reen is here to stay. Whatever else our societies and economies may face—global pandemics, protracted war—the climate challenge is a constant and will become thornier for future generations. Environmental sustainability is the practice of protecting our planet from degradation and restoring natural ecosystems to enable greater prosperity and resilience. An environment that’s well cared for sustains healthier communities and a better quality of life for current and future generations. It is also a safer place to live. To steward our planet for generations to come, we need to shape new, renewable energy systems that rely a lot less on fossil fuels.

There are significant growth opportunities for early adopters—including companies, community leaders, governments, and individuals. Here’s what you need to know to seize the opportunity.

Environmental sustainability is the practice we must achieve to successfully steward our planet, net zero is the goal that companies and global leaders have set to achieve carbon neutrality, and decarbonization is one strategy to help meet this goal. (For more on net zero, check out “What is net zero?” from McKinsey Explainers.) Read More…

The model, which provides data and graphic predictions on major variables in renewable energy supply, such as wind speed and solar radiation, as well as demand-side data such as average local temperature, was first issued on Thursday and will be released monthly, the government statement said.

China’s electric grid system has faced challenges as peak demand spikes during abnormally cold or hot weather have exceeded local power supplies, leading to power outages.

This has been compounded by the country’s swing toward renewable energy sources, which fluctuate depending on weather conditions. China has said it aims for renewable power to account for more than 50% of its electricity generation capacity by 2025.

In August last year, southwest China endured power cuts as scorching temperatures drove up household demand from air conditioning and low rainfall reduced output from local hydro plants.

Source: PTI

After making a joint declaration in 2017 to align with the Paris Agreement on climate change, most multilateral development banks (MDBs) will start applying Paris-aligned approaches across their new activities in the next two years. However, as things stand, the only movement MDBs have made in one key area — policy-based operations (PBOs) — is sharing broad principles for assessing alignment.

PBOs provide budget support in exchange for policy actions in developing countries. To date, PBOs have provided finance in exchange for reforms that improve things like public finances, social safety nets and key sectors such as energy, banking, or agriculture. The idea is that these policy actions will put countries on firmer economic footing and increase the effectiveness of development investments, making them less likely to need further support. They are particularly relevant given the high levels of debt distress facing many developing countries.

Only four of the MDBs that are part of the Paris-alignment joint declaration issue PBOs — the African Development Bank (AfDB), Asian Development Bank (ADB), Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and World Bank — but their PBOs are significant: Between 2015 and 2020, their associated budget support accounted for $139 billion, or 38% of the total new financial commitments made by these MDBs.

However, there’s risk that without a robust approach on climate, not only will developing nations not have the support they need for a low-carbon and climate resilient economic future, but PBOs might actually undermine countries’ capabilities for sustainable development.

Aligning Policy-Based Finance with the Paris Agreement

One of the biggest challenges MDBs face is in pinpointing what it means to align activity with the Paris Agreement, especially when the bank itself has little say over how the finance provided is ultimately used. In the case of PBOs, this is because the finance is provided directly to the government’s budget.

Governments request PBOs to improve their overall economic stability and deliver reform packages for development goals. Budget support can meet short-term needs, but PBOs — through collaboration between governments and MDBs — can also complement existing government strategies for medium- and long-term macroeconomic, fiscal and social stability.

The amount of budget support is mainly determined by the country’s development finance needs — including the ability to sustainably repay the loan being provided — and volumes are thus concentrated in large countries, like Indonesia, the Philippines or Colombia.

Budget Support Commitments from MDBs by Recipient Country (2017-21 Aggregated)

(US$ Millions, 2020 prices)

Governments badly need funding for climate action, but they also need reforms that can secure a stable policy environment and level playing field for such investments. Given existing debt issues, many are loath to take on further obligations — unless the terms are right. Banks and their shareholders should therefore plan to offer more attractive budget support for policy actions that promote a just transition to climate neutrality by 2050.

Climate and economic goals cannot be easily disentangled. Countries need fiscal health to be ready to invest in climate action or respond to climate impacts. Moreover, climate risks threaten economic stability; economies unprepared for climate impacts and changing business models will suffer. At minimum, therefore, policy actions should not exacerbate vulnerability to climate risks. Even where such effects are indirect, they can land countries in a vicious cycle that undermines the economic stability objective of PBOs.

For example, Chad is the third-most vulnerable country in the world to climate change and the least prepared to combat its effects. The oil sector represented 45% of government revenues in 2018 and most of its economy depends on government spending.

In 2019, the World Bank provided a PBO to Chad that did not include how transition risks – such as declining demand for oil resulting in a decline in oil prices – could affect economic stability.

The text of the PBO states that fiscal stabilization reforms proposed through the PBO for managing Chad’s oil revenues “are not likely to have negative impacts on the country’s natural assets” because they are “policy-oriented.” The reforms proposed did not contain measures that could limit the vulnerability to a structural decline in oil prices.

In 2022, only three years after Chad received the PBO, a sharp drop in oil prices placed Chad in debt distress once again while more than 1 in 10 Chadians faced severe food insecurity. The government struggled to restructure a private sector loan backed by future oil proceeds from its state-owned enterprise, delaying budget support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and further constraining its ability to finance essential services during an ongoing humanitarian crisis.

Right now, MDBs lack the processes to diagnose and prevent situations like Chad’s in reforms supported by PBOs. They shouldn’t just aim to do no significant harm in policy actions — PBOs can actively support fiscal stability, resilience, and climate action together through structural transformation.

Here are several PBOs provided by MDBs where countries successfully integrated climate and development in their policy actions, across sectors and geography:

Policy Signals for Climate Action in Morocco

In 2019, an AfDB loan of $308 million to Morocco aimed to lay the foundation for a “diversified and inclusive economy that is resilient to external shocks, particularly climate shock” in a PBO series which notably:

• Coordinated a domestic policy signal for climate action: One policy action supported a framework for new financing products in Morocco’s guarantee fund. This enabled a subsequent policy action which supported the Ministry of Economy and Finance to design a green financing product for small enterprises that would be managed by the same fund.
• Harmonized support with development partners: The AfDB coordinated green economy objectives with the European Union, which also provided budget support to Morocco.

Specialized Budget Support for Climate Mainstreaming in the Philippines

In the Philippines, the ADB’s $500 million loan in 2020 expanded the availability of disaster relief financing with budget support for policy reforms that would mainstream climate and disaster resilience across the work of various government units.

The financing is set to disburse immediately following a disaster, whether from a natural hazard or for pandemic response. This frees up money when it is needed most.

Effective mainstreaming of climate across public institutions can be a challenge. This PBO facilitated cross-cutting reforms in local governance, social protection, and health services that improved coordination, domestic resource mobilization, and enhanced mandates alongside targeted support to increase capacity, for example, by improving the country’s parametric disaster insurance scheme.

Expanding Government Budgets for Resilience in the Bahamas

Most PBOs support government budgets with a sovereign loan, but budget support can be provided as a grant or guarantee to offer more attractive terms for environmental policy actions that increase resilience. Policy-based guarantees can lower sovereign debt costs and attract private creditors or investors — even in restructuring negotiations, such as the AfDB’s $10 million guarantee to the Seychelles which mobilized a $136 million loan at 3.95% in 2010 when the government sought to restructure $320 million of its debt at a time when commercial finance would have been outright impossible.

In 2022, the IDB guaranteed $200 million for a sovereign bond issuance by the Bahamas to support reforms for the “Blue Economy” and enhance resilience by improving management of marine resources and climate risks in coastal and offshore areas. The policy-based guarantee is complemented by technical support for economic diversification and prospecting investments that could be financed by a Blue Bond.

Accelerating Resilience to Climate Change Amid Economic Headwinds

All eyes are now on the MDBs to rise to the climate challenge while navigating a complex economic and political environment. Developing countries face rising debt distress and food crises while a global recession looms. Leaders of developing countries have highlighted the interconnection of debt and climate action through initiatives like the Bridgetown Agenda and recent push for debt-for-nature swaps. In their traditional role supporting development and reducing poverty, MDBs support governments when times are tough. PBOs offer an opportunity to relieve fiscal pressures while advancing policies to deliver climate action.

The world recognizes this. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has stated that development banks “can use policy advice and conditionality to encourage countries […] to direct funding towards investments with broader benefits,” such as climate action.

To deliver on this promise, MDBs will also have to make their financing more attractive. Over 90% of MDBs’ climate finance was raised using debt between 2016 and 2020, and three-quarters did not include a grant element. In addition to operational reforms within PBOs, G20 governments should coordinate clear statements of support for MDBs’ Paris Alignment agenda; this could follow from the report to the G20 on capital adequacy, which contains several recommendations for boosting the amount of money MDBs can outlay.

Aligning PBOs with the Paris Agreement is increasingly urgent as climate change continues adding costs in already debt-burdened economies. Policy-based finance has transformative potential to support climate resilience and countries’ development objectives but will need to be repurposed for these aims.

Source: wri

We are more keenly aware of the impacts of climate change than ever before. But we also have more knowledge than ever on how to transition to a low-carbon, resilient and inclusive future. As we move further into this decisive decade, here are five critical areas of action for cities.

1) Integrate Climate Goals into All Key Urban Decisions.

To accelerate the low-carbon transition, we need to address a range of urban systems, unlocking collaboration not only across different levels of government — from local to metropolitan to national — but also across sectors and institutional boundaries. Land use, transport and housing decisions in cities, to name a few, all have significant climate consequences, but the agencies in charge rarely factor climate change into their planning and implementation processes. Cities must work to embed climate goals into all of these realms, including strategy and budgetary planning, while connecting climate actions across sectors.

WRI recently launched its Integrated Climate Action program to provide technical support and capacity-building to embed climate solutions into city-level strategic planning, land use, management and financial processes. But cities can’t do it alone. We also plan to facilitate collaboration between local, regional and national governments to unlock the right enabling conditions.

As a key aspect of integrated climate action, cities’ interests and the opportunity they provide for mitigation and adaptation must be represented on the global stage. The latest UN climate summit (COP27) yielded progress on that front, through the first-ever Ministerial Meeting on Urbanization and Climate Change, a high-level event that amplified the voice of cities in a realm normally dominated by national governments. This important moment needs to be the start of cities playing a more meaningful role in the UNFCCC and national climate policies worldwide.

Efforts like Cities Race to Zero, which has so far garnered more than 1,100 city commitments to reach net-zero emissions by mid-century at the latest, will not be successful without more vertical and horizontal integration of city climate plans and requisite support for them at the national and international levels.

2) Make Buildings Efficient and Resilient.

The energy crisis in Europe and elsewhere caused by Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine has led to a renewed focus on policies to curb surging energy prices. It is imperative that energy efficiency underpins this response.

Energy efficiency in buildings is the single-most cost-effective greenhouse gas mitigation action available and represents the best opportunity to reduce electricity demand, household bills and energy poverty. Yet WRI research shows that the pace of clean energy retrofits for buildings is just one-sixth of where it needs to be to hit 2030 decarbonization goals.

A building sector transformation led by cities is essential — not only to achieving climate goals, but also to providing affordable housing, resilient infrastructure, green jobs, and healthy living and working spaces for all.

Connecting local building policy to national and international climate agendas can help achieve short- and long-term building decarbonization goals. An example of a vertically integrated national building decarbonization “roadmap” can be seen in Colombia. Part of the Zero Carbon Building Accelerator, Colombia has a highly detailed plan that connects political, financial, technological and capacity-building actions to short-, medium-, and long-term goals and identifies specific actors responsible for implementation. Without these roadmaps and aligned subnational strategies and action plans, commitments like net-zero targets produce little practical change in cities.

WRI and partners are also working with local governments in India, Kenya and Costa Rica to develop more local building decarbonization action plans aligned with national and international climate commitments.

3) Decarbonize Transportation.

The transition to zero-emission vehicles is well underway, creating meaningful downward pressure on fossil fuel dependence. But the transition is not proceeding quickly everywhere, and we know it needs to be accompanied by changes beyond engine type.

Global collaborations, leadership coalitions and knowledge-sharing are key to bringing the EV transition to more cities and creating holistic low-carbon mobility systems that also include high-quality public transport and active mobility.

Aggregation of demand is one way can cities advance their transport decarbonization goals faster. The largest transportation alliance in the world, Accelerate to Zero, was launched at COP27 with the support of more than 200 organizations from the public, private and non-profit sectors. Building on scattered momentum globally, the coalition aims for all new car and van sales to be zero-emission in major markets by 2035 and everywhere by 2040.

India’s Grand Challenge is an example of a nationally led initiative to deploy more electric buses in more cities. Designed to enable mass production of transit buses for any operator in the nation, including municipal agencies, the Challenge has led to the deployment of 5,000 e-buses across five cities so far. Through economies of scale, demand homogenization, better payment terms, and opportunity charging facilitation, among other things, the initiative reduced prices for electric buses to be on par or very close to the operational cost of diesel buses.

Following early success, the government intends to procure 50,000 e-buses by 2030 in a promising case that might be replicated elsewhere.

Active mobility — walking and cycling — is also important for decarbonizing transport, particularly in the developing world. Cities in developing nations already have climate-friendly mode shares, as the vast majority of people walk, cycle or use mass transportation, even when the quality and safety of these systems can be questionable. Such low-carbon transportation modes need to be protected and improved by policies, innovative financial tools and capacity building.

Take, for example, Peshawar, Pakistan’s innovative bus rapid transit and cycling system, the city’s first formal public transit system. The system has improved service and safety for millions of riders. Considering that 50% of trips in urban areas are typically less than 10 kilometers, by designing safe and dignifying transport systems for people rather than cars, developing nations can leapfrog the mistakes of many wealthy countries and avoid the “motorization trap.”

4) Bridge the Urban Services Divide, with Housing at the Center.

Inequality is an urban problem. We know that more than 1.2 billion city dwellers worldwide, or one in three, lack access to one or more core urban services, including safe housing, water, sanitation, energy and transportation. In low-income countries, this number rises to two in three urban dwellers; few statistics better illustrate the urgent need to combine climate action with advances on urban inequality and human development.

Empowering and engaging the very communities at risk in creating climate solutions is key to fostering a just transition. Take Iloilo City in the Philippines, which worked with a federation of NGOs and local leaders to relocate communities vulnerable to flooding and sea-level rise.

By addressing land tenure in “informal” areas, solving financing bottlenecks to create new housing, and adopting more integrated spatial planning, they created a more inclusive climate and housing solution.

The huge need for affordable, well-located, well-serviced housing can and must be met in ways that ensure climate resilience for the most vulnerable city residents, who bear the brunt of climate disasters like floods and heatwaves.

WRI’s flagship report, Towards a More Equal City, offers a roadmap for how to unlock such transformative change by specifically bridging the urban services divide. A new companion piece now maps recommendations by key actors in the urban ecosystem, presenting some of the best thinking on priority actions and investments for creating prosperity and improved livelihoods for all residents.

5) Build Climate Resilience, with Water and Nature at the Center.

Water and climate challenges are converging in many cities globally — particularly in Africa. By 2050, over two-thirds of Africa’s cities are expected to face extreme climate risks and water-related shocks —including droughts, floods and pollution — impacting the health and productivity of millions.

Nature-based solutions offer a cost-effective way to address water and heat challenges while meeting climate mitigation goals; for example, restoring watercourses, expanding green spaces and introducing porous surfaces can all reduce flood risk. Leveraging private finance while better utilizing and coordinating public sector funds and climate and development aid can help direct more investment toward nature-based solutions in cities.

Developed by WRI and 29 partner organizations, the African Cities Water Adaptation Fund (ACWA Fund) is a new blended finance instrument to channel $5 billion towards urban water resilience solutions in 100 African cities by 2032. The ACWA Fund and its supporting initiative, the ACWA Platform, will enable city leaders to directly access technical support and funding for projects targeting a range of water issues, from household rainwater harvesting to nature-based solutions for flood and wastewater management, to job creation for solid waste management. The ACWA Fund aims to implement 200 projects in 100 cities to directly benefit 29 million people, saving 137 million cubic meters of water and creating 64,000 new jobs.

Fighting Climate Change in Cities

The last year was characterized by deep uncertainty, inequality and human suffering. But it has also seen moments of optimism such as the U.S. federal government’s largest climate investments to date and pro-climate leadership changes in Australia and Brazil. Time is running out, but a world in which people and nature thrive and the climate crisis is at bay is still possible.

We need a dramatic shift in the world’s trajectory, one that can and must be driven by low-carbon, inclusive and resilient cities. These are the urban spaces the world needs – not just to rein in climate change, but to improve the lives of the billions of people who call cities home.

Source: wri

Morgan, the special envoy in the German Foreign Ministry, stated, “I think German-Indian collaboration is long and deep, spanning at least 60 years of collaboration. We are very honored to work in this partnership with India, which we benefit from quite a lot. We have come here to listen, understand, and see how we can deepen our collaboration. We are far away from what is needed on our climate to implement the Paris agreement. And I think right now, having time to sit and listen to each other and see how we can work together is very, very important.”

She further added, “The Indian government’s pathway towards the net-zero goal by 2070 and the impressive non-fossil goals that have been set show promise. We’re looking to see how we can work together more. We have a lot of collaboration in areas like renewables, green hydrogen, and energy efficiency. I think the G20 presidency is preparing that in a very sound way, having the climate change issue integrated across the various working groups, which is very impressive.”

Source: PTI

Sultan al-Jaber, the CEO of Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., also described the upcoming United Nations negotiations as an unprecedented opportunity to engage the energy industry in a technological revolution.

His speech at the World Government Summit in Dubai sought to present his nominated presidency as a bridge between oil companies and climate activists long suspicious of the industry’s influence on efforts to limit carbon emissions. Whether it will, however, remains in question.

We need a major course correction, al-Jaber said.

However, he added: The strategies we pursue must leave no one behind. The policies we adopt must be pro-growth and pro-climate at the same time.

Al-Jaber, a 49-year-old longtime climate envoy, is a trusted confidant of UAE leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. He’s been behind billions in investments in renewable energy and also leads an oil company that pumps some 4 million barrels of crude a day and hopes to expand to 5 million daily.

Activists have equated his nomination to asking arms dealers to lead peace talks when authorities announced his nomination in January. However, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry and France’s finance minister both have backed his selection by the UAE, a key Mideast ally.

Each year, the country hosting the U.N. negotiations known as the Conference of the Parties where COP gets its name nominates a person to chair the talks. Hosts typically pick a veteran diplomat as the talks can be difficult to steer between competing nations and their interests. The nominee’s position as COP president is confirmed by delegates at the start of the talks, usually without objections.

COP28 will be held at Dubai’s Expo City from Nov. 30 through Dec. 12.

Source: PTI

Source: PTI

It’s becoming clear that keeping the rise in global temperatures below 1.5°C will need an increased focus on CO2 removal (CDR)—taking CO2 out of the atmosphere through nature-based and technological solutions. CDR methods include natural climate solutions, such as reforestation and restoration of mangroves and peatlands; bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS); and direct air capture and storage (DACS).

In a blog post, McKinsey experts said CDR solutions would be a crucial part of the effort to achieve net-zero emissions.1 The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said ramping up CDR volumes—up to six metric gigatons of CO2 per year—is “unavoidable if net zero emissions are to be achieved.”2 In addition, companies have set science-based climate targets to reach net-zero emissions, with the number taking action on such corporate targets quadrupling since 2020—to more than 4,000 in January 2023, from approximately 1,000 in 2020.3

If companies are to achieve such targets, they need to treat decarbonization as a top priority. However, even after aggressive decarbonization efforts, many will be left with residual emissions that can’t be reduced, because of economic, operational, or procedural limitations.4 Such companies will need CDR solutions to neutralize the residual emissions and achieve their net-zero targets. In addition to helping achieve net zero, CDR could help with other climate goals (for example, Microsoft’s stated aim to become carbon negative5).

Because of those trends, the demand for CDR solutions has been growing rapidly. It’s likely to grow further as voluntary commitments strengthen and proliferate and as more organizations realize the contributions that CDR solutions can make toward meeting their targets. As a result, more companies are now looking to enter the CDR market as buyers. As they do, they face potential uncertainties in a very nascent market, as well as increasingly short supply—the current pipeline of CDR capacity (155 metric tons of CO2 per year) falls 80 percent short of the requirement suggested by IPCC (500–1,200 metric tons of CO2 per year).6

As companies begin to scale purchase of CDR solutions, they face four key questions:

• How do we make a credible climate claim?
• How do we identify high-quality CDR solutions?
• How do we design a CDR portfolio?
• How do we source CDR solutions?

How do we make a credible climate claim?

Setting a target for a credible climate claim is the first step to confirm an organization’s contribution to limiting the rise in global temperatures above 1.5°C. For most companies, a credible climate claim will result in a need for some quantum of CDR solutions. We see a couple of important considerations for companies as they decide what target to set and chart their strategy to deliver it.

Set a science-based climate claim, if possible, backed by a globally recognized initiative

Companies face a variety of options in their claims, including carbon neutral, climate neutral, climate friendly, and net zero, each with different requirements and degrees of stringency. In the absence of a global governance body, these claims are often applied inconsistently, which can lead to significant variance in companies’ climate decarbonization ambitions, the emissions considered to be covered under a claim, and the rules around offsetting emissions through emission avoidance or CDR credits. This inconsistency contributes to stakeholder concerns about greenwashing.7

Several initiatives provide guidance to improve the credibility of climate claims and set standards for how carbon credits, and CDR solutions in particular, contribute to such claims. The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), the Climate Pledge, and the Race to Zero Campaign offer guidance on what it means to be net zero and what actions organizations can take to reach that goal. The Oxford Principles for Net Zero Aligned Carbon Offsetting and the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI) both provide guidance on how to use CDR solutions as part of a credible pathway to reach climate goals. It’s worth noting that despite the lack of a clear, single standard, there is an emerging consensus to support the role of CDR in net-zero claims to neutralize residual emissions after achieving significant internal emission reductions.

Reduce emissions before removing carbon

Some critics of offsetting (including the use of CDR solutions) cite potential concerns that it provides emitters with a “licence to pollute”8 and represents “a dangerous distraction”9 from internal decarbonization. These critiques have informed the consensus view that companies should first decarbonize as much as they can and then only rely on CDO only to neutralize residual emissions, where compelling physical, operational, or economic barriers prevent further emission reductions.

A transparent and ambitious decarbonization claim that prioritizes internal emission reductions before offsetting is key to upholding credibility. For example, SBTi’s Net-Zero Standard requires a 90 to 95 percent cut in value chain emissions by 2050 with permanent CDR solutions to neutralize residual emissions at net zero.10 Offsetting emissions in the interim is recommended as an additional way to contribute to mitigating climate change, beyond an organization’s own net-zero trajectory. Whichever the approach, using CDR solutions to deliver a credible climate claim requires organizations to commit to full transparency on the CDR credits used and retired in their sustainability reports.

How do we identify high-quality CDR solutions?

Most credible claims will require organizations to secure CDR solutions to neutralize residual emissions. CDR credits are of varying quality, and low-quality credits can weaken the credibility of a claim. To mitigate that risk, companies would need to invest in ensuring the quality of the credits they buy.

Understand what constitutes high-quality CDR solutions

Sourcing high-quality CDR solutions is critical: first to ensure that a company has the climate impact intended by its purchase of the solution; and second to avoid potential reputational risks resulting from making climate claims that can’t be supported by the CDR solutions that it has bought. Carbon credit quality is driven by eight environmental integrity drivers, which are relevant for both CDR credits and emission avoidance credits (see sidebar, “Carbon credit quality drivers”).11

These integrity drivers would need to be considered not only for a CDR type (for example, how permanent is DACS?) but also by project, given the potential for risks to vary depending on the practices of individual project developers.

A primary role of carbon credit standards setters such as Verra and Gold Standard is to ensure that carbon credits are issued only from projects that implement their required range of safeguards to control these risks and that have been validated by a third party. However, these safeguards vary significantly across standards and even individual projects, leading to a wide range of outcomes. For example, standards require long-term monitoring as part of their range of permanence safeguards, but how many years is considered long term? By way of illustration, American Carbon Registry requires 40 years as a minimum duration of carbon sequestration, while Climate Action Reserve stipulates 100 years.

Invest in robust due diligence and quality assurance processes

To select high-quality CDR solutions, companies will need a due-diligence and quality assurance capability that can assess how well a technology and a project performs against the carbon credit quality drivers. Quality assurance processes need to be data led, standardized (including using benchmarks), and clear to enable robust decision making, manage risks, and communicate decisions simply.

A company’s risk appetite is a key consideration here, with nonpermanence risk a particularly important dimension. Nonpermanence risks differ across nature- and technology-based CDR solutions. Carbon removed and stored into biological sinks (for example, as carbon is stored in soil or trees) has a higher risk of being rereleased into the atmosphere over decades through events such as wildfires. On the other hand, carbon removed into geological storage (for example, carbon captured and stored in deep saline aquifers through BECCS and DACS technology or in rocks through mineralization) has a low risk of being rereleased into the atmosphere over centuries to millennia.12 Certain initiatives recommend a shift from less to more permanent CDR options over time, yet most of the CDR volumes on the market today are nature-based CDR solutions that use biological storage with higher nonpermanence risk. A growing number of project developers are working on bringing more permanent CDR solutions to market; however, this supply is still short of what will be required in a 1.5°C pathway, with an approximately 80 percent shortage expected by 2025.13

While the market is still in its infancy, with many standards and protocols still to be defined, CDR quality assessment can be complex and resource intensive. Indeed, as TSVCM noted in its 2021 report, “Buyers struggle to navigate various standards and to find high-quality carbon credits at transparent prices. For a new market participant, it may be difficult to understand what constitutes a high-quality credit.”14 This is echoed by buyers across the market, including participants such as Shell and Microsoft.15

Buyers can potentially learn from the selection criteria developed by companies that are active in this space and from advanced market commitment (AMC) buying clubs, such as First Movers Coalition and Frontier.16 Global initiatives are also creating open-source assessments to draw on, such as the Carbon Credit Quality Initiative scoring tool by the World Wildlife Fund, Öko-Institut, and Environmental Defense Fund or the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market’s (IC-VCM’s) expected Core Carbon Principles that will introduce a global threshold standard for quality. Eventually, emerging rating agencies will perform independent assessments for buyers to monitor and verify their portfolios.

3. How do we design a CDR portfolio?

Once companies have established what CDR solutions qualify as high quality, they will still face a range of project types from which they can choose. At this point, company preferences, risk appetites, and strategic fit will shape the design of a CDR portfolio.

In addition to assessing quality and risk, a company will need to determine how well a CDR technology or project contributes to company-specific preferences. In addition to quality, this may be informed by the following:

• Preference for cobenefits. CDR solutions come with cobenefits and companies may have preferences for which they want to prioritize. For example, a nature-based CDR that restores degraded land will help to promote biodiversity and the important cause of nature recovery, whereas a BECCS CDR that is created from a decommissioned coal power station could potentially support job growth in the area.
• Permanence increase. Companies might follow the recommendation from the Oxford Principles for Net Zero Aligned Carbon Offsetting to gradually shift toward more permanent CDR. To do this, companies would need to increase the share of CDR credits that they buy from projects that have low permanence risk—for example, BECCS and DACS—over time.
• Ability to pay. Technology-based CDR solutions are significantly costlier than nature-based solutions.17 Typically, they are bought by buyers with high ratios of business profits to carbon emissions (such as technology, financial-services, and professional-services companies) that are inclined to pay more per unit of CDR, permitting more flexibility in the types of CDR credits to include in their portfolio. Another approach is companies designing a portfolio of CDR solutions aligned with their own carbon price and then sourcing CDR credits only at their carbon price or above.
• Strategic fit. Companies may prefer CDR types that have synergies with their existing business. For example, the aviation industry is investing in DACS, a technology that can also contribute to sustainable aviation fuels. Similarly, given their position in the biomass value chain as timber users, pulp and paper companies may have a natural affinity for BECCS to decarbonize their own operations and create new value streams in a net-zero world. Nicolas Chrétien, head of sustainability and environment at Airbus, underscores these considerations in the design of the company’s CDR portfolio. “When we looked at procuring CDR offsets, we focused on high-quality offsets with high permanence, technology-driven to fit with the company’s engineering culture but also uplifting the overall decarbonization path for the aviation industry,” Chrétien told us. “Our first commitment to source DACS offsets is a concrete step toward the use of this promising technology for both Airbus’s own decarbonization plan and the aviation sector’s ambition to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.”
• Timing. Because of the role CDR solutions play alongside carbon emission reduction, the timing of a company’s purchase of CDR solution credits will depend on the buyer’s target climate claim and strategy to deliver it. However, given the shortage of supply of high-quality CDR credits, companies should consider early investment in CDR solutions before they need them to support a specific net-zero claim. The CDR solutions industry is still in its infancy, with supply falling short of what will be required. Moreover, the nature of the projects means there will be a time lag between the demand signal and the industry’s ability to supply large volumes. Engineered CDR solutions rely on the build-out of multiyear infrastructure projects that each cost hundreds of millions of dollars in capital expenditures. Similarly, reforestation projects often need years to grow before they can sequester meaningful volumes of carbon.
• Exposure to risk. The CDR industry is in its infancy and many projects are first of their kind, with varying levels of potential technical, commercial, and operational risks. As companies build their CDR credit portfolio, they may need to consider how to manage their exposures across different projects, different technologies, and different suppliers to mitigate delivery risk and risks arising from rapidly evolving standards and definitions of quality. Similarly, companies should consider a range of contractual schemes that match their appetite for exposure to risks linked to project development and to nascent markets. These contractual schemes include long-term offtake agreements that can create some certainty on price and volume for buyers and revenue certainty for project developers, which, in turn, can make a project investable and more likely to happen. By contrast, spot market purchases expose buyers to greater market volatility but may involve less exposure to individual developers’ risks.

4. How do we source CDR solutions?

Once a company has set its target climate claim, created a strategy to meet it that includes CDR solutions, and designed a CDR portfolio that fits its preferences and willingness to accommodate risk, the practical question of how to buy CDR credits arises.

Decide whether to generate or buy

Sourcing strategies range from full reliance on markets to becoming a CDR project developer. Specifically, buyers may do one of the following:

Generate direct CDR internally18 through partnerships and investments in project developers, or even through acquisitions of developers and their projects.
Buy CDR solutions from existing brokers and retailers or emerging marketplaces or directly from project developers through competitive sourcing.

This is a strategic question that rests on the criticality of CDR solutions to a company’s ability to create value in the future. To the extent that CDR solutions can be a future source of value and growth, a company may choose to be more invested in the development of CDR credits by developing its own projects or gaining exposure to the upside of other companies’ projects.

For buyers, decide how much to delegate CDR sourcing

Low-volume, less-experienced buyers may choose to rely on external sourcing options, such as brokers and retailers that have pre-vetted CDR credits for quality, cobenefits, and risks. Higher-volume buyers may consider running a competitive bidding process for CDR developers to control more closely the characteristics of the products they buy and use buying power to shape the market; this requires much more investment of time and in capabilities.

One trend is the emergence of buyers’ clubs, such as First Movers Coalition and Frontier. These clubs pool resources to procure CDR solutions with similar characteristics. This concept has the following potential benefits:

Market signal. Aggregated demand for CDR solutions demonstrates that there is an accessible market for suppliers that meet transparent criteria, which helps to accelerate this essential, nascent industry to generate more supply to meet climatic needs and climate claim demands.
Efficiency. Members can issue a single request for proposal, hire common technical expertise to set criteria, and evaluate against them. Similarly, suppliers can prepare a single proposal for multiple potential buyers and pool their knowledge and experience.
Awareness. Buying clubs, so far, have attracted strong media attention, which has helped build awareness and momentum for CDR solutions among a broader group of stakeholders. Buyers’ clubs can help send a demand signal to suppliers and investors that there is a market for carbon removal and to begin building quickly.

Buying clubs have attracted strong media attention, which has helped build awareness and momentum for CO₂ removal solutions among a broader group of stakeholders.

Note that sourcing avenues for technology-based CDR solutions are significantly more limited than for nature-based solutions. Nature-based CDR solutions are available across all sourcing avenues (for example, from brokers, marketplaces, or competitive sourcing), with several established methodologies for forestry CDR and many emerging for soil and blue carbon CDR. On the other hand, newer technology-based CDR solutions, such as DACS and BECCS, aren’t currently accredited by established standards and are available only through alternative avenues via reserving capacity at one of the few emerging facilities in the world or through a small number of emerging exchange platforms that deal in more permanent CDR.19 Some of this dynamic may change as standard setters publish CDR methodologies for technology-based CDR solutions.

Keeping up with the industry

Building a CDR strategy and the associated capabilities needed will enable buyers to navigate the uncertainties of this emerging market. Early movers will benefit from lessons they learn by being in the market, and their ability to secure scarce supply, helping them to gain a competitive advantage over competitors entering the CDR solutions space later.

Given that, buyers would be wise to develop a CDR strategy but be prepared to change it to adapt to fast-evolving norms. For example, as the criteria for high-quality carbon credits and standards for monitoring, reporting, and verification evolve over time, companies may need to rebalance their CDR portfolios, most likely toward higher-quality, more permanent CDR credits.

That means staying up to date as norms regarding carbon credits continue to evolve to withstand public scrutiny. For example, the World Wildlife Fund’s Carbon Credit Quality Initiative and the VCMI’s Claims Code of Practice launched in May and June, respectively, and the IC-VCM will begin rolling out their codes later in 2023. SBTi is expected to publish guidance on “beyond value chain mitigation” later in 2023, while the Greenhouse Gas Protocol works on guidance for the accounting of CDR solutions. These outputs will undergo road testing and revisions in the next few years. In addition to incorporating updates in CDR strategies continuously to avoid potential reputational risks, buyers can actively participate in these initiatives to support global consensus building.

CDR is now widely recognized alongside CO2 emission reduction as a vital element of the global effort to curb damaging climate change. Consequently, companies making net-zero commitments urgently need to understand the role that CDR could play in their climate strategies and how they can engage in the marketplace for CDR solutions in a way that creates value and matches their appetites for risk. The practical steps outlined in this article are a good place to start, and the time to act is now.

Source: mckinsey

New IBM Foundation Model Technology Leverages NASA Earth Science Data for Geospatial Intelligence

YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, N.Y : IBM (NYSE: IBM) and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center today announce a collaboration to use IBM’s artificial intelligence (AI) technology to discover new insights in NASA’s massive trove of Earth and geospatial science data. The joint work will apply AI foundation model technology to NASA’s Earth-observing satellite data for the first time.

Foundation models are types of AI models that are trained on a broad set of unlabeled data, can be used for different tasks, and can apply information about one situation to another. These models have rapidly advanced the field of natural language processing (NLP) technology over the last five years, and IBM is pioneering applications of foundation models beyond language.

Earth observations that allow scientists to study and monitor our planet are being gathered at unprecedented rates and volume. New and innovative approaches are required to extract knowledge from these vast data resources. The goal of this work is to provide an easier way for researchers to analyze and draw insights from these large datasets. IBM’s foundation model technology has the potential to speed up the discovery and analysis of these data in order to quickly advance the scientific understanding of Earth and response to climate-related issues.

IBM and NASA plan to develop several new technologies to extract insights from Earth observations. One project will train an IBM geospatial intelligence foundation model on NASA’s Harmonized Landsat Sentinel-2 (HLS) dataset, a record of land cover and land use changes captured by Earth-orbiting satellites. By analyzing petabytes of satellite data to identify changes in the geographic footprint of phenomena such as natural disasters, cyclical crop yields, and wildlife habitats, this foundation model technology will help researchers provide critical analysis of our planet’s environmental systems.

Another output from this collaboration is expected to be an easily searchable corpus of Earth science literature. IBM has developed an NLP model trained on nearly 300,000 Earth science journal articles to organize the literature and make it easier to discover new knowledge. Containing one of the largest AI workloads trained on Red Hat’s OpenShift software to date, the fully trained model uses PrimeQA, IBM’s open-source multilingual question-answering system. Beyond providing a resource to researchers, the new language model for Earth science could be infused into NASA’s scientific data management and stewardship processes.

“The beauty of foundation models is they can potentially be used for many downstream applications,” said Rahul Ramachandran, senior research scientist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “Building these foundation models cannot be tackled by small teams,” he added. “You need teams across different organizations to bring their different perspectives, resources, and skill sets.”

“Foundation models have proven successful in natural language processing, and it’s time to expand that to new domains and modalities important for business and society,” said Raghu Ganti, principal researcher at IBM. “Applying foundation models to geospatial, event-sequence, time-series, and other non-language factors within Earth science data could make enormously valuable insights and information suddenly available to a much wider group of researchers, businesses, and citizens. Ultimately, it could facilitate a larger number of people working on some of our most pressing climate issues.”

Other potential IBM-NASA joint projects in this agreement include constructing a foundation model for weather and climate prediction using MERRA-2, a dataset of atmospheric observations. This collaboration is part of NASA’s Open-Source Science Initiative, a commitment to building an inclusive, transparent, and collaborative open science community over the next decade.

Source: ibm

DUBAI : Climate talks in the United Arab Emirates this year should focus on action rather than visions, former United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon said during a visit to the oil-rich Gulf country.

“Many countries and many people have already presented the visions, so we may not need any more,” he told AFP in Dubai on Saturday.

“We need a COP of solutions and a COP of action.”

The South Korean diplomat, who co-chairs the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens, was in the UAE this weekend to launch a partnership with Dubai Cares, a civil society organization focused on training youth on “green skills.”

The last UN climate talks held in Egypt in November concluded with a landmark deal to create a “loss and damage” fund to cover the costs that developing countries face from climate-linked natural disasters and slower impacts like sea level rise.

But observers were left disappointed that little progress had been made on reducing planet-heating emissions from fossil fuels.

Ban urged the COP28 presidency to consider “harmonization” between adaptation and loss and damage.

“We have to help developing countries to adapt to changing situations… (but) what about the situations already damaged and lost?” he said.

“We have to help them so that they can recover from this loss and damage.”

The UAE, a leading crude producer and exporter, named the head of its national oil company as president of this year’s COP28 climate talks, prompting fierce criticism from environmental activists.

The wealthy nation argues that oil remains indispensable to the global economy, while pushing the merits of carbon capture—removing carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, as fuel is burned or from the air.

During his visit, Ban signed a memorandum of understanding with Dubai Cares to launch an environmental training program targeting youth.

Tariq Al Gurg, chief executive and vice chairman of Dubai Cares, told AFP during the signing ceremony that the partnership is focused on training 10,000 young people.

“Climate without education [equals] no solution. Education without climate [means] we will suffer. That’s why those two have to marry,” said Al Gurg.

Source: AFP

G20 is an ideal platform to discuss and find solutions to “most pressing” problems such as global warming and climate change which affect the poor most, President Droupadi Murmu said

G20 is an ideal platform to discuss and find solutions to “most pressing” problems such as global warming and climate change which affect the poor most, President Droupadi Murmu said in her maiden address to the nation on the eve of Republic Day.

The President said after a series of initiatives in recent years to transform all aspects of governance and unleash the creative energies of people, the world has started to look at India with a new sense of respect.

“Our interventions in various world forums have started making a positive difference. The respect that India has earned on the world stage has resulted in new opportunities as well as responsibilities,” she said.

President Murmu said India holds the Group of 20 (G20) presidency this year, which is an opportunity to promote democracy and multilateralism and the right forum for shaping a better world and a better future.

“Under India’s leadership, I am sure, G20 will be able to further enhance its efforts to build a more equitable and sustainable world order,” she said.

The President said G20 represents about two-thirds of the world population and around 85 per cent of the global GDP, and it is an ideal forum to discuss and find solutions for global challenges.

“To my mind, global warming and climate change are the most pressing among them. Global temperatures are rising and incidents of extreme weather are increasing… Unfortunately, the poor bear the brunt of global warming more than others,” she said.

The President said that India is faced with the dilemma of lifting more and more people out of poverty which is possible through economic growth but that also comes from fossil fuels.

She said one of the solutions to the conundrum is promoting the use of alternative energy sources.

“India has taken a commendable lead in this direction by giving a policy push to solar energy and electric vehicles. At the global level, however, emerging economies need a helping hand from advanced nations in the form of technology transfer and financial support,” Murmu said.

Murmu, the first President from the tribal community, said to balance development and the environment, we have to look at the ancient traditions with a new perspective.

“We need to reconsider our basic priorities. The scientific aspects of traditional life-values have to be understood. We must, once again, rekindle that respect for nature and humility before the vast universe,” she said.

The President said Mahatma Gandhi was a true prophet of our times, as he foresaw the calamities of indiscriminate industrialisation and cautioned the world to mend its ways.

Source : PTI

There has been a lot of talk across the globe about the looming climate change crisis we are facing. United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has weighed in on the issues, warning that new urgency is required in order to combat the effects that climate change is having on the planet. An increasing number of environmental scientists are raising the alarm, which is why businesses and organizations are looking for new ways to create cleaner, greener energy, products and ways of doing business.

The trouble is that innovation, at least in the traditional sense, is a slow-moving process. It can take years for even the most seasoned minds to create new technology in order to solve complex environmental issues that organizations and people all over the world face. Thankfully, open innovation is stepping in and filling the void left behind by traditional innovation methodologies.

How Open Innovation is Helping the Cause

Climate change is a global issue that will take a global conglomeration of specialties to tackle and solve. Innovative minds from all over the world will need to come together in order to build technology and find solutions to environmental challenges. Open innovation provides this marketplace of ideas. The open innovation marketplace brings together specialists in dozens of different areas, allowing them to come together to solve challenges presented by governments, public organizations and companies within the energy sector.

InnoCentive is Already Working with Such Organizations

InnoCentive partners with public sector organizations and private entities like Enel to solve environmental issues that threaten people all over the world. By combining Enel’s Open Innovability model, which allows anyone around the world to propose sustainable innovation projects or solutions, with InnoCentive’s Challenge-Driven InnovationTM (CDI) methodology, which formulates innovation projects into well-defined Challenges, our organizations have leveraged a global crowd of more than 400,000 brilliant minds with 10’s of millions of minds coming to InnoCentive  monthly to find solutions to over 20 Challenges that include:

• • Maximizing Sunlight Reflection of the Ground Surface in Solar Plants
  • Recycling and Reusing Wind Turbine Blades
  • Creating New Methods for Cooling Water and Water Disinfection

Bringing Solutions to Public Entities

InnoCentive also connects the global crowd with public sector organizations and governmental agencies to crowdsource solutions to their environmental issues. Recently, InnoCentive has wrapped up two challenges with the Bureau of Reclamation (US Department of the Interior) that provided solutions for:

• Predicting dangerous weather (Sub-Seasonal Climate Forcast Radio)
• Monitoring pathogens in local water supplies (Pathogen Monitoring Stage 1)

Join InnoCentive and Its Partners in the Fight Against Climate Change

No single organization can tackle the global issue of climate change alone, but the open innovation marketplace is the only place where fast, affordable and reliable innovation on this scale can take place. If you are an organization or government entity that has environmental issues that need to be solved, contact InnoCentive to begin leveraging the global crowd.

It was a banner year for money spent on solar and wind projects, EVs and more in 2022. The way things are going, that level of investment will quickly be eclipsed.

(Bloomberg) — Last year was a double milestone for decarbonizing the world’s energy system. It was the first year when investment in the energy transition equaled global investment in fossil fuels, according to the latest data release from clean energy research group BloombergNEF.

The money flowing into the upstream, midstream and downstream segments of oil and gas, and into fossil fuel-fired power generation without emissions reduction technology, was $1.1 trillion last year. Likewise, annual investment in renewable energy, electrified transport and heat, energy storage and other technologies reached $1.1 trillion.

But 2022 was also a milestone in another sense — as the first year when investment in decarbonizing energy surpassed $1 trillion. The year-on-year increase of more than $250 billion from 2021 was the largest jump yet.

Renewable energy and electrified transport reaped most of those dollars. Those sectors were buoyed by soaring installations of wind and solar — with more than 350 gigawatts of assets built — and sales of 10-million-plus electric vehicles globally.

Although renewable energy saw record investment in 2022, electrified transport is growing at a faster rate. Passenger EVs account for the bulk of the transport dollars invested ($380 billion) but by no means all of that sector’s capital flow last year. Public charging infrastructure saw an influx of $24 billion, while nearly $23 billion was spent on electric 2- and 3-wheelers. Electric buses got $15 billion, and commercial electric vehicles such as trucks received $8 billion.

BNEF tracks six other sectors in the energy transition, and all but one of them (nuclear) also set annual investment records last year.

The two smallest sectors for investment, shown below, are also worth noting. Carbon capture received $6.3 billion in 2022 and hydrogen a little over $1 billion. However, both grew significantly in relative terms: Carbon capture investment almost tripled while hydrogen investment more than tripled. Both technologies have made big promises in the past half-decade, and investment is now following. But there will need to be orders of magnitude more use of them to have a substantial climate impact.

Inflation did play a role in the increase in invested dollars last year — but not that much of a role, given that inflation in the range of 8% is less than a third of the total year-on-year dollar increase. Inflation drove up costs of components, construction and financing for energy across the board. Yet expansion in nearly every sector increased total dollars invested much more.

A trillion dollars invested in a year is something. It is also short of what is needed. In order to get on track for net zero emissions in 2050, the world would need to immediately triple this $1.1 trillion spend — and add hundreds of billions of dollars more for the global power grid.

Decarbonization is a game of decades and a game of dollars. Since 2004, the world has invested $6.7 trillion in the energy transition. It took eight years, from 2004 through 2011, to reach the first $1 trillion. It took less than four years to reach the next trillion, and a little less than one more year to reach the latest trillion. One dollar out of every six invested over the last 18 years flowed in 2022.

To paraphrase the late energy investor T. Boone Pickens, the first trillion was the hardest. The most recent trillion was the fastest — but if we are to achieve the deepest decarbonization possible, it will also be slower than every trillion that comes after it.

Nat Bullard is a senior contributor to BloombergNEF and Bloomberg Green. He is a venture partner at Voyager, an early-stage climate technology investor.

Installing solar-powered refrigerators in developing countries can reduce hunger

Food loss and waste are major problems around the world. When food is tossed aside or allowed to spoil, it makes economies less productive and leaves people hungry.

It also harms Earth’s climate by generating methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Food loss and waste accounts for 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions. If food waste were a country, it would be the third-largest emitter in the world, ahead of India and behind only China and the US.

Worldwide, 1.3 billion tons of food are lost or wasted every year. Earth’s population is projected to increase from 8 billion today to roughly 10 billion by 2050. Feeding that many people will require nations to increase agricultural production by more than 70% and reduce food loss and waste.

Expanding food cold chains to the world’s least-developed countries can have enormous impacts. But it also raises concerns if it’s not done in a way that avoids contributing to climate change.

Existing refrigeration systems release hydrochlorofluorocarbons, or HCFCs, and hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, which are extremely potent greenhouse gases. Producing electricity with fossil fuels to power these systems also worsens climate change. For these reasons, exporting traditional cold chains to developing countries is not environmentally and socially sustainable.

Instead, developing countries need cold chains that run on renewable energy and use alternative refrigerants with lower climate impacts. As a scholar focusing on sustainable development, green growth and climate change, I believe that expanding cold chains in the developing world particularly sub-Saharan Africa will not only benefit the environment but also provide important social benefits, such as empowering women.

Spoilage and contamination

To understand why cold chains are so important, think about how food travels from the farm to your table. First it is harvested and shipped to a wholesaler. Then it might go straight to retail stores, or to a food processing company to be cooked, frozen or canned. At each stage it may sit for periods lasting hours to days. If it is not held at a safe temperature, the food may spoil or become contaminated with bacteria that cause foodborne illnesses.

In 2021, over 700 million people were hungry around the world 425 million in Asia, 278 million in Africa and 57 million in the Caribbean and Latin America. Many countries in these regions have minimal cold storage capacity to keep food from spoiling before it can be eaten.

Seafood, meat, milk and vegetables are highly reliant on cold food chains. Countries mainly in the developing world lose 23% of their perishable products before they reach markets.

Loss of cereal crops, which also benefit from cold storage, are equally staggering. For instance, Ethiopia loses about one-third of its stored corn after five weeks due to lack of proper storage. In 2019, India’s Ministry of Food Processing Industries estimated that the country had lost or wasted 56 million tons of food, worth about US$10 billion, mainly due to lack of cold storage.

Inadequate postharvest management can lead to crop contamination and pest infestation. In Uganda, where most corn is grown by small farmers who lack proper facilities to dry and store it, contamination with fungi that produce dangerous substances called aflatoxin has been a significant human and animal health concern.

Social benefits from cold storage

Nearly 150 countries have adopted the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. This measure, negotiated in 2016, is driving changes in the cooling energy sector by requiring nations to phase down use of HFCs.

The global cold chain market is worth $160 billion today and is projected to reach $585 billion by 2026. Solar-powered cold storage is a niche market today, but is poised for growth.

In addition to minimising food loss and waste, increasing incomes, curbing land degradation and reducing greenhouse emissions, sustainable cold storage offers great benefits for women, who produce 60% to 80% of crops and are responsible for postharvest activities in most developing countries.

Research in climate finance shows that women may be disproportionately burdened by poverty because they have less access than men to assets and financial resources in many countries. However, since women play key roles in farming and managing food supplies, they are positioned to participate in the food cold chain business in remote and rural areas if the international community provides financial and technical support, thus improving their economic status and livelihoods.

Pilot projects show promise

I see sub-Saharan Africa as an ideal candidate for the introduction of food cold chains, for several reasons. First, most of its food loss and waste occurs during harvest and postharvest stages. Installing sustainable cold chain systems at these stages can greatly reduce losses at an early point.

Second, much of the region lacks food cold chains. Investing here offers the opportunity to bypass conventional systems and leapfrog straight to sustainable designs.

In my view, a bottom-up approach starting at the farm level is the most viable strategy. Notably, dairy farmers in Uganda are organized into cooperatives, which have invested in cold chain storage. This made them much more resilient to commercial disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic than other sectors, such as fish and vegetables, which suffered heavy losses when producers could not get their products to markets.

Nigeria has the highest yearly food loss and waste rate in Africa 415 pounds (190 kilograms) per capita. In northern Nigeria, a six-month pilot project that installed solar-powered cold storage for seven small fruit and vegetable markets preserved the quality of the goods and enabled the markets to charge higher prices.

These systems generated estimated net profits of roughly $8,000 per year per market. Even at a 7% annual interest rate, such a system could recoup its $40,000 capital cost within a decade.

Access to electricity is as low as 55% in some parts of Nigeria, and most of its electricity comes from gas and oil. Renewable-powered cold storage offers a cleaner alternative.

Other experiments have produced similar results in northwest Kenya and in Indonesia’s Wakatobi islands, where 78% of the population relies on fish as a staple food. Solar-powered cold storage facilities helped these communities save money and reduce waste.

To promote efficient and climate-friendly cooling, including air conditioning and refrigeration, the United Nations Environmental Programme has organised a Global Cool Coalition that includes cities, countries, businesses and international organisations. I see this partnership as a way to make progress on both sustainable development and climate change. In my view, investing in renewable-powered cold chains in the world’s least-developed countries will help spur green growth, protect nature and feed the world’s hungry people.

Source: PTI

Boston (US) : Food loss and waste are major problems around the world. When food is tossed aside or allowed to spoil, it makes economies less productive and leaves people hungry.

It also harms Earth’s climate by generating methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Food loss and waste accounts for 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions. If food waste were a country, it would be the third-largest emitter in the world, ahead of India and behind only China and the US.

Worldwide, 1.3 billion tons of food are lost or wasted every year. Earth’s population is projected to increase from 8 billion today to roughly 10 billion by 2050. Feeding that many people will require nations to increase agricultural production by more than 70% and reduce food loss and waste.

Expanding food cold chains to the world’s least-developed countries can have enormous impacts. But it also raises concerns if it’s not done in a way that avoids contributing to climate change.

Existing refrigeration systems release hydrochlorofluorocarbons, or HCFCs, and hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, which are extremely potent greenhouse gases. Producing electricity with fossil fuels to power these systems also worsens climate change. For these reasons, exporting traditional cold chains to developing countries is not environmentally and socially sustainable.

Instead, developing countries need cold chains that run on renewable energy and use alternative refrigerants with lower climate impacts. As a scholar focusing on sustainable development, green growth and climate change, I believe that expanding cold chains in the developing world – particularly sub-Saharan Africa – will not only benefit the environment but also provide important social benefits, such as empowering women.

Spoilage and contamination To understand why cold chains are so important, think about how food travels from the farm to your table. First it is harvested and shipped to a wholesaler. Then it might go straight to retail stores, or to a food processing company to be cooked, frozen or canned. At each stage it may sit for periods lasting hours to days. If it is not held at a safe temperature, the food may spoil or become contaminated with bacteria that cause foodborne illnesses.

In 2021, over 700 million people were hungry around the world – 425 million in Asia, 278 million in Africa and 57 million in the Caribbean and Latin America. Many countries in these regions have minimal cold storage capacity to keep food from spoiling before it can be eaten.

Seafood, meat, milk and vegetables are highly reliant on cold food chains. Countries mainly in the developing world lose 23% of their perishable products before they reach markets.

Loss of cereal crops, which also benefit from cold storage, are equally staggering. For instance, Ethiopia loses about one-third of its stored corn after five weeks due to lack of proper storage. In 2019, India’s Ministry of Food Processing Industries estimated that the country had lost or wasted 56 million tons of food, worth about US$10 billion, mainly due to lack of cold storage.

Inadequate postharvest management can lead to crop contamination and pest infestation. In Uganda, where most corn is grown by small farmers who lack proper facilities to dry and store it, contamination with fungi that produce dangerous substances called aflatoxin has been a significant human and animal health concern.

Social benefits from cold storage Nearly 150 countries have adopted the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. This measure, negotiated in 2016, is driving changes in the cooling energy sector by requiring nations to phase down use of HFCs.

The global cold chain market is worth $160 billion today and is projected to reach $585 billion by 2026. Solar-powered cold storage is a niche market today, but is poised for growth.

In addition to minimising food loss and waste, increasing incomes, curbing land degradation and reducing greenhouse emissions, sustainable cold storage offers great benefits for women, who produce 60% to 80% of crops and are responsible for postharvest activities in most developing countries.

Research in climate finance shows that women may be disproportionately burdened by poverty because they have less access than men to assets and financial resources in many countries. However, since women play key roles in farming and managing food supplies, they are positioned to participate in the food cold chain business in remote and rural areas if the international community provides financial and technical support, thus improving their economic status and livelihoods.

Pilot projects show promise I see sub-Saharan Africa as an ideal candidate for the introduction of food cold chains, for several reasons. First, most of its food loss and waste occurs during harvest and postharvest stages. Installing sustainable cold chain systems at these stages can greatly reduce losses at an early point.

Second, much of the region lacks food cold chains. Investing here offers the opportunity to bypass conventional systems and leapfrog straight to sustainable designs.

In my view, a bottom-up approach starting at the farm level is the most viable strategy. Notably, dairy farmers in Uganda are organized into cooperatives, which have invested in cold chain storage. This made them much more resilient to commercial disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic than other sectors, such as fish and vegetables, which suffered heavy losses when producers could not get their products to markets.

Nigeria has the highest yearly food loss and waste rate in Africa – 415 pounds (190 kilograms) per capita. In northern Nigeria, a six-month pilot project that installed solar-powered cold storage for seven small fruit and vegetable markets preserved the quality of the goods and enabled the markets to charge higher prices.

These systems generated estimated net profits of roughly $8,000 per year per market. Even at a 7% annual interest rate, such a system could recoup its $40,000 capital cost within a decade.

Access to electricity is as low as 55% in some parts of Nigeria, and most of its electricity comes from gas and oil. Renewable-powered cold storage offers a cleaner alternative.

Other experiments have produced similar results in northwest Kenya and in Indonesia’s Wakatobi islands, where 78% of the population relies on fish as a staple food. Solar-powered cold storage facilities helped these communities save money and reduce waste.

To promote efficient and climate-friendly cooling, including air conditioning and refrigeration, the United Nations Environmental Programme has organised a Global Cool Coalition that includes cities, countries, businesses and international organisations. I see this partnership as a way to make progress on both sustainable development and climate change. In my view, investing in renewable-powered cold chains in the world’s least-developed countries will help spur green growth, protect nature and feed the world’s hungry people.

Source: PTI

As international locations start making ready for a crucial yr for local weather motion, the European Union sees India as an necessary associate for enterprise measures to deal with local weather change and decelerate international warming, Frans Timmermans, man accountable for European Green Deal, has mentioned.

There was a “actual change” within the relationship between the European Union and India, a relationship that “typically was fairly bumpy, typically it went properly, typically it was a bit extra quiet”, mentioned Timmermans, government vice chairman of the European Commission.

The problem local weather change presents is among the many components that he attributes for the change within the relationship. “However then final couple of years, the realisation that we’re each confronted with an existential problem, which is the local weather disaster, has introduced us nearer collectively,” he mentioned.

Consultants mentioned there are geopolitical components such because the significance of the Indo-Pacific area which have contributed to a more in-depth EU-India relationship.

“We’ve got a blind spot for India; we ought to be way more targeting India’s huge potential and the truth that India can be spreading its wings internationally and eager to play a task internationally,” Timmermans mentioned. “We have to interact with India greater than we did earlier than. I feel it is to the advantage of the European Union and to the advantage of India, if we search for these types of stronger cooperation.”

The Dutch politician is accountable for European Inexperienced Deal, a package deal of coverage initiatives to facilitate the EU’s transition and transformation to a web zero economic system.

Local weather change offers the EU and India with immense potentialities of engagement and an energised partnership, he mentioned, referring to his interactions and engagements with “a complete host of Indian ministers”.

“With none reservation, I may say they have been very constructive and (expressed) willingness to have interaction…(and) work collectively when it comes to creating joint tasks, facilitating investments, facilitating the chance to have know-how transfers,” he mentioned. “So, I am hopeful that we are able to construct on that within the subsequent years.”

The partnership with India, Timmermans mentioned, may even be engagement in different international locations resembling in Africa. He identified that India’s engagement in African international locations is “perceived as much less intrusive” in comparison with China. “So that provides us additionally a chance to work carefully collectively.”

Timmermans met with energy and renewable vitality minister RK Singh on the sidelines of the just-concluded Irena (Worldwide Renewable Vitality Company) meeting in Abu Dhabi. Singh was officiating as president of the thirteenth Irena Assembly after India took over the presidency from El Salvador.

In keeping with a European Fee official, Timmermans and Singh mentioned EU-India vitality cooperation, particularly on hydrogen, in addition to cooperation on vitality entry in Africa based mostly on greatest practices developed in India.

The altering India-EU relationship that Timmermans refers to was demonstrable eventually yr’s annual UN local weather talks (COP27) in Sharm El-Sheikh. COP27 noticed the emergence of an India-EU alliance, with the European Union and its member states stepping as much as assist India’s name for a phase-down of all fossil fuels, and never simply coal as agreed to the yr earlier than in Glasgow. The EU was among the many first to publicly assist, with some qualifiers, the demand put ahead by India. The “phase-down of fossil fuels” was not a part of the ultimate final result doc at Sharm El-Sheikh, although, and it’s prone to be on the checklist at this yr’s local weather negotiations in Dubai.

Timmermans didn’t rule out a planned-out effort with India this yr. As in Sharm El-Sheikh, he mentioned the EU would assist the demand for fossil gasoline phase-down “so long as we’re clear that this isn’t strolling again from the dedication to section down coal”. “So, it is to not decelerate the section out of coal however to reinforce the section out of fossil fuels.”

Taking ahead the India-EU alliance on the express inclusion of “fossil gasoline phase-down” is, in response to Timmermans, “one thing we have to focus on”.

Source: PTI

• India has sizeable and growing energy needs, and with this, comes the prospect of spiralling greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs).

• The country has made huge strides in improving energy access, but needs to continue to develop the energy network and diversify its fuel mix.

• The country’s path to decarbonization could be a net-positive one if it turns to low- and no-emissions technologies.

• Any successful models it develops can be replicated in other economies, producing a beneficial effect for billions of people.

Some time in 2023, likely mid-April, India will surpass China as being the country with the largest population. It is a timely reminder of the growing influence that India and its activities exert on the rest of the world, and not just because of its size.

With such a large – still industrializing – country come sizeable energy needs, and with this, the prospect of spiralling greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). India is grappling with the issue of trying to quickly develop equitable economic growth to meet the changing needs and lifestyle aspirations of its 1.4 billion people, while also hitting national and global climate change targets.

It should come as little surprise, therefore, that India has been at the forefront of driving global action on climate change. It has used indigenous technology to optimize its resources and promoted green energy to reduce carbon emissions; Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement to establish a National Hydrogen Mission is noteworthy. Alongside this, India has co-founded the International Solar Alliance (ISA) with France, and in doing so, is leading the global movement towards solar power, with a focus on promoting energy access and transition. Already, the ISA has 110 member countries and is pursuing nine programmes promoting 10GW of off-grid and grid-connected solar projects in developing countries.

India’s pledge to reach net-zero emissions by 2070 was one of the most important announcements at COP26. In line with the prime minister’s statement, the federal government recently approved India’s Updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), which translates the COP26 announcements into enhanced climate targets. It marks a major step in achieving India’s long-term goal of reaching net zero by 2070.

Towards the end of 2022 and following the 75th year of its independence, India took on the mantle of G20 leadership. Its leadership slogan ‘one earth, one family, one future’, is particularly apt, underlining how inextricably linked humanity is, not least in suffering and addressing the effects of the changing climate. During 2022, extreme weather events were recorded in the country during 80% of the year, underlining how much India is already suffering the effects of climate change.

Reflecting this, energy and climate change mitigation are among India’s priorities during its G20 presidency. Specifically, India is expected to focus on climate finance, energy security and green hydrogen, pushing for the provision of finance and technology as critical enablers for achieving the Paris Agreement climate goals.

The G20 presidency places India on the global stage and allows it to establish its priorities and narratives within the international agenda. This makes 2023 a year to watch: How will India continue to fuel its growing energy needs and what decisions will it take about its energy transition?

The country has made huge strides in improving energy access during the past two decades, with near-universal household access achieved in 2019. Its challenge now is to continue to develop the energy network and diversify its fuel mix to meet growing demand. The situation presents India with the opportunity to take bold action, putting it on a path to realizing strong, equitable, shared growth, while also averting the worst effects of the changing climate.

As the situation stands, however, India’s energy mix is carbon intensive. Coal is its primary source of fuel, accounting for approximately 70% of electricity generation, and the country also powers much of its transport through oil. As a result, India is the world’s third-largest emitter of CO2, despite low per capita CO2 emissions. Unlike developed nations with mature GHG infrastructure, India has yet to build a lot of its GHG inventory.

This suggests a need for the country to significantly reduce its reliance on fossil fuels. In the interim, it must make heavy investment into methods to combat the emissions problem, for example with implementing cleaner operations, stripping emissions of the worst of the GHGs, and looking at carbon capture.

The good news is that the country’s path to decarbonization could, however, be a net-positive one. India has a unique opportunity to skip this journey by turning to low- and no-emissions technologies. Already India is the world’s third-largest producer of solar energy and enjoys the lowest renewables costs. Plans to increase renewable energy as part of the mix remain in place, and India is pioneering green hydrogen (hydrogen made using renewable energy).

Given this fertile situation, research has pointed to the benefits India would reap from pursuing a Green New Deal. It is estimated that by greening its economy, India could leverage green growth to add $1 trillion to its GDP by 2030 and a staggering $15 trillion by 2070. Additionally, such a transformation could create 50 million jobs.

The World Economic Forum remains committed to support India in its vision and efforts to drive climate action and environment sustainability, during and beyond its G20 presidency. During the Forum’s Annual Meeting 2022, the Forum launched the Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders India, a high-level platform aimed at supporting and accelerating the country’s climate action and green transition efforts. The alliance’s members – India’s leading business voices – will, at the Annual Meeting 2023, agree priorities, set targets and announce workstreams and timelines. The Forum is also contributing to the country’s climate and land restoration goals through its Trillion Tree platform, 1t.org. The platform is launching a coalition in India, which aims to bring together the public and private sectors, and civil society to support forest conservation and restoration efforts.

The G20 presidency offers India the opportunity to shape the climate and energy transition agenda at a global level. Reflecting its sheer size and diversity, any successful models it develops can be replicated in other economies, producing a beneficial effect for billions of people. India can establish itself as a role model through its response to these opportunities, potentially having a resounding impact on our collective future.

Source: weforum

Our transformation toward a climate-neutral economy – the fundamental task of our century – is currently taking on an entirely new dynamic

In a special address at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2023, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz reaffirmed his country’s goal of attaining climate neutrality, or net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, by 2045.

While the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine since February 2022 initially appeared to throw a spanner into German and European ambitions for the transition to renewables, Scholz sees Moscow’s aggression as only having accelerated that shift.

“Our transformation toward a climate-neutral economy – the fundamental task of our century – is currently taking on an entirely new dynamic,” said Scholz, “not in spite of, but because of, the Russian war”.

“Whether you are a business leader or a climate activist, as a security policy specialist or an investor, it is now crystal clear to each and every one of us that the future belongs solely to renewables for cost reasons, for environmental reasons, for security reasons, and because in the long run, renewables promise the best returns.”

Within a few months of the war’s onset, Scholz said Germany had made itself completely independent from Russian gas, Russian oil and Russian coal. Initial fears of energy shortfalls, especially with the approach of winter, proved unfounded.

“We concluded new partnerships with Asia, Africa and America, thus lessening our dependence. So I can say that our energy supply for this winter is secure,” he said.

With new laws mandating the expansion of renewables including wind, solar and hydrogen, Scholz said that the German government will eliminate red tape, enabling connection to the grid an average of two years faster than was previously possible.

“We intend to step up the pace even more,” he added. “You can also rely on our targets: the obstacles have been swept aside.

The Chancellor said for 2023, the country had more than doubled the volume of calls for tender for onshore wind farms alone.

“By 2030, 80 per cent of our electricity production will come from renewable sources, double what it is at present,” he said.

“At the same time, our electricity requirements are increasing from 600 terawatt hours today to 750 by the end of the decade, and we are expecting them to double yet again in the 2030s.”

Despite the suffering of the Ukrainian people since the invasion, Scholz pointed to the post-war recovery as an opportunity for businesses.

“In Berlin at the end of October 2022, we worked with international experts to draw up a Marshall Plan for the long-term reconstruction of Ukraine,” he said.

“Private sector capital will play a key role here. I know that many companies in Germany and beyond are very aware of the opportunities that the Ukrainian economic miracle could offer them, particularly as the country moves toward the European Union after the end of the war.”

Bucking the trend of population decline in many developed countries and pessimistic predictions of a shrinking German population, Scholz noted that his country now boasts more residents and employed individuals than at any other time in its history.

“Before the year is out, our country will finally benefit from modern immigration legislation. After all, if we want to remain competitive as a leading industrial nation, we need experienced practitioners, qualified engineers, tradesmen and mechanics,” he said.

Source: PTI

Due to Earth’s continuous warming trend, global temperatures in 2022 were 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit above the average for NASA’s baseline period, which is from 1951-1980.

Earth’s average surface temperature in 2022 tied with 2015 was the fifth warmest on record, according to a report by NASA. Due to Earth’s continuous warming trend, global temperatures in 2022 were 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit above the average for NASA’s baseline period, which is from 1951-1980. This information has been reported by scientists from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York.

According to NASA administrator Bill Nelson, “This warming trend is alarming”.

He further added “Our warming climate is already making a mark: Forest fires are intensifying; hurricanes are getting stronger; droughts are wreaking havoc and sea levels are rising. NASA is deepening our commitment to do our part in addressing climate change. Our Earth System Observatory will provide state-of-the-art data to support our climate modeling, analysis and predictions to help humanity confront our planet’s changing climate.”

The report also mentions that the past nine years have been the warmest ever since record keeping began in 1880. As per the data, it also shows that the Earth in 2022 was about 2 degrees Fahrenheit which means it was even warmer than the late 19th-century average.

Reason behind a warmer planet?

Human activities! Humans continue to pump huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, as said by Gavin Schmidt, director of GISS, NASA’s leading center for climate modeling.

Although human involvement in greenhouse gases declined a bit in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Recently, NASA scientists as well as international scientists reported that the year 2022 had the highest record for carbon dioxide emissions.

How is this data acquired?

NASA’s global temperature analysis comes from data collected from several weather stations as well as Antarctic research stations. It also comes from instruments which are mounted on ships and ocean buoys. Once the data is acquired, NASA scientists then analyse the data by looking for any uncertainties so as to maintain consistent methods for calculating global average surface temperature differences for every year.

These ground-based measurements of the surface temperature are consistent with satellite data which has been collected since 2002 by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder on NASA’s Aqua satellite and with other estimates.

NASA uses the period from 1951-1980 as a baseline to understand how global temperatures change over a period of time. The baseline includes climate patterns such as La Niña and El Niño, as well as unusually hot or cold years due to other factors, ensuring it encompasses natural variations in Earth’s temperature, as mentioned in a report by NASA.

Source: PTI

Carbon has a (justifiably) bad reputation for its role in climate change.

You’ve heard we need to reduce our carbon emissions, our carbon footprint, our carbon miles.

That’s certainly the case, but this is typically carbon that is emitted into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, methane and soot.

Other carbon materials also need a bit of respect. They will be critical to our transition from burning fossil fuels.

Lithium-ion batteries, hydrogen fuel cells and solar panels will all help us reduce our reliance on these old sources of energy — and they all use carbon materials.

Let’s explore a few of the carbon materials that will improve green energy technology.

Without carbon, lithium-ion batteries tend to catch fire

Lithium-ion batteries are a cornerstone technology for decarbonisation.

They will power our electric cars and help buffer renewable energy fluctuations in the grid.

But lithium metal reacts violently with air and water, leading to early lithium-cobalt batteries catching fire.

Japanese chemist Akira Yoshino solved this problem in the 1980s by adding carbon to the lithium-cobalt battery.

Specifically, Professor Yoshino added graphite — a form of crystalline carbon. Graphite soaks up lithium metal, forming a stable compound where, for every six carbon atoms, one lithium atom is stored in ordered arrays between graphite’s layers.

The “lithiated graphite” also changes colour from a dull black to a beautiful gold.

If the battery is exposed to air, the oxygen and water cannot as easily get to the lithium, making it safe enough to store in your pocket.

Professor Yoshino shared the Nobel prize in Chemistry in 2019 for developing lithium-ion batteries as we know them today.

It is only really in the past decade that these batteries have started to decarbonise our lives through electric cars and in our electricity grids.

And while lithium-ion batteries appear set to take over the world, there are still some issues that could lead to manufacturing bottlenecks.

Most of the graphite used in lithium-ion batteries is mined and is not pure enough to be used directly in batteries. It also requires washing in acid to remove contaminating metals, leading to an environmentally damaging waste stream.

To create an alternative, researchers in the Carbon Group at Curtin University have been working on producing graphite for batteries from, for instance, construction waste.

“We are able to convert polyvinyl chloride, a common waste material used in plastic piping, into high-quality graphite,” said Jason Fogg, a PhD student who studies carbon materials science.

But this waste-derived graphite is still more energy-expensive compared with mined graphite.

“The high temperatures required are the current challenge,” Mr Fogg said.

“You must heat the plastic pipe to almost 3000 degrees Celsius, which is half the surface temperature of the Sun, before it converts into graphite.”

Irene Suarez-Martinez, who co-leads the Carbon Group, has been turning to supercomputers to find ways to lower this temperature and, therefore, make waste-derived graphite cheaper.

How does carbon help green hydrogen?

Countries are investing billions in “green hydrogen” — hydrogen gas produced with renewable energy — which can be used as an energy store.

But there are vanishingly small amounts of naturally occurring hydrogen gas here on Earth. This is because hydrogen likes to bond with oxygen to form water.

To make green hydrogen, electrical energy from renewables splits the water molecule into hydrogen and oxygen in a device called an electrolyser.

A fuel cell device can then later recombine the hydrogen gas and oxygen, providing electrical energy on demand — in, say, a hydrogen fuel-cell electric car.

One of the main challenges holding hydrogen back as an energy source is the cost of the platinum metal needed in fuel cells and electrolysers to let the reactions occur.

But due to the scarcity of platinum in the earth’s crust, it is horrendously expensive, and makes up around 77 per cent of the cost of a fuel cell, as estimated by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the US.

Yuan Chen from the University of Sydney is an expert in using carbon materials to reduce the cost of hydrogen fuel cells.

“We are replacing the platinum with single-atom catalysts, where the atom is iron, nickel and cobalt, embedded into carbon,” he explained.

Further work is underway to improve the stability of these platinum replacements, but they have so far reached the milestone of performing at a similar efficiency as the more expensive platinum catalyst.

Carbon can improve solar efficiency too

Timothy Schmidt is leading a team at the University of New South Wales to improve the efficiency of solar cells using carbon-based coatings.

“The best silicon solar cells max out at 26 per cent efficiency and engineers can scramble to make them more efficient, but they are running up against a ceiling,” he said.

The reason silicon solar cells are not more efficient is that they can only transform specific colours of light into electricity. Redder light is converted most efficiently, but as the light gets bluer, it produces more heat.

Professor Schmidt’s team is working on a coating to put atop a silicon solar cell to convert blue light into redder light that silicon can efficiently absorb. This has the sci-fi name of a “singlet-fission solar cell”.

If the carbon-based coating can increase the amount of energy produced by the solar cell, it could improve panel efficiency by up to 35 per cent in the next five to 10 years.

While a hike from 26 to 35 per cent doesn’t sound like a lot, it makes a huge difference when it comes to solar payback time.

For example, increasing the efficiency of a solar cell from 12 per cent to 14 per cent halved the payback time for a solar system from four to two years, according to researchers from Utrecht University in the Netherlands (although solar efficiency isn’t the only factor that affects payback time).

These are just a handful of many projects in Australia and abroad using carbon materials to build and refine green energy technology.

And despite its bad reputation, carbon can help us reach our climate goals.

Source: abc

Many people think of the annual UN climate talks as talkfests which achieve only incremental change, at best. Activist Greta Thunberg has described them as “blah blah blah” moments – grossly inadequate and too often hijacked by fossil fuel producers who would like the world to keep buying their main exports.

Look more closely. The world is slowly but surely shifting away from fossil fuels. When historians look back, they will likely see the 2015 Paris agreement as the key pivot point. It achieved a global consensus on climate action and set the goal for nations to decarbonise by mid-century.

In recent years, the enormous task of switching from fossil fuels to clean energy has been given a boost by tailwinds from the need to get off Russian gas, to the plummeting cost of clean energy.

Focusing on the success of global talks is no longer the only game in town. To see real progress, look to countries like China, Germany and the United States, who are moving faster to invest in clean energy technologies – not just for the world’s sake, but because it’s in their own interests to move first.

From Paris with love: why the Paris agreement is so vital

After decades of torturous negotiations and bitter disappointment at the UN COP climate talks, the hard-won 2015 Paris agreement was a major diplomatic breakthrough. Achieved with rare consensus, it has huge legitimacy. That’s what makes it powerful. It sets the standard for all nations to follow.

So what did it do? It introduced a new global norm: achieving net-zero. Countries agreed to keep the world’s heating “well below 2℃ […] and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5℃”.

To get there, the globe must achieve net zero emissions by around mid-century. All countries need to set national targets to cut emissions and strengthen them every five years. Since 2015, well over 100 countries have pledged to achieve net zero. These countries represent more than 90% of the global economy.

The pledges made in Paris and afterwards are beginning to drive faster change. In the five years to 2020, global clean energy investment grew by 2%. Since 2020, the pace of growth has accelerated significantly to 12% a year. The International Energy Agency (IEA) now expects global fossil fuel use to peak this decade, before the world economy switches irreversibly to clean energy.

At present, the transition is not happening fast enough. But it is happening. And there’s no turning back. Here are six encouraging trends to watch in 2023.

1. G7 economies will form a ‘climate club’

In December, the G7 grouping of the world’s richest democracies agreed to form a “climate club”. Conceived by Nobel Prize-winning economist William Nordhaus, the club is an arrangement where countries develop common standards for climate ambition and share benefits among club members. The club will focus first on decarbonisation of industries such as steelmaking.

2. New carbon tariffs will be introduced in the EU

To avoid the problem of European companies becoming less competitive with companies from nations without a carbon price, EU nations agreed in December to bring in carbon tariffs.

That means imports from countries without an adequate carbon price will be taxed. It also means European companies can’t offshore production to avoid the carbon price.

This is just the tip of the spear, with other rich nations like Canada looking to follow suit. Over time, these tariffs will have a ripple effect, forcing countries reliant on exporting to these markets to move faster toward decarbonisation.

3. The Ukraine war boosted renewables, as nations focus on energy security

When Russia invaded Ukraine, Western nations slapped sanctions on Moscow and cut imports of Russian gas. Fossil fuel prices spiked. Bad news, right? Not so fast. The IEA says the war has actually supercharged clean energy investment by making clean energy a matter of security.

In response to Putin’s invasion, major European economies increased renewable energy targets as they moved to end reliance on Russian gas. With renewables ramping up, the EU now intends to set a stronger 2030 emissions target before the COP28 climate summit later this year.

4. The United States and China are competing to lead the shift to clean energy

Climate action doesn’t have to rely on cooperation. Competition is an excellent driver as well. Last year, the United States passed legislation investing over A$530 billion in clean energy.

The largest climate spend in US history was also intended to compete with China, which dominates global production of solar panels, batteries, wind turbines and electric vehicles.

5. Rich nations are paying developing economies to quit coal

In 2021, a grouping of rich nations offered South Africa $A12 billion to shift away from its reliance on coal power. At the Bali G20 summit last year, rich nations offered Indonesia almost A$30 billion to get off coal, while a similar offer was made to Vietnam in December. This year all eyes will be on India, with hopes a similar package will be offered.

6. Coalitions of the willing

In September, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres will host a “no nonsense” climate ambition summit, ahead of the formal COP talks in November. Why? He wants big economies to bring new commitments to cut emissions earlier – as in this decade. There will be “no room for back-sliders, greenwashers, blame-shifters or repackaging of announcements”, he declared.

It’s not the only parallel push. Alongside the formal UN talks, we’re seeing a flowering of groupings dubbed coalitions of the willing. These range from the Powering Past Coal Alliance diplomatic alliance to the Global Methane Pledge to more ambitious proposals like the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, put forward by Vanuatu and Tuvalu last year.

So while the UN climate talks are the bedrock of global cooperation, we’re also seeing a patchwork quilt forming of extra measures. These under the radar efforts will be vital to driving ever-faster climate action.

Source: PTI

Financial institutions will play a leading role in the transition to a net-zero economy. To maximize the opportunity, they must make fundamental changes across portfolios and organizations.

As facilitators of economic activity, financial institutions are vital contributors to global climate efforts. By providing the right finance to the right place at the right time, banks and investors can drive innovation, support scaling, and avoid an unruly transition to a greener global economy. In theory, these activities should generate a win–win scenario for providers and recipients of funding. However, there are also risks in marshaling the trillions of dollars of capital that will be required. To preempt potential headwinds, decision makers must establish processes, systems, and guardrails to protect themselves and the wider stakeholder community.

Now is a critical time in the battle against global warming. According to a UN report from 2022, time is running out to limit temperature rises to 1.5ºC by 2050.1 However, emissions continue to rise, reaching about 59 metric gigatons in 2019, about 12 percent higher than in 2010.2 Against this concerning backdrop, the transition to net-zero global greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions by 2050 would require $275 trillion of investment in physical assets.3 In the near term, significant investment in clean power would be required to run electric vehicles and decarbonize buildings. Meanwhile, emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs) need committed finance to ensure that the transition plays out across global value chains.

Contingent on a supportive environment, private financial institutions could facilitate as much as $3.5 trillion of annual financing between 2022 and 2050 (exhibit). Commercial banks could provide $2.0 trillion to $2.6 trillion a year, while asset managers, private equity, and venture capital funds could add $950.0 billion to $1.5 trillion. The task for all financial actors is to harness this opportunity while navigating significant strategic and operational demands in the context of evolving regulatory frameworks. Moreover, current incentives are not fully aligned with optimal pathways. For example, financing emission reductions (for example, through divestment of high-emitting assets) could produce higher rewards than financing emissions, which is also a key enabler of the transition. Finally, across the industry, data quality, analytical tools, and climate-related capabilities are variable and often lacking.

Capital deployment will require a collaborative effort among all stakeholders, alongside dedicated fiscal and regulatory tools and risk-sharing financial mechanisms such as blended finance. As these are put in place, financial institutions will need to build the internal capabilities that will help them engage effectively. At a basic level, this will mean defining net-zero targets and timelines to support the client transition, finance the green technologies of the future, and fund the early retirement of high-emitting assets.

Climate change finance is an evolving asset class, but it is already complex, with multiple products, capital structures, and regulatory requirements. Rather than shoehorn these structures into existing protocols, firms will need dedicated strategies across tools, policies, and processes. These will shape capital allocation, investment, and risk management, as well as support the definition of new products and services. To ensure these innovations have their intended effects, firms must engage effectively with clients over time. In many cases, this will mean rethinking workflows (for example, to ensure that relationship manager coverage models reflect client needs).

Finally, decision making will count. Dedicated governance frameworks will help business leaders oversee initiatives and align incentives with their strategic objectives. And creating cultures of decarbonization will encourage a concerted effort across organizations. Of course, systemic change requires significant innovation. New skills and capabilities will be required to help institutions manage risks and explore opportunities as they put their net-zero plans into practice.

Source: mckinsey

The head of one of the world’s biggest oil companies has been named to lead the COP28 global climate talks in Dubai, later this year.

Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber is currently the chief executive officer of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.

He is also the minister for industry and advanced technology for the COP28 hosts, the United Arab Emirates.

Campaigners say he must stand down from his oil business role while president as it is a clear conflict of interest.

They believe someone steeped in the oil industry may not push countries to rapidly reduce their production and use of fossil fuel, which scientists say is critical to avoiding dangerous climate change.

Running the global climate talks process is not an easy job – for months before, and especially during the conference, every word and action of the president is heavily scrutinised.

COP28 is already mired in some controversy as the hosts, the United Arab Emirates, are one of the world’s biggest producers of oil and gas.

The appointment of a key figure in the energy industry as the president-designate of COP28 will likely increase the concerns that the global climate talks process is facing significant influence from fossil fuel interests.

The recent COP27 gathering in Egypt was described by some attendees as a “glorified fossil fuel trade show”.

Analysis of those who registered for the event showed a significant increase in those who were connected to the oil and gas industry compared to previous meetings.

Among the large delegation from the UAE at the conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, there were 70 people closely connected to fossil fuels.

Mr Al Jaber is the chief executive of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, said to be the world’s 12th biggest oil company.

Over the past decade he has become the face of the UAE’s energy industry but he will be the first serving oil executive to assume the role of COP president.

As well as being a minister and his country’s climate envoy, he is also chairman of Masdar, the government-owned renewable energy company that he helped set up.

He has certainly long warned of the dangers of climate change but campaigners are concerned about his appointment, and are calling for him to step aside from his industry roles.

“It is imperative for the world to be reassured that he will step down from his role as the CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company,” said Tasneem Essop, from Climate Action International.

“He cannot preside over a process that is tasked to address the climate crisis with such a conflict of interest, heading an industry that is responsible for the crisis itself.”

What will concern campaigners is that major oil and gas producers are among those opposed to a more rapid phase out of all fossil fuels.

At COP27, there was a strong push from more than 80 countries for the conference to declare support for a phase down of oil and gas as well as coal.

This attempt came to nothing in the face of strong opposition from countries the rely of fossil fuel exports.

While Mr Al Jaber’s appointment has been met with criticism from activists, others involved in climate diplomacy have welcomed the move.

“The UAE has adopted a sound green growth strategy and is a major investor in renewable energy both at home and abroad,” said Yvo de Boer, who was UN climate chief between 2006 and 2010.

“The COP president-designate has been instrumental on many of these issues. This equips him with the understanding, experience and responsibility to make COP28 ambitious, innovative and future focussed.”

Certainly those skills will be tested at the gathering in Dubai in early December this year.

COP28 will hold the first formal assessment of progress on cutting carbon since the Paris agreement was signed.

The “global stocktake” as it is called will be a key moment in clarifying just how much further countries will need to go in restricting their emissions.

Source: bbc

ZURICH : Switzerland’s right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) will within a few days call a referendum aimed at blocking a draft law to cut greenhouse gas emissions, party officials said.

The SVP, a member of the ruling coalition in Bern, is campaigning against the law to make Switzerland carbon-neutral by 2050 but has so far failed to attract backing from other parties.

The proposed legislation would accelerate CO2 emissions cuts and the rollout of renewables, notably solar energy, backed by 2 billion Swiss francs ($2.2 billion) of funding.

The SVP argues that imposing further reductions would be counterproductive during the current energy crisis, triggered across Europe after Moscow cut off most gas deliveries in response to Western sanctions imposed over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In Switzerland, proposed referendums require the support of 50,000 signatures to be activated.

SVP energy spokesperson Monika Rueegger told a webcast interview on Sunday that numbers “well in excess” of that total had signed up and that the party would probably announce the referendum on Monday.

A party spokesperson declined to confirm how many signatures had been gathered and said it planned to call the referendum as scheduled on Jan. 19, the deadline for acceptances.

The SVP, which also favours tighter curbs on immigration, is the biggest group in Switzerland’s 200-member federal parliament, but no other party has supported its referendum,.

However, the new draft anti-CO2 law also faces hurdles.

It too will require approval in a referendum to become law and is a watered-down version of a draft that failed to pass in 2021.

($1 = 0.9245 Swiss francs)

Source: Reuters

• Is Indonesia serious about making a renewable energy transition?

• A new op-ed argues that it is not, as the government and banks continue to permit and fund electricity sources reliant on fossil fuels.

• “Will we as citizens remain silent when the government is not serious about carrying out the energy transition agenda?” the writer wonders.

• This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

In 2022, the public in Indonesia often talked about the energy transition as an effort to fight the future climate crisis. In fact, the climate crisis occurred in 2022 – various disasters due to it, such as floods, landslides, and droughts happened – not only in Indonesia, but also all over the world.

Almost everyone knows that the main cause of the climate crisis is greenhouse gas emissions. Fossil energy is the main contributor to this. Citizens in many countries, including Indonesia, are urging leaders to make an energy transition, leaving fossil energy for renewable energy that is more environmentally friendly.

In November 2022, during the G20 Summit in Bali, the energy transition became the dominant discourse. During the event, the Indonesian government announced a new energy transition funding mechanism in the form of the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP). In this funding mechanism, a number of G7 member countries as well as partner countries from the European Union will mobilize funding for Indonesia’s energy transition worth $20 billion (around Rp. 310.4 trillion).

JETP is claimed to significantly accelerate Indonesia’s transition to a cleaner energy future, reducing cumulative greenhouse gas emissions by more than 300 megatons by 2030 and a reduction of well over two gigatons by 2060 from Indonesia’s current projections. In the midst of Indonesia’s dependence on fossil energy, the question is whether Indonesia is really serious about making an energy transition?

A true energy transition is not just a matter of funding but also the commitment to implement it. Some of the emerging policies actually show that the government is not yet serious about implementing the energy transition.

For example, recently, President Joko Widodo issued Presidential Regulation Number 112 concerning the Acceleration of Development of Renewable Energy for the Provision of Electricity. Even though the title of the presidential regulation is about renewable energy, its contents actually provide ‘protection’ for coal, one of the fossil energy sources that causes the climate crisis.

Presidential Regulation 112 actually still opens space and even provides certainty and protection for plans to build new coal power plants, so that they can be built until 2030. There are at least 13,819 megawatts (nearly 14 gigawatts) of electricity from coal fired power plants that can still be built between 2021 and 2030.

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources is also not serious about carrying out the energy transition. For example, almost simultaneously with the launch of JETP, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Arifin Tasrif said that investment in oil and gas, which is also fossil energy that causes the climate crisis, is still attracting investors. The statement that contradicts the spirit of the energy transition emerged during the signing of a memorandum of understanding between several business actors in the energy sector at the B20 Summit forum side event, two days before the G20 Summit opened.

In fact, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources is also openly developing the potential for CCS/CCUS cooperation. What is CCS/CCUS? CCS is a technology used to capture carbon dioxide from exhaust emissions, then move and store the carbon dioxide gas in a certain storage location (usually underground) so that its negative impact on the atmosphere can be avoided. While in CCUS (Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage), the extracted carbon dioxide is reused in industrial processes, thereby reducing the overall carbon footprint.

Source: mongabay