At the Heart of Technological Transformation and Modernization

25.02.2021

barselona — Foto-ilustracija: Unsplash ( Vitor Monteiro)

Spain is one of the European countries most concerned about climate change. The southern areas of this Mediterranean country are characterized by rather harsh climatic conditions, such as high temperatures, droughts, scarce rainfall and insufficient water. Nevertheless, the Spanish government is actively working to mitigate climate change, among other things, and to create a framework for sustainable growth that will enable the national economy to reach climate neutrality by 2050. The first step was the adoption of the Strategic Framework for Energy and Climate. The Ministry of Environmental Transition will also provide support through the financing of projects that meet certain criteria. Perhaps the most important condition is that the applied technology contributes to reducing dependence on fossil fuels. Energy storage within wind farms and solar power plants will also be financially supported, and priority will be given to projects located on the sites of closed coal-fired power plants. Simultaneously, the Spanish government has also committed to building 3,000 MW of wind and solar power plants over the next decade.

During the conversation with Spanish Ambassador to Serbia Raúl Bartolomé Molina, we sought to learn how the authorities plan to mitigate the vulnerability, increase the country’s security and resilience to climate change, and improve its ability to adapt to new and challenging climate and energy scenarios.

Photo-illustration: Unsplash (Jorge Fernandez Salas)

EP: According to the results of a survey conducted by Ipsos in March 2019, more than 50 percent of Spaniards considered global warming to be the most important environmental challenge facing Spain. What is being presented to the concerned public to mitigate the consequences of global warming in the future?

Raúl Bartolomé Molina: One of the key elements is adopting the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan. It sets the path for decarbonization for the next decade and contains the following goals to be achieved by 2030, such as a 23 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to 1990, and a 42 percent share of energy in final consumption from renewable energy sources, improving energy efficiency by 39.5 percent and 74 percent of the share of renewable energy in the electricity sector. These goals will enable the achievement of long-term goals, primarily climate neutrality by 2050, which means 100 percent of renewable sources in the electricity system and a reduction of at least 90 percent in the total emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) compared to 1990.

In focus:

EP: The European Environment Agency (EEA) predicts that the largest increase in droughts in Europe will be in the Iberian Peninsula, contributing to a greater risk of desertification. What is the plan for adapting to these changes?

Raúl Bartolomé Molina: Most of the effects of climate change could be drastically reduced and prevented through adaptation programs. In this context, the recently adopted National Climate Change Adaptation Plan 2021–2030. defines 81 areas of action to build resilience and reduce damage in 18 sectors, including human health, water, natural heritage, biodiversity and protected areas, coasts and marine environment, forest protection, combating desertification, agriculture and livestock or food safety. These actions will have to evolve over the next decade and require legislative changes and profound structural reforms.

EP: Spain has launched an ambitious plan to switch to renewables by 2050 completely and soon after to completely decarbonize its economy. What measures have been taken and what remains to be done to achieve this goal?

Raúl Bartolomé Molina: Spain is strongly committed to achieving climate neutrality by the middle of the century, taking the lead in implementing the Paris Agreement and the international community’s commitments. In this regard, the Bill on Climate Change and Energy Transition – currently being debated in the Spanish Parliament – includes a significant range of ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and switch to renewable energy sources by 2050. To achieve this goal, it has been determined that by 2030, at least 35 percent of the final energy consumption should be from renewable sources. It can be achieved by expanding the network of electric vehicles, changing the mode of transport, using the electric railway instead of freight transport, or changing the energy source with lower emissions in the residential, industrial and service sectors. Moreover, the Spanish electricity system must be 70 percent renewable by 2030 to reach the set goal of 100 percent by 2050. This goal will require installing new renewable energy production capacities, and sufficient reserve capacities to guarantee the security of supply. Besides, energy efficiency measures will have to reduce primary energy consumption by at least 35 percent, for example through systems implemented in new construction projects and the renovation of existing buildings and the application of new industrial processes.

EP: Coal-fired power plants in the EU are closing, and Spain has two that are still operating. Are they expected to close in the coming years?

Raúl Bartolomé Molina: Spain closed many thermal power plants in a short period and reduced their use by 69 percent in two years. In 2020 alone, seven thermal power plants in Spain ceased to operate. Their closure is justified for environmental and economic reasons because they are the main source of pollution and are not economically sustainable.

However, the social consequences of these measures are not negligible and should be addressed appropriately. Therefore, the recent closure of coal-fired power plants has taken place in the spirit of an intensive process marked by strong social dialogue to ensure a fair transition of jobs and regions, so that no one is left out. As you pointed out, there are still some coal-fired power plants operating, and we are making continuous efforts to reorganize and further develop coal-rich areas. Therefore, the closure of the remaining power plants is not expected in the next few years, until all economic, environmental and social aspects are considered and fully resolved.

Interview by: Jovana Canic

Read the whole interview in the new issue of the Energy portal Magazine SMART CITIES, december 2020 – february 2021.

IRENA Report Identifies Policy Measures to Advance Jordan’s Transition to Renewables

25.02.2021

solar panel - solarni paneli — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

Photo-illustration: Unsplash (Thomas Richter)

A new report published today by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has identified a series of policy measures that can help advance the energy transition towards renewable energy in Jordan.

The “Renewables Readiness Assessment: The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan” – developed in co-operation with Jordan’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, suggests opportunities exist to deepen private sector engagement in national efforts to reach a 31 per cent share of renewables in total power by 2030.

“The recommendations of this report comply with the newly issued Energy strategy 2020-2030 and its action plan,” said H.E. Engineer Hala Zawati, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources in Jordan. “We are fully aware that to achieve all these ambitious targets, a strong partnership between the public and private sectors is needed. We are also eager to work with international friends and partners to make renewable energy a main pillar of the Jordan energy sector.”

The report presents policy action areas to increase energy security and boost supply diversity through the accelerated uptake of renewables and includes ideas to boost end-use electrification and increase the availability of energy transition investments from domestic institutions.

Jordan’s share of electricity from renewables grew from almost zero in 2014 to around 20 percent in 2020 thanks to enabling frameworks and policies that have supported the deployment of renewable energy technologies, including solar photovoltaic (PV) and onshore wind.

“Jordan boasts significant renewable energy resource potential that if realised will reduce consumer energy costs, improve national energy security, create jobs and stimulate sustainable growth – boosting post COVID-19 economic recovery efforts,” said IRENA Director-General Francesco La Camera. “This report highlights a series of policy and regulatory measures that will allow Jordan to build on its energy transition progress to date and align it with 2030 national decarbonisation goals.”

Capacity building in local financing institutions and project developers can drive their engagement in the energy transition, the report says, while helping the country to meet its needs in important areas such as the build-out of electric charging infrastructure for the transport system.

Challenges associated with integrating higher shares of renewables in Jordan can be addressed by building and upgrading transmission and distribution infrastructure, deploying storage, promoting demand-side management and incentivising electrification of heating, cooling and transportation.

Renewables Readiness Assessment: Jordan lists concrete recommendations around the following seven action areas:

Provide the conditions for renewables to grow in the power sector
Foster continued growth of renewable power generation
Plan for the integration of higher shares of renewable power
Incentivise the use of renewables for heating and cooling
Support renewable options for transport and mobility
Catalyse renewable energy investment
Strengthen local industries and create jobs in renewables

Read the full report

The press-release is also available in Arabic.

Source: IRENA

Bitcoin, Tesla, Electricity Usage, And A Mea Culpa

23.02.2021

Over two years ago, CleanTechnica published a substantive report I authored, checking in on the global intersection of blockchain technology and cleantech. About 66 ventures in 26 countries were covered. Naturally, the subject of bitcoin’s electricity use was covered as well, as there was some pulling of hair and gnashing of teeth about it at the time.

And I got it wrong, at least so far.

“[M]ost of the concern about cryptocurrency energy use is going to go away in the next year. The bubble will pop for stale assets like bitcoin, places like China will clamp down on wasting electricity on competitive mining, and everybody else will move to variants of proof-of-stake or perhaps IOTA, which seems to dodge the bullet in a different way.”

Yeah, bitcoin isn’t stale, it seems, and is holding onto the first mover advantage I pointed out in the article and subsequent report. Most recently, of course, is Musk’s announcement that Tesla had used $1.5 billion of its spare cash to take a position in bitcoin and would soon be accepting bitcoin to pay for Teslas.

As I pointed out at the time, bitcoin sucks as a currency, but is decent (if weird) as a store of value. As a currency, it’s slow and expensive to use in transactions, increasingly so with each passing month, and its value is even more notional and abstract than the currency of countries, which at least have some tie to production, GDP, trade balances, and central bank monetary policy.

Buying $35,000 to $120,000 cars with bitcoin seems like about the right level for a transaction with it, unlike transactions people do daily or even monthly. It’s terrible for groceries or Amazon Prime level buys, but major purchases like cars that will last years aren’t off base.

I’d spent some time looking at the concept of currency in the series and report, and that included Westphalian monetary sovereignty and cryptocurrency’s effort to become a post-Westphalian currency. Right now I’m reading Stephanie Kelton’s The Deficit Myth (highly recommended), so I’m engrossed again in monetary policy and its nuances. In a nutshell, jurisdictions which have Westphalian monetary sovereignty and avoid a couple of traps related to it can basically never run out of money to spend as long as they dodge rising inflation. That means that the USA, for example, has all the money it needs for a job guarantee for everyone at a living wage, to fix its failing infrastructure and to pay to decarbonize its economy.

So, into that, a bunch of people being annoyed at Elon Musk about his climate-unfriendly bitcoin choice. Meh.

I have some game in regard to annoying statements about data centers, computing, and carbon debts. I calculated the carbon debts of the major cloud providers a couple of years ago, and then I used that to refute a statement about machine learning models’ carbon debt in another major CleanTechnica report. The day the bitcoin noise broke, I’d spent some time in the morning calculating the energy use of all of the zettabytes of data in the world in response to a client’s question. I’d done that before too, around the time that myths about sending emails being carbon intensive were percolating around the web. It’s still around 1 percent of global electricity use, by the way, where it’s been for years. Data centers have been hunting efficiency, too.

And while I was wrong about bitcoin fading into nothingness, I wasn’t wrong about bitcoin miners seeking the cheapest electricity available, which means renewables, which means low-carbon. Even in 2018, 39 percent of energy used for cryptocurrencies was reportedly coming from renewables, mostly hydroelectric, and that number has just risen.

So, here’s the deal. Stop blaming electricity usage and compute power for climate change. Point your fingers at fossil fuels instead. That’s the real problem, not our computing choices, regardless how inane they may seem.

Source: CleanTechnica

WRITTEN BY: Michael Barnard

Bosnia and Herzegovina Takes Steps to Address Challenges Arising From Small Hydropower Development

23.02.2021

This week’s adoption of the Declaration on River Protection by the National Assembly of , one of the two entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is a welcome step forward in addressing the challenges arising from hydropower development. It complements a similar declaration adopted by the Parliament of the second entity, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in June 2020. The Secretariat commends the exemplary cooperation between legislators and the public in these efforts.

Both declarations call on the entity governments to halt the procedures for approving new hydropower projects and their construction until a review of all relevant national legislation is completed, and a subsequent report on its findings and proposals for reform are drawn up. The review is expected to include proposals for amendments to the state support schemes for renewable energy and to exempt small hydropower projects from receiving state incentives – as recommended in the Secretariat’s Policy Guidelines on Small Hydropower Projects.

The Secretariat is assisting Bosnia and Herzegovina in the preparation of a new regulation that will secure environmentally-friendly river flow. The Government of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is already in the last stage of adopting a catalogue on the criteria for the sustainable development of hydropower plants up to 10 MW. The catalogue aims to steer strategic decision-making on small hydropower development, taking into consideration the criteria pertaining to energy management, ecological values, water management aspects and spatial planning.

The Secretariat will continue to support all Contracting Parties in their efforts to balance obligations with respect to renewable energy development and nature protection.

Source: Energy Community

Helping Small Go Big: Mainstreaming What Happens in the Margins

22.02.2021

Photo UNDP Mexico Emily Mkrtichian — Photo: UNDP Mexico (Emily Mkrtichian)

With only a decade of action left for the sustainable development agenda, UNDP is looking beyond business as usual, to find new ways to learn from the margins, and to look into radically new approaches that fit the complexity of development challenges.

One of those new approaches is learning from women and men who have solved problems through ingenuity and simple, frugal means.

People such as Made Kusuma, an environmental health graduate from Bali, who was frustrated by the numerous floods caused by the lack of a waste management system in his community. Drawing inspiration from nature, he found black soldier flies to process organic waste, which also serves as livestock feed. Or Omar Vazquez, who developed “Sargablocks,” a building block made from seaweed and organic materials, now being used to build homes across the Riviera Maya in Mexico.

Grassroots innovations have often never been codified, applied elsewhere, nor expanded upon. They are naturally frugal, and grounded in a specific context.

We are working on a hypothesis that gave Made Kusuma, Omar Vazquez, and many other grassroots innovators an important role to help national partners achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. How can a large international organization such as UNDP begin to mainstream what happens in the margins?

The two most common ways are through local innovation challenges or by identifying existing user-led innovations. Different experiments compared both approaches and concluded that user-led innovations are higher in quality, feasibility and social impact.

Photo-illustration: Unsplash (John Cameron)

And unlike the solutions that emerged from the innovation challenges, they are more relevant, and produce more novel ideas.

So, we are asking ourselves: Do we know who these grassroots innovators are? How many are they? What answers are they coming up with? Often, they remain invisible.

Placing an educated bet on grassroots innovations, the UNDP Accelerator Labs is conducting an experiment. Working with 92 labs in 116 countries, the network is tapping into the distributed knowledge, perceptions, and practices of women and men facing the effects of climate change, who live in poverty, and who can contribute to putting the planet on a more sustainable path.

We brought onboard 92 solutions mappers, now embedded inside the organization.

Solutions mapping means finding things that work and expanding on them. It seeks out local assets and identifies positive deviants, women and men whose have found better ways to solve a problem, despite facing similar challenges and having no extra resources.

“To be a mapper in the UNDP Accelerator Lab network is to be part of a community of brilliant development practitioners who are constantly pushing the edge of development fieldwork. We are trying new approaches, tools, and sharing knowledge and solutions found in our countries,” says Basma Saeed, Head of Solutions Mapping, UNDP Accelerator Lab Sudan.

This blog is part of a series to reflect on why we approach innovations from the bottom-up.

Grassroots innovations tend to be frugal, using local materials, and designed by and for the community. They can take different forms from furniture-recycling, reducing the drudgery of manual labour, turning waste plastic into value by mixing it with sand or sawdust, and pedaling to provide wireless access, to name a few.

We are running an experiment based on the assumption that people living closest to the problem are best equipped to come up with the answer.

Most grassroots innovations seem to be designed to solve many problems. Omar Vazquez’s bricks made out of seaweed are helping solve a climate crisis while also improving the community’s economic stability. This multifunctionality is a key feature of why grassroots innovations matter to the Sustainable Development Goals — as we cannot achieve them separately or individually.

“If you provide universal education and provide clean water, you still need to achieve gender equality, reduce inequalities, and eliminate poverty. These goals are much more interconnected. You can’t treat them as individual targets,” says Gina Lucarelli, Team Leader, UNDP Accelerator Labs.

We recognize people living close to the problem have critical knowledge to learn from.

“Innovations don’t just happen in shiny labs and Silicon Valley and all that. At UNDP Accelerator Labs, we recognize that innovation occurs all around us, in villages and farming communities, to name a few,” says Fatima Farouta, Head of Solutions Mapping, UNDP Ghana Accelerator Lab.

Policymakers and development experts make crucial decisions that affect many lives, but this top-down approach can often miss. User-led innovation usually address issues and challenges from a perspective that favours experience.

Professor Anil Gupta, Founder of the Honeybee Network, teaches and lives the maxim that every grassroots innovation is also an indicator of an unmet need. By mapping grassroots initiatives, we can then inform UNDP programmes, such as this innovation from UNDP Philippines; a WIFI vending machine made from repurposed electronic appliances that give five minutes of internet access by inserting a piso coin.

Eric Von Hippel, the creator of the term user-led innovation, says informal innovation is a feature, not a bug. He sees that breakthroughs in human history, such as the Industrial Revolution, were linked to a series of small improvements. By systematically identifying and helping diffuse grassroots innovations, the net effect on economic wellbeing can be very large.

We’re embedding solutions mapping into our lab network. We’ve launched for Tomorrow, a global initiative for grassroots solutions in partnership with Hyundai Motor Company. The for Tomorrow platform is dedicated to celebrate and accelerate grassroots innovation, connect local innovators who are creating a more sustainable future.

We’re working along with agencies such as UNICEF and UNHCR to expand frugal innovations. If you are working on similar areas, know of grassroots innovations and local innovators in your communities, or have an idea for collaboration, let’s connect.

Our journey has begun, but there is more to be done. In the next part of this series, we will reflect on how the labs are applying solutions mapping, showcase what we are learning, and share the different pathways to value of this exercise. Stay tuned as we continue to share our learnings and (mis)adventures on approaching innovation from the bottom-up.

Source: UNDP

The EV Effect: Markets are Betting on the Energy Transition

21.02.2021

električni_auto_punjenje — Photo-illustration: Unsplash (Andrew Roberts)

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has calculated that USD 2 trillion in annual investment will be required to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement in the coming three years.

Electromobility has a major role to play in this regard – IRENA’s transformation pathway estimates that 350 million electric vehicles (EVs) will be needed by 2030, kickstarting developments in the industry and influencing share values as manufacturers, suppliers and investors move to capitalise on the energy transition.

Today, around eight million EVs account for a mere 1 percent of all vehicles on the world’s roads, but 3.1 million were sold in 2020, representing a 4 percent market share. While the penetration of EVs in the heavy duty (3.5+ tons) vehicles category is much lower, electric trucks are expected to become more mainstream as manufacturers begin to offer new models to meet increasing demand.

The pace of development in the industry has increased the value of stocks in companies such as Tesla, Nio and BYD, who were among the highest performers in the sector in 2020. Tesla produced half a million cars last year, was valued at USD 670 billion, and produced a price-to-earnings ratio that vastly outstripped the industry average, despite Volkswagen and Renault both selling significantly more electric vehicles (EV) than Tesla in Europe in the last months of 2020.

Nevertheless, it is unlikely this gap will remain as volumes continue to grow, and with EV growth will come increased demand for batteries. The recent success of EV sales has largely been driven by the falling cost of battery packs – which reached 137 USD/kWh in 2020. The sale of more than 35 million vehicles per year will require a ten-fold increase in battery manufacturing capacity from today’s levels, leading to increased shares in battery manufacturers like Samsung SDI and CATL in the past year.

This rising demand has also boosted mining stocks, as about 80 kg of copper is required for a single EV battery. As the energy transition gathers pace, the need for copper will extend beyond electric cars to encompass electric grids and other motors. Copper prices have therefore risen by 30 percent in recent months to USD 7 800 per tonne, pushing up the share prices of miners such as Freeport-McRoran significantly.

Finally, around 35 million public charging stations will be needed by 2030, as well as ten times more private charging stations, which require an investment in the range of USD 1.2 – 2.4 trillion. This has increased the value of charging companies such as Fastnet and Switchback significantly in recent months.

Skyrocketing stock prices – ahead of actual deployment – testify to market confidence in the energy transition; however, investment opportunities remain scarce. Market expectations are that financing will follow as soon as skills and investment barriers fall. Nevertheless, these must be addressed without delay to attract and accelerate the investment required to deliver on the significant promise of the energy transition.

Source: IRENA

In the Textile Industry, Old Is Increasingly Becoming New

20.02.2021

clothing_closet_orman_odeća — Foto-ilustracija: Unsplash (Burgess Milner)

Photo-illustration: Unsplash (Angela Bailey)

A clothing company in the Philippines that uses scrap material to make shoes. A technology startup in Ireland that allows strangers to swap little-used clothes. And a fashion house in Brazil that produces zero waste and repurposes old clothes into new ones.

These are three of a growing number of companies that are bucking an environmentally destructive trend towards fast fashion.

The textile industry, say observers, has long been primed for a circular makeover.

Amid rapacious demand for cheap, on-trend clothing, it has become a major driver of climate change: some sources say that the textile sector accounts for about 8 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Producing one kilogram of textiles also uses over half a kilogram of chemicals, and consumes huge quantities of fresh water.

“The fashion industry has long been criticized for the impact it has on the environment,” said Elisa Tonda, Head of Consumption and Production Unit at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). “Much of that criticism is justified. But at the same time, there is a lot of innovation happening right now that bodes well for the future.”

Tonda made the comments ahead of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA), where some discussions focused on what’s known as the circular economy, that prizes reusing things – from beverage bottles to camisoles – instead of throwing them away.

UNEA also saw the launch of a Global Alliance on Circular Economy and Resource Efficiency, established by UNEP, the European Commission and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). The alliance builds on existing regional initiatives (such as the African Circular Economy Alliance) to speed up transition to a global circular economy through more efficient, equitable use of resources. It also promotes sustainable consumption, production and industrialization.

A good time for change

The economic recovery from COVID-19 offers a rare opportunity to dramatically shift the trajectory of many industries, including textiles.

“Tying financial stimulus packages to actions that align with the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement will lock in long-term resource efficiency and decouple economic growth from environmental degradation,” said Archana Datta, a Project Coordinator for India, at the SWITCH-Asia initiative, which promotes sustainable production and consumption.

Circularity and sustainability also make economic sense for businesses, data suggests. Even before Covid-19, just 60 per cent of garments were sold at full price, creating billions of dollars of lost revenues. Smart product design has the potential to eliminate production waste and reduce pollution across the processing phase, helping businesses save money.

Circularity would also be good for the climate. Switching to more circular business models, including fashion rentals, re-commerce, repair and refurbishment, could help the industry cut around 143 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in 2030.

A green recovery

A UNEP study recently found that in order to make the fashion industry more sustainable, there needs to be stronger “governance” of the sector, more financing for planet-friendly innovations and a concerted effort to change the consumption habits of consumers.

Several promising initiatives are already helping with the latter. Through a smartphone app, Ireland-based Nuw allows users to swap rarely worn clothes instead of tossing them away. In the Philippines, apparel company Phinix collects waste textiles and transforms them into footwear and bags. Their products have just 10 per cent of the carbon footprint of regular apparel. Finally, by upcycling and avoiding plastic packaging, among other things, Brazil fashion house Refazenda has eliminated its solid waste.

UNEP is creating a roadmap to help other textile companies follow the lead of those businesses. Set to be released in June 2021, it will showcase concrete actions that textile companies can adopt to green their business.

Source: UNEP

IEA and SICA to Collaborate on Clean Energy Transitions in Central America

19.02.2021

solar_panels_solarni_paneli — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

The International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Central American Integration System (SICA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to promote clean energy transitions in Central America.

Under the MoU, the two organisations will expand their cooperation on energy data and statistics, energy efficiency and climate resilience of electricity systems.

These have all been identified as key areas for energy transitions and climate change mitigation in the region under SICA’s Central American 2030 Sustainable Energy Strategy.

“The IEA is pleased to team up with SICA to expand our work in Central America, a dynamic region that is home to over 55 million people and has excellent clean energy potential with distinctive transition opportunities and challenges,” said IEA Deputy Executive Director David Turk.

Under its Clean Energy Transitions Programme, the IEA has been expanding its collaboration in Latin America.

This is taking place both bilaterally with key partner countries – including the two largest economies, Brazil and Mexico – and on a regional level through cooperation with leading regional organisations, including the Latin American Energy Organisation (OLADE) and the Inter-American Development Bank.

The signing of the IEA-SICA Memorandum of Understanding is a new milestone for the IEA’s engagement with the region.

“Today’s signing ceremony marks an important step for SICA’s work on clean energy transitions – an important priority for our member countries, which can now benefit from the IEA’s leading analysis and expertise,” said Vinicio Cerezo, SICA Secretary General.

The Central American Integration System (Sistema de Integración Centroamericana, or SICA) is an economic and political organisation composed of Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panamá and the Dominican Republic, that works to foster closer ties and integration across Central America and the Dominican Republic to promote peace, liberty, democracy and development in the region.

Source: IEA

Young Change-Makers will Power Circular Economy Innovation in Hubs Around the World

19.02.2021

rad_mladi_projekat_sastanak — Foto-ilustracija: Unsplash (You X Ventures)

Photo-illustration: Unsplash (Brooke Cagle)

To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, a new circular approach is needed to transform the goods and services we have and the pipeline of innovations still to come.

To support this effort, circular economy initiative “Scale360°” will launch a youth-led, grassroots pilot program with the Global Shapers, a network of change-makers in cities around the world.

Innovators in four Global Shaper hubs (in Mexico City, Brussels, Turin and Bangkok) will design, organize, and deliver interventions that support circular economy solutions tailored to local needs.

World Economic Forum initiative “Scale360°” leverages innovation ‘hubs’ to bring together leaders in science, policy and business to trigger circular change. Leaders and collaborators in Global Shaper hub cities will utilize “Scale360°”’s unique, tested methodology – the “Scale360°” Circular Innovation Playbook – to fast-track Fourth Industrial Revolution impact.

Hub cities were selected from a competitive pool of 40+ applications and the pilot initiative will facilitate connections from across its networks of experts and leaders in civil society, government and industry – including the Platform for Accelerating Circular Economy (PACE), the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and others.

Such efforts are key to triggering systems change. As new research from the World Economic Forum and ScaleUpNation has explained, finding ‘trailblazing’ companies looking for scalable circular solutions can have a cascading effect throughout their industries – one not possible through traditional commercial solutions.

Said “Scale360°” global lead Helen Burdett: “Each of the selected Global Shaper pilot leaders brings a different perspective and recognizes circular innovation as not only an environmental imperative, but also as a business opportunity. We are eager to see how each city delivers its “Scale360°” programme during this sprint.”

The pilot launch also marks a potential turning point for circular change. “We’re at an inflection point in today’s very linear ‘take-make-dispose’ economy,” said Jamie Butterworth, Circularity Capital Partner and “Scale360°” board member. “The Forum’s “Scale360°” hubs will play an important role in further fostering collaborative innovation and accelerating the transition towards a more restorative, circular economy.”

Added Sara Lee, Mexico City Hub “Scale360°” Project Co-lead: “This initiative allows each of us to have local impact while imagining the global possibilities of our actions. Considering the local and the global will help us make progress for a circular future.”

Source: World Economic Forum

British Hills Could Soon Be Generating Electricity. Here’s How

18.02.2021

planine - mountains - nature — Foto-ilustracija: Unsplash (Daniel Leone)

Photo-illustration: Unsplash (Milica Spasojević)

Hillsides are hidden sources of power just waiting to be unlocked, according to a British renewable energy company.

RheEnergise has developed a way to use hills as ‘batteries’ that create and store electricity for use when needed.

Instead of using water, RheEnergise has invented a fluid which is two and half times denser.

This means it can provide two and half times more power and energy when it is released downhill.

“Unlike conventional pumped hydro energy storage, a RheEnergise High-Density Hydro system can operate beneath small hills rather than mountains,” says the company on its website.

This, in turn, opens up many more sites as potentially suitable for this kind of hydropower system. Quicker and cheaper to build than traditional hydropower dams, the systems would also be more sustainable.

Around 160,000 hills in Africa, 80,000 in Europe and 9,500 in the United Kingdom could use the new hydropower system, the company says.

The RheEnergise system operates on small hills, meaning there are more sites available for projects.

How it works

The high-density fluid is pumped uphill at times of low energy demand and stored in an underground storage tank. When extra electricity is needed, the fluid is released downhill over generating turbines. This way, the energy used to get the water uphill is returned to the grid.

So-called ‘pumped-hydro’ systems like these are one of the oldest forms of energy storage and traditionally use reservoirs and dams to store and release water.

They help bridge potential gaps in electricity supply when demand is high or production from the electricity grid drops. They also help offset the seasonality of variable renewables like wind and solar power.

A renewable future

While the pandemic has undoubtedly slowed down global renewable energy growth, electricity-generating technologies have proved fairly resilient, according to the International Energy Agency’s Renewables 2020 report.

The global energy storage market needs to grow 100 times its current size, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, which estimates the market will be worth in excess of $620 billion by 2040.

Pumped hydro accounts for about 96 percent of the world’s energy storage capacity. But as global energy demand continues growing, so does the need for more storage projects.

And these are coming in all shapes and sizes. One Swiss-based project is making use of concrete blocks to store energy.

RheEnergise says its system can work on hills with a height of 200 metres and is aiming to have its first commercial system operating in 2024, with a further 100 systems operating within the next decade.

Source: World Economic Forum

Autonomous Bus Trial A Success At Tokyo’s Haneda Airport

18.02.2021

Photo-illustration: Unsplash (Yeray Sanchez)

BYD completed a 10-day trial operation of an autonomous driving bus earlier this month at Tokyo Haneda Airport. BYD partnered with All Nippon Airways (ANA), which is Japan’s largest airline, to complete the trial operation. The bus is BYD’s first autonomous-driving bus. The next step is to put it into full operation on a daily basis.

The airline envisions a “Simple & Smart” airport, and this is a significant step towards that goal. With the autonomous BYD bus in actual operation, the Haneda Airport will be Japan’s first international airport to conduct the pilot operation of an autonomous bus.

The autonomous bus, a BYD K9, can carry up to 57 people. The level of autonomy that will be used in the coming, more involved trial operation is nearly “Level 3” autonomous driving. Airport staff will be using the bus in a specific area of the airport. This is to collect data that will help the developers better improve the autonomous driving functions while improving the bus’s operating efficiency in the future.

The project is jointly carried out by ANA, BYD, BOLDLY, and Advanced Smart Mobility. This group has already conducted three rounds of tests between 2018 and 2020. ANA plans for these buses to now be put into full trial operation this year.

“At ANA, we are constantly looking for ways to harness the latest technology to enhance operations and efficiency,” said Masaki Yokai, Senior Vice President of ANA. “In addition to marking a significant step forward for airports, fully electric autonomous buses will result in fewer emissions and decreased carbon footprints at airports. We are optimistic that these trials will give us the information we need to continue improving these technologies and will allow ANA to maintain its leadership in autonomous innovation.”

General Manager of BYD Asia-Pacific Auto Sales Division, Liu Xueliang, spoke of how honored BYD is to partner with ANA. “BYD is very honored to join hands with ANA to carry out this comprehensive autonomous driving test trial at the Haneda Airport. I firmly believe that this four-party cooperation will set an excellent example for a smart and environmentally friendly airport of Japan to give people a smarter, safer, and cleaner travel experience in the future.”

BYD has been gaining trust and recognition in Japan thanks to its many cleantech products. The company’s buses are in service in many cities in Japan such as Kyoto, Okinawa, Fukushima, Iwate, Yamanashi, Tokyo, and Nagasaki. We have written many stories about BYD electric buses, electric cars, and other green tech for years.

Source: CleanTechnica

Support In a Crisis and Creative Development Programs

17.02.2021

united-nations-covid-19-response-m6OZNfmo2Dk-unsplash — Foto-ilustracija: Unsplash (United Nations COVID-19 Response)

The success of any crisis management is affected by a number of factors, including the availability of the necessary equipment. It is a crucial lesson that we, as a society, had difficulties revising during the spring, amid the global epidemic caused by the COVID-19 virus.

The lack of protective and medical equipment prompted the United Nation’s agency, called the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), to launch a local public call for innovative solutions in April, that would contribute to the strengthening of the domestic capacity for long-term production of that equipment and its components, while significantly reducing the reliance on imports.

We received 50 applications with innovative ideas for reducing and mitigating the effects of the pandemic for the challenge call, addressed to legal entities and scientific research institutions in Serbia. The UNDP’s Portfolio Manager for Serbia, Miroslav Tadic, says that 23 proposals for inventive ways of producing and procuring personal protective and medical equipment were selected, such as the clinical respirators, COVID-19 test kits, as well as the healthcare waste management processes and equipment.

In focus:

An overview of all solutions can be found on the UNDP’s platform “Local solutions for maintaining health and greater resilience of the health system”: https://covid19response.undp.org.rs/sr/.

Photo-illustration: Unsplash (Alexander Mils)

Miroslav points out that in this manner, UNDP is helping all of the shortlisted candidates to promote themselves further and find additional sources of funding or to establish possible partnerships. As for the question regarding the criteria for selecting proposals, our interlocutor says they were based on the expected outputs vs the invested funds.

“We were selecting the solutions that would be able to provide an immediate response to the effects of the pandemic (such as the personal protective equipment, i.e. protective masks) and also the solutions that would be particularly useful in the medium-term (such as the respirators in domestic production). With the initial financial support from the German Embassy in Serbia, the USAID and the Austrian Development Agency, we are going to support the production of biodegradable face masks, respiratory protective masks made of PVC material with a replaceable SMS filter, subsequently the development and implementation of an automated system for monitoring hand disinfection in health care institutions, and finally, the production of medical respirators using 3D printers and lasers.”

Very interesting solutions are also those that promote the application of artificial intelligence in the processing of test results for the presence of coronavirus, as well as promote smart monitoring systems for the control of sanitary conditions in the healthcare surroundings. A special group includes solutions for detection of viruses or antibodies against the virus, of which the proposal for the sustainable production of serological ELISA test for antibodies for the SARS-CoV-2 virus in Serbia stood out.

Interview by: Tamara Zjacic

Read the whole interview in the new issue of the Energy portal Magazine SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT, september-november, 2020.

World’s 1st Zero-Emission Tanker Project Will Use Corvus Energy Storage System

16.02.2021

freighter-tanker — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

Corvus Energy was selected to provide an energy storage system (ESS) to Kawasaki Heavy Industries for the zero-emissions electric e5 tanker it is building, the world’s first zero-emissions tanker. The electric tanker is under construction for Tokyo’s Asahi Tanker Co.

The battery-powered vessel was designed by e5 Lab Inc., which is a consortium of leading Japanese shipping and maritime services companies. One of those companies is Asahi Tanker Co. which focuses on building infrastructure services that focus on electrically powered vessels. The new vessel for Asahi Tanker is the first of two all-electric vessels that will be built from e5 Lab. It should be in service in bunkering operations in Tokyo Bay by 2022. The ships will be built by two companies — KOA Industry Co. and Imura Shipyard Co.

Geir Bjørkeli, CEO of Corvus Energy, spoke of the importance of the Japanese market. “Japan is an important market for Corvus Energy and a big part of our future growth strategy,” said Bjørkeli. “Like Norway, Japan is a maritime nation with a clear path towards a green future. The government has already announced ambitious plans to be free of carbon emissions by 2050, which will require significant decarbonization initiatives in its world-leading shipping industry.”

In September 2020, Kawasaki Heavy Industries was awarded the contract for the ship’s propulsion system. It will integrate the 3,480 kWh Orca ESS from Corvus Energy to power the vessel. Ohno Tatsuya of Kawasaki Heavy Industries spoke of the expertise of Corvus Energy. “Corvus Energy has battery and marine market expertise unlike any other,” said Tatsuya. “They have been an outstanding partner in other projects, and we are excited to work with Corvus again on this ground-breaking project.”

Pradeep Datar, Vice President Asia for Corvus Energy, noted that this was a milestone for Corvus Energy. “KHI has significant expertise in marine propulsion and electrical systems design and this contract shows that we are recognized for our expert knowledge as well as our ability to reliably deliver a high-performance ESS,” Datar commented.

Source: CleanTechnica

Glacier Collapse in India a Worrying Sign of What’s to Come

15.02.2021

A deadly flood in northern India, sparked by a cratering glacier, was not an isolated incident but the result of a rapidly warming planet, say experts. They warn the disaster, which has left over 140 feared dead, is a precursor of what is to come unless drastic measures are taken to slow climate change.

The flood this week in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand was caused by a glacier breaking away and falling into the valley, sending a surge of water downstream that engulfed villages and workers at a hydroelectric plant.

Data suggests that, in the coming years, global warming will cause mountain temperatures to rise twice as fast as the global average, whittling away glaciers and threatening communities in the Himalayas, and further afield.

“Glaciers around the world are under siege,” said Matthias Jurek, a mountain ecosystem expert with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). “Unless we can limit global warming, support monitoring, early warning and adaptation measures, disasters like the one in Uttarakhand will, unfortunately, become more common.”

Saving glaciers

UNEP and its partner organizations work with mountain communities and governments world-wide to increase resilience to the impacts of climate change. One of UNEP’s key partners in Asia is the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), which, among other tasks, monitors ice coverage and glacial lakes in the high mountains in the Hindukush- Himalayas.

In regions like the Himalaya, the problem of rising temperatures is three-fold: it leads to the melting of mountain glaciers, which can spark floods. It also decreases glacial coverage, which leads to a reduction in the long-term availability of water for people, agriculture, and hydropower. Finally, as glacier cover diminishes and the area is replaced by water or land, the albedo – the amount of light that is reflected without being absorbed on a surface – also decreases. This could increase solar energy absorbed, leading to more warming.

Glaciers are often referred to as the “water towers” of the world, with half of humanity depending on mountains for their water needs. The Tibetan Plateau alone is the source of 10 of Asia’s biggest rivers and provides water to 1.35 billion people, or 20 percent of the world’s population.

The World Glacier Monitoring Service, a Switzerland-based organization that works closely with UNEP, monitors global glacial change. In the 1960s, its data showed, glaciers were largely in a steady state but since the 1970s glacial loss has increased rapidly, almost doubling every decade until present. They note that this ice loss “leaves no doubt about ongoing climate change.”

Adaptation action

In the Paris Agreement, Member States committed to limit global temperature increases to well below 2°C, and preferably to 1.5°C, compared to pre-industrial levels. Slowing global warming would help save glaciers, but countries must also prepare mountain ecosystems for an inevitable increase in temperatures. The best way is through adaptation, in other words, introducing a change into the ecosystem that will help combat the impact of global warming.

Within the context of the Adaptation at Altitude programme funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, UNEP and partners are working on innovative solutions to adapt to a warming planet.

Our ecosystem-based adaptation projects are restoring forests and shrubs on mountain slopes, which helps prevent both floods and landslides by holding the soil together and regulating the flow of surface water run-off,” said Jessica Troni, Head of the Climate Change Adaptation Unit at UNEP.

While ecosystem-based adaptation projects cannot stop glaciers from melting, they can significantly reduce the disastrous impacts. Further, they can help mountain communities to adapt to a warmer climate, for example by promoting drought-resistant crops.

But it is not just melting glaciers that cause landslides and floods in mountainous regions.

In Nepal, for example, increased monsoon rainfall and a decrease in winter rain, a result of climate change, has led to crop losses due to droughts and floods, placing communities at risk from food insecurity. A UNEP-supported project, known as EbA South, is working to combat the impacts of unseasonal rainfall. The programme has planted over 840,000 seedlings. These trees and their root systems act like sponges, absorbing water during intense rains and storing it for times of drought.

“As global warming increases, crop losses and tragedies like the one in Uttarakhand are likely to become more frequent, making UNEP and its partners’ work on ecosystem-based adaptation all the more important in building the resilience of mountain communities to climate change,” said Jurek.

Source: UNEP

The Circular Economy Can Help Save the Planet –⁠ if We Start Innovating Now

14.02.2021

money-pare-novac-poljoprivreda-zarada-zemlja — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

As we begin 2021, businesses face a complex matrix of challenges – from rising geo-economic tensions to the urgency of the climate crisis. With less than ten years to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Decade to Deliver is underway, and leaders must act for impact now.

The moment for change is now

Transitioning to a holistic circular economic model is critical to reducing environmental degradation and prioritizing biodiversity and nature, while also delivering on future competitiveness. In a circular economy, waste is designed out, and products are instead looped back into the production system at end of use. Consequently, growth is decoupled from the consumption of scarce resources, and materials are kept within productive use for as long as possible.

The circular economy presents a unique market opportunity upwards of $4.5 trillion by 2030. Accelerating this transition relies on the uptake of innovative new business models and disruptive technological innovation. Alongside prioritization of new business models, which now account for roughly 30 percent of M&A investment according to Accenture analysis, adopting new digital, physical and biological technologies can drive new opportunities and deliver on organizations’ triple bottom line.

Forging a path to a truly circular economy requires collaboration across the ecosystem. Today, multinational organizations with increasingly complex supply chains and processes can struggle to maintain a pulse on ever-advancing circular innovation, while at times can also lack the capabilities required to embrace new modes of operation in the transition to circular business. By contrast, entrepreneurs have the disruptive solutions to solve these challenges, but may lack the capital, resources or enabling networks to replicate and scale their solutions at pace.

Scaling circular innovation

How can we solve this mismatch across the ecosystem? Through successfully connecting multinational actors with disruptive players, stakeholders across the value chain are empowered to fully embrace innovation, to prioritize targeted business models for impact, and respond effectively to new global challenges. The Circulars Accelerator – evolved from the highly successful Circulars Awards program – is led by Accenture in partnership with Anglo American, Ecolab and Schneider Electric and hosted digitally on the World Economic Forum’s platform for SDG innovation, UpLink.

The program will connect leading global organizations prioritizing circular innovation with disruptors seeking to scale circular solutions. Through a mutually beneficial program of mentorship, collaborative innovation and strategic alliances, the Accelerator’s mission is to expedite the global circular transition, creating value and impact for early- to growth-stage innovators and established partners alike, while strengthening the circular ecosystem through action-focused partnership.

All three are using technology to make our world more sustainable. ? To find out more about solutions that boost the circular economy, visit UpLink: https://t.co/hNlWwGKfZP @the_eon_group @HelloTractor @wastelessltd @WEFUpLink @accenture @TheCirculars_21 pic.twitter.com/xTmsQSwqS8
— World Economic Forum (@wef) January 27, 2021

The Circulars Accelerator attracted over 200 exciting, unique and diverse entrants in its first call for applications. Following a highly competitive, multi-stage selection process, 17 outstanding start-ups have been selected for participation in the programme. Start-ups are categorized against one of three solution types required for circular transformation, which together collectively span the full value chain and respond to particular circular challenges: Innovating Products and Production, Transforming Consumption and Recovering Value. Examples from each are spotlighted below.

1. Innovating products & production

The Innovating Products and Production cluster captures innovators working to design and deliver pioneering products, packaging and manufacturing solutions, harnessing new design approaches and material and ingredient innovation. One such innovator changing the state of play is Malaysia-based innovator, StixFresh, whose patented technology extends the shelf life of fresh produce by up to 14 days. StixFresh’s 100 percent plant-based stickers, the size of a 50-cent coin, biologically reconstruct the self-defence compounds of select fresh fruits, creating a natural barrier to slow down decay reactions caused by bacterial or fungal activity. It is estimated that one third of all food produced globally goes to waste, making reducing food waste the number one solution to fighting the climate crisis.

2. Transforming consumption

Foto-ilustracija: Unsplash (Eirik Solheim)

A step further along the value chain, Transforming Consumption addresses the reality that we currently consume 1.75 times more resources each year than the Earth can naturally regenerate, and we are on course to more than double resource use by 2050. Here, innovators are working to conceptualize new models of circular consumption, including product-as-a-service, product-use extension (e.g. repairs, secondary marketplaces), and sharing platforms. Algramo is a Chilean start-up whose omni-channel, cross-brand platform technology enables brands and retailers to sell goods to consumer using smart reusable packaging for the lowest possible prices. Algramo’s packaging distribution system incorporates Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies to enable innovations such as their patented Packaging as a Wallet technology and IoT-connected vending machines. It is estimated that converting 20 percent of plastic packaging into reuse models presents a $10 billion opportunity, making rethinking packaging both a significant business priority in addition to having environmental imperative.

3. Recovering value

The Recovering Value cluster prioritizes solutions which close the loop on our existing – and no longer fit for purpose – “take, make, waste” linear system. This group of successful innovators have established novel ways to enable product reuse and the recovery of embedded value from waste or end-of-use products. Mint Innovation, an exciting New Zealand-based urban mining company, are developing low-cost, scalable processes for recovering valuable metals from e-waste streams. It is estimated by the UN that over $10 billion of precious metals get disposed of as e-waste annually. Mint Innovation’s clean processes use hydrometallurgy and biotechnology to minimize this waste stream, and enable a full circular economy in precious metals. Having recently secured $20 million in funding, Mint Innovation plan to commission biorefineries in the UK and Australia; these plants will have the capacity to process up to 3,500 tons of e-waste each year.

Join the conversation

Stay in the loop with the impactful circular journeys of Cohort ’21 by following The Circulars social media or join the new Circulars Community on UpLink – the World Economic Forum’s digital platform for crowdsourced innovation towards the UN SDGs – where you can join the movement by getting involved in challenges, opportunities and dialogues to drive applied innovation at speed and scale.

Join us to welcome the cohort of 2021 and to officially launch The Circulars Accelerator at 14:00 CET on 11 February 2021. You can watch the event here.

Source: World Economic Forum

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