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The steel industry faces a conflict between growth outlooks and 1.5°C climate targets, requiring demand to peak between 2035 and 2040. Delaying decarbonization until 2030 would necessitate a 50% reduction in demand by 2050 to remain climate-aligned, posing a risk to primary steel production. To avoid this, the industry must invest in zero-carbon technologies like green hydrogen, with significant opportunities for producers in Australia, Brazil, and South Africa.

The document argues that structured finance contracts often insulate fossil fuel assets from market forces, creating a barrier to clean energy transition. Using the Red Hills Power Plant in Mississippi as a case study, it proposes a restructuring model that provides financial benefits to electricity customers, bondholders, the coal supplier, and workers while accelerating the plant's retirement.

The document outlines the transition to electric trucks across passenger pickups, delivery vans, box trucks, and heavy-duty rigs in North America, highlighting that several segments are economically viable for electrification now and could significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The document asserts that hydrogen is a viable tool for decarbonization, potentially reducing US yearly carbon dioxide emissions by roughly 15 percent. It argues that while leaked hydrogen acts as an indirect greenhouse gas, its warming impact is significantly lower than that of methane from natural gas supply chains, especially when accounting for hydrogen's higher energy density. The text emphasizes that green hydrogen offers the most certain climate benefit and suggests that focusing deployment on industrial and transport hubs can further minimize leakage risks by reducing the need for extensive distribution networks.

The report analyzes trucking telematics data from Geotab to determine the feasibility of early electric truck adoption in California and New York, finding that emissions per mile for electric trucks are significantly lower than diesel alternatives regardless of charging schedules.

Australia has become a global leader in decarbonizing high-end commercial buildings through 'ambition loops'—positive feedback cycles where government regulation, industry collaboration, and market demand reinforce each other. Early leadership from the Victoria state government and the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council (ASBEC) helped overcome initial knowledge gaps and lack of demand. The implementation of mandatory efficiency codes and transparency tools, such as the Commercial Building Disclosure Program and the National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS), created a competitive environment where sustainable buildings attract more corporate tenants and investors. This model has since influenced residential and construction sectors in Australia and exported rating systems to New Zealand and the UK.

RMI proposes the RE Emissions Score to move beyond qualitative assessments of renewable energy procurement. The score calculates the percentage of Weighted Avoided Emissions relative to Total Induced Emissions, using marginal emissions factors and a procurement factor based on the ratio of Energy Attribute Certificate (EAC) costs to the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE). This approach aims to incentivize companies to locate operations in low-emissions grids and fund new renewable capacity in high-emissions grids.

The report examines current and future battery chemistries, including those using indigenous materials like sodium and aluminium, to support India's decarbonization of electricity and transportation. It highlights that domestic manufacturing of common NMC and LFP cells could allow India to capture 40% to 90% of total cell value, benefiting the e-mobility and grid-scale energy storage sectors.

The document asserts that the US transmission system must expand by 50% to 300% to achieve a clean electricity goal by 2035, as current shovel-ready projects would only add 11-12% capacity. It highlights systemic failures in regional planning, such as narrow benefit definitions and unrealistic growth assumptions for renewables, which have led to interconnection queues containing approximately 1,000 GW of wind and solar capacity. The author supports a FERC Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) that would require long-term, forward-looking regional planning and encourages the inclusion of broad benefits and grid enhancing technologies (GETs) in cost allocation and project selection.

The US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) lacks transparency regarding the greenhouse gas emissions intensities of the oils it stores, which hinders the ability to minimize climate impacts during drawdowns. The document notes that different oils vary significantly in their climate footprints based on production and refining methods, and that a mismatch exists between the SPR's lighter crudes and the deep-conversion refineries in Texas and Louisiana that primarily process them. It suggests that selectively purchasing the lowest climate-intensive oils for the current one-million-barrel daily withdrawal could save an estimated 90 million tons of CO2e.

The Deliver Electric Delhi pilot, involving 35 industry players, investigated barriers to electric vehicle (EV) adoption for final-mile delivery to support the Delhi EV policy. The report analyzes the economic case for electrification, comparing EV costs and performance against fossil fuel vehicles, and identifies the roles of policy, charging infrastructure, and finance in scaling adoption. If 100 percent sales penetration of electric final-mile delivery vehicles is achieved by 2030, it could result in 750,000 vehicles on the road, avoiding 14.2 million tons of CO2, 46,900 tons of NOx, and 530 tons of PM emissions over their lifetime.

The city of Pune is an early adopter of electric buses in India, with PMPML operating 220 e-buses and planning for an additional 430. This progress puts the city on track to achieve the Maharashtra state government's target of 25 percent public transport electrification by 2025, three years ahead of schedule.

The document proposes 'community solar+', a strategic approach to community solar deployment designed to move beyond simple energy access to maximize local value streams. It argues that by planning deliberately, stakeholders can align solar projects with broader goals such as EV charging investment, energy resilience for vulnerable populations, and the mitigation of urban heat island effects.

The report argues that Russia's war on Ukraine has created a supply-side shock that aligns energy security, climate goals, and economics, potentially leading to a prompt and sustained decline in global fossil fuel demand. It suggests that high fossil fuel prices make renewables more competitive and encourages both Europe and the Global South to accelerate the shift toward domestic renewable energy and efficiency to ensure energy security.

The document details the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission's (PUC) adoption of a performance-based regulation (PBR) framework featuring nearly 40 metrics and scorecards for Hawaiian Electric. It argues that PBR helps overcome traditional 'cost of service' regulatory incentives that hinder clean energy investments. The brief provides three primary lessons: the value of using non-financial scorecards for emergent outcomes like transportation electrification and customer equity, the necessity of using proxies and iterative analysis when precise data is unavailable (such as for LMI Energy Burden), and the importance of diverse stakeholder engagement to ensure a comprehensive portfolio of performance mechanisms.

RMI advocates for a comprehensive transformation of the global economy across ten key fronts to meet the 1.5C climate target. These priorities include increasing political ambition, decarbonizing buildings and transportation, phasing out coal and gas, scaling green hydrogen, and enhancing emissions transparency. The organization emphasizes the need for a three- to six-fold increase in zero-carbon capital investments and the integration of mitigation and adaptation efforts, particularly in the Global South, to ensure an equitable transition.

The briefing highlights the critical need for transparent supply chains to mitigate human rights abuses and environmental damage associated with the energy transition. It proposes using digital tools, such as blockchain data architecture, to track both embodied greenhouse gas emissions and broader ESG factors, moving away from anonymous commodity markets toward a system where data follows the goods.

The report evaluates the integration of small-format electric vehicles (EVs) with rural minigrids, finding that while EVs can be cost-competitive with petrol alternatives, their success depends on high vehicle utilization and business models tailored to local needs. A Nigeria pilot using a two-wheeler leasing model showed promise, whereas an India pilot using a battery leasing model for three-wheelers failed due to high operational costs and drivers charging via the subsidized grid. Technoeconomic modeling indicates that EV charging can lower minigrid tariffs, particularly when charging occurs during daytime solar production, though the impact is modest unless fleet utilization is significantly increased.

The guide explains that Community Project Funding (CPF), a form of discretionary spending available to U.S. senators and representatives, provides a flexible alternative to competitive federal grants for local climate action. It highlights the case of Cohoes, New York, which used $3 million in CPF to build a 3.2 MW floating solar array, and provides strategic advice for communities to secure similar funding by engaging representatives early and focusing on shovel-ready, community-supported projects.

The report highlights the potential for India to establish a sustainable battery industry by implementing reuse and recycling strategies for lithium-ion batteries. It forecasts that between 3.5 and 17 GWh of batteries from passenger and freight vehicles will reach the end of their usable life by 2030. By capturing value through second-life applications and mineral recovery, India can reduce its reliance on imported precious metals and support its goal of 500 GW of non-fossil fuel energy generation by 2030.