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Jean Rogers jumps back in the deals game at Blackstone

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Source: KevinCass / iStock via Getty Images

By David Callaway, Callaway Climate Insights

(David Callaway is founder and Editor-in-Chief of Callaway Climate Insights. He is the former president of the World Editors Forum, Editor-in-Chief of USA Today and MarketWatch, and CEO of TheStreet Inc.)

SAN FRANCISCO (Callaway Climate Insights) — One of Jean Rogers’ pet peeves about the financial industry’s efforts to create sustainability standards in the past decade is that too often the debate focused more on the measuring of climate risk and carbon emissions than the action taken to reduce them.

After joining Blackstone (BX) as global head of environmental, social and governance this month, the ESG standards pioneer who founded the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board can now put hundreds of billions of dollars of the financial giant’s money where her mouth is.

“It’s a humble culture that’s really about action,” Rogers said in an interview last week, while moving to New York from her longtime home in San Francisco. “The sectors they are invested in are such a great match with what I grew up with and was doing before SASB.”. . .

To read this column, all our insights, news and in-depth interviews, please subscribe and support our great climate finance journalism.

Callaway Climate Insights Newsletter

By David Callaway

These Are America’s Billion-Dollar Environmental Disasters

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Source: ParkerDeen / E+ via Getty Images

The number of environmental disasters in America seems to grow by the year. Many occur during periods on the calendar when they would not be expected. Twenty-four tornadoes ripped through Tennessee and Kentucky on December 10, 2021. Dozens of people were killed and the small city of Mayfield, Kentucky was virtually destroyed. One of these tornadoes may be the most powerful in American history. Tornadoes rarely form in the South during the winter.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear commented on the aftermath of the storm: “The devastation is unlike anything I have seen in my life and I have trouble putting it into words.”

In other environmental disasters, devasting wildfires destroyed hundreds of thousands of acres in California, Oregon, Washington and Colorado. The California Dixie Fire in August was the largest in the state’s history. It burned over 100,000 acres and hundreds of people had to be evacuated from their homes.

In the recently released Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters report, the National Centers for Environmental Administration points out that there have been 310 climate and weather disasters in the United States since 1980. These have cost $2.155 trillion (adjusted for inflation) in total.
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Last year was unusually active for events that had an economic cost of over $1 billion, as there were 20 of them. The report shows, “These events included 1 drought event, 2 flooding events, 11 severe storm events, 4 tropical cyclone events, 1 wildfire event, and 1 winter storm event.”

The tracking system looks at both the economic effects and societal effects of these events. The information is partially based on historical data, which includes global temperature changes over time.

Estimating costs can be challenging because a single event can be spread over huge areas, often involving more than one state. The researchers claim they are conservative, so some $1 billion events could be missed. Information for the report came from the National Weather Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Interagency Fire Center, the U.S. Army Corps. and from regional agencies.

The events are divided into several categories: drought, flooding, freezing, severe storms, cyclones, wildfires and winter storms.

The events in 2021 that cost over $1 billion included Hurricane Ida (August 29 to September 1), the Texas hail storms (April 12 to 15), the western wildfires (much of 2021) and the southeast, central tornado outbreak (December 10).

Click here to read about the 10 costliest floods in American history.
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By Douglas McIntyre

Three renewable deals set stage for busy ’22, plus Japan Inc.’s ESG plan with Norio Masuda

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Source: Harvepino / Getty Images

By David Callaway, Callaway Climate Insights

A year of deal-making in the renewables space has gotten off to a hot start in these early days of January as three big players— and a small fourth — announced deals that start to move environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing from pledge-making to action.

Goldman Sachs (GS) said this week its private equity unit would invest $250 million in Canadian energy storage pioneer Hydrostor, in what is reportedly the largest investment ever in a company that stores energy for long durations. Meanwhile, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the Bill Gates group, said it is preparing to invest up to $15 billion in renewable deals in the U.S. and Europe, in technologies such as energy storage, carbon capture and green hydrogen.

And as we wrote yesterday, The Blackstone Group (BX) said late last week it will invest $3 billion in Invenergy Renewables, the largest private renewables project company in the U.S., in an early sign of what attracted sustainable standards leader Jean Rogers to the company as its new head of ESG, starting this month.

Not to be outdone by the big players, Callaway Climate Insights announced its own small contribution to 2022 deal flow this morning, in the form of a joint venture with popular financial news group 24/7 Wall Street. We’ll be contributing our non-subscription content, including podcasts and videos, to a new site in the 24/7 universe called 24/7 Climate Insights. It will be run by me and 24/7’s Doug McIntyre, a friend and old Wall Street hand who has built an impressive data-focused business news operation over the past 15 years.

Our premium insights and columns will remain for subscribers only, but this way we can reach a much broader audience with our free content through 24/7’s extensive channels. Expect to see more of us in your news feeds going forward. After having more than doubled our audience last year, we’re excited that this year has kicked off with such activity in the sustainable space. The best is yet to come.

More insights below. . . .

Sustainability Stars with Hitachi’s Norio Masuda

. . . . As global sustainability standards begin to coalesce around two European programs, companies and countries around the world will search for ways to adapt them while keeping their local flavor. In her latest Sustainability Stars column, Marsha Vande Berg interviews Norio Masuda, the executive responsible for promotions and standards at Japanese technology giant Hitachi, as well as a leader on the Japanese corporate working group for environmental, social and governance issues, about how he sees it all coming together in Japan. . . .

Read the full interview

Tuesday’s subscriber insights: Nuclear drumbeat grows in Europe

. . . . Two more countries laid down plans this week to move away from coal by upping their nuclear capacity, adding their weight to France as it leads the nuclear charge on clean energy against a reluctant Brussels. The Czech Republic and Poland both are making plans to eliminate coal in the next decade and replace it with nuclear power. It will be difficult for Brussels to leave nuclear power out of its renewable taxonomy when so many countries are using it. Read more here. . . .

. . . . Cars and trucks have become more like computers for years, but now a computer electronics company wants to start making cars. Sony (SONY) joined the electric vehicle frenzy last week, unveiling a prototype at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. As cars become more like entertainment centers, why not. Rumors are Apple (AAPL) is not far behind. Read more here. . . .

. . . . Energy storage capacity is increasingly attracting investor attention, with the International Energy Agency forecasting global storage will increase by more than 50% in the next four years as advances in battery power, hydropower and even gravity usage are being used to create new ways to store energy for future use. Expect to hear more about this corner of sustainability, especially as the debate over natural gas and nuclear energy heats up this spring. Read more here. . . .

. . . . Shares of Rivian (RIVN) bounced off post-IPO lows Tuesday as investors stung by the mysterious departure of its chief operating officer over the holidays were relieved by news that it had produced more than 1,000 vehicles last year and delivered more than 900. The shares remain just above the IPO price, however, and investors will remain skeptical until the company can come clean about what’s going on at the top. . . .

. . . . Solar investors have suffered in recent weeks, but new research out this month indicates that at least two of their biggest issues — supply chain bottlenecks and inflation — could be relieved later this year as more capacity in polysilicon production in China will lead to greater supply of materials used to make the voltaic cells on solar panels. The key question, however, is when? Read more here. . . .

. . . . The Intercontinental Exchange said Tuesday that it handled a record volume of carbon contracts in 2021, equivalent to 18 billion tons of carbon, or about half of the world’s energy-related emissions footprint. Carbon prices were trading this week at about €80 on European contracts, about 10% off record highs set last month. . . .

Editor’s picks: Brrrr. Also, the tab for 2021’s natural disasters hit $280 billion

Munich Re: 2021 natural disasters caused $280 billion in damage

Reinsurance company Munich Re said this week that damage from Hurricane Ida and the flash floods that hit Europe last summer made the year one of the most expensive for natural disasters. According to a report from the Associated Press, Munich Re’s annual report tallied overall economic losses from natural disasters worldwide in 2021 at $280 billion. Munich Re said insured losses in 2021 amounted to $120 billion, the second-highest after 2017, when hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria hit the Americas. More than a third of 2021’s insured losses were caused by Hurricane Ida, at $36 billion, and the July floods in Europe, at $13 billion. Ida hit Louisiana on Aug. 26, and 115 people died as a result of the storm.

Supreme Court allows ethanol limits to stand

The Supreme Court on Monday left in place limits on a higher ethanol blend called E15. Reuters reports that justices turned away a request by Growth Energy, a biofuels industry group that sought to reinstate a decision made by the Environmental Protection Agency under former President Donald Trump to allow expanded sales of gasoline that has a higher ethanol blend. A lower court ruling had vacated that E15 policy, saying the EPA exceeded its authority when it extended a waiver that allowed year-round sales of E15, effectively halting summer prohibitions designed to reduce pollution.

Data driven: How low can you go?

. . . . According to the National Weather Service’s prediction center, the highest daytime high temperature in the contiguous United States yesterday was a balmy 87°F. in Naples, Fla. The overnight low temperature Monday was -34°F. at Badoura, Minn. The two spots are about 1,900 miles apart, but if you leave Florida now you could be in Minnesota in around 30 hours. It’s tricky to calculate the coldest day in Minnesota’s history, because the wind-chill factor calculations were really modernized only in 2006. However, MinnPost says the record low — probably — was set in the Twin Cities on Jan. 22, 1936 when the windchill was measured at -63°F. Mark your calendar: The St. Paul Winter Carnival starts Jan. 28. . . .

Callaway Climate Insights Newsletter

By David Callaway

Three ESG bets for 2022, plus how to play the coming electric vehicle sales surge

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Source: Alex Potemkin / E+ via Getty Images

By David Callaway, Callaway Climate Insights

Good morning and Happy New Year. Anyone else have to deal with Covid in the household over the holidays?

So much can change in two weeks, so I always proceed through this first reopening week of the year with caution and let the optimism of investors for the year ahead settle while the unsolved problems of last year catch up. Still, there are some early signs the world of environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing is in for some big changes this year. Consolidation may be the name of the game.

As Marsha Vande Berg points out in her first column of 2022 below, the messy world of sustainability standards and metrics is beginning to come together, with major regulators preparing this year to adopt standards that will greatly enhance the ability of companies to report climate risk, and investors to react.

This morning’s news that S&P Global is buying The Climate Service, a four-year-old climate risk data provider, also portends the beginning of a period of acquisitions after a frantic three years of startups and VC investing as climate data continues to improve. The outlook for a demand surge in electric vehicles this coming year means a big year for components makers as well, in terms of sales and merger offers as the largest players jockey for position.

Finally, some of the corporate marketing and greenwashing tactics of the past few years are growing old and tainted, as investors become more educated about which green strategies they want to pursue and why. And that’s no small thanks to improved media climate coverage across the board, including this stunning special report by The New York Times over the weekend called Postcards from a World on Fire.

We face steep challenges to be sure, including Covid, higher inflation, higher interest rates, geopolitical risk, and worse supply chain issues. But the ESG world is growing up, and after years of talk, the biggest players are starting to lay their bets.

More insights below. . . .

Three dynamics to watch for in ‘22 as sustainable accounting standards unite

. . . . The alphabet soup of competing sustainable standard initiatives is beginning to come together in a way that will make 2022 a pivotal year for environmental, social and governance investors, writes Marsha Vande Berg. Key will be how the European Union and the Securities and Exchange Commission in the U.S. adapt their regulatory frameworks to sustainable disclosure, with a key set of standards that can be applied in different ways. Watch for a lot of action out of London, where the new International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), is leading the charge on setting up global baseline measures. . . .

Read the full story

The $281 billion climate problem. How money laundering is fueling environmental crime

. . . . Often lost in the fight to reduce fossil fuel company emissions is the fact that as much as $281 billion in illicit profits from harmful and illegal timber logging, waste dumping and other environmental crimes are committed each year. In a special Op-Ed for Callaway Climate Insights this week, Dr. Marcus Pleyer, president of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), argues that governments looking to reduce global warming need to put resources to fighting the crimes that are behind much more of it then they think, including in their own backyards. . . .

Read the full article

Tuesday’s subscriber insights: Tesla’s record deliveries raise battery mineral mining issue

. . . . Tesla (TSLA) shares surged on news that Elon Musk’s electric vehicle giant generated record deliveries of more than 308,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter, kicking off what could be a milestone year for EVs in 2022. But the surge in demand will raise the profile of a major issue with electric batteries — the mining of the minerals needed to build them. Read more here. . . .

. . . . Investors in fossil fuel companies will pay close attention this spring to the annual meeting schedule, to see if last year’s stunning victory of Engine No. 1 in securing three seats on ExxonMobil’s (XOM) board was a fluke or heralds a new era in climate change activism among shareholders. Starting with Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A). Read more here. . . .

. . . . With all due respect to Tesla’s (TSLA) record Q4 deliveries, and Lucid’s (LCID) surging stock price, the one company most electric vehicle enthusiasts will be watching this year is Ford Motor (F), whose shares have doubled in the past three months and currently sit at a 21-year high, thanks to record orders for its more affordable F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck. Read more here. . . .

. . . . Europe was always going to cave on classifying nuclear and natural gas as green investments, despite the rhetoric. The EU political math supports it. But geopolitical tensions around natural gas, i.e. Russia, and the fault line on nuclear between Germany and France are only going to continue to grow. The U.S. and China will be watching closely. Read more here. . . .

Editor’s picks: Air-mass clash, breakthroughs in space-based solar power, and Denmark’s green travel plans

New breakthroughs in space-based solar power

Recent tests of a solar panel prototype may have demonstrated breakthrough technology in the effort to harness solar energy from space. E&E News reports the prototype, called a “sandwich tile” by researchers, was able to harness intense solar radiation found in outer space and then convert it into radio frequency energy that could be beamed back to Earth. The project is called the Arachne mission and is a joint effort by the Air Force Research Laboratory and Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC). According to the report, it’s researching the possibility of harnessing solar energy through space-based panels and then “beaming” the power back to Earth through wireless technology. The Air Force Research Laboratory awarded Northrop Grumman more than $100 million for the project.

Denmark aims for fossil-fuel free domestic flights by 2030

Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a new year’s address that the country’s domestic flights should be fossil-fuel free by 2030. According to a report from the BBC, however, she acknowledged that the solutions are not yet in place to achieve that goal. Denmark is aiming for a 70% cut in overall carbon emissions by 2030, compared to 1990 levels. “To travel is to live and therefore we fly,” said Frederiksen, announcing her plan. The report also notes that Airbus has announced plans to develop hydrogen-fueled planes that could be in use by 2035, while Sweden also has plans to make its domestic flights fossil fuel-free by 2030 and hopes to make international flights green by 2045. Meanwhile, France is considering a ban on domestic flights where the same journey could be made by train in under two-and-a-half hours.

Callaway Climate Insights Newsletter

By David Callaway

25 Ancient Civilizations Destroyed by Natural Disasters

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Source: mchen007 / Getty Images

Every year, cities around the world are devastated by natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes, and hurricanes. Although modern technology has given us earthquake-proof buildings, urban flood planning, and radar that can predict the path of dangerous storms, severe damage still occurs as a result of these natural forces. And such extreme events are becoming more frequent and more intense due to climate change. (The U.S. has had its share of catastrophes. Here is the worst natural disaster in every state.)

Ancient civilizations, however advanced they were, often lacked much of the scientific knowledge we have these days about the forces of nature, and many paid the ultimate price for it. 24/7 Tempo has compiled a list of 25 of once-thriving centers of human settlement destroyed or emptied by natural disasters. 

Some of these cities’ abilities to sustain a prosperous settlement were weakened gradually by climate-related crop failures, leading to their eventual abandonment or decimation at the hands of invading forces. Others were completely wiped out in the course of a day as a result of tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, or earthquakes. (Here are great cities that came back after being nearly destroyed.)

Click here to see 25 ancient civilizations that were destroyed by natural disasters

Relics of these ancient civilizations remain to this day. Excavations through volcanic sediment, sand, and mud have uncovered intact artifacts from many of them. Underwater exploration has also revealed monuments, buildings, and artifacts from cities that were inundated by the sea. (With sea levels continuing to rise, here are 28 amazing places that could be underwater by 2050.)

A reckoning for ESG funds as market falls, plus the electric pickup wars begin

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Source: ablokhin / Getty Images

By David Callaway, Callaway Climate Insights

Good day and happy Jan. 6. We’ll leave the picking-over of last year’s insurrection in Washington D.C. to the others, except to note that at the heart of all the trouble is misinformation — and disinformation. Much like in the climate crisis.

Lots of other things to mark this week, including the passing of the BlackBerry, which I loyally carried with me for years after I bought my first iPhone, just in case. Closer to home for this newsletter comes the fact — from an alert reader — that 2022 marks the year in which the 1973 cult thriller Soylent Green was supposed to take place.

Readers of a certain age may remember the movie depicted a world virtually destroyed by climate change, in which the elite lived behind armed gates and the masses subsisted on horrid wafers made by the Soylent Corporation (add your own modern-day equivalent here), including a supposedly nutritious brand called Soylent Green. Turns out the food was made from the bodies of the masses.

Coming just three years after the first Earth Day in 1970, the movie is notable for the role Hollywood played in those days in imagining, through science fiction, what our world would be like today. Thankfully, it was wrong. Advances in food science continue to evolve and the most significant achievements in fighting global warming in the next decade may indeed come from the agricultural industry.

As we worry about inflation, Covid and what the markets might do tomorrow, it’s sometimes worth it — at this time of year — to reflect on just how far science, technology, and capitalism have taken us. Especially when we imagine where we’ll be 49 years from now.

More insights below. . . .

Zeus: The Christmas lesson behind a sustainable fund massacre

. . . . In the final 48 hours before Christmas a few weeks ago, a major international pension fund sold all of its holdings in one of the largest sustainable emerging markets funds, representing more than 90% of the fund’s total assets under management. Even in today’s whipsaw markets, that is unusual. But the BlackRock iShares fund event yielded two important lessons for potential environmental, social and governance investors as the nascent market begins to mature, writes David Callaway in his Zeus column. . . .

Read the full Zeus column

Not one of these climate-friendly, exchange-traded funds beat the market in 2021. What now?

. . . . Last year was a tough one for investors in climate-friendly, exchange-traded funds. But a special collection of 20 popular ETFs put together by Mark Hulbert reveals just how bad it was. After a huge performance the year before, investors who made it through 2021 and are licking their wounds will now have to challenge themselves about how committed they are to environmental, social and governance investing when the chips are down. What happens next could affect the entire ESG storyline. . . .

Read the full column

Thursday’s subscriber insights: Is Chevy’s Silverado EV too late to the party?

. . . . The electric pickup truck wars began in earnest this week when General Motors (GM) revealed its new Silverado EV in Las Vegas at CES, along with claims it has more range and power than Ford’s (F) new Lightning. Looking at historical sales trends of pickups between the two companies, we assess how this new front in the auto wars will play out once the Silverado is online. Read more here. . . .

. . . . Solar innovation isn’t just for rooftops anymore. New projects that put solar panels on parking lot canopies that collect energy while protecting vehicles from the sun are starting to crop up in the U.S. And in China a floating solar array — the largest in the world of its type — on a huge reservoir, purports to reduce evaporation from the water source while also saving valuable land for better use. New markets perhaps coming just in time for beleaguered solar stocks. Read more here. . . .

. . . . With its new composting law, California hopes to halt the huge methane output from food waste in its landfills. Composting has proved very successful in Europe, where the food scraps are turned into fertilizer. But outside of Vermont, California is the only state trying it. Will it catch on in other states? Read more here. . . .

Editor’s picks: world’s first small modular reactor; yet another wildfire blamed on Pacific Gas & Electric

China powers up the world’s first small modular reactor

China has connected its first small modular reactor to its power grid, furthering the country’s support of new nuclear energy technology, Bloomberg reports, citing a WeChat post from the China Nuclear Energy Association. According to the report, another reactor is undergoing tests before being put into full commercial operation next year. Bloomberg says the plant is the world’s first pebble-bed modular high-temperature gas-cooled reactor, heating up helium instead of water to produce power: “It’s a so-called fourth generation reactor, designed to shut down passively if something goes wrong — in contrast to active systems that may not be able to trigger safety measures if power fails, which is what happened at the Fukushima Daiichi accident in Japan a decade ago.” China is expected to spend up to $440 billion on new plants over the next 15 years and overtake the U.S. as the top generator of nuclear electricity.

PG&E power line sparked massive Dixie fire

California regulators said this week that a Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (PCG) power line was responsible for starting the Dixie fire, which burned nearly a million acres in five Northern California counties, destroyed more than 1,300 homes and caused damages estimated to top $1.15 billion. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said in a news release that investigators found that the fire “was caused by a tree contacting electrical distribution lines owned and operated by Pacific Gas & Electric.” The department’s investigative report was forwarded to the Butte County district attorney’s office, according to the statement. It’s at least the fourth major blaze CalFire has pegged to PG&E equipment in recent years.

Words to live by . . . .

“So this is what climate change looks like: operating on the margins, yet able to dramatically alter the story on center stage.” — Colorado journalist Allen Best, speaking of last week’s rare, devastating winter firestorm near Denver.

Callaway Climate Insights Newsletter

By David Callaway

Zeus: The Christmas lesson behind a sustainable fund massacre

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Source: Julius Jansson / iStock Editorial via Getty Images

By David Callaway, Callaway Climate Insights

(David Callaway is founder and Editor-in-Chief of Callaway Climate Insights. He is the former president of the World Editors Forum, Editor-in-Chief of USA Today and MarketWatch, and CEO of TheStreet Inc.)

SAN FRANCISCO (Callaway Climate Insights) — In the 48 hours before Christmas just two weeks ago, one of Europe’s most well-known pension funds quietly pulled its assets out of what had been the second-largest sustainable emerging markets fund.

So quietly that the business media wasn’t on to the story for almost a week, but not quietly enough to muffle a key lesson for investors in certain sustainable funds.

The BlackRock iShares ESG MSCI EM Leaders ETF (LDEM) had launched with much fanfare in early 2020, just before Covid hit, including a $600 million launch investment from Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance, Finland’s oldest pension fund company. By the time Ilmarinen pulled the plug on its investment, the fund’s assets had grown to more than $800 million, through performance and other fund purchases by investors. . . .

To read this column, all our insights, news and in-depth interviews, please subscribe and support our great climate finance journalism.

Callaway Climate Insights Newsletter

By David Callaway

The 20 Countries Responsible for Nearly All Global Emissions

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Source: Lukas Schulze / Getty Images News via Getty Images

In the worldwide effort to curb climate change, 2021 was an important year. In August, the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its sixth report, with its most urgent plea to date for quick action to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Three months later, 197 nations came together in Glasgow for a two-week conference, known as COP26, to attempt to arrive at an agreement on the measures needed to to avoid the calamity predicted by the IPCC if the world is unable to limit warming to 1.5ºC. 

The conference failed to meet the hopes and expectations of its conveners, garnering insufficient commitment to a 2050 target for net zero GHG emissions. Even for the scores of countries willing to make that commitment, most have not been able to meet previous emission reduction goals and do not have detailed, concrete plans and strategies in place to make up for lost time. (These are the 40 countries decreasing emissions the fastest.)

COP26 did accomplish some important things, however. Leading up to the summit, leaders across the globe focused more on climate change, initiating new programs, committing more funds, setting tighter goals, and exploring alternative paths to the 2050 target. Even vocal climate skeptics, such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro acknowledged the urgency posed by rising temperatures. 

At the conference itself, there was agreement among 100 nations to a methane reduction goal. In addition, 120 nations, representing 90% of the world’s forests, set 2030 as a target for ending, and beginning to reverse, deforestation. And the world’s two largest emitters of greenhouse gasses, the United States and a previously recalcitrant China, agreed to cooperate in efforts to curb climate change. Delegates also agreed on the need to provide significant assistance to developing nations in meeting their emission reduction goals. (These are the 50 countries with the highest CO2 emissions per capita.)

Importantly, the gathered nations agreed to regroup to report on their progress in meeting the commitments they’ve made. COL27 will take place in Egypt in 2022.

Some 20 countries are responsible for more than 75% of all GHG emissions. To determine what those countries are, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed data from the 2021 edition of the International Energy Agency report on GHG emissions from energy. Countries were ranked by total GHG emissions from energy in million metric tons of CO2 equivalent. There were 89 countries with available data. 

Click here to see the 20 countries responsible for nearly all global emissions

Data on the percentage of each country’s 2020 CO2 emissions out of world GHG emissions came from The Global Carbon Budget published by Integrated Carbon Observation System, a community of more than 500 scientists. 2020 population data came from the World Bank.

States Where the Population Has Grown the Most Since 1880

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Source: William England / Hulton Archive via Getty Images

Americans over the past century have followed the old adage about “Go West, young man.” Beginning just after the turn of the 20th century, the West’s population soared, growing from nearly 7.1 million in 1910 to 9.2 million in 1920, a 30% jump in that decade alone, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. 

The region has continued this rapid growth to reach a total population of 78.6 million as of 2020. Within that larger geographic area, several states have experienced among the nation’s largest population booms since 1880. 

To determine the states where the population has grown the most since 1880, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed historical population data from 1880 to 2020 from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Decennial Census of Population and Housing and centers of population data. States are ranked by the change in population from 1880 to 2020. While 1880 is the first year of data for almost all states, it is 1890 for Oklahoma, 1930 for Hawaii, and 1960 for Alaska.

Arizona’s population soared from a bit over 40,000 to a current 7.2 million between 1880 and 2020, a 176.8-fold increase. And that’s for a territory that didn’t become an official state until 1912. (Learn how each state got its shape.)

Arizona became a territory in 1846, when the U.S. seized the area from Mexico. When silver and copper deposits were found in the state in the 1870s, Arizona’s population climbed from 10,000 in 1870 to 122,000 by 1900. But the state’s population really took off during World War II, when military bases and defense installations were established there, a study by the University of Washington notes. 

Completed in 1936, the Hoover Dam also ushered in an era of growth in the Phoenix area. And the invention of air conditioning made Arizona’s unbearably arid climate more palatable for newcomers, spurring its in-migration.

Further west and north, Washington state recorded the second highest population growth among states between 1880 and 2020. The Pacific Northwest state’s population grew from 75,000 to 7.7 million, a 102.6-fold hike. 

What did it take to attract newcomers to the somewhat isolated area? The completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1883, which ran from St. Paul, Minnesota, to Tacoma, Washington, was a significant factor, the University of Washington points out. Instead of an arduous overland trek, people could simply take a train to the state and put down roots. More recently, its major city, Seattle, has become a major hub of the country’s tech industry.

At the other end of the spectrum is Vermont. The New England state witnessed a paltry 1.9-fold increase in population between 1880 and 2020, the lowest among all 50 states. Its current population totals fewer than 644,000 residents. 

Art Woolf, former economics professor at the University of Vermont and a columnist for VTDigger.org, a statewide news site, told Vermont Public Radio the state’s cold climate and lack of large cities may be keeping newcomers away. (See the places with the biggest snowfall in history in every state.)

Click here to see states where the population has grown the most since 1880

The Countries With the Highest CO2 Emissions per Capita

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Source: somkuti / Flickr

The Paris Agreement in 2015 was an historic accord that committed nations on every continent to reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. The goal was to limit the rise in mean global temperature to less than a 2ºC (3.6ºF) – and preferably no more than a 1.5ºC (2.7ºF) – differential over pre-industrial levels. The agreement operates on a five-year cycle and during that time nations take action to reduce their carbon emissions. In 2020, the signatory countries  submitted plans for climate action called nationally determined contributions (NDCs).

Even as nations endeavor to shift to renewables and away from oil, coal, and natural gas, however, they still require fossil fuels to operate their economies. And some remain the biggest producers of CO2 in the world.

To determine the 50 countries with the world’s highest CO2 emissions per capita in 2019, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed data for some 148 countries from the International Energy Agency’s GHG Emissions from Energy 2021 Edition report. Countries are ranked by CO2 emissions in metric tons per population. Data on CO2 emissions in 2010 is also given in metric tons per population. Data on CO2 emission per GDP is given in kg of CO2 per GDP in 2015 U.S. dollars, and data on total greenhouse gas emissions from energy is given in million metric tons of the CO2 equivalent. All data comes from the IEA.

European and Asian countries dominate the list, although nations from every continent except Antarctica are represented. Even Western European nations such as The Netherlands and Norway that are considered leaders in the move toward a sustainable future, are still using fossil fuels, so have found a place here. (These are the 40 countries that are decreasing emissions the fastest.)

Eastern European countries striving to recover from the legacy of the command economies that stifled economic progress during the communist era are using dirty energy sources such as  coal to build their economies. Their environments are among the most polluted in Europe because of smoke-belching factories and older, less-efficient vehicles powered by diesel fuel. (Here are 26 countries that consume more energy than they produce.)

Click here to see the 50 countries with the highest CO2 emissions per capita

In Asia, nations on the Arabian Peninsula such as Qatar and Bahrain, among the richest countries in the world per capita, are also among the highest in CO2 emissions because their economies are based on the drilling and distribution of oil. Four of the five countries with the highest CO2 emissions per capita are on the Arabian Peninsula.

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