Crypto News: Africa needs climate-proof cows

Today's newsletter looks at how heat-resistant cows are helping African farmers adapt to climate change. You can read and share the full story on Bloomberg.com. For more climate and energy news, please subscribe.

Cows that can take the heat

By Agnieszka de Sousa

You could call it "the other AI."

As the world gets warmer, artificial insemination is gaining traction on cattle ranches feeling extra heat from climate change.

In Nigeria, farmers are breeding a new generation of cows that withstand tropical temperatures and produce more milk. To do this, they're importing bull semen from the heat-resistant Girolando breed from Brazil — creating a strange new coveted commodity. And as my colleague Emele Onu and I reported this week, things look promising so far.

"I will do much better with the Girolando breed," Moyosore Rafiu, a 42-year-old farmer, said in an interview. "They will survive more in our farms and I'm seeing the signs in the calves already in this farm. It's going to be a big transformation."

Dairy farmer Moyosore Rafiu at his ranch in Iseyin, Nigeria. Photographer: Tom Saater/Bloomberg

Rafiu is one of thousands of farmers across Nigeria who are part of an insemination program overseen by the country's top dairy producer, FrieslandCampina, to genetically improve cattle. His black-and-white cows from European origin struggle with the intense sun and local diseases, while local breeds don't provide enough milk.

African cows on average give only a couple of liters of milk a day, compared with a whopping 30 liters in the US.

Heat-resistant and more productive cows are key to efforts by governments, companies and aid organizations to increase the supply of animal protein to a continent where the population is growing at the fastest rate and hunger is the most prevalent. While high-income nations are eating way too much beef and other livestock products, poorer countries with high rates of malnutrition would benefit from more meat and dairy in their diets.

It's hoped that super productive cows will not only improve food security, but also help curb climate change. More milk from fewer cows means less bovine mouths to belch methane.

Even though African cows make up only 4% of the global milk production, they contribute to about a tenth of enteric methane emissions.

The idea is to create "sustainable intensification," said Mario Herrero, a professor of sustainable food systems and global change at Cornell University.

If you have two Girolando instead of four local cows, it'll put "less pressure on resources," he said. "That is the way that it needs to happen."

Read the full story on Bloomberg.com.

This week we learned

Investment in the energy transition hit a new high last year. It rose to more than $2 trillion for the first time, according to BloombergNEF, which analyzed spending on clean tech deployments, supply chain investments, equity funding and debt issuances.
Most deep-sea-life creatures remain unknown. For instance, only about 8% of the 5,580 species detected in the deep ocean targeted for seabed mining have been identified. Classifying unknown organisms can be a years-long endeavor.
The 2022 Pakistan floods destroyed 8,000 miles of roads. The disruption to transportation across the country is just one example of the major impacts of climate-fueled extreme weather on essential infrastructure around the world.
New Zealand is making adaptation the law. The country plans to introduce legislation before the end of the year that will create a framework to help communities and businesses adapt to the impacts of climate change.
The UK has a "Jet Zero" policy. The strategy is designed to help the country meet its net-zero target, while allowing " guilt-free flying" with hydrogen, battery-operated planes and sustainable aviation fuels. Critics think the plan may be too optimistic about the speed of technology developments.

Photographer: Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Worth your time

It took just a single day's trading for Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek to upend the US power market's yearlong hot streak premised on a boom in electricity demand for artificial intelligence. AI's energy needs have led companies such as OpenAI, Alphabet Inc. and Microsoft Corp. to seek new sources of power, such as shuttered nuclear plants. It has also complicated their ambitious climate goals. DeepSeek's model appears to be more efficient and can achieve the same results for a fraction of the energy use, which may mean AI will have a smaller climate impact than thought. Read more on how DeepSeek has led to a reevaluation of US power demand forecasts.

Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg

Weekend listening

With President Donald Trump back in office, the US is leaving the Paris Agreement for the second time. Unlike in 2017, this withdrawal is set to have more lasting consequences, Akshat Rathi tells producer Mythili Rao. Meanwhile, a new report from BloombergNEF finds that global investment in the energy transition surpassed $2 trillion for the first time in 2024, with China driving two thirds of that growth. BNEF Deputy CEO Albert Cheung shares the report's highlights, and reflects on the role international competition will play in this next phase of reaching net zero.

Listen now, and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube to get new episodes of Zero every Thursday.