Covid-19 didn’t slow greenhouse emissions; Tesla valued at $1 trillion; a chat with the founders of Lohum Cleantech

Greenhouse emissions continue to rise at an alarming rate, hitting new records. The economic slowdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic didn’t slow them down, the World Meteorological Organisation warned on Monday as ministers from countries around the world prepare to meet in Scotland for the COP26 climate talks. COP26 is the next annual UN climate change conference.

COP stands for ‘Conference of the Parties.' The summit will be attended by the countries that signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)—a treaty that came into force in 1994.

“Greenhouse gas levels are at new records. Again concentration of CO2 in 2020 was 149 percent of pre-industrial times; Economic slowdown from COVID-19 had no real impact; We are set for an increase much higher than the #ParisAgreement target of 1.5°C-2°C," the WMO said on its Twitter page.

Britain, which is chairing the COP26 talks, said in a press statement that there has been some progress on getting the developed nations to meet the target of contributing $100 billion each, per year, towards climate action.

Tesla hit $1 trillion in market value as America’s biggest electric car maker continues to benefit from the world’s shift towards electric vehicles. Shares in the company surged 12.6 percent on Monday after Tesla struck a $4.2 billion deal with rental car service Hertz, to supply an initial order of 100,000 electric cars and new charging infrastructure by the end of 2022. Tesla joins Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google’s parent company Alphabet in the $1 trillion club as the world’s most valuable companies.

Facebook has said that the operating profits for 2021 will be lower by $10 billion owing to increasing investments in its metaverse plan and augmented reality and virtual reality. That includes its investments in hardware products like the new 128GB Oculus Quest2 headset. The social networking company reported its fiscal third-quarter earnings results after markets in the US on Monday. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement that, starting the current quarter, the company will break out additional financial metrics for Facebook Reality Labs—which includes the augmented reality and virtual reality work—and Facebook’s ‘family of apps’—which includes Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and other services.

(3:23) Interview: Rajat Verma and Justin Lemmon, co-founders of Lohum Cleantech, on ambitions for cell manufacturing in India

Rajat Verma and Justin Lemmon found themselves next to each other due to the seating arrangements in their MBA class at Harvard Business School back in 2004. They struck up a fast friendship and eventually co-founded Lohum Cleantech, a battery solutions company for the EV and energy storage market. Forbes India caught up with the duo for a quick update on their plans. They spoke about expanding capacity in India; plans for a battery recycling factory in the US; and efforts to get closer to manufacturing the lithium-ion cells themselves in India, for which they are currently reliant on imports from China and South Korea.