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Hey everyone, welcome to FutureProof - my Tech and Sustainability Digest.
As always this newsletter is dedicated to surfacing and sharing good news stories across tech and sustainability. If good news sounds like something you need, read on. And please share this newsletter with anyone/everyone else you feel could do with a little cheering up!
Now, on with the stories:
Climate
Fossil Giants Tied to Hundreds of Killer Heatwaves
A blockbuster new Nature study has traced the fingerprints of Exxon, BP, Shell, Aramco and their peers onto more than 200 “major” heatwaves this century. The finding? Half of the extra blistering intensity we’re living through today comes straight from carbon majors’ emissions.
213 major heatwaves since 2000 were made hotter and far more likely by human-driven climate change.
Roughly 0.7°C of global warming is traceable to fossil fuel firms’ products, with the 14 largest majors responsible for almost half of that.
Heatwaves were made, on average, 1.7°C hotter, with half the extra heat directly tied to carbon majors.
Why This Matters: This isn’t just science, it’s evidence for the courtroom. The oil and gas industry is now quantifiably linked to deaths, economic loss, and ecological collapse from extreme heat.
Kismet: The study shows some heatwaves, like the 2021 Pacific Northwest scorcher, were made more than 10,000 times more likely by fossil emissions. Imagine Vegas odds like that. Only this isn’t a jackpot; it’s a death sentence. 👉 Full story here
AI News
AI Wobbly Mirrors & the Hunt for Hidden Black Holes
Turns out, Google DeepMind’s AI isn’t just good at beating humans at Go- it might soon help LIGO’s giant laser observatories sniff out a whole new type of black hole. By damping down environmental “noise” 100-fold, the AI makes these cosmic ear-trumpets sensitive enough to catch whispers from the universe that were previously drowned out.
LIGO tracks gravitational waves, tiny ripples in spacetime from colliding black holes, but background noise (yes, even ocean waves thousands of km away) muddies the signal.
DeepMind’s algorithm can reduce this noise by up to 100 times, allowing detections that were impossible before.
This breakthrough could uncover exotic black holes that we’ve never seen, fundamentally expanding our cosmic census.
Why This Matters: A smarter LIGO doesn’t just mean more black holes, it means rewriting physics textbooks and probing mysteries about how matter, energy, and time itself behave.
Kismet: LIGO’s measurements rely on shifts 10,000 times smaller than an atom’s nucleus, basically the universe’s most extreme game of “spot the difference.” And now an AI is playing along. 👉 Full story here
Claude Just Got Hands-On: AI That Builds Your Files for You
Anthropic’s Claude isn’t just spitting out text anymore, it can now crank out full Excel models, PowerPoints, polished PDFs, and Word docs straight from your prompts. That’s AI moving from chatterbox to actual co-worker.
Claude can create and edit files: spreadsheets with working formulas, reports with analysis, or even turning PDFs into decks.
It runs in a private compute sandbox, coding and crunching behind the scenes to hand you finished documents.
Available now for Max, Team, and Enterprise plans, with Pro access rolling out soon.
Why This Matters: This shifts AI from “advice mode” into full-blown execution partner, shrinking the gap between idea and output down to a conversation.
Kismet: One demo? A wedding checklist and budget, elegantly formatted in minutes. Your AI best man might be better at Excel than your actual best man. 👉 Full story here
Electromobility
470 Miles, 10 Minutes: CATL’s LFP Battery Breaks Every Rule
EV battery company CATL just dropped the Shenxing Pro, the first LFP battery that makes range anxiety look positively quaint. Think 470+ miles on a charge, a top-up of nearly 300 miles in ten minutes, and a lifespan that outlives most cars. Oh, and it’s cheaper too.
758 km WLTP range (470+ miles) on an affordable LFP chemistry, not pricier nickel-based cells.
10-minute charging adds almost 300 miles, even at –20°C, it delivers over 250 miles.
Built for endurance: 12 years / 1,000,000 km lifespan and just 9% capacity loss after 200,000 km.
Why This Matters: This is a direct hit on the old ICE argument, EVs are now faster, cheaper, longer-lasting, and more winter-proof than ever.
Kismet: CATL’s battery can even push 830 kW bursts at 20% charge, enough for a 0–100 km/h sprint in 2.5 seconds. That’s family-sedan chemistry packing supercar punch. 👉 Full story here
Clean Energy
Big Batteries Gobble Solar, Tame Prices
Australia’s grid-scale batteries are no longer bit players, they’re feasting on excess solar and trimming negative price hours, according to Rystad Energy’s latest data. Battery charging load is surging so fast it’s set to overtake pumped hydro within a year.
August saw 4,863 GWh of wind + solar generation, up 12% year-on-year.
Negative pricing hours fell, thanks to 1.4 TWh of utility battery charging (12-month total), fast closing in on pumped hydro’s 2.0 TWh.
Renewables hit 40% of Australia’s grid and 36% of Western Australia’s grid in August, with record-performing wind and solar farms driving the growth.
Why This Matters: Batteries aren’t just storage, they’re market stabilisers, proving renewables can scale without breaking the grid.
Kismet: One Aussie wind farm clocked a 54.6% capacity factor in August—numbers that would make some gas plants blush. 👉 Full story here
Solar Surges 64% Globally - China Leaves Everyone in the Shade
The first half of 2025 saw a jaw-dropping 380 GW of solar installed worldwide, that’s 64% more than last year. And China? It added 256 GW on its own, more than double the rest of the world combined.
380 GW new solar in H1 2025 vs 232 GW in H1 2024.
China = 67% of total, with India (24 GW) and the US (21 GW) trailing far behind.
If current build-out continues, solar will be more than half of all new global capacity added this year.
Why This Matters: Solar isn’t just growing, it’s stampeding, crushing gas as the default for new power and rewriting the playbook for energy economics.
Kismet: The US set a record in 2002 by adding 58 GW of capacity, nearly all gas. This year, solar alone is on track to beat that record outright. 👉 Full story here
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Latest Podcasts
Climate Confident:
Love, Anger & Civil Disobedience — Jonathon Porritt Speaks Out
In this week’s Climate Confident, I sat down with legendary sustainability campaigner Jonathon Porritt, who’s spent 50 years fighting for the planet and now stands firmly with young climate activists. We covered everything from Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil, to the capture of politics by fossil fuel money, and why authentic hope, not blind optimism, is the only path forward.
Jonathon warns of the “science-politics gap”: the deadly gulf between what scientists know and what politicians do.
Civil disobedience, from suffragettes to Just Stop Oil, is framed as a moral duty when polite lobbying fails.
The financial system, especially insurance, may be the lever that finally breaks fossil capitalism.
Why This Matters: When a veteran of half a century says we’re running out of time and must rethink not just tactics but capitalism itself, it’s a wake-up call worth heeding.
Kismet: Porritt himself now faces charges under the UK’s Terrorism Act, not for violence, but for supporting Palestine Action. That’s how far governments will go to muzzle dissent. 🎧 Listen to the full episode
Sustainable Supply Chain:
From Kodiak Bears to Smarter Supply Chains
This week on Sustainable Supply Chain, I spoke with Sam Jenks, CRO at Kodiak Hub, about why supplier relationship management (SRM) is moving from “nice-to-have” to mission critical. Spoiler: your vendor data is a mess, and it’s costing you resilience, innovation, and sustainability.
SRM is evolving fast, from back-office contract admin to a strategic lever for resilience, innovation, and ESG.
Poor data and siloed systems leave procurement “drowning in information, starved of knowledge.”
Strong supplier ties don’t just reduce risk, they cut emissions, prevent waste, and create competitive advantage.
Why This Matters: Most of your Scope 3 emissions live in your supply chain. Without smart SRM, you’re not just risking disruption, you’re leaving money, innovation, and climate progress on the table.
Kismet: Procurement teams only get 17% of the tech they ask for approved. Imagine running the most complex, risk-laden function in business with hand-me-down tools. 🎧 Listen to the full episode
Coming Soon to the podcasts
In the coming episodes I will be talking to Mavarick AI CEO Paul Byrnes, and ODI Director Emily Wilkinson.
Don’t forget to follow the podcasts in your podcast app of choice to ensure you don’t miss any episodes.
Featured Chart
The more renewables US states added to their grids, the more reliable their grids got, so much for the “wind and solar make the lights go out” nonsense. Source.
This one is self-explanatory and has positive implications for EV prices, and electricity grid stability.
Global life expectancy was pretty stable for hundreds of years, until vaccines came along!
Misc stuff
An oldie but goodie
This one made me laugh!
And Banksy’s latest picture is highlighting how the UK’s laws on non-violent protest have become increasingly draconian. Coincidentally this is something Jonathon Porritt and I talked about on this week’s Climate Confident podcast as well.
Engage
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Finally, since being impacted by the tech layoffs, I'm currently in the market for a new role. If you know someone who could benefit from my tech savvy, sustainability, and strong social media expertise, I'd be really grateful for a referral.
If you have any comments or suggestions for how I can improve this newsletter, don’t hesitate to let me know. Thanks.
*** Be aware that any typos you find in this newsletter are tests to see who is paying attention! ***
And Finally
Blindly obeying road signs isn’t always advised!
How 433 Investors Unlocked 400X Return Potential
Institutional investors back startups to unlock outsized returns. Regular investors have to wait. But not anymore. Thanks to regulatory updates, some companies are doing things differently.
Take Revolut. In 2016, 433 regular people invested an average of $2,730. Today? They got a 400X buyout offer from the company, as Revolut’s valuation increased 89,900% in the same timeframe.
Founded by a former Zillow exec, Pacaso’s co-ownership tech reshapes the $1.3T vacation home market. They’ve earned $110M+ in gross profit to date, including 41% YoY growth in 2024 alone. They even reserved the Nasdaq ticker PCSO.
The same institutional investors behind Uber, Venmo, and eBay backed Pacaso. And you can join them. But not for long. Pacaso’s investment opportunity ends September 18.
Paid advertisement for Pacaso’s Regulation A offering. Read the offering circular at invest.pacaso.com. Reserving a ticker symbol is not a guarantee that the company will go public. Listing on the NASDAQ is subject to approvals.