Good Morning
Some good headlines this week:
An SEC proposal announced Monday would force detailed corporate filings on carbon emissions, climate-related business risks, plans for meeting CO2 targets and more.
This morning U.S. and European leaders announced a task force on helping to cut the EU's heavy reliance on Russian fossil fuels. (Axios reports)
The broad outline calls for U.S. work with "international partners" to find another 15 billion cubic meters of LNG this year
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) told a group of climate activists and energy executives he's open to supporting revised Build Back Better legislation narrowly addressing three topics: climate, drug prices and deficit reduction (more here)
The Greendicator
Top Deals of the Week
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TemperPack, a seven-year-old, Richmond, Va.-based maker of insulated packaging (it makes thermal liners that it says are recyclable and non-toxic), has raised $140 million in Series D funding. Goldman Sachs led the round (TC)
Span.io, a nearly four-year-old, San Francisco-based startup that's developing residential energy storage devices that provide renewable electricity and charging services for electric vehicles, just raised $90 million in Series B funding. Fifth Wall and Wellington Management co-led the round (BBG)
Kayrros, a six-year-old, Paris-based climate analytics and modeling startup that sells its findings to both global energy market participants (both companies and governments), has raised €40 million in funding from French Tech Souveraineté and others (EU)
Beep, a provider of multi-passenger electric autonomous mobility solutions, raised a $25M Series A-1 led by ABS Capital (FS)
The Routing Co., a nearly four-year-old, Seattle-based developer of on-demand routing tech for public transit agencies (its CEO, James Cox, was previously the head of global product at Uber), has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Galvanize Climate Solutions. (GL)
Chinese EV chassis maker PIX raised an $11M pre-Series A from an unnamed ‘major sanitation solution provider’ in China (TC)
SparkMeter, a grid management, equipment, and software provider, raised a $10M round led by Accurant International (FS)
Green Theory
Women: Heroes in the face of Man-made Climate Change
What if producers of one quarter of all goods and services were left unpaid, unrewarded for their time and effort toward building human society?
Women perform an inordinate burden of unpaid care work: equivalent to 10-39% of GDP, by some estimates. Women’s History Month offers a timeless opportunity to revisit a critical path in tackling climate change: women’s health and education, the #5 Drawdown solution. Empowering women and promoting dignity helps protect the planet.
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In the US, women are more likely than men to perceive climate risk and desire mitigation policies. Therefore, equitably redistributing time, resources, and power to women stands to accelerate a more just, sustainable future. Unfortunately, the impacts of accelerating climate change create a negative feedback loop, further repressing women and girls. In the wake of disasters, evidence suggests violence against women increases. From developing, agrarian societies–where girls and women are forced to carry water over longer distances due to drought or failed infrastructure–to the post-Hurricane Katrina South, men prey on women’s increased vulnerability when weather events disrupt communities.
Scales of (In)justice
Digital technology’s potential to impact problems at scale, with relatively low cost and overhead, forms a core reason “Climate Tech” appeals to the relatively short timeline before climate catastrophe. That very feature comes with a dangerous downside: gender bias replicates more easily at scale, too. The (overwhelmingly male) artificial intelligence companies, for instance, not only “amplify stereotypes…they can perpetuate existing forms of structural inequality even when working as intended.”
In the context of green urban planning, and “smart cities,” the high stakes of entrenched bias replication must be carefully considered. At the same time, organizations such as women-led Solar Sister leverage cell phone access to enable easy solar utility payments, lifting many out of energy poverty. Across the pond, Via worked with Elemental Excelerator to build visualization tools to help transit systems combat bias across dimensions. The intersection of gender, climate, and tech may be fraught with pitfalls, but some innovators lead with equity-centered missions or outcomes.
Inspiring women power the green tech community. Solar Mamas in India, and Windfang in Germany number among co-operative ventures that cement women energy entrepreneurs as pillars of their communities. And still, the sector has a long way to go in achieving equity. The renewables industry claims to employ more women relative to the energy sector at large, but they clear a low bar with 35% women. Nonetheless, women found and run businesses across the climate tech space, and tirelessly promote climate justice, while amplifying marginalized voices.
Elevating Women, Elevating Everyone
Safeguarding education and agency for women merits its own struggle, regardless of how it impacts the planet. Powerfully, the climate benefits of women’s empowerment accrue to everyone, especially people left most vulnerable from systemic injustices. Drawdown estimates that simple measures promoting women’s health and education can both transform society and spare the atmosphere 70 gigatons of greenhouse gasses by 2050, equivalent to over 12 years of US emissions today. Between technical agricultural training, safe spaces for secondary schools, and family planning services, solutions for advancing women’s dignity abound. Fighting for public support for child and elderly care, dismantling misogynistic social institutions, and adjusting fiscal policy represent a few interventions to pull the levers driving care inequity. Men must recognize their own role in slowing women down, and, in the context of green tech, link their own efforts to take on climate change with women’s liberation. Underappreciated women, meanwhile, prop up the entire globe with care, and bring untold wisdom, work, and perspective to a sector that seeks to protect humanity from itself.
The Closer
Happy Friday!!!