Welcome to another edition of Climatebase Weekly (Tuesday, October 7th, 2025).

In today’s edition…

🌟 Featured climate jobs at 15+ new employers — Scroll down to view them all.

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🌎 This Week In Climate: Higher Gas, New Energy Bill & An Another Planetary Boundary Crossed

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(powered by Climatebase as part of the newly announced Climate Week Network)

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By Julian Moore 

A new analysis from Energy Innovation shows that eliminating EPA tailpipe pollution standards could cost Americans $310 billion over 25 years, primarily through higher gasoline prices. Under the analysis, the average American household is projected to pay an average of $83 extra annually in energy costs if cuts sought by the Trump Administration are carried through.

Without these standards, fewer fuel-efficient and electric vehicles would reach the market, increasing gasoline demand and prices. By 2040, gas could cost 36 cents more per gallon while the economy could lose $710 billion in GDP by 2050 and 110,000 jobs annually.

The Trump administration wants to repeal the EPA's authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, claiming current standards force costly EV purchases. However, the standards simply encourage efficiency improvements across all vehicle types.

The lifeline to fossil-powered transport would also have consequences for public health , including up to 700 premature pollution-related deaths yearly. The administration's counter-analysis claims that cutting the rules will save $54 billion annually, but didn’t factor in the cost of climate change or a model of gas prices beyond two and a half years. 

Democratic Representatives Sean Casten and Mike Levin are introducing the Cheap Energy Act to counter Trump administration policies they say drive up electricity costs by favoring fossil fuels over clean energy.

The legislation would restore clean energy tax credits, limit the Department of Energy's authority to declare "energy emergencies" that prevent fossil fuel plant retirements, and increase oversight of regional transmission organizations (RTOs). Casten argues RTOs currently prioritize transmission owner profits over consumer savings, with 95% of transmission built with an emphasis on grid reliability rather than cost reduction.

Key provisions include a 30% tax credit for qualifying transmission lines, energy efficiency targets of 22% for electric utilities and 14% for gas utilities by 2039, $2.1 billion for transformer shortages and grid security, and improved interregional transmission planning. Though Republicans control Congress, Casten wants the bill ready for any legislative opening, seeking bipartisan support despite opposition from Republican leadership representing oil and gas states.

Earth has crossed another critical planetary boundary: ocean acidification. According to the 2025 Planetary Boundaries report, this brings the total to seven crossed boundaries out of nine identified systems essential for supporting life. Only ozone depletion and aerosol loading remain in safe zones, while all seven crossed boundaries show worsening trends.

Ocean acidification occurs when carbon dioxide dissolves in seawater, reducing marine organisms' ability to build shells and skeletons—threatening oysters, corals, and snails, along with the human communities that depend on them. At the same time, the ocean may gradually lose its capacity to absorb carbon dioxide and heat, although some of these changes could be due to natural variation.

Levke Caesar from the Potsdam Institute notes current acidification levels are already causing harmful impacts, compromising ocean resilience. Additionally, climate change threatens to disrupt the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, which could shrink habitable zones for humans across the planet. The crossed boundaries include climate change, biosphere integrity, land-system change, freshwater use, biogeochemical flows, novel entities, and now ocean acidification.

A global energy export battle is underway between the US and China, according to Bloomberg Green, with China currently dominating. China exported $120 billion in clean technology through July—$30 billion more than US fossil fuel exports over the same period. In August alone, China shipped a record $20 billion in electric vehicles, solar panels, and batteries, despite falling technology prices.

China's clean tech export volumes continue growing, particularly in emerging markets outside wealthy nations. More than half of China's electric vehicle exports now go to non-OECD countries. August saw record solar panel capacity exports at 46,000 megawatts.

The US, meanwhile, hit record oil exports in 2024 under policies from both Trump and Biden administrations favoring fossil fuel production. 

China’s fossil fuel consumption still shows up on the other side of the ledger. China consumes most of the clean technology it manufactures domestically and is a major oil and gas importer, while the US can meet its own fossil fuel needs and has excess capacity for exports. 

The long-term advantages of renewables over fossil fuels are likely to play out in this competition. For countries importing renewables, the difference is that clean energy hardware like solar panels generates electricity for decades after purchase, whereas fossil fuels are consumed immediately and require continuous repurchasing.

Urban trees can reduce pedestrian-level air temperatures by up to 12°C, according to a University of Cambridge analysis of 182 studies across 110 cities. Trees cool through shade, evaporative cooling from leaves, and altered airflow. However, effectiveness varies significantly by species, urban layout, and climate.

Trees work best in hot, dry climates, providing over 9°C daytime cooling. In hot, humid areas like Nigeria, they cool by up to 12°C during the day but can warm nights by 0.8°C. Temperate zones see 6°C daytime cooling but 1.5°C nighttime warming, raising concerns about health impacts since nighttime recovery is critical.

Greater canopy coverage increases cooling—40% coverage provides maximum benefits. Open, low-rise cities benefit most from trees.

Implementation challenges include inequality in tree distribution, with low-income neighborhoods having less coverage. Cities like Freetown and Medellín use innovative funding, including paying residents to plant trees. Water scarcity poses risks; Texas lost 5.6 million trees in 2011's drought, costing $560 million in removal.

Sometimes cool roofs prove more practical than trees in densely populated, vulnerable areas.

Check out some of the latest featured jobs below. If you don't see anything that speaks to you, you can always go to Climatebase to explore over 50,000 new climate jobs.

Rain

“Every wildfire starts small. Rain builds autonomous wildfire suppression technology to give firefighters faster, safer, and more effective tools”

Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis

“Transforming energy finance with actionable insights for a sustainable, renewable future.”

Clima Technologies

“Building the AI Building Engineer”

Kestrix

“Kestrix maps how heat escapes from buildings with thermal drones, physics, and AI, and generate energy retrofit plans automatically, tackling the 20% of CO2 from buildings.”

Eagle Rock Analytics

“Transforming complex climate data into actionable solutions for better decision-making.”

Boundless Impact Research & Analytics

“Empowering investments in clean technologies through unbiased environmental impact analytics.”

Crux Climate

“Streamlining sustainable finance to accelerate clean energy projects with efficient, interconnected tax credit transactions.”

Rhizome

“AI platform identifying climate risks and quantifying grid investment benefits for electric utilities.”

Heirloom

“Harnessing natural processes to capture 1 billion tons of carbon dioxide by 2035.”

Edacious

“"Transforming food production for better nutrition and sustainability."”

Ekotrope

“Home Energy Rating Software improving energy efficiency in 20% of new US homes annually.”

WeaveGrid

“Driving decarbonization by integrating electric vehicles with the grid for utilities and customers.”

Wunder Capital

“Accelerating solar energy adoption to combat climate change.”