Escalating climate impacts collide with law, technology, and energy transition

This cluster tracks a world where climate change is no longer abstract: blizzards, avalanches, tornadoes, and natural disasters are intensifying, disrupting cities, driving inflation, and even creating emerging ‘insurance deserts.’ At the same time, courts and regulators are becoming central battlegrounds, with U.S. Supreme Court climate lawsuits, rollbacks of EPA authority, and shifting rules for EVs and fossil projects shaping how responsibility and costs are shared. Parallel to this, the energy system is in flux—battery storage, fusion research, ocean power, LNG, lithium discoveries, and the uncertain future of refineries, wind, and solar all compete to define the next energy era. AI runs through many of these stories, from decarbonizing industry and agriculture to drug discovery and grid optimization, raising questions about whether it will accelerate solutions or add new climate burdens.