Axios

Editor's note: Read the latest on Hurricane Hilary's forecast here.

Tropical Storm Hilary formed Wednesday off the Southwestern coast of Mexico, and is poised to rapidly intensify into a powerful hurricane through Friday.

Threat level: The storm has the potential to make a rare direct hit, in a weakened form, somewhere between the Baja Peninsula of California and San Diego.

Renewable energy projects such as solar and wind have drawn the bulk of climate tech investment dollars across the U.S. and abroad since President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, according to data from S&P Global.

Zoom in: Renewables is the least risky of the areas for climate tech investing. And the check sizes for these assets tend to be large, especially in offshore wind.

Of note: The lines between where the U.S. and the rest of the world are spending on climate tech run parallel.

• The IRA's 45X tax credit, for example, introduced an incentive for advanced manufacturing in the U.S., fueling a new race between countries rushing to build solar, wind and battery components within their borders.
• "The provision will pay OEMs to make things for the first time since WWII," Overture VC managing partner Shomik Dutta tells Axios, referring to the tax credit's impact on manufacturers like automakers.

What we're watching: There's been a steady drumbeat of funding announcements related to hydrogen development. We'll see whether and how that sector accelerates.

Hawai'i's governor is trying to curb developers from purchasing destroyed lands in Maui as the island reels from the deadliest wildfires in the U.S. in over a century.

The big picture: Concerns are growing that newly built homes would attract wealthy buyers — exacerbating a housing crisis that has already driven Native Hawaiians and local-born residents out of their land, AP noted.

Jim Skea, the new chair of the influential UN climate science panel, has doubts about the world's ability to meet the Paris Agreement's most ambitious temperature goal, but wants to make it easier for governments to act.

The big picture: In an interview with Axios, Skea said policy makers are making it known that they need more actionable information, at a faster cadence, than what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has historically produced.

Teams responding to Hawai'i's historic wildfires have "recovered 106 human remains," per a Maui County statement Tuesday evening local time.

The big picture: The fires that razed much of western Maui and destroyed most of the island's historic town of Lahaina are the most destructive on record in Hawai'i. The Lahaina fire is the deadliest U.S. wildfire since 1918 and many people are still missing.

Authorities in Hawai'i are still searching for survivors of this week's destructive wildfires, which killed at least 106 people and injured dozens more on Maui Island. Officials expect the death toll to rise.

The big picture: The fires are the deadliest in the U.S. in over a century, surpassing the toll from California's 2018 Camp Fire, which killed 85.

It's the Pacific Northwest's turn to see scorchingly high temperatures as a heat dome builds across the region over the next several days. At the same time, extreme heat will continue to languish across the Gulf Coast states.

Threat level: The National Weather Service has issued excessive heat warnings and heat advisories from California's Central Valley to all of Oregon and Washington state through this week.

Hawai'i's primary energy provider faces at least three lawsuits, two of which seek class action status, after catastrophic wildfires devastated the state, killing at least 99 people and destroying the historic town of Lahaina on Maui.

Why it matters: What caused the wildfires remains unknown, but the lawsuits allege they were ignited by strong winds knocking down Hawaiian Electric's energized power lines.

Workers' advocates are urging local, state and federal governments to implement safety standards to protect the physical and mental well-being of Latinos who work under unrelenting heat conditions.

Driving the news: Farmworkers — the majority of whom in the U.S. are Latino — and others who work outside are especially vulnerable to the heat waves gripping parts of the country. Farmworkers in particular are more likely to die from heat stress than other outdoor workers, studies have found.

This winter in South America has been one of the hottest on record, intensifying crises created over the last year by severe droughts, wildfires and floods in some regions.

Why it matters: Experts say the extreme weather is already threatening critical biodiversity and the lives of millions in a region where many reside in slums or informal housing with little infrastructure.

Three temperature tracking centers — NOAA, NASA and Berkeley Earth, came out with their July temperature reports Monday.

Why it matters: The results, as depicted above, are stark. The data sheds new insights into where 2023 may rank on the list of the globe's warmest years.

A historic ruling in the Montana youth climate case is likely to inspire similar cases in the U.S. and abroad, but its overall impact could be blunted by Montana's unique circumstances.

Why it matters: This was the first time a U.S.judge has determined through a trial that a right to environmental protection also covers climate change.

The U.S. climate law, turning one year old this week, is juicing U.S. demand for a basket of minerals that won't be easy to meet.

Driving the news: U.S. needs were already growing fast before the Inflation Reduction Act, and now there's even more pressure.

High-stakes contract talks between the United Auto Workers and Detroit's Big 3 automakers are a tricky test of Democratic coalition politics as the EV transition marches ahead.

Driving the news: President Biden yesterday urged the Ford, GM and Stellantis to avoid plant closures as part of a wider statement on the talks.