The Policy2050 Newsletter: Where innovation, investment, and impact meet.
By David Pring-Mill
July 2025 brings breakthrough funding for satellite forest monitoring and geospatial AI, alongside major capital deployments in grid-scale battery storage. Public and private sectors are converging on climate solutions—from whale-tracking satellites to WHO’s new climate-health initiative. Here’s what innovators, investors, and policymakers need to know.
Investment News
Chloris Geospatial Raises $8.5M to Monitor Forests via Satellite
Chloris Geospatial, a Boston-based climate tech company that uses satellite data and machine learning to measure forest carbon and ecosystem changes, has raised $8.5 million in Series A funding led by Future Energy Ventures. Existing investors including AXA IM Alts, At One Ventures, Cisco Foundation, Counteract, and Orbia Ventures also participated. The company plans to use the funding to accelerate product development, expand its commercial and technical teams, establish a European hub, and deepen partnerships in corporate carbon accounting and nature-based solutions. Chloris’s technology provides historical forest data dating back to 2000 and serves clients including corporations monitoring forest-risk supply chains, nature-based solution developers, and carbon market standards organizations.
LGND Raises $9M for Geospatial AI
LGND AI, Inc. announced a $9 million funding round led by Javelin Venture Partners to develop its geospatial AI platform. The company’s technology uses geographic embeddings to make Earth data more accessible and less expensive for developers and analysts to use. LGND’s platform allows users to create, refine, and deploy geospatial datasets in real-time, with applications in wildfire risk modeling, illegal mining detection, and infrastructure monitoring. Noah Doyle from Javelin, who previously led enterprise products for Google Earth and Google Maps, will join LGND’s board. The company operates remotely with teams in the Bay Area, New York, and Copenhagen.
SolaREIT Deploys $125M for Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS)
SolaREIT, a solar and battery storage real estate investment company based in Vienna, Virginia, announced that it has now deployed over $125 million in capital for battery energy storage system (BESS) projects across the United States. Their BESS capital solutions have supported more than 1,400 MWac of projects, helping improve grid stability, manage peak demand, and support clean energy deployment nationwide. The company offers various financing options including land purchases, lease purchases, and battery storage land loans, available in all 50 states. Battery storage sites are often more complex and costly to secure than solar projects, particularly in urban areas where strategically located land near existing grid infrastructure commands premium prices. SolaREI’s capital solutions aim to help developers access funding for land acquisition early in the development process.
Public Sector News
Canadian Space Agency Invests in Satellite Tech to Track Whales, Detect Wildfires, and Monitor Arctic
The Canadian Space Agency announced a $3.9 million investment on July 3, 2025, to fund five Canadian companies developing satellite data applications for environmental monitoring. The funded projects include: C-CORE (Newfoundland and Labrador) using AI and satellite data for Arctic monitoring; Mission Control (Ontario) developing machine learning for real-time wildfire detection onboard satellites; Hatfield Consultants (British Columbia) creating an eelgrass mapping system; and both AltaML (Alberta) and Fluvial Systems Research (British Columbia) working on North Atlantic right whale detection and protection systems. This funding is part of the smartEarth initiative, which has awarded over $30 million to more than 85 projects since its launch, involving nearly 100 organizations and over 500 employees across Canada’s space sector.
Norwegian Ministry Rules in Favor of Elkem on EU Carbon Allowances Dispute
The Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment has ruled in favor of Elkem ASA regarding the allocation of free emission allowances under the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) for 2021-2025. The ministry concluded that Norwegian silicon, ferrosilicon, and manganese producers were treated unequally compared to EU producers, with Norwegian installations receiving approximately 72% of historical emissions in free allowances while EU counterparts received about 94%. The case has been sent back to the Norwegian Environment Agency for re-evaluation to ensure consistent interpretation of EU regulations. According to Elkem, the ministry’s letter indicates the company will receive around 1.3 million extra free emission allowances for 2021-2025.
The EU ETS provides free allowances to industrial installations at risk of relocating production to countries with lower emission constraints due to climate policy costs. This case demonstrates how inconsistent implementation of carbon pricing rules can create competitive distortions.
WHO Launches Climate-Health Initiative
The World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with Chinese and European partners, convened a roundtable in Geneva on July 1, 2025, to launch the “Geneva 1.5°C Proactive Health Initiative”—the world’s first transnational academic-industry-government platform focused on climate-health governance in urban contexts. Key participants included WHO’s Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health, representatives from Baoting County (Hainan, China), Vichy (France), Peking University, and West China Hospital of Sichuan University. The initiative addresses the critical intersection of global warming and public health, emphasizing that limiting temperature rise to 1.5°C could significantly reduce climate-induced health risks including respiratory illnesses, cardiovascular conditions, and infectious diseases.
The framework promotes climate-resilient health systems through green financing, green hospital initiatives, natural therapies, and digital health solutions. WHO officials highlighted that air pollution causes 7 million premature deaths annually, with 99% of the global population exposed to unsafe air quality levels. The initiative will establish Baoting as a pilot zone where WHO will implement health training programs, urban health toolkits, and assessment tools, with plans to leverage China’s experience for global technology transfer and standard-setting. The “1.5°C Proactive Health Alliance” and China-EU Proactive Health Research Initiative will launch this year.
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