Jeremiah Pariag MES, MBA

Environmental Management Professor @WesternU. Consultant @HDR. Formerly @WSP. Environment, sustainability, and political commentary. All views are my own.

[Jeremiah Pariag MES, MBA @JeremiahPariag]

70 to 95% of people in developing countries rely on plant-based traditional medicine for primary healthcare, per WHO. Over 20% of those plant species are now threatened with extinction.

Biodiversity loss is often framed as an environmental issue. It is also a global health crisis hiding in plain sight.

#Sustainability #Biodiversity #PublicHealth #Conservation

https://t.co/cn2lbtT3UY

[Jeremiah Pariag MES, MBA @JeremiahPariag]

Monarch butterfly populations wintering in Mexico occupied 7.24 acres this year, up 64% from 4.42 acres the previous winter. Forest degradation in their habitat also fell significantly.

Monarch numbers have been declining for decades. A 64% rebound in a single season is the kind of result that reminds you recovery is possible when conditions are right.

#Sustainability #WildlifeConservation #Biodiversity #GoodNews

https://t.co/Whtd3CTLEI

[Jeremiah Pariag MES, MBA @JeremiahPariag]

Phase-change material ceiling tiles that absorb and release heat without any mechanical system are moving toward commercial deployment in 2026.

Thermal energy storage in buildings is one of the least glamorous but most practical tools for flattening electricity demand peaks. Tiles that do it invisibly are exactly how adoption scales.

#Sustainability #EnergyStorage #GreenBuilding #Innovation

https://t.co/PYFbSpfltP

[Jeremiah Pariag MES, MBA @JeremiahPariag]

The world built a record 814 GW of new wind and solar capacity in 2025, per Ember. Total installed wind and solar crossed 4 TW for the first time in history.

And this happened in a year with significant policy headwinds in multiple major markets. The technology and economics are now largely driving themselves.

#Sustainability #RenewableEnergy #WindPower #SolarEnergy

https://t.co/QBwDGhxPdb

[Jeremiah Pariag MES, MBA @JeremiahPariag]

Utility-scale solar and wind hit a record 17% of US electricity generation in 2025. Solar capacity alone grew 34% in a single year, per the EIA.

Solar has increased its generation every single year since 2006. That is not a trend. That is a structural shift baked into the economics of the grid.

#Sustainability #SolarEnergy #RenewableEnergy #EnergyTransition

https://t.co/BXkGITSkzR

[Jeremiah Pariag MES, MBA @JeremiahPariag]

Solar, wind, and battery storage added over 55 GW of new US capacity in the past 12 months. Net fossil fuel and nuclear additions combined were less than 1 GW.

That ratio is not an accident or a policy choice at this point. It is the market telling you which technologies are cheapest to build.

#Sustainability #SolarEnergy #EnergyStorage #CleanEnergy

https://t.co/uIXeK4Z5rz

[Jeremiah Pariag MES, MBA @JeremiahPariag]

Microsoft and Nvidia announced an "AI for nuclear" partnership at CERAWeek this week, building AI tools to streamline nuclear plant permitting, design, and operations.

Permitting is one of the longest poles in the nuclear tent. If AI can compress that timeline meaningfully, it changes the economics of the entire sector.

#Sustainability #Nuclear #AI #CleanEnergy

https://t.co/AUBT9szIAo

[Jeremiah Pariag MES, MBA @JeremiahPariag]

Kentucky passed incentives today to support a laser uranium enrichment plant in the state, part of a broader push to build a domestic US nuclear fuel supply chain.

The US currently depends heavily on foreign enrichment. Building that capacity at home is a years-long project. Kentucky just made it slightly more likely to happen.

#Sustainability #Nuclear #Uranium #CleanEnergy

https://t.co/MGv9NJag2U

[Jeremiah Pariag MES, MBA @JeremiahPariag]

The DOE's new UPRISE initiative, the Utility Power Reactor Incremental Scaling Effort, is targeting immediate increases in output from existing US reactors through uprates and restarts.

New nuclear takes a decade. Uprating existing plants takes months. For a grid under strain, that distinction is everything.

#Sustainability #Nuclear #CleanEnergy #EnergyPolicy

https://t.co/oXGSO8qNcH

[Jeremiah Pariag MES, MBA @JeremiahPariag]

The DOE's new UPRISE initiative, the Utility Power Reactor Incremental Scaling Effort, is targeting immediate increases in output from existing US reactors through uprates and restarts.

New nuclear takes a decade. Uprating existing plants takes months. For a grid under strain, that distinction is everything.

#Sustainability #Nuclear #CleanEnergy #EnergyPolicy

https://t.co/oXGSO8qNcH

[Jeremiah Pariag MES, MBA @JeremiahPariag]

The UK government is quadrupling nuclear PhD intakes, with 500+ doctoral students to be trained over the next four years.

You cannot build a nuclear renaissance without the people to run it. Workforce development is the unglamorous bottleneck that will determine whether the ambition is real.

#Sustainability #Nuclear #CleanEnergy #STEM

https://t.co/zjqfr83tNc

[Jeremiah Pariag MES, MBA @JeremiahPariag]

The EU's new SMR strategy launched this week, with the head of the Nuclear Energy Agency warning of unprecedented growth in electricity consumption that only firm, low-carbon power can meet.

Europe spent a decade retreating from nuclear. The next decade looks like the opposite.

#Sustainability #Nuclear #SMR #Europe

https://t.co/g8NHz0XuN7

[Jeremiah Pariag MES, MBA @JeremiahPariag]

X-energy signed a Letter of Intent this week to assess deployment of multiple SMR plants with Talen Energy.

Tech companies are buying the power. Utilities are building the plants. The market for advanced nuclear is no longer theoretical. It is being contracted right now.

#Sustainability #Nuclear #SMR #CleanEnergy

https://t.co/azxVPY4cuY

[Jeremiah Pariag MES, MBA @JeremiahPariag]

@charlesadler It also downplays the significant conflicts and human rights issues that stem from mining silver, copper, cobalt, and rare earth elements.

[Jeremiah Pariag MES, MBA @JeremiahPariag]

An unfortunately uninformed take from the likely future NDP leader. Solar panels and wind turbines rely on heavily mined materials (copper, cobalt, and rare earth elements) that are already fueling conflict and exploitation across the world. This is a real problem that deserves honesty. Downplaying this does not help anyone.

[Scott Robertson @sarobertson_]

Avi Lewis on moving away from fossil fuels: “No one ever bombed a factory full of sunlight, JP. No one’s ever gone to war over the wind.”

[Robert B. Hayes, PhD, CHP, PE @1c905d11c9a4459]

The myth that nuclear is not safe

[Jeremiah Pariag MES, MBA @JeremiahPariag]

Solar farms are turning out to be unexpectedly good habitats for rare plants. New research found the shaded microclimate under panels slows soil evaporation, helping seedlings like the threecorner milkvetch thrive.

The land use trade-offs in clean energy are real. So are the unexpected co-benefits.

#Sustainability #SolarEnergy #Biodiversity #Innovation

https://t.co/UbVMgvG6oX

[Jeremiah Pariag MES, MBA @JeremiahPariag]

VoltaGrid raised $5 billion to roll out more than 4 GW of new flexible power projects by 2028, backed by J.P. Morgan.

Flexible, lower-emission gas and microgrid solutions are filling the reliability gap while the grid catches up to renewable deployment. It's not perfect, but it's what the transition actually looks like in practice.

#Sustainability #EnergyTransition #CleanEnergy #Innovation

https://t.co/i5QcFUByod

[Jeremiah Pariag MES, MBA @JeremiahPariag]

Singapore's Peak Energy added 10 MW of new solar capacity this week as demand for renewable power accelerates across the city-state.

Singapore has limited land. It has no rivers, no wind worth speaking of. Yet it's finding ways to build solar at scale. Constraints drive creativity.

#Sustainability #SolarEnergy #RenewableEnergy #Singapore

https://t.co/qMER3wedRr

[Jeremiah Pariag MES, MBA @JeremiahPariag]

Southeast Asia needs an estimated $2.2 trillion in investment to hit its renewable energy targets by 2030. Blended finance, combining public and private capital, is emerging as the mechanism to get there.

The developing world's clean energy future will largely be determined by whether this financing model scales.

#Sustainability #ClimateFinance #RenewableEnergy #SoutheastAsia

https://t.co/VysVDMZwsQ