A Green Hydrogen Bet, GM Expects EV Profits By 2025 And The World’s Population Hits 8 Billion

This week’s Current Climate, which every Saturday brings you the latest news about the business of sustainability. Sign up to get it in your inbox every week.

Earlier this week, the United Nations estimated that the world’s population hit 8 billion people. That’s just 11 years after the global population hit 7 billion. The Earth’s population hit 4 billion people in 1974–meaning it took less than 50 years for the population to double. That said, that rate of growth isn’t expected to continue. The U.N. estimates that the rate of growth has started to slow down, and is only expected to hit about 10.4 billion people by the end of the century. And that growth will be concentrated primarily in about 8 countries, while the rest of the world sees lower rates of childbirth coupled with aging populations. Thanks to advances in medicine, the proportion of the population aged over 65 will rise from about 10% now to 16% in the year 2050. Based on U.N. estimates, India is likely to surpass China as the world’s most populous country next year. The two countries combined collectively include about 2.8 billion people – over a third of the planet’s population.

Quick housekeeping note: there’ll be no edition of Current Climate next week. Enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday!

The Big Read

Is Green Hydrogen The Fuel Of The Future? This CEO Is Betting On It

Plug Power’s long-time CEO is repositioning the fuel cell maker to be a producer of hydrogen fuel made from water and renewable power to cut climate-warming industrial carbon pollution from the steel, oil and agricultural industries.

Read more here.

Discoveries And Innovations

Rising global temperatures and the spread of airborne pollutants could worsen the symptoms of neurological diseases including dementia, strokes, Parkinson’s disease and ALS, researchers warned in a new report.

This week, 54 species of shark were granted increased international conservation protections, which places nearly all species of shark hunted for their fins under the protection of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora treaty.

A major seafood organization announced it will no longer recognize lobsters caught in the Gulf of Maine as sustainable, dealing a major blow to lobstermen amid an ongoing environmental battle over the protection of the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

Researchers at MIT have discovered a method that may pave the way for the practical production of solid-state batteries.