EGEB: HSBC good for $100B, arctic satellites breaking, living solar wallpaper, more

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HSBC pledges $100 billion of finance by 2025 to combat climate change – “This will involve direct lending, bonds and project finance, alongside new products in asset management,” an HSBC spokesman said. The company has huge resources that it loans out on an annual basis. This $12.5B/year is a new tranche for them to become experts at. They’re going to have to hire experts skilled at analyzing the projects they’ll fund. They’re going to get to know a whole new group of service providers in the clean energy arena to get deals from. This number will grow. Goldman Sachs recently announced they’d be pushing $150B in the same time period.

Living solar panels printed on wallpaper harvest sun’s energy by photosynthesis – Using standard ink jet technology, the group prints the fundamental materials onto paper – the cyanobacteria which turns the sunlight into energy and carbon nanotubes to transport that energy away. At some point we’re going to make a ‘natural’ solar panel that is much easier to make, much easier to produce, and grow. For now the efficiency levels needed to drive solar uptake are far beyond what technology like this can provide, but maybe it’ll have a place.

Sea ice satellite breaks down, Congress/Trump ordered replacement destroyed earlier in year –  A key polar satellite broke down a few days ago, leaving the US with only three ageing ones, each operating long past their shelf lives, to measure the Arctic’s dwindling ice cap. Scientists say there is no chance a new one can now be launched until 2023 or later. None of the current satellites will still be in operation then. US Congress this year insisted that a backup sea-ice probe had to be dismantled because it did not want to provide funds to keep it in storage. The Chinese, Indians and the Europeans will build their own satellites. They will control the data. They will have the power. The power of the planet will continue to distribute to those willing to bear its responsibilities.

China unlikely to hike anti-dumping tariffs on Korea polysilicon imports to 30%, say sources – The China government in 2013 imposed a total of 50% of anti-dumping and anti-subsidization tariff rates on US-based polysilicon makers, a 3% anti-dumping tariff rate on imports from Europena suppliers and a 2.4% and 2.8% anti-dumping tariffs on Korea’s makers OCI and Hankook Silicon, respectively. Looks like everyone in the world wants government protection so they can make some extra money, while sticking it to the broader world. Let’s see what China does.

There is a lot of data in the world that we believe is not related causally, but by correlation – for instance times of higher ice cream sales correlate with murder. Then, there is data that we believe shows direct causality. For instance – since 1857 we’ve believed via research that CO2 volumes and global temperatures were tied together. Here’s a nice tweet to show you a piece of knowledge –

CO₂ concentration and global mean temperature 1958 – present #GlobalWarming #ClimateChange pic.twitter.com/WNo1fumVtK

— Kev كيفين Pluck 🇵🇸🇺🇦 (@kevpluck) November 2, 2017

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