Today: President Trump’s media company is betting a breakthrough is imminent; NYC comptroller running for congress envisions a more climate-friendly city; America’s largest landowner bets it can replace coal with trees.

Welcome back: Many experts consider fusion the holy grail of energy that could deliver enormous power in the distant future. President Trump’s media company is betting it is imminent.

Trump Media & Technology’s planned merger with fusion company TAE Technologies would bring fusion investing—usually the realm of high-risk-tolerant venture investors—to the public markets for the first time. It is a gamble that fusion power, which no company or researcher has yet delivered, can be built in time to meet the artificial-intelligence boom’s growing power requirements.

There is still a lot to prove. Fusion powers the sun and could produce almost-limitless amounts of carbon-free energy if it can be harnessed on Earth. There are so many hurdles that the joke in the energy industry is that fusion is 10 years away and always will be.

There are now dozens of fusion companies globally—and a race to see who can achieve commercial fusion first. China thus far has been outspending the U.S. The Fusion Industry Association has tracked $9.7 billion in investments into private companies, the bulk of them coming in the past couple of years and largely in the U.S.

• New venture represents the latest twist for the media company launched after Trump’s ban from Twitter in 2021. (WSJ)
• Beijing is pouring vast resources into fusion, while the U.S. wants private industry to lead the way. The winner could reshape civilization. (NYT)
• Nuclear fusion is the perfect topic for experimental finance. They share a basic premise: smash two things together, and presto! (FT)

New York City’s top financial officer, who just launched a bid for Congress, says climate initiatives are essential for the city—and a good economic bet.

NYC Comptroller Brad Lander, who is soon to leave office, announced earlier this month that he is running to represent New York’s 10th Congressional District, challenging incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman, a fellow Democrat who is seeking his third term.

WSJ Pro Sustainable Business's Clara Hudson reports that Lander—who has been endorsed by New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani as well as Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren—said the city has witnessed its fair share of climate events, from flash flooding to “skies turning orange” from Canadian wildfire smoke.

As comptroller, he pushed for climate policies including the city divesting itself from fossil fuels and expanding rooftop solar panels. Lander in late November recommended pension boards drop BlackRock, Fidelity and PanAgora because of what he said were inadequate decarbonization plans.

America’s largest private landowner said it has launched a venture to turn runty trees and sawdust from its fleet of mills into a replacement for metallurgical coal used in steel making.

The Journal's Ryan Dezember writes that forest-products company Weyerhaeuser said it expects production to begin in 2027 at a facility being built next to its sawmill in McComb, Miss.—the first of several biocarbon plants planned by Weyerhaeuser and partner Aymium.

It is the latest effort to find a market for the trees too small or otherwise unsuitable for making lumber. Such wood has typically been sent to pulp and paper mills, but U.S. wood-pulp consumption capacity has plunged due to waning paper demand. This year alone, the U.S. has shed roughly 10% of its capacity to produce containerboard, the thick paper used to make corrugated boxes.

The closures have walloped timber growers, especially in the South, where landowners ranging from Weyerhaeuser, with its vast loblolly plantations, to families with 40-acre woodlots raise pine for the forest-products industry.

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• Ben & Jerry’s independent board members accuse owner Magnum Ice Cream of trying to oust them, according to a court filing. (WSJ)
   
• Microsoft signs enhanced rock weathering carbon removal deal with tech startup InPlanet. (ESG Today)
   
• For years, Meg O’Neill clashed with environmentalists as CEO of one of Australia’s biggest energy companies. Now she's running BP. (WSJ)
   
• DHL and Air France KLM Cargo expand emissions reduction framework for air freight. (ESG News)
   
• How Prologis sustainability VP Suzanne Fallender turns well-meaning ambition into meaningful business returns. (Trellis)
   
• The U.S. plans to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research, a key climate-science hub in Boulder, Colorado. (Bloomberg)
   
• The EU outlined a plan to close loopholes in its coming carbon tax amid worries it could result in carbon leakage. (Dow Jones Risk Journal)
   
• The rapid melt of permafrost in the Arctic has caused rivers to turn orange from leached metals, a study has found. (FT)

WSJ Pro Sustainable Business gives you an inside look at how companies are tackling sustainability. Send comments to bureau chief Perry Cleveland-Peck at perry.cleveland-peck@wsj.com and reporters Clara Hudson at clara.hudson@wsj.com and Yusuf Khan at yusuf.khan@wsj.com. Follow us on LinkedIn at perrycp, clara-hudson and yusuf_khan.