The artificial intelligence and energy sectors are facing an interesting conundrum: both are expected to increase in tandem in the coming years, but they also require many of the same resources -- including critical minerals that are in increasingly short supply. The result may be bottlenecks that make it difficult for the sectors to grow, reports the International Energy Agency. "Monitoring how the material footprint of AI and data centres evolves will be critical to anticipating some key energy security risks," it says in its World Energy Outlook report.

Surging electricity prices are putting significant pressure on industries that rely on electrification, particularly in the US. Sectors such as green hydrogen, clean steel and cement are especially vulnerable since their operating costs are closely tied to power rates. In regions with abundant hydropower, such as Quebec and Scandinavia, electrification may still be viable, but elsewhere, higher prices could delay or shift decarbonization strategies toward alternatives like carbon capture.

US developers have safe-harbored 33 gigawatts of renewables under President Donald Trump's Big Beautiful Bill, ensuring access to tax credits through 2028, according to a LevelTen Energy report. LevelTen anticipates a decline in safe-harbored projects after 2028, which may drive developers to focus on hybrid systems that blend storage with wind or solar.

The Rockefeller Foundation has launched the Climate and Health Funders Coalition at COP30, with $300 million committed to solutions for climate issues that affect public health. The coalition includes Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust, and is focused on accelerating solutions and research on extreme heat, air pollution and climate-sensitive infectious diseases.

Utilities are facing significant challenges in balancing grid resilience with affordability amid extreme weather, rising energy demand and regulatory pressures. The Edison Electric Institute projects $1 trillion in grid investment by 2030, with a significant portion aimed at resilience. In this episode of the Open Circuit podcast, the team explores the affordability challenge and how to solve it.

A new energy bill moving through the Massachusetts legislature aims to address rising utility costs by limiting the impact of climate and clean energy initiatives on customer bills. The bill would make the state's 2030 climate target nonbinding, reduce spending on energy efficiency and reinstate incentives for gas heating systems. While the bill is intended to deliver short-term affordability, critics argue it would undermine decades of climate policy and offer minimal relief to consumers.

Electricity prices are rising, but state and local lawmakers can address this by cutting utility profit rates, paying utilities for performance and unblocking local solar and storage, writes John Farrell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. New infrastructure tends to be more profitable for utilities than energy efficiency projects, but drives up consumer costs. Farrell discusses how non-utility ownership of solar projects and fair compensation via net energy metering could help bring energy costs down.

A decade after the Paris Agreement, the 1.5°C warming target is now considered unachievable, and even limiting warming to below 2°C appears unlikely, according to Rhodium. This chart based on the report shows the world's emissions trajectory through 2050. That said, Rhodium's report has some bright spots. Worst-case warming forecasts have improved and low-cost renewables continue to grow, which could help bring down power sector emissions.