To put it mildly, 2024 has been rough on the planet: it was the hottest year on record; catastrophic flooding wreaked havoc on four continents simultaneously; and challenged collaborative net-zero efforts. But despite all that gloom, there are glimmers of hope. are getting cheaper every year — and it’s very possible that there will be across Canada by 2035. Worldwide investment in clean energy exceeded last year. In Europe, the EU Parliament became the first international body to . The cleantech sector also continues to explode — it’s projected to grow to by 2030 — with thousands of startups targeting specific climate issues in surprising and successful ways. Here, five innovative solutions to some very thorny problems. In 2023, torched more than 15 million hectares of land, caused billions of dollars of property damage and displaced thousands of people. But their most catastrophic effect was on the climate: Those fires produced than almost every other country in the world (only the U.S., China and India had higher emissions). They’re also part of an increasingly familiar feedback loop: A warmer planet means bigger, more unpredictable fires; those fires release more carbon; that carbon heats up the planet, which sparks yet more fires. Our best hope may be to stop fires before they start. One solution draws on an age-old approach: sustainable , which involves proactive, strategic in ecosystems — something have been doing for millennia. California-based addresses poor forest management (a major contributor to forest fires) with its custom-built, remote-controlled vehicles that perform safe, precise prescribed burns. Another approach involves thinking on a higher level (literally) — using information collected from satellites and drones to flag wildfires well before they blaze out of control. , based in B.C., uses AI to analyze that data along with information gleaned from ground sensors and eyewitness reports to provide real-time detection. The company’s tools pick up on fires even before there’s smoke, thanks to sensors that can detect various gases that are emitted at a barely smouldering stage. Thwarting three megafires a year could reduce GHG emissions on par with the amount saved by electrifying Canada’s entire transportation sector, says founder and CEO Hamed Noori. “[The latter] isn’t going to happen within 20 years, but preventing a megafire now” would have immediate effects. SenseNet systems can already be found across hot spots in B.C., Alberta and California, and the firm is currently in discussions with utility and mining companies — as well as the government of Ontario, which is considering installing the systems in provincial parks. Capturing excess carbon dioxide is a crucial part of getting to net zero, but you need to something with those trapped emissions. There are currently two options: store the carbon (which is complicated and can be costly) or turn it into something else. Although repurposing carbon is also a complex process, it is becoming increasingly attractive — and achievable. The key is leveraging electrochemical processes to use the C from CO2 in new molecules, such as calcium carbonate (a mineral compound found in concrete and antacids) or ethylene (a hydrocarbon gas that is the base chemical in pharmaceuticals, textiles, solvents and countless other consumer products). You can now find captured carbon used to make everything from building materials to and . Much of this innovation has been driven by the , which has awarded more than $500 million to international teams developing new uses for converted carbon. In 2020, Toronto’s was named an XPrize finalist thanks to its unique method for turning CO2 into ethylene. Converting captured carbon can be energy-intensive, and it can inadvertently produce yet more CO2. “Currently the world produces around 200 megatonnes of ethylene,” says Christine Gabardo, CERT’s co-founder and CTO, “and for every tonne produced, one to two tonnes of CO2 is emitted.” As she points out, CERT’s proprietary low-energy electrochemical process has the potential to significantly mitigate emissions. Beyond ethylene, the company plans to apply its tech to create other chemicals, such as ethanol and syngas, which can be used in sustainable airline fuel. The construction industry and the buildings it creates are notoriously carbon intensive, accounting for a staggering of global GHG emissions. Even striving for something close to the climate targets established in the Paris Agreement means the industry must achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. The good news is that there are many options to help get there. standards shrink a building’s carbon footprint by relying on maximum insulation, airtight building envelopes and triple-glazed windows that more efficiently absorb or reflect the sun’s heat. Other tools — like Toronto-based ’s AI-powered, — help tackle energy consumption. , meanwhile, has become the sustainable material of choice for new buildings — swapping in wood for concrete and steel can cut embodied emissions by as much as 25 per cent, while significantly reducing construction timelines. This past year, like so many other far too many places in the world, Toronto experienced devastating flooding that highlighted the imminent danger of climate change as well as the inadequacy of existing adaptive strategies. The relatively predictable weather patterns of the past are no longer a reliable basis for future planning. But what if those weather patterns were just one data point in a set that also included metrics about how quickly floods overtake specific roadways, commuting and work patterns and analyses of traffic congestion during an evacuation? That’s the sort of information that informs the AI-powered 3D digital models created by Edmonton-based . The company has built digital twins of more than 200 cities around the world, all designed to help communities envision how to handle a host of , including natural disasters, shifting energy technologies, new immigration policies and public health crises. Its models are updated with fresh data to reflect whatever is happening around the world (like, say, a global pandemic), which provides municipalities and organizations with “a brilliant sandbox for gaming their way out,” as CEO Myrna Bittner puts it. She has seen a range of reactions to that sandbox: some cities promptly make necessary investments, some receive confirmation of what they’ve known all along, others take a long time to process the information. Because planners haven’t had this kind of access to this kind of data before, she says, “we’ve been crap at planning for the future,” she says. But with the advent of models that provide “experimental glimpses” into what lies ahead, the question becomes: What actions will users take once they gaze into this crystal ball? It’s a cleantech conundrum: you need a ton of capital to commercialize a solution — but to land that capital, you must prove that your solution is scalable. For First of a Kind (FOAK) technologies, this chicken-and-the-egg situation can be especially tricky. Although a massive amount of capital is required, it’s ironically not massive enough for many traditional investors: often a FOAK project might be seeking $30 million, while cleantech ventures in established industries like wind and solar deal in sums of $500 million or $1 billion. Of course, it’s also understandably difficult to find backing for high-risk technologies that have only been proven at lab or pilot scale if you’re looking to scale by a factor of 10 or 20. “You need a layer that can absorb more of the risk than traditional private lenders,” says Leah Perry, senior manager of cleantech at MaRS, who recommends that FOAK ventures approach fundraising with the same creativity and flexibility they use to build out their tech. Traditional forms of project financing may not be as productive as options within the public sector, or non-profits like Prime Coalition that raise so-called catalytic capital (aka first-loss financing) through philanthropic sources. The most successful FOAK ventures, Perry adds, are those that can show a relatively quick ROI. “If your innovation is just solving a climate problem, it’s a very hard sell,” Perry says. “But most clean technologies are not just solving a climate problem, they’re also saving costs through energy or resources.”Ukraine collects vast war data trove to train AI models
By Lawrence Delevingne, Dhara Ranasinghe BOSTON/LONDON (Reuters) -Bitcoin traded near $100,000 on Thursday as investors bet on a friendly U.S. regulatory shift, while world stocks pulled back slightly but held near record highs ahead of a key U.S. jobs report. France’s government lost a confidence vote late on Wednesday for the first time since 1962, with far-right and leftist lawmakers joining forces to topple Michel Barnier’s government. The move had been widely anticipated by investors, so the euro, French stocks and bonds were largely steady on Thursday as Barnier officially resigned. U.S. stocks dipped, a day after all three major U.S. stock indexes scored record closing highs, helped by the comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.55%, to 44,765, the S&P 500 dropped 0.19%, to 6,075 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.18%, to 19,700. Powell said on Wednesday the U.S. economy was stronger than it had appeared in September when the central bank began cutting interest rates, allowing policymakers to potentially be a little more cautious in reducing rates further. “Already elevated consumer optimism towards the stock market has moved even higher since the start of the Fed’s easing cycle and the U.S. election, partly on hopes of lower taxes, deregulation and strong corporate profits,” Jeff Buchbinder, chief equity strategist for LPL Financial, wrote in a note on Thursday. “However, this support for stocks is offset by stretched valuations, excessively bullish sentiment, and the potential for the economy to cool in 2025.” BITCOIN IN THE SUN It was bitcoin’s day to shine, as the cryptocurrency hit the $100,000 mark for the first time. It was last trading around 1.5% higher on the day, near $99,400. Its latest surge followed Trump saying he would nominate Paul Atkins, who is pro-crypto and pro-deregulation, to run the Securities and Exchange Commission. “At the end of the day, it’s just a number,” said Geoff Kendrick, global head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered. “But the reality is we’ve been able to get to this level because the industry has become institutionalised this year particularly – and that’s mostly the ETF inflows,” Kendrick said, referring to exchange traded funds approved earlier this year. U.S. rate-cut optimism supported sentiment across broader markets. Over the past week and a half, markets have all but priced in an extra U.S. rate cut for 2025, and the implied chance of a cut in December has lifted from even to around 70%. Earlier this week, Fed Governor Christopher Waller said he was leaning toward a cut in December. The closely watched U.S. ISM survey showed services sector activity slowed in November after posting big gains in recent months. Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields were little changed as investors digested slightly higher jobless claims data. With eyes on monthly U.S. employment data on Friday, new data on Thursday showed that the number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits increased moderately last week, suggesting that the labor market continued to steadily cool. The dollar weakened against major currencies, down about 0.4%, leaving the euro up 0.7% at $1.058. The risk premium investors demand to hold French debt over German Bunds dropped further away from its highest levels in more than 12 years on Thursday after the widely expected government collapse. European stocks closed at a more than one-month high on Thursday, aided by bank stocks as investors hoped a new budget could be passed in France after Barnier’s government was toppled. The pan-European STOXX 600 finished 0.4% higher, logging its sixth-straight session of advances. France’s CAC 40 came off a three-week high and ended 0.3% higher. “A lot of bad news was priced in, it was obvious that we were heading towards the fall of the government,” said Francois Savary, chief investment officer at Genvil Wealth Management. Financial markets in South Korea were broadly steady after President Yoon Suk Yeol’s failed attempt to impose martial law late on Tuesday triggered volatility and a political crisis. [.KS] Oil prices were steady on Thursday as investors weighed an ample supply outlook for next year against OPEC+ delaying its planned output increase by three months to April 2025. (Reporting by Lawrence Delevingne in Boston, Dhara Ranasinghe in London and Tom Westbrook in Singapore, Editing by Gareth Jones, Keith Weir, Chizu Nomiyama, Will Dunham and Deepa Babington) Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Reuters news service. 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Mexico shares higher at close of trade; S&P/BMV IPC up 1.08%LPGA, USGA to require players to be assigned female at birth or transition before puberty
Trump names Andrew Ferguson as head of Federal Trade Commission to replace Lina KhanNikolas Lemmel says his online reputation firm Maximatic Media were called in by a London restaurant - who do not wish to be named - when they found their business targeted by online gangsters. He claims a shell-shocked London restaurant owner woke to find a barrage of one-star reviews had dragged her Google rating from 4.9 to 2.3 virtually overnight. Nikolas says the scathing reviews accused the independent eatery as being racist, giving guests food poisoning and offering all-round poor service. The owner then received an anonymous email from the review-bombing mafia to claim responsibility and demand £10,000 in cryptocurrency Bitcoin. He explains the attackers were using AI-powered bot farms across the world to dupe Google into thinking they were legitimate customers writing reviews from London on a smartphone. Maximatic Media worked with Google to remove the fake reviews and built a digital strategy that encouraged loyal customers to write positive ones. It's claimed they restored the restaurant's Google profile to a 4.8-star rating within a month and the establishment hasn't been contacted by the gang since. Google claim they use a combination of technology, expert analysts, and community reports to tackle fraudulent content and insist perpetrators can face account suspension and even legal action. Nikolas says he's witnessing a scary rise in automated attacks that put livelihoods in limbo. However he warned there isn't much you can do to stop this kind of attack and internet users should pray it doesn't happen to them. Nikolas said: “Usually we see competitors attempting to decrease the standing of a business within the eyes of a local customer base but this was an outside party. They were trying to extort money to remove these reviews. “They were like a review-bombing mafia. They were using bot farms to mask the IP address of the accounts and emulate a mobile device that was in the area of the restaurant. Usually if someone was to leave a review from a different country then it would be easy to get it removed but in this case it was a lot more difficult. She was extremely thankful that we got all of those reviews down and she didn't succumb to the extortion attempt. “There weren't many precautions she could have taken to stop the review-bombing mafia from demolishing her rating. There isn't much you can do other than pray you don't become a victim of this sort of attempt. It's scary. Unless your business is within the IT field this is above a lot of people's pay grades and that's why it's hard to work out where it's coming from or how to stop it. It's important people reach out to specialists in these sorts of situations because it's a tailored approach depending on what's happening.” If you see a business get hundreds of reviews within seconds then that's a very easy tell-tale sign that it's probably being targeted by an automated attack. Maximatic Media was founded in 2020 to help small businesses manage their online reputation through targeted PR strategies. Nikolas says they've recently ramped up their crisis-management work to combat online villains abusing modern technology to target businesses. He says the AI mafia continued to flood the restaurant with negative reviews while they worked with Google to remove them but over time they decreased. The owner was encouraged to post a statement on social media outlining what had happened and to contact loyal customers with incentives to support her during the difficult time. New positive reviews helped turn the tide against the attackers and restore the restaurant's reputation for the grateful owner. Nikolas believes many platforms and websites don't have the capabilities to deal with complex AI attacks yet and fears the attacks are becoming more complex. Nikolas said: “We've seen a rise of these sorts of situations where businesses are repeatedly facing these risks of having their livelihoods put into this limbo zone. It is something many websites and platforms are working on making improvements in but sadly the attacks are also becoming increasingly complex and advanced too so it's a never-ending game of catch-up.” A spokesperson for Google said: Our policies clearly state reviews must be based on real experiences and information, and we use a combination of technology, expert analysts, and community reports to monitor for fraudulent content. When we find scammers trying to mislead people, we take action ranging from content removal to account suspension and even litigation. You can find out more at the Maximatic Media website .None
UnitedHealthcare CEO kept a low public profile. Then he was shot to death in New YorkEnvironmental, Social And Governance ESG Rating Services Global Market Report 2024
