As the market for the electric buses, cars, trucks, and trains that help curb the climate crisis continues to grow globally, the battery supply chain faces increased scrutiny. Minerals like lithium, nickel, graphite, and cobalt are too often mined and processed in ways that contribute to harming communities and ecosystems, while the batteries often face wasteful end-of-life disposal.
To address this challenge and identify solutions, Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment (CLEE) and ClimateWorks Foundation founded in 2022 the Global Forum for Sustainable Batteries, a worldwide network of nonprofit leaders, experts, and advocates committed to transportation electrification and mining justice.
In 2024, the Forum developed a 2040 Sustainable Battery Vision that we’re releasing publicly today, with the aim of guiding policymakers, organizations, companies, and the general public on the key elements of what a truly sustainable battery should be by 2040. The 2040 Sustainable Battery Vision covers all aspects of the supply chain and beyond, including:
- Sourcing of raw and recovered minerals and materials
- Battery manufacturing
- Battery end-of-life
- Battery value chain traceability
The Vision has received the endorsement of leading environmental and mining justice organizations from around the world, along with supportive quotes. You can view the full list of signatories and their quotes here. And if you represent an organization that would like to endorse it as well, please contact me.
Our hope is that pursuing this 2040 Vision will not only benefit affected communities and stakeholders, it holds the promise of ensuring that the world can meet the transportation electrification challenge both more sustainably and rapidly.
Tonight on State of the Bay, we’ll hear from CLEE’s Louise Bedsworth and Isabel Rewick, both of whom took part in this year’s United Nations climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan.
AND we interview Assemblymember Damon Connolly, San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu, and Senator Scott Wiener about how new Trump administration policies might impact life here in the Bay Area.
PLUS, we’ll get advice from Luisa Smith of Book Passage on the perfect gift for the booklover on your holiday list.
Tune in at 91.7 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area or stream live tonight at 6pm PT. What comments or questions do you have for our guests? Call 866-798-TALK to join the conversation!
Yesterday I appeared on two radio shows, now available for streaming or podcast download. First, on KQED Forum, I was on a panel discussing what climate efforts may look like during a Trump Administration, and how California will respond. Joining me was:
- Lisa Friedman, reporter on the climate desk, New York Times
- Jesse Jenkins, assistant professor, engineering, Princeton University
- Aru Shiney-Ajay, Executive Director, Sunrise movement, a grassroots organization of students and young people focused on climate change
You can stream it here.
Then last night I hosted State of the Bay on KALW, where I spoke to UC Berkeley Professor of Chemistry Omar Yaghi about a newly developed carbon-capturing material that has the potential to transform how we address climate change.
Then, we broke down local election results and discussed what they tell us about the priorities and concerns of Bay Area residents with San Francisco Chronicle opinion columnist and editorial writer, Emily Hoeven.
And finally, we talked with Rae Black of Oakland’s For the Win Boxing, a boxing gym that offers professional coaching for women and non-binary people who want to pursue “the sweet science” of boxing.
You can listen to that show here.
Tonight on State of the Bay, local sports journalist Steve Berman from The Athletic will update us on the Niners, Warriors and other Bay area sports teams.
Then, we dig into California’s Prop 4, the $10 billion bond to fight climate change with a panel of experts. Is it worth your vote? Tune in and decide for yourself! Guests include:
- Ari Platcha from the Sacramento Bee
- Sarah Atkinson from SPUR
- Allison Chan from Save the Bay.
Finally, we’ll hear from celebrated local dancer and choreographer Micaya about the 26th annual SF International Hip Hop Dance Fest.
Tune in at 91.7 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area or stream live tonight at 6pm PT. What comments or questions do you have for our guests? Call 866-798-TALK to join the conversation!
Tonight on State of the Bay, we’ll explore Sonoma County’s Measure J with Phil Barber, staff writer with The Press Democrat. Measure J aims to prohibit concentrated animal feeding operations, or large animal farms in Sonoma County. This contentious initiative could reshape the county’s environmental and economic future. What do farmers and residents stand to gain or lose?
We’ll also hear from Stanford climate scientist Rob Jackson about his new book, Into the Clear Blue Sky: The Path to Restoring Our Atmosphere, and the reasons he remains hopeful despite the climate crisis.
Later, we’ll talk with New York Times reporters Kate Conger and Ryan Mac, co-authors of Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter. What has Musk’s takeover meant for free speech and the future of social media?
Tune in at 91.7 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area or stream live tonight at 6pm PT. What comments or questions do you have for our guests? Call 866-798-TALK to join the conversation!
It’s double duty for me today on KALW, where I’m hosting two leading climate scholars for Your Call at 10am and then hosting State of the Bay at 6pm PT on the chaos at San Francisco Unified and the state of housing in California.
The action kicks off at 10am PT with:
- Naomi Oreskes, Henry Charles Lea Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University, and author of nine books including her best-selling Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming; and
- Michael Mann, Presidential Distinguished Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania, with a secondary appointment in the Annenberg School for Communication, and author of several important books including The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet
I’ll ask them about Hurricane Helene and what it says about climate change, plus the just-concluded Climate Week in New York City that coincided with the UN general assembly.
Then at 6pm PT, join us on State of the Bay for the latest on the San Francisco Unified School District, with an ongoing fiscal crisis, just-announced delay of potential school closures, and emergency scrutiny of the superintendent. Jill Tucker, education reporter with the San Francisco Chronicle, will unpack it all.
Then we’ll hear about new efforts to address California’s housing shortage with experts Chris Elmendorf, professor of law at the University of California, Davis, School of Law, and Ben Metcalf, managing director of the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley.
Finally, we’ll sit down with Obi Kaufmann, the artist, author and naturalist who has published a series of beloved books about his home state of California.
Tune in at 91.7 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area or stream live at 10am PT for Your Call and then again at 6pm PT for State of the Bay. What comments or questions do you have for our guests? Call 866-798-TALK to join the conversation!
Tonight on State of the Bay we’ll talk with pollster Mark Baldassare, Statewide Survey Director of the California Public Policy Institute, to find out who the likely voters are in this November’s election and how they feel about the statewide ballot measures.
Then we’ll talk to Tom Steyer, climate investor and 2020 presidential candidate, about his new book Cheaper, Faster, Better: How We’ll Win the Climate War.
Then we’ll hear from Rahsaan Thomas, executive director of Empowerment Ave, a Bay Area organization that helps incarcerated people put their art out in the world.
Tune in at 91.7 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area or stream live at 6pm PT. What comments or questions do you have for our guests? Call 866-798-TALK to join the conversation!
On today’s Your Call Media Roundtable, we’ll speak with award-winning investigative journalist Nate Halverson about THE GRAB, a riveting new documentary that investigates how wealthy governments, private investors and mercenaries are working to seize food and water resources around the world, at the expense of local communities.
As climate shocks and food shortages worsen, these groups are now establishing themselves as the new OPEC, where the future world powers will be those who control not oil, but food and water resources. The documentary focuses on the impacts of communities from Arizona to Zambia.
Tune in at 91.7 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area or stream live at 10am PT. What comments or questions do you have for our guest? Call 866-798-TALK to join the conversation!
Climate change is causing multiple types of impacts on communities, from wildfires to sea level rise. But investigative journalist Lois Parshley says climate change is also driving a dangerous increase in landslides in Alaska, and I’ll speak to her as guest host of Your Call today at 10am PT.
Up to half of downtown Juneau is at moderate to severe risk of landslides. But Juneau officials faced significant backlash from the public when they tried to adopt new city maps that outlined that risk. Parshley says that with few resources to address the problem, some residents want to ignore it all together.
What can we do to protect people in Alaska and elsewhere from climate change-induced landslides? Tune in at 91.7 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area or stream live at 10am PT. What comments or questions do you have for our guest? Call 866-798-TALK to join the conversation!
On today’s Your Call Media Roundtable, I’ll be guest hosting to discuss the presidential election in Mexico.
Last Sunday, Claudia Sheinbaum, a climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City, won the election with nearly 60 percent of the vote, according to a rapid sample count by Mexico’s electoral authority.
Her party, the ruling Morena party, founded by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, will control two-thirds of both chambers of the national Congress and 24 of Mexico’s 32 governorships. Joining us to get the latest will be Alfredo Corchado, executive editor of the Puente News Collaborative.
Then in the second half of the show, we’ll discuss a Washington Post investigation that reveals how billions in US taxpayer dollars are paying for private-school tuition at conservative religious schools. Almost five million private school students are benefiting from vouchers.
The programs, popular with conservatives, are rapidly growing in GOP-run states, with a total of 29 states plus DC operating some sort of voucher system, according to the investigation. Eight states created or expanded voucher programs last year, and this year, Alabama, Georgia and Missouri have approved or expanded voucher-type programs. Some recently enacted plans are just starting to take effect or will be phased in over the next few years.
- Ohio: This year, more than 150,000 Ohio students are using vouchers, with 91 percent attending religious schools.
- Wisconsin: About 55,000 vouchers were given this school year with 96 percent attending religious schools.
- Indiana: About 98 percent of vouchers go to religious schools.
- Florida: This year, 400,000 students participated, with at least 82 percent of them attending religious schools. Florida has the largest voucher program with a cost of $3 billion this year alone.
- Arizona: More than 75,000 students are benefiting from the Empowerment Scholarship Program, which pays for any educational expense. 87 percent of $229 million that was spent for that program in 2022-2023 went to religious schools.
Our guest will be Laura Meckler, national education writer at the Washington Post.
Tune in at 91.7 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area or stream live at 10am PT. What comments or questions do you have for our guests? Call 866-798-TALK to join the conversation!
