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Community Spotlight: Sustainability by the numbers

www.stockduediligence.com

Community Spotlight: Sustainability by the numbers

Using hard data to find the truth.

Carter Kilmann
Feb 24
3
Share this post

Community Spotlight: Sustainability by the numbers

www.stockduediligence.com

Good morning, investors!

If this is your first time with us, don’t forget to subscribe here. If you enjoy today’s issue, please hit the heart button at the end of the report.

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Without further ado…


What’s that saying? 

Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.

Well, aside from the fact that the closest star is trillions of miles away, making this an egregiously inaccurate cliche, you could say the government is shooting for the moon with respect to its climate goals and hoping for the best. 

In April 2021, the Biden administration set its sights on cutting net greenhouse gas pollution in half (relative to 2005 levels) by 2030 and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. 

Ultimately, the goal is to improve our collective sustainability. 

“Sustainability is based on a simple principle: Everything that we need for our survival and well-being depends, either directly or indirectly, on our natural environment. To pursue sustainability is to create and maintain the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony to support present and future generations.”

—The United States Environmental Protection Agency

Based on this rather well-articulated definition, sustainability is a universally applicable pursuit. And it shows — just google “sustainable” followed by any industry or sub-industry.

Sustainable mining.

Sustainable energy.

Sustainable farming.

Sustainable finance. 

But it’s easy to get lost in the weeds and tangled in buzzwords. That’s where hard data can be useful. 

Hannah Ritchie is not only the Head of Research at Our World in Data and a Senior Researcher at the University of Oxford but also the author behind Sustainability by numbers, a newsletter dedicated to answering the most pressing sustainability questions by using hard data. 

What kind of questions? 

Here are just a few she’s explored that happen to relate to some of the themes we’ve discussed here:

Does the world have enough lithium to move to electric vehicles?

Sustainability by numbers
Does the world have enough lithium to move to electric vehicles?
People have often worried that the world would run out of fossil fuels [see Hubbert’s curve on ‘peak oil’]. This concern is shifting to the minerals we need to build low-carbon technologies. “The world doesn’t have enough lithium” is a common pushback against a move to electric vehicles…
Read more
3 months ago · 68 likes · 37 comments · Hannah Ritchie

The mineral monopoly: will low-carbon technology be controlled by a few countries?

Sustainability by numbers
The mineral monopoly: will low-carbon technology be controlled by a few countries?
Many countries tried to boycott Russian goods when it invaded Ukraine last year. But this hasn’t been easy. Russia was the world’s largest fossil fuel exporter in 2021, and many countries – especially in Europe – have struggled to find alternatives. The war put our fossil fuel dependency in the spotlight…
Read more
2 months ago · 55 likes · 9 comments · Hannah Ritchie

Are electric cars better for the climate than petrol or diesel?

Sustainability by numbers
Electric cars are better for the climate than petrol or diesel
For a more in-depth analysis of the climate impact of electric cars, I recommend Zeke Hausfather’s analysis on Carbon Brief. Electric vehicles are marketed as an important technology to reduce CO₂ emissions. But, electric vehicles (EVs) still need electricity to run, and manufacturing batteries can be energy-intensive…
Read more
2 months ago · 58 likes · 63 comments · Hannah Ritchie

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Community Spotlight: Sustainability by the numbers

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