How Cipher is covering COP28, the climate change talks in Dubai

See how you can follow along with Cipher at COP28 and catch up on our climate finance series. Money is a central tenant of these climate talks — how to get more of it where it needs to go, especially to lower income countries. Harder Line

Amy Harder 2 min read

With climate change, feeling is more powerful than knowing

With record-breaking heat waves saturating headlines this summer, one might grow tired of such repetitive news about extreme weather. Unless — or more likely, until — it happens to you. Harder Line

Amy Harder 4 min read

Welcome to our wild and wonky climate future

Our climate debate just went from black and white to shades of gray all over. After decades of mostly binary debates over whether climate change is real and whether Washington, D.C. should pass laws addressing it, the Inflation Reduction Act is helping usher in a new, byzantine reality that is scrambling everything and everyone. Harder Line

Amy Harder 4 min read

With profits reigning, clean energy struggles to compete

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund—the largest of its kind in the world at more than $1.3 trillion—has made some 10,000 investments across the global economy. Harder Line

Amy Harder 5 min read

In Norway, global tension over fossil fuels and climate change

Oslo, Norway — This Nordic country is grappling with an inner conflict, accentuated by Russia’s war in Ukraine, that pits its oil and gas wealth against its climate change ambitions. Harder Line

Amy Harder 4 min read

Why we can’t sacrifice our way out of climate change

Matt Rogers helped teach millions of homeowners to look for the leaf symbol on their Nest thermostats to save money—and curb climate change. Harder Line

Amy Harder 4 min read

Europe braces for next winter’s energy gamble

Europe is getting anxious—again. Thanks largely to unusually warm weather, along with government planning and a bit of luck, Europeans can breathe a sigh of relief: They have enough natural gas to heat their homes this winter. Harder Line

Anca Gurzu 3 min read

Energy security and federal climate funding to shape 2023

A historic 2022 will drive what happens this year. In our last December edition, we reflected on the five trends we predicted would shape 2022. This week, we’re looking at five trends we’re watching at Cipher in 2023. Harder Line

Amy Harder 5 min read

War and new climate law make history in 2022

Every year since 2018, I’ve looked back and ahead at the trends shaping the past year and the year to come, including reality checks of my previous predictions. We’re keeping the tradition going. Harder Line

Amy Harder 5 min read

Looking back to move ahead: Lessons learned from cleantech 1.0

Conventional wisdom says cleantech 1.0 was a bust. In a nutshell, cleantech 1.0: Beginning in 2006, venture capitalists poured more than $25 billion into clean energy technologies. Harder Line

Amy Harder 4 min read

Bending capitalism to fight climate change

Governments, corporations and nonprofits are coming up with novel ways to prod capitalism to help tackle—instead of fuel—climate change. Harder Line

Amy Harder 3 min read

On Cipher’s one-year anniversary, survey results and story favorites

We launched Cipher one year ago this week with our inaugural edition! A big thank you to our readers, our small but mighty (and growing!) team at Cipher and the broader network we’re a part of supported by Breakthrough Energy. Harder Line

Amy Harder 2 min read

Clean jet fuel could take off with new climate law

The U.S. government is for the first time in history singling out and subsidizing cleaner aviation fuel. Such a move is poised to help clean up one of the most high-profile ways our society contributes to climate change. Harder Line

Amy Harder 4 min read

Forget sticks, Congress embraces carrots to tackle climate change

The U.S. government is on the cusp of its largest-ever embrace of carrots to tackle climate change. Not literally carrots, of course. That would be a lot of pressure on a vegetable. Harder Line

Amy Harder 4 min read

If we can’t build things, we can’t tackle climate change: potential solutions

The U.S. government, venture capitalists and academics are looking for solutions to a messy trio of local opposition, outdated permitting processes and backlogged bureaucracy that’s threatening to upend America’s rapid shift to clean energy. Harder Line

Amy Harder 3 min read

If we can’t build things, we can’t tackle climate change: the problem

Local opposition, convoluted permitting processes and backlogged bureaucracies are hamstringing our attempts to tackle climate change. Harder Line

Amy Harder 3 min read

Leading carbon removal firm avoids oil company partnerships

The world’s leading company capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is opting not to partner with oil and gas companies, in contrast with its top competitors. Harder Line

Amy Harder 4 min read

Russian invasion prompts scramble for nuclear fuel

In the wake of Russia’s invasion into Ukraine, Washington is rushing to find new sources of a particular kind of advanced nuclear fuel whose sole commercial producer is a Russian company. Harder Line

Amy Harder 3 min read

Risky business: betting on climate tech in an uncertain world

For nearly 50 harrowing days (and counting), Ukrainians have risked their lives defending their homeland from Russia. For more than two years, all of us have weighed innumerable risks living through a relentless pandemic. Harder Line

Amy Harder 3 min read

National security comes roaring back as argument for climate policy

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is catapulting a dormant argument for climate policy to the top of everyone’s mind: national security. Harder Line

Amy Harder 3 min read

Urgency grows for obscure clean-energy tax provision

Tucked alongside more than $300 billion worth of clean-energy tax credits pending in Congress is an obscure but important provision whose supporters span the corporate gamut. Harder Line

Amy Harder 3 min read

Why the government needs to speed up our energy transition

To summarize almost 200 years of the developed world’s energy history in 20 words: Wood came first, and then coal was king, and now oil and natural gas are dominating energy consumption today. Harder Line

Amy Harder 3 min read

Lofty climate-change goals risk becoming empty promises

An overlapping mix of corporate pledges, investment fervor and government targets risk setting us up for a dangerous phase in the quest to tackle climate change. Harder Line

Amy Harder 4 min read

Looking back and ahead: climate tech trends in 2021 and 2022

Much like the curve of the Earth you can’t see from the ground, we’ve embarked on a curve in energy and climate history. Harder Line

Amy Harder 5 min read

U.S. climate and energy laws push rest of world, IEA chief says

The recently passed infrastructure law will have a ripple effect worldwide and encourage other governments to invest in new clean energy technologies. Harder Line

Amy Harder 3 min read

Demand for clean energy is growing, so it better be there

Tadeu Carneiro, a 40-year veteran of the metals and mining industry, has bet his career on making steel from zero-emission electricity. Harder Line

Amy Harder 3 min read

Hurdles abound in race to build more clean energy

As conference attendees were waking up last week for the annual United Nations climate conference underway in Glasgow, Scotland, voters in Maine were rejecting a proposed power line sending Canadian hydropower to Massachusetts. Harder Line

Amy Harder 3 min read

Climate talks reveal big progress, but it’s not coming fast enough

When gauging progress, it's important not just to look ahead to where you need to go but also to look back to see where you've been. Harder Line

Amy Harder 3 min read

Finance ministers urged to fill central role in climate debate

Environment ministers have long taken center stage when it comes to the annual United Nations climate change negotiations. Harder Line

Amy Harder 3 min read

Fitting the pieces of energy, climate together: This is how things change

Climate change is like a puzzle whose pieces are constantly changing in size and shape. Our focus at Cipher is on the technological transformations needed to get to net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050. Harder Line

Amy Harder 3 min read

As Congress writes big climate laws, contentious tech stirs debate

As the world digs into the technologies that could help society tackle climate change, controversy is inevitably emerging in key areas. Harder Line

Amy Harder 3 min read