š± The Grumpy Optimists #170
Forbes 30U30 event, LCAW and decisions going against Trump...
Happy Monday. š
Last week I spent 22 hours in Paris to celebrate Forbes 30U30 Europe edition with some incredible people. Iām not normally one for celebrating my wins (contrary to my LinkedIn posting) but last night was an opportunity to recognise the hard work of the last five years at Zevero.
Better yet, I got to do it with Emma Askew, an incredible woman I interviewed for my dissertation back in 2019. Seven years later and we both made the social impact list and see each other in Paris.
So hereās to sweating through two t-shirts in 30Ā°C Paris, buying a new one so Iād have something to wear, and drinking champagne at the event before swapping to ā¬4 beers with an inspiring group of people.
Topping it all off with a great run around Paris this morning to take it all in (and sweat out the alcohol). Hereās to being proud of doing cool sh*t!
š News to make you feel good this week
š¦« Eight beavers solved a Tube flooding problem engineers spent decades on. Greenford had flooded since the 1970s, and the councilās previous answer was to straighten and concrete the river. Instead, five beavers (now at least eight) were released into Paradise Fields in 2023, built a network of dams, and turned the site into a giant sponge. 2024 was the first year the area didnāt flood, and the Central line station stayed dry through record rainfall.
š My thoughts? We spent 400 years hunting these animals to extinction and a fortune trying to engineer our way out of the consequences. Turns out the cheapest, best flood consultant in West London works for free and lives in a pond.
š SĆ£o TomĆ© and PrĆncipe is getting eight new Marine Protected Areas. The island nationās first formal marine protection network, covering 93 square kilometres across both islands, with the remaining sites being designated through 2026 and full operations expected by early 2027. Some zones ban fishing entirely, others stay open to artisanal fishers using legal gear. Fishing can still be done if itās sustainable!
š UK retailers are in talks to sell plug-in ābalconyā solar panels. These plug straight into a normal three-prong socket, cost a few hundred pounds rather than thousands, and can shave up to 30% off a householdās bill. Germany already has around 1.5 million of them. Imagine being able to power an AC unit during the heatwave weāre about to have in Europe from solar PV? Thatās what Iām thinking dreaming about.
ā” A wartime jolt is pushing buttons on renewable power. The head of one of the worldās biggest renewables groups makes the case that a second energy shock in five years is the best advert renewables could ask for: security, sovereignty and a competitive price. There is no do it for the right reasons argument needed. The IEA is now advising countries like Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines on using clean energy as emergency insurance, and rooftop solar is surging from India to the US.
āļø Spainās renewables boom is quietly shielding households from the energy crisis. New Ember analysis found Spanish homes have saved about ā¬10 a month since gas prices spiked in March. Gas now sets the power price in just 9% of hours, down from 52% in 2021, after wind and solar grew 37% in four years. Spain didnāt burn any coal at all in August 2025, having got a quarter of its power from it a decade ago. This is pretty cool progress.
š°ļø The Trump administration tried to scrap a vital ocean monitoring network, then backed off. The plan was to pull more than 900 deep-sea instruments that make up the $368m Ocean Observatories Initiative, a decade of continuous Atlantic and Pacific climate data. Then a bipartisan group of senators wrote to the NSF, and on 19 June the agency confirmed it would halt all removals and keep the network running.
āļø Clean energy advocates keep beating the Trump administration in court. The Justice Department voluntarily dropped its appeal defending Trumpās executive order banning new wind projects, after a judge ruled the ban āarbitrary and capriciousā and beyond presidential authority. A coalition of 17 states and DC led the challenge.
My thoughts? Two stories in a row that allow me to say screw the orange man. prick.
š The worldās largest solar-hydrogen-storage project just came online in China. CHN Energyās Rudong project pairs a 400 MW coastal solar plant with battery storage and a green hydrogen facility, all built on a reclaimed tidal flat. The solar alone should power nearly 200,000 homes a year, and a dedicated cable lets surplus power run the electrolysers directly, bypassing the grid. The kind of integrated, generation-to-fuel system everyone sketches on whiteboards and rarely builds at scale.
This week is also a very big week here in London with London Climate Action Week.
Iāll be at Reset Connect doing a talk Tuesday 11.30-12 as well as hosting a fantastic panel on Thursday morning near Shoreditch. If you want to come along, sign up here. Do let me know events I should be attending too!
My song for the week is Riley Green and Ella Langley, Donāt Mind If I Do. No joke, I have listened to this song 100+ times on repeat in the last two weeks. š
George, the Grumpy Optimist š