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<ul class="summary-list"><li>President-elect Donald Trump has questioned the reality of the climate crisis.</li><li>He's expected to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement, which he also did in his first term.</li></ul>President-elect Donald Trump has long questioned the reality of the climate crisis, describing it as a "scam" and accusing policies to tackle the crisis of destroying US jobs.Many expect him to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement to limit emissions upon taking power in January, as he did in his first term.But his hostility to green policies conflicts with another of his priorities — challenging the rise of China."A second US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement would present a significant opportunity for China to expand its leadership role in multilateral climate issues," Herbert Crowther, an analyst with the Eurasia Group in New York told Business Insider.Trump's victory is overshadowing this week's UN climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, where pledges from Biden administration officials are tempered by the fact they won't be around for long.And China is already positioning itself to fill the power vacuum and build its global influence."In the week since the election, we're already seeing China try to claim the mantle of global climate leadership and portray itself as the more "responsible" actor in this space," Lily McElwee, fellow in the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC, told Business Insider."Beijing is out in force at COP29 calling for the United States under Trump to engage in 'constructive dialogue' and highlighting China's contributions to decarbonization through major investments in electric vehicles and other greentech industries."<div type="image" title="Chinese solar power station" height="576" width="1024" msid="115335201" hostid="261" sizebytes="137800"></div><h2 id="f89b9ca3-aa4a-4bb2-a5bf-27324f610f4d">The green tech superpower</h2>China has a curious position as both the world's largest polluter, and a powerhouse of green technology.It tops the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://interactive.carbonbrief.org/the-carbon-brief-profile-china/index.html#">rankings for greenhouse emissions</a>, which helped power its huge economic growth in recent decades. In 2020, President Xi Jinping pledged that China would become <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://chinaeucn.com/carbon-neutrality-china/#:~:text=In%20September%202020%2C%20president%20Xi,carbon%20neutrality%20to%20the%20world.">carbon neutral by 2060,</a> and it's on track this year to record its first drop in greenhouse <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-meeting-us-climate-solar-panels-coal-power-energy-security-2024-5">emissions since 2016.</a>At the same time, China has pushed harder to produce its own green technology — and sell it to the rest of the world.It is the world's largest producer of electric vehicles and solar panels, and the percentage of its energy coming from renewable sources <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.iea.org/reports/renewables-2023/executive-summary#">is rapidly growing.</a>That work brings practical and economic benefits. Analysts also point to other motives for Beijing's green push: influence and power."Where the Trump administration sees renewable energy as a threat to jobs, China is leveraging clean energy as part of a long-term strategic gambit," wrote <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/chinas-belt-and-road-initiative-is-poised-to-transform-the-clean-energy-industry/">Daniel Araya of the Brookings Institute in Washington, DC, in 2018.</a>China, as part of its "Belt and Road" initiative to grow its global influence, has provided developing countries with renewable energy technologies, including wind farms."Green tech plays a critical role in Xi's economic vision. While China has spent a decade trying to catch up to the United States and other advanced economies in existing tech (like semiconductors), it is increasingly focused on securing leadership in emerging industries like cleantech," said McElwee.The strategy is paying off, with global demand for renewable energy production technologies predicted to surge, and China set to account for 60% of installed global renewable energy capacity by 2030, according to an <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.iea.org/news/massive-global-growth-of-renewables-to-2030-is-set-to-match-entire-power-capacity-of-major-economies-today-moving-world-closer-to-tripling-goal">October report by the International Energy Agency.</a>The US lags China as a clean tech economic power.Trump has been explicit about his plans to repeal and otherwise roll back climate policies from the Biden administration.That included <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/09/05/trump-inflation-reduction-act-00177493">a pledge</a> just before the election to "rescind all unspent funds" from President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, which provided billions in funding for clean tech.<h2 id="d064aeb1-2497-4d9c-b893-7e2c1b98241d">Will China step up? </h2>There are also doubts over how much China is willing to take an international leadership role on climate issues.It's been wary of international agreements to tackle climate change in the past, and last year was accused by European officials of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/china-denies-reports-it-obstructed-g20-climate-discussions-2023-08-02/#:~:text=China%20denies%20reports%20it%20obstructed%20G20%20climate%20discussions%20%7C%20Reuters">obstructing G20 efforts </a>to tackle the climate crisis, Reuters reported. Assuming a leadership role would likely require China to send money to other countries, said Crowther. "The key question for officials in Beijing will now turn to whether China wants to deepen its financial commitments to helping other countries—particularly emerging markets—accelerate their own energy transitions," he said.Crowther said the run up to next year's COP30 summit in Brazil would provide clues of China's intentions. Ultimately, Xi may be more interested in cementing China's economic advantages than in concrete diplomatic pledges. "Although Beijing will try to boost its image as a global leader on climate change, I don't know how much substance will follow," said McElwee.

Trump called the climate crisis a scam. It could prove a gift to China.

Climate Action 15: 2024's top global innovators powering green solutions

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Biden and Trump diverge sharply on climate policy as the 2024 election nears.</li><li>Republicans are emphasizing fossil fuels; Democrats push renewable energy.</li></ul>President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump couldn't be farther apart when it comes to climate action.Trump has said he'd "drill, baby, drill" for fossil fuels that are causing the climate crisis, an issue that isn't mentioned once <a target="_blank" href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/2024-republican-party-platform">in the platform adopted</a> by the Republican National Convention this week in Milwaukee. Trump and his pick for vice president, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jd-vance-elon-musk-tesla-electric-vehicle-tax-credit-oil-2024-7">are both climate deniers</a>. By contrast, the Democrats <a target="_blank" href="https://democrats.org/news/dnc-releases-2024-party-platform-draft-outlining-historic-record-and-bold-agenda-for-president-biden-and-vice-president-harris-to-finish-the-job/">unveiled a platform</a> that said it would build on the Biden administration's unprecedented spending on renewable energy and the green workforce while cracking down on the oil-and-gas industry.A lot is at stake for the planet this election. America emits more greenhouse gases than any country except China, and leading climate scientists say it needs to slash greenhouse-gas emissions in half this decade if there's any chance of keeping global temperatures below catastrophic levels. Meanwhile, 2024 <a target="_blank" href="https://climate.copernicus.eu/copernicus-june-2024-marks-12th-month-global-temperature-reaching-15degc-above-pre-industrial">is on track to be the hottest year on record</a>, fueling extreme heat that's killed dozens already this year as well as Hurricane Beryl in parts of the Caribbean and Texas.But will it matter in November?In a <a target="_blank" href="https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/climate-change-in-the-american-mind-politics-policy-spring-2024/toc/3/">survey</a> of 1,031 US adults, including 896 registered voters, taken from April 25 to May 4, about 62% of the registered voters said they would prefer a candidate who supports climate action. But when pollsters asked registered voters to indicate how important various issues were to them, global warming ranked 19th out of 28 issues Issues like free and fair elections, abortion, and healthcare were the top priorities for respondents. Plus, most respondents said they hadn't heard about Biden's signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act.The <a target="_blank" href="https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/climate-change-in-the-american-mind-politics-policy-spring-2024/toc/3/">survey</a> suggests that while concern about the climate crisis is on the rise in the US, other issues are top of mind for voters this year, Edward Maibach, the director of the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication, told Business Insider. The center conducted the survey with the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.Maibach added that most Democrats, along with moderate and younger Republicans, want the US to do something about the climate crisis. But Republicans are very unlikely to factor the issue into their voting decisions, and the most conservative wing of the GOP has grown more opposed to renewable energy and electric vehicles over the past few years."Plenty of conservative Republicans in recent years have thought that moving the country towards a clean-energy future was a good idea for reasons totally unrelated to climate change," Maibach said. "Now they are increasingly moving away from that position, in large part because of what the elites and media pundits in their party are telling them."The findings are similar to those of the Pew Research Center. A 2023 survey indicated that Republicans <a target="_blank" href="https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2023/06/28/what-americans-think-about-an-energy-transition-from-fossil-fuels-to-renewables/">prioritized developing fossil fuels</a> more than they did renewable sources like wind and solar. That's a change from 2020, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2023/06/28/climate-change-appendix/">when a majority of Republicans in a Pew poll</a> said renewable energy should be prioritized over oil, gas, and coal.There was one caveat: A majority of Republicans ages 18 to 29 in the 2023 survey said the country should focus on renewables. The findings are based on <a target="_blank" href="https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2023/06/28/climate-change-methodology/">Pew's annual surveys</a> of a nationally representative sample of more than 10,000 US adults.Meanwhile, Americans are increasingly unlikely to say they would buy an electric vehicle. Pew, in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/06/27/about-3-in-10-americans-would-seriously-consider-buying-an-electric-vehicle/">a separate survey from May of more than 8,600 adults</a>, found that 29% said they would consider purchasing an EV — down 9 percentage points over the past year. The share of Americans who said EVs are better for the environment than gas vehicles also dropped by 20 percentage points from 2021, largely due to Republicans.<h2 id="e1a3476e-1597-4af9-83b2-ab1cb1f05539">The majority of Americans support climate action</h2>Maibach said the shift among Republicans shouldn't distract from the fact that the majority of Americans support many of Biden's climate policies. These include implementing tax breaks for people who buy solar panels and energy-efficient vehicles and appliances; providing funding for transitioning the economy away from fossil fuels by 2050; cracking down on methane emissions from the oil-and-gas industry; and paying farmers to adopt practices that store more carbon in the soil.Trump and GOP leaders, on the other hand, have said they would roll back many of those policies. Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign's national press secretary, argued that America was "caving to the radical demands of environmental extremists at home while begging" its adversaries to produce oil for us abroad, "creating the worst inflation crisis in generations."While Biden has enacted the most sweeping climate policies in US history, the country has <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-top-natural-gas-exporter-amid-europe-energy-crisis-security-2022-5">simultaneously become the world's largest exporter of natural gas</a>, and crude-oil production <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/commodities/us-oil-crude-production-record-opec-cuts-russia-saudi-arabia-2024-3">has set records</a> for six years in a row. American oil-and-gas companies <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/exxon-shell-big-oil-221-billion-profit-record-biden-outrageous-2023-2">also earned record profits</a> in 2022 following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which scrambled global energy markets.Maibach said it was distressing that conservative leaders and media pundits went negative on renewable energy and EVs, especially because investing in them is key to making America economically competitive with China, which dominates supply chains for green technology like solar panels, batteries, and critical minerals.But Alec Tyson, an associate director of research at Pew, told Business Insider that in such a polarized political climate, a candidate's stance on any one issue won't be enough to sway voters anyway."We saw no change in Biden's ratings on climate before and after the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, including among Democrats," Tyson said. "What that suggests is in this polarized environment where many folks have strong feelings about either Joe Biden or Donald Trump, it's very hard to change attitudes based on a single policy or issue."

What Americans say they want on climate versus what Biden and Trump are offering 

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Montana homeowners face rising costs and housing insecurity amid soaring property taxes and insurance.</li><li>Older Montanans, particularly those with health issues, are especially vulnerable.</li></ul>Owning a home doesn't guarantee financial security in retirement — even when home values have skyrocketed, as they have in communities across the country over the past few years.This is particularly apparent in the state of Montana, which has seen home values surge as out-of-staters move in and its home shortage deepens. But in Big Sky Country, as in much of the nation, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/housing-crisis-homeowners-struggling-mortgage-interest-rates-insurance-home-equity-2024-6">costs associated with homeownership</a>, including home insurance premiums, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/05/22/montana-pandemic-property-boom-taxes/">property taxes</a>, and home repairs, have also risen quickly.Older homeowners who live on fixed incomes are having a particularly hard time managing these rising costs. With mortgage interest rates sky-high and home inventory low, they have <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/baby-boomers-wont-sell-homes-millennials-kids-need-housing-affordability-2024-1">few options to downsize</a>.Beverly Dashnaw has worked as a HUD-certified housing counselor for about two decades in Montana, and she says she's never seen so many retired and older homeowners struggling to make ends meet. She blames rising property taxes and insurance costs but notes that inflation, in general, has also squeezed those on fixed incomes."Elderly and disabled people are struggling really, really hard," she said. "The cost of living, inflation is going up for everything, and their income doesn't go up."Montana's crisis is particularly acute as it has one of the oldest populations in the US. The Census Bureau estimated that in 2020, nearly <a target="_blank" href="https://www.prb.org/resources/which-us-states-are-the-oldest/">20% of the state's residents</a> were 65 or older, significantly higher than the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2023/05/2020-census-united-states-older-population-grew.html#:~:text=The%20older%20population%20reached%2055.8,less%20than%201%20in%2020.">16.8% share nationwide</a>. The state is also particularly impacted by the climate crisis — in the form of more severe wildfires and hail storms, among other extreme weather events — which is pushing its insurance premiums up <a target="_blank" href="https://nbcmontana.com/news/local/climate-change-drives-up-home-insurance-rates-in-montana">among the fastest in the country</a>.But Montana isn't alone. Older homeowners are struggling in communities across the country. Insurance costs have risen dramatically all over — a result of both increasingly severe climate issues, including flooding and fires, and the elevated cost of home construction and repairs. Nationally, home insurance premiums rose by an average of 21% between May 2022 and May 2023, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.policygenius.com/homeowners-insurance/home-insurance-pricing-report-2023/#:~:text=Homeowners%20insurance%20premiums%20in%20the,active%20policies%20quoted%20for%20renewal.">Policygenius</a> found. Home repairs are also more costly these days, with a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/housing-crisis-national-shortage-construction-workers-job-demand-2024-5">shortage of construction workers</a> and the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.constructiondive.com/news/falling-material-prices-expected-reverse-course/651744/">elevated cost of materials</a>.The portion of homeowners 55 and older who are cost-burdened — or spend more than 30% of their income on housing and utilities — rose from 30% in 2001 to 45% in 2022, a new report from the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/reports/files/Harvard_JCHS_The_State_of_the_Nations_Housing_2024.pdf">Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies</a> on the state of US housing found. "A shocking 95 percent of older adult homeowners with low incomes and mortgages are cost burdened, dramatically higher than the 56 percent of their counterparts who own their homes outright and the 74 percent of those who rent," the report found.The housing-affordability crisis coincides with the country's retirement crisis. A fifth of Americans 50 and older <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-x-baby-boomers-savings-cant-afford-retirement-2024-4">have no retirement savings</a>. And older people are increasingly losing their homes. The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.governing.com/urban/the-nations-homeless-population-is-aging-dramatically">portion of homeless single adults who are 50 or older</a> is estimated to have grown from about 10% to 50% over the past three decades.<h2 id="c58fe91f-2b43-4b62-b26e-289e822befc8">A crisis exacerbated by the pandemic</h2>Dashnaw works for the nonprofit NeighborWorks Montana, where she counsels existing homeowners struggling to afford their housing costs or facing foreclosure, potential first-time homebuyers, and those seeking affordable rental housing. Many of her clients are also struggling with illness."A lot of it is the health issues," she added. "People that got sick during COVID or even after and just couldn't manage to catch up their payments."Those who own mobile homes but not the land the home sits on are increasingly <a target="_blank" href="https://missoulian.com/news/local/nowhere-to-go-mobile-home-residents-face-rising-rents/article_7f3eea80-edc7-11ed-95f4-97a0cc497914.html">vulnerable to rising rents</a>.Many older homeowners forced out of their housing end up homeless, part of a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/montana-city-grapples-with-rise-of-unhoused-people-living-in-vehicles">growing homeless population</a> in the state. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/11/10/1135125625/homelessness-elderly-housing-inflation">Montana's homeless shelters</a> have reported encountering more older people.Dashnaw says it has also become more common to see multiple families living in the same home. "That's another trend that you didn't see in years past," she said.While Montana's housing issues have been mounting for years, they exploded during the pandemic as tens of thousands of Californians and others took advantage of remote work and moved into the state. At the same time, the state's booming outdoor tourism has <a target="_blank" href="https://scholarworks.umt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1419&amp;context=itrr_pubs">pushed long-term rentals off the market</a> in favor of Airbnb and other short-term rentals. The surge in demand from transplants with fat wallets sent home prices and rents soaring. Statewide, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.hcn.org/issues/55-12/housing-has-montana-solved-its-housing-crisis/">home prices have soared by 60%</a> since early 2020, while rents are <a target="_blank" href="https://newstalkkgvo.com/rent-increases-in-montana-are-among-the-highest-in-the-nation/">among the fastest-growing</a> in the country.The crisis has gotten so severe that Montana's conservative governor, Greg Gianforte, and the state's Republican-majority legislature have acted, recently <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/montana-republicans-anti-california-message-pro-housing-affordability-building-density-2023-4">passing a slew of housing reforms</a> designed to boost the supply of homes. The state loosened zoning restrictions, allowed for more housing density, and required localities to devise a land-use plan, among other measures. The measures have been hailed by pro-housing experts as the "<a target="_blank" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-28/montana-s-yimby-revolt-aims-to-head-off-a-housing-crisis">Montana Miracle</a>" and a model for the rest of the country."The bottom line, demand outstripped supply and we saw housing prices really spike," Gianforte <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-supporting-republican-montana-governor-yimby-housing-policies-lowering-rent-2024-3">told Business Insider earlier this year</a>. "We knew we had to do something about it."But Dashnaw worries there isn't enough assistance available in the meantime. The Homeowner Assistance Fund — a pot of money provided by the American Rescue Plan of 2021 and dedicated to aiding homeowners struggling with pandemic-related hardships — has been a crucial source of aid for her clients, but its funding is finite and will run out at some point, she says. In other states, pandemic-era <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nhhfa.org/nh-homeowner-assistance-fund-program-to-close-march-8/">homeowner assistance programs have already run out</a>.For years, Dashnaw ran a catering business to supplement her nonprofit salary. There, she worked for second-home owners who left their large Montana houses empty for months at a time."The gap in the classes has just grown where you've got a middle class that's been pushed into poverty," she said, "And the wealthy are still wealthier."Are you a homeowner struggling with rising insurance premiums or other costs? Reach out to this reporter at <a target="_blank" href="mailto:erelman@businessinsider.com">erelman@businessinsider.com</a>.

Montana's housing crisis is a warning for older homeowners across the country

<ul class="summary-list"><li>In an interview with Bloomberg's John Fraher, Bill Gates praised Tesla.</li><li>The former Microsoft CEO also said he hopes Elon Musk will comment on the climate crisis more.</li></ul><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-bill-gates-spends-fortune">Bill Gates</a> believes <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla">Tesla </a>is a "super important" contribution to combatting the climate crisis, but he hopes <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk">Elon Musk</a> will discuss it more.Gates, who sat down with Bloomberg to talk about his climate tech investments, told the publication that he spoke to Musk during the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/breakthrough-prize-awards-oscars-of-science-red-carpet-2024-4">Breakthrough Prize</a> award ceremony in April.Bloomberg Senior Executive Editor John Fraher then asked the former <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-crowdstrike-outage-could-hurt-consumer-trust-big-tech-ai-2024-7">Microsoft</a> CEO whether he was "disappointed that Elon doesn't really seem to talk much about climate these days.""He's sort of more interested in talking about culture wars and other issues," Fraher said.Gates replied: "He talks a lot. I hope he'll talk more about climate. You know, he's very, very smart. He's made a contribution within that area that is super important."Fraher also asked the billionaire climate tech advocate if there were topics he wished Musk would touch on."I don't think he'll listen to anybody telling him what to talk about," Gates said. "He's unique, and he'll talk about whatever he feels like."<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-bill-gates-feud-coronavirus-electric-cars-2020-9">Gates and Musk</a> have a history of commenting on each other during press interviews — and they disagree on many topics. Gates once questioned Musk using his considerable fortune on getting humans to Mars, saying he would rather spend his own money funding vaccines to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-elon-musk-rather-fund-vaccines-go-to-mars-2023-2">"save lives."</a> However, he complimented Musk and said he would be a great philanthropist one day.Gates also told journalist Walter Isaacson that Musk once acted "super mean" toward him when he learned that <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-bill-gates-super-mean-shorted-tesla-stock-biographer-2023-9">Gates shorted Tesla stock</a>."Once he heard I'd shorted the stock, he was super mean to me, but he's super mean to so many people, so you can't take it too personally," Gates told Isaacson, later adding that he apologized to Musk.During the Bloomberg interview, Gates spoke about his climate investments and AI — which <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-slams-bill-gates-understanding-ai-chatgpt-openai-2023-3">Musk once said Gates </a>has a "limited" knowledge of. Gates also admitted his own climate vices."Flying from place to place is where I'd have my biggest footprint," Gates said.Representatives for Musk and Gates did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Bill Gates hopes Elon Musk will talk about climate but says the Tesla CEO will 'talk about whatever he feels like'

<ul class="summary-list"><li>At COP28, the UAE set out to tackle the climate crisis' root cause: fossil fuels.</li><li>During the summit, the UAE pledged to contribute $30 billion to a climate investment fund.</li><li>Advocates didn't get everything they wanted, but it was a realistic end given the geopolitics.</li></ul>Dubai was a surreal location for the most important climate event of the year.Like most rich countries, the United Arab Emirates is rife with climate contradictions that spilled into the UN summit, known as COP28. That clash felt tangible in Dubai, a city shrouded in the kind of opulence that oil money can buy. Just look at the superyachts parked in the man-made marina.But the fact that a futuristic metropolis sprang up in the desert within a few decades also makes you feel like anything is possible — like solving the climate crisis. And for the first time at a UN summit, the UAE set out to tackle the crisis' root cause: fossil fuels.That was notable, given that oil and gas production is the backbone of the UAE's economy. The young country is a climate pioneer in the Middle East because its future depends on it: both to support itself financially and to ensure people can keep living in one of the hottest parts of the planet."The world is moving away from fossil fuels, and that's a real risk to their economy," said Karim Elgendy, a climate consultant and an associate fellow at the London think tank Chatham House whose work focuses on the Middle East and North Africa. "So there's this frantic race to decarbonize internally, but also wean themselves off those revenues."The UAE was the first country in the region to pledge to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 and invest in renewable energy at home and abroad. During the summit, the UAE <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/countries-strike-historic-climate-dealfossil-fuels-dubai-2023-12">pledged to contribute $30 billion</a> to a climate investment fund with big asset managers like BlackRock. Dubai <a target="_blank" href="https://www.mediaoffice.ae/en/news/2023/December/08-12/Dubai-announces-ambitious-plan-to-achieve-50-per-reduction-in-carbon-emissions-by-2030">set a more aggressive goal</a> to cut greenhouse-gas emissions this decade.In contrast, its state-owned oil company, Adnoc, last year said it would spend $150 billion on its oil and gas production, putting the country <a target="_blank" href="https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/uae/">far off track to reach its climate targets</a>.Reminders of the UAE's oil dominance are visible everywhere. On the metro ride out to Expo City, the sprawling venue for the summit, you can see industrial power and desalination plants lining the coast. These plants produce most of the electricity and drinking water for Dubai's 3 million residents. Air pollution clouded the skyline.During one of my trips, I saw flames from the top of a smokestack at the power plant, a practice known as flaring. Common in the oil and gas industry, it emits a lot of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that became a focus at this year's UN summit.Within the first few days, at least 50 oil and gas companies <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cop28-un-climate-conference-oil-and-gas-methane-emissions-satellites-2023-12">agreed to zero out methane emissions</a> from their operations under a plan announced by COP28's president, Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber. As the CEO of Adnoc, Al Jaber has the influence to corral such a coalition. He's argued that the world can't meet its climate goals without bringing the largest corporate emitters on board.It was no surprise that <a target="_blank" href="https://kickbigpollutersout.org/articles/release-record-number-fossil-fuel-lobbyists-attend-cop28">fossil-fuel lobbyists showed up to COP28 in record numbers</a>. As the summit went into overtime, climate advocates' worst fears about Al Jaber presiding over the event looked as if they'd come true.In the end, global leaders for the first time agreed to start moving away from fossil fuels this decade. Climate advocates didn't get everything they hoped for, but it was likely the most realistic ending given the location and geopolitics.If the UAE can advocate a shift away from oil and gas, maybe <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/marshall-islands-unveil-multibillion-climate-plan-climate-conference-dubai-2023-12">the world isn't far behind.</a>

I covered the climate crisis and COP28 from an oil-rich nation — here's what I learned and why I'm hopeful for the future  

<div type="image" title="A marine research expedition in Antarctica." height="3732" width="5598" msid="102209399" hostid="261"></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>The vast majority of the ocean remains unexplored but researchers are racing to change that.</li><li>They believe water-based organisms can advance healthcare and address the climate crisis.</li><li>But balancing science, marine protection, and economic gains is an evolving challenge.</li></ul>The ocean is teeming with <a href="https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2023-04-27-oxford-university-joins-largest-ever-ocean-survey-global-effort-save-marine-life" target="_blank" rel="noopener">uncharted life</a> and most of it remains <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/exploration.html">unexplored</a> — something researchers from academia and private companies are racing to change.That's because unique microorganisms that can survive the deep, dark abyss of the ocean to those that live in shallow waters and hot springs could hold answers to some of the world's most pressing challenges in health and climate. Biodiscovery taps into plants, animals, and microorganisms to look for traits that can be used for innovation in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, cosmetic, and other industries. A bevy of organizations are focused on scaling up biodiscovery at sea.A marine discovery in the 1950s led to the creation of Ara-A, the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/org/science/article/pii/S0265056822000356" target="_blank" rel="noopener">first antiviral drug</a>. Around half of clinically approved drugs, including antibiotics and cancer drugs, are based on discoveries made in nature, but only <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/org/science/article/pii/S0265056822000356" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a small percentage</a> of those come from marine ecosystems.Scientists are turning to the ocean in the hope of finding microbes that can help deal with mounting aquaculture waste, eat methane, degrade plastic, and help create biofuels.But the industry faces <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/org/science/article/pii/S0265056822000356" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"chronic underfunding, bottlenecks, and untapped potential"</a> while the ocean itself is under assault from pollution, overfishing, a loss of biodiversity, and climate change. Balancing the pursuit of science, marine protection, and economic gain is an inherent challenge but some organizations are tackling all three. <div type="image" title="Two of the Basecamp Research team taking samples in Azores, Portugal" height="724" width="1086" msid="102209400" hostid="261"></div><h2>Combining biodiscovery with biodiversity mapping</h2>The London-based company Basecamp Research conducts marine expeditions led by scientists working to build a knowledge graph of nature's biodiversity. The startup, which has raised $26 million to date, works with companies looking for enzymes for commercial use and with NGOs or countries that want to map biodiversity.Basecamp also partners with academic institutions and governments, including on a project known as Heritage Malta, which involves divers heading 100 meters underwater to collect sediment samples from around archaeological wreckage sites. The project's end goal is to understand how the microbes are evolving in response to the wreck sites on the seabed while also looking for enzymes for commercial use.Sampling efforts are typically nonintrusive and don't harm the surrounding environment, said Emma Bolton, a marine biologist who has spent time working in Antarctica and is now with Basecamp Research. Sampling involves taking a "minuscule amount of sediment" and only needs to be done once, she said. Samples can also be taken by filtering a few liters of water. Discoveries might yield commercial gains but could also be used to build an argument for the protection, conservation, or restoration of the marine area.<div type="image" title="Heritage Malta diver taking samples." height="1022" width="1600" msid="102209401" hostid="261"></div><h2>Technology is fueling biodiscovery </h2>Once collected, microbial DNA has to be sequenced and analyzed. Scientists sift through databases of digital biological information hoping to make the next big discovery. There is simply too much data to handle, Rob Finn, the coordinator of a European project that catalogs existing marine-microbiome data said. "I sit on 3 billion unique proteins that have come from all sorts of different sources," said Finn of the BlueRemediomics initiative. He is also a team lead at the European Bioinformatics Institute. One of the aims of the 9.3 million euro, or about $10.4 million, project is to make it easier to screen data for useful characteristics for commercialization, with a focus on new ways to reduce waste, increase the reuse of natural products, and improve aquaculture processes. It will connect the dots between single enzymes or genes to look at whole organisms or small communities of organisms for potential uses, Finn said. The explosion of powerful algorithms that can process vast amounts of data has made this kind of work possible.Basecamp Research's data science team is also taking advantage of developments in technology. It uses AI modeling to work out the best proteins and enzymes for specific applications, which can lead to bespoke protein designs for its customers. Winning designs can also be used to train AI systems to model other enzymes and sequences in the hope of making further discoveries. <div type="image" title="Visualisation of proteins in silico, made by Saif Ur-Rehman, Basecamp Research's data engineering team lead." height="1420" width="2440" msid="102209403" hostid="261"></div><h2>The introduction of the High Seas Treaty</h2>A number of companies use public biological data to develop products, but critics argue that traceability is often lacking, leaving the impact of datasets unknown. This raises the issue of biopiracy, where samples have been harvested illegally without fair compensation to the communities and countries that own the land or waters.The UN's Nagoya Protocol, adopted in 2010, addressed biopiracy on land by ensuring that commercial profits of genetic resources like DNA are shared with its origin country. The protocol omitted the high seas, which refers to parts of the seas that are not under territorial control of any specific country. As interest in the ocean gains momentum, so does the push to protect it and ensure discoveries benefit everyone. <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_1382" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The High Seas Treaty</a>, which was finalized earlier this year, will regulate the use of physical and digital genetic data found in the deep sea and states that profit is to be shared equally between nations. Basecamp Research's Bolton said any royalties made from its data are shared with location partners, in line with the Nagoya Protocol. For example, it would share profits with a national park that might have enlisted the company's help to conduct a biodiversity survey. Meanwhile, a huge part of BlueRemediomics's funding is devoted to finding ways to balance commercialization with <a href="https://blueremediomics.eu/about-work-packages/work-package-5-improving-access-protection-and-sharing-abs-and-ip-of-marine-genetic-resources/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">benefit sharing</a> and to make sure that neither becomes constricted, Finn said. This is particularly important as policy evolves with the ratification of the High Seas Treaty.<div type="image" title="A diver during an expedition in Antarctica." height="3800" width="5067" msid="102209404" hostid="261"></div>The treaty also puts into action an <a href="https://www.cbd.int/article/cop15-final-text-kunming-montreal-gbf-221222" target="_blank" rel="noopener">agreement</a> to protect 30% of the high seas by 2030. Currently, <a href="https://marine-conservation.org/30x30/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">less than 3%</a> is considered highly protected.This coincides with a race to mine the seafloor for critical materials, often touted as necessary to meet electrification goals. Scientists have <a href="https://easac.eu/news/details/deep-sea-mining-press-release" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pushed back</a> on the "misleading" narrative that this kind of exploration is needed for a green transition and have warned that mining the deep sea will have damning consequences for marine ecosystems, The conversation has led to increased public awareness of the marine ecosystem's value and a push to understand the ocean, Bolton said. "There is so much more to discover from it."

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