🏭 77% of GHG emissions are not covered by a regulated carbon market | 🗳️ $100M to mobilize midterm voters on climate solutions
Your 3-minute summary of climate tech, startups, better habits, and deep work.
Good morning, folks.
In today’s 3-minute read, we’ll cover these juicy nuggets:
👗 “Nice dress. You must love the climate.”
🗳️ $100M to mobilize midterm voters on climate solutions.
🏭 77% of GHG emissions are not covered by a regulated carbon market.
👺 Don’t use an ugly pitch deck: Instead look at these 39.
🪒 Want to sound smarter? Just say “Occam’s Razor”.
Enjoy.
Chris
👗“Nice dress. You must love the climate.”
Did you know that the apparel industry is responsible for 4% of global GHG emissions?
This is “about the same quantity of GHGs per year as the entire economies of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom combined.” (McKinsey)
Oh mon Dieu! Oh mein Gott! OMG!
This makes me feel extra proud (like a papa) about the average age of t-shirts in my drawer.
“Honey, are you sure you don’t want to recycle this 30-year-old shirt from, uh, high school.”
And those stats above are why this news matters:
The Apparel Impact Institute is “bringing together clothing brands, philanthropic donors and other industry stakeholders…to unlock $2 billion in funding.”
Holy haute couture! *
Shout out to one of our Climate Mastermind peer group members — Stacy Flynn, CEO of Evrnu — for being a climate startup leader in the fashion industry!
—
* I had to look that one up myself.
Haute couture is a common term for high fashion as produced in Paris and imitated in other fashion capitals such as New York, London, and Milan.”
🗳️ $100M to mobilize midterm voters on climate solutions.
Six climate advocacy groups are teaming up to spend a sh*t ton of cash (technical term) on multiple ad campaigns and in-person field organizing in battleground states including Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. (CNN)
Who are they?
Climate Power Action PAC, Climate Reality Action Fund, EDF Action Votes, League of Conservation Voters Victory Fund, NRDC Action Votes, and NextGen PAC
What’s the message?
The best way to hug a tree without getting splinters
How to correctly burn incense in order to calm the sun
But seriously, they’ll focus on:
“Economic arguments about inflation and switching to cheaper renewable energy
Impacts of extreme heat, wildfires and extreme weather worsened by rising global temperatures.”
Is that just p*ssing in the wind? (another technical term)
Maybe — It’s estimated that $8.9 billion will be spent overall on ads in the 2022 races (source)
No — Even diamonds can be cut by high-pressure waterjets (no joke)
🏭 77% of GHG emissions are not covered by a regulated carbon market.
About 23% of the world's GHG emissions are covered by a compliance carbon market.
Hooray!
Wait...
So 77% of GHG emissions are just running wild and free?
Not entirely.
The voluntary carbon market produces additional GHG mitigation.
BUT…
It’s only about 0.1% of the size of the compliance market, so…
Yeah. We have a long way to go, and the ticking clock is getting louder.
To dissect this further, check out the super simple map below from the World Bank.
If we as relative “experts” are confused, what can we expect from the mainstream?
If you want some more curated graphs from me on carbon markets, here’s a Twitter thread I posted yesterday.
Or get 74 more pages of goodness from the World Bank:
State and Trends of Carbon Pricing 2022
👺 Don’t use an ugly pitch deck.
You got that investor meeting.
Great!
Now, don't @#&! it up.
Give your pitch deck a fresh look.
Both form and substance matter.
Check out these 39 examples for inspiration. (Pitch.com)
(They're all in the climate tech space).
🪒 Want to sound smarter? Just say “Occam’s Razor”.
What is it?
A mental model (one of many)
A shortcut for making decisions
What does it mean?
“The simplest explanation is preferable to one that is more complex.
Among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected.”
Trust me. As a PhD who loves complex Excel spreadsheets, this is hard for me to accept.
But to give in to its simplicity is like sliding into hot bath water on a cold winter in Hokkaido.
(Or so I imagine.)
Read more from Farnam Street.
That’s all, y’all.
Make it a great week, because it’s usually a choice.
— Chris
💰🌎 P.S. Do you want to learn how to fund a climate tech startup?
I occasionally teach a live, online course for about 30 entrepreneurs or career switchers per cohort.
Topics include the top 20 startup funding mistakes, venture capital funding, project finance, my 5-step method of raising capital, how to create a compelling 1-page business plan, my list of 500 climate investors (plus emails), and 3 frameworks for showing your competitive advantage among peers.
Come join us!
—
Dr. Chris Wedding
Founder and Chief Catalyst, Entrepreneurs for Impact
We hep CEOs and investors tackle climate change with mastermind peer groups, online courses, newsletters, and podcasts