine and Moldova during Russian aggression. It highlights that 55% of Europe's power system remains at risk due to limited import options, with Spain, Ireland, and Finland being particularly exposed. The document also details the vulnerability of infrastructure to sabotage, citing nine incidents in the Baltic Sea, and calls for accelerated deployment of new capacity and strengthened security measures to protect the grid from hybrid warfare.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) introduces a mix of incentives and challenges for US advanced energy manufacturing. While it preserves the 45X production credit and introduces 'full expensing' for capital investments, it also imposes stricter foreign entity of concern (FEOC) restrictions and accelerates the phase-out of certain clean energy tax credits, leading to reduced demand projections for solar, wind, and electric vehicles. The report suggests that manufacturers should pivot toward grid equipment, geothermal, nuclear, and upstream components where demand still exceeds domestic capacity.

As federal support for carbon dioxide removal (CDR) faces rollbacks, U.S. states are positioned to advance direct air capture (DAC) by aligning specific technology types with local assets. The report identifies a diverse range of DAC technologies—from fully electric systems to those requiring high-temperature heat—and maps them to state-level opportunities. For example, California's geothermal resources and Texas's renewable curtailment and CO2 infrastructure offer distinct advantages. While some states like Washington and Texas are suited for large-scale sequestration, others like Massachusetts can serve as innovation hubs for waste-heat recovery and CO2 utilization. The document emphasizes that maximizing climate benefit requires pairing DAC with low-carbon energy to avoid eroding net removals.

The report examines how battery energy storage can enhance grid reliability—specifically resource adequacy, stability, and resilience—while reducing costs. It contrasts the successful deployment of batteries in Texas (ERCOT) and California (CAISO), where well-defined ancillary services and value stacking have lowered costs, with the PJM region, where high uplift costs and interconnection hurdles persist. The author recommends that regulators and planners define competitive ancillary service products, properly value resource adequacy, and modernize interconnection processes to replace expensive legacy fossil fuel generators.

The document warns that intensifying hurricanes, fueled by fossil fuel-driven climate change, are posing an escalating threat to US communities, especially those near petrochemical facilities. It highlights a systemic failure where the US government is dismantling essential safety agencies and forecasting tools, while insurance companies profit from fossil fuel investments while withdrawing coverage from vulnerable homeowners. The authors call on state and local leaders to implement safety rules and halt fossil fuel expansion to protect residents from toxic releases and financial ruin.