With a 10% penetration of electric vehicles, the car capital of the world could shift its entire residential peak load to night-time hours. In Los Angeles, even such a low penetration of EVs would create enough virtual power plants to discharge during peak evening hours. The annual cost savings would be $560 per EV customer even after accounting for the cost of overnight recharging. Deloitte forecasts a tipping point in 2022 where the cost of ownership of an EV will equal the cost of an internal combustion engine vehicle.

There is a clear need for more transparency and standardisation around climate action policies and measures in place in all Asian development finance institutions, says a report by think tank E3G. It singles out the China Development Bank and Korea Development Bank in particular for making “very little information publicly available” on many of the ten metrics covered in its report aimed at measuring progress on actions to achieve the Paris Agreement, including mitigation and adaptation, climate risk and greenhouse gas accounting.

California has committed to 100% clean electricity, a doubling of energy efficiency, widespread transport electrification and a carbon neutral economy by 2045. A report by Gridworks warns the state must plan the transition of its gas system or face “immense risk” as increasing infrastructure costs coincide with a rapid decline in demand. The volume of gas flowing through California’s gas delivery system will decline dramatically because of state and local policies. Even without electrification, gas use in homes will drop by 25% by 2050 because of efficiency.