Today: Falling consumer demand and shriveling government support undermine General Motors’ all-electric plans; automation could accelerate the voluntary carbon market; New York hedge fund bets on offshore wind.

Welcome back: Not long ago, Chief Executive Mary Barra declared that General Motors was a decade away from quitting gas-powered cars, setting the course for a new mission, one that would safeguard the planet for generations, the WSJ's Sharon Terlep reports.

Her ambitious quest to command new markets and save the Earth has since stalled. GM has gone from one of the industry’s loudest EV champions to a leading opponent of government emissions rules and fuel-economy standards that for decades fueled the consumer market for cleaner, more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Many car companies, faced with softening EV sales and a Trump administration hostile to green-energy initiatives, have called for looser regulations. None has backtracked as quickly and dramatically as GM.

The Detroit automaker this year has spent more to lobby the government than any company other than Meta, using much of the money to fight clean-air and fuel-economy rules. While GM says it remains invested in EVs, Barra has stopped referencing her own 2035 target to produce only EVs, saying instead that the transition will take decades.

• How China is dominating the global EV market. (WSJ)

Many project developers and buyers in the voluntary carbon market believe the sector isn’t moving fast enough.

The process of approving a new project by monitoring, reporting and verifying its carbon-mitigation efforts remains, to a large degree, a manual effort using field samples, excel spreadsheets and email. The longer it takes to complete, the longer it takes for a project to receive and sell credits, Henry Kronk writes for WSJ Pro Sustainable Business.

Registry Verra is piloting a digital MRV system that will allow for the real-time transfer of project data. Isometric, which registers carbon dioxide removal projects, launched a platform to centralize MRV for developers and  auditors, allowing for automatic data transfer between parties. 

Some developers have also begun to use generative artificial intelligence for authoring project documents, monitoring internal processes, and creating voice agents for project participants to report their progress. But digital tools and machine learning remain a more disruptive force.

• More than 50 influential climate organizations have come together to promote a vision for a next-generation carbon market. (Trellis)

Hedge fund founder Charles Lemonides is making a bet on an industry most investors wouldn’t touch today: offshore wind.

Under President Donald Trump, the outlook for almost every kind of renewable energy is bleak, but offshore wind is in the worst shape of all. Trump calls the industry a scam and wants it stopped in its tracks. His administration has revoked permits for projects, pulled back money for port upgrades, and stopped new leasing and permitting. Officials have even halted projects that were in the middle of construction.

Barron's Avi Salzman reports that most investors abandoned the offshore wind industry when Trump was elected, and have stayed away since. But Lemonides, the chief investment officer and founder of the New York hedge fund ValueWorks, sees a buying opportunity.

Shares in Danish renewable energy company Orsted have fallen 64% this year. ValueWorks owns about $10 million worth of the stock.

• U.S. climate leaders are reframing their focus on power costs to counter attacks by Donald Trump’s administration. (FT)

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• Government funding lapsed, triggering a shutdown expected to halt federal services and furlough hundreds of thousands of workers. (WSJ)
   
• Berkshire Hathaway is negotiating to acquire Occidental Petroleum’s petrochemical business for approximately $10 billion. (WSJ)
   
• The U.S. government is expected to acquire a 5% stake in Lithium Americas and its Nevada mining project. (WSJ)
   
• Lithium startup Electroflow Technologies has raised $10 million in venture funding. (WSJ)
   
• Microsoft invests in low-carbon cement startup Fortera to tackle data center emissions. (ESG Today)
   
• PwC survey finds rising pressure and value in corporate sustainability reporting. (ESG News)
   
• Can small nuclear reactors help to power the artificial intelligence boom and fight climate change? (Bloomberg)
   
• Investors managing more than 4.5 trillion euros are urging the EU to maintain methane rules. (Reuters)
   
• A nascent solar revolution is taking hold in Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil-producing nation. (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 wsjperry, clara-hudson and yusuf_khan.