Cloudy skies... literally. Cloud computing has enabled millions of Americans to work from home during the pandemic, but it’s come with a climate cost. There are nearly 3K data centers in the US alone, which can each use enough energy to power 50K homes. As global temps rise, cloud companies are racing to keep servers cool while reducing emissions. The process could take a while: the cloud stores over 60% of all corporate data and has a bigger carbon footprint than the entire airline industry.
Crypto's climate conundrum... Many blockchains (think: bitcoin) use gobs of energy to secure their networks. Bitcoin alone is estimated to guzzle more electricity than Argentina, and fossil fuels are key. A 2019 report said BTC mining emitted 23M metric tons of carbon dioxide a year (that # is likely greater now). But crypto's power situation is in flux. The planned September ethereum merge (PoW to PoS) will make that chain a lot less energy-hungry. Meanwhile, US officials may put their fingers on the crypto-emission scales with industry reforms.
Green investing… or green-washing? Investors hungry for climate-responsible capitalism are expected to park $50T in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) funds by 2025. Critics on the right say ESGs are too “woke” and critics on the left say ESGs are designed to prioritize profits over planet-saving progress. ESGs have underperformed the market by nearly 2% during the first half of this year, thanks partly to slumping tech stocks. Now: new EU regulations might tighten ESG marketing — or slow sustainable stocks.
Carbon capture... is capturing corporate attention. The UN says limiting global warming will require taking tons of carbon out of the atmosphere (think: trees, carbon-sucking machines.) In April, Stripe, Alphabet, Shopify, Meta, McKinsey, and others created a $925M carbon-capture fund. Microsoft plans to spend $471M on the tech, and oil giants like Exxon say they’re investing billions in taking their emissions out of the air. But skeptics say it’s safer, cheaper, and more efficient to reduce carbon emissions now rather than try to clean them up later.