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5 Things to Know Before Next Week’s Critical UN Climate Talks

Next week, heads of state and representatives from roughly 200 countries will descend in Katowice, Poland for the 24th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change  informally known as COP24.

Photo: United Nations

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Here are some things to know ahead of the critical summit:

1. The overarching goal. Creating a rulebook, or “work program,” on how to implement the landmark 2015 Paris agreement to limit global warming to well below 2°C by the end of the century avoid the devastating impacts of climate change.

The two-week talks, which officially kicks off on Dec. 2, will be held just months after a dire report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that warned that the world has a narrow 12-year window to drastically reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

At COP24, international negotiators will hammer out exactly how countries will track, report and verify emissions reductions commitments.

2. Calls for greater action. Unfortunately, the current commitments by world governments that signed the Paris agreement will not be enough to remain under 2°C, much less the more ambitious 1.5°C target.

For that reason, leaders from 16 European countries are calling for more stringent efforts to curb global warming, the Associated Press reported. At next week’s talks, negotiators will aim for even more ambitious climate goals.

3. The $100 billion question. In 2009, richer countries pledged $100 billion a year by 2020 to poorer nations to tackle the effects of climate change. Bloomberg reported that the climate funding reached $70 billion as of 2016—so there’s still a way to go. COP24 delegates from these poorer countries will want more details on when and how much money coming before committing to the rulebook.

Notably, it doesn’t help that President Trump, who intends to withdraw from the Paris agreement, decided last year to cancel $2 billion in promised funding.

4. What the United States will do. Preparatory meetings were held in Bangkok this past September to draft out details of the rulebook before the Katowice summit. As DeSmog explained, the U.S. was criticized over working to delay clarity over the agreement’s financing (nonetheless, a top UN negotiator praised “good progress” from the talks).

Reuters reported earlier this month that President’s Trump team will “set up a side-event promoting fossil fuels” at the climate summit. Citing three sources, the American officials will “highlight the benefits of technologies that more efficiently burn fuels including coal,” Reuters reported.

5. You can participate, too. Climate change is not some far-away phenomenon, it is here now and impacts people around the globe everyday.

This year, the UN created a “People’s Seat” for you to “virtually sit” and share your views alongside government leaders at the climate talks. To join the effort, tag your thoughts with hashtag #TakeYourSeat on social media.

Famed naturalist David Attenborough will deliver the “People’s Address” at the COP24 plenary on Dec. 3, which will be broadcast on social media around the world.

Source: Eco Watch

 

Solar Geoengineering Could Be ‘Remarkably Inexpensive’ – Report

Photo-illustration: Unsplash

Cooling the Earth by injecting sun-blocking particles into the stratosphere could be “remarkably inexpensive”, according to the most detailed engineering analysis to date.

Photo-illustration: Unsplash

The fear of a rogue nation or military force unilaterally taking control of the global climate is unfounded, the researchers added, as the many thousands of high-altitude flights needed to affect global temperatures could not escape detection.

The new research estimated the technology costs of putting millions of tonnes of sulphate particles high into the atmosphere. This form of geoengineering mimics major volcanic eruptions, which have significantly reduced global temperatures in the past.

“We show that a hypothetical deployment programme, while both highly uncertain and ambitious, would be technically possible,” said Gernot Wagner from Harvard University. “It would also be remarkably inexpensive, at an average of around $2bn to $2.5bn per year.” About $500bn (£388bn) a year is currently invested in green technologies.

The idea of geoengineering is controversial, with opponents arguing it could seem like an easy solution to global warming and weaken efforts to cut the root cause of emissions. Others warn it risks serious unintended consequences, such as droughts and damage to crops. In October, more than 100 civil society groups condemned geoengineering as “dangerous, unnecessary and unjust”.

However, many scientists say not conducting geoengineering research would be even more dangerous, because climate change may become so bad that governments feel compelled to deploy it despite not knowing its full consequences.

“Unfortunately, climate change is dire enough for us to have to consider drastic action,” said Dr Matthew Watson at the University of Bristol. “Some argue against researching these ideas but personally I think that is a mistake. There may come a time, in a future not so far away, where it would be immoral not to intervene.”

The new study, published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, found that the most cost-effective way to deliver the particles requires the development of a new type of aircraft. If the sulphates were released from commercial jets, the particles would fall out of the sky in days.

No aircraft exists that could carry tonnes of particles to the 12-mile (20km) altitude needed in order for them to remain aloft for a year or more, and rockets would be far too expensive. The new plane would need much larger wings and four engines rather than two, as the air at 12 miles is just 7% as dense as at sea level. “It would be an unusual design, but one does not need technological breakthroughs,” said Wake Smith, an aviation engineer who worked with Wagner.

The researchers calculated the cost of a 15-year programme in which six to eight new planes are added each year, including crew costs, maintenance, insurance, fuel, landing charges, spares and training.

The programme would begin with 4,000 flights a year and end with 60,000 flights a year by almost 100 aircraft. “The amount of flights happening would be so big it could not be done secretly,” said Smith. “This is not like the German naval buildup before the second world war. If people were doing this, we would know about it.”

The impact of the programme would be to reduce warming by 0.1C per year, with a total reduction of 1.5C, said Wagner. This is based on emissions being curbed from today’s levels but still rising and leading to 3C of warming, a level considered catastrophic by scientists. A major recent report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) cited 1.5C of warming as a far safer limit.

The researchers said they were not advocating the deployment of solar engineering, but believed it must be assessed. “It can only be part of an overall climate policy portfolio that first includes [emission cuts], adaptation and carbon removal from the atmosphere,” said Wagner.

The IPCC report said geoengineering might be adopted as a temporary “remedial measure” in extreme circumstances. “If the world runs through the door with its hair on fire, we need to understand what the options are,” said Smith.

Prof Joanna Haigh at Imperial College London said: “This plan is a distraction that may well encourage weaker action on emissions reduction.” She said the money would be better spent on helping nations cut emissions and protect themselves from extreme weather.

The costs of compensating for droughts, floods and food shortages that geoengineering might cause would be much larger than the engineering costs, said Phil Williamson at the University of East Anglia. “International agreement to go ahead would seem near-impossible. Rapid reductions in emissions remain the best way to avoid climate catastrophe.”

Blocking sunlight does not address other problems caused by global warming, such as the acidification of the oceans. However, Prof Peter Cox at the University of Exeter said: “The fact that researchers at one of the world’s top universities are costing the deployment of such a radical [geoengineering] scheme shows how urgent the climate change problem has become.”

Source: Guardian

New Bear on the Block: Grizzlies Spotted in Black and Polar Bear Habitats

Photo-illustration: Pixabay

For the first time, scientists have observed three American bear species—the black bear, polar bear and grizzly bear—using the same habitat in Canada’s Wapusk National Park.

Photo-illustration: Pixabay

“Scientifically, it has never been documented anywhere,” Doug Clark of the University of Saskatchewan told the Canadian Press.

Using remote cameras, Clark and his research team documented 401 bear-visits of all three species (366 from polar bears, 25 from black bears and 10 from grizzlies) at three camps in the national park from 2011–2017. The findings were published this week in the journal Arctic Science.

The presence of polar and black bears was not unusual. After all, Wapusk National Park is home to one of the world’s largest maternity denning areas for polar bears. The park also lies north of a forested region, where black bears call home.

It was the number of grizzly visits that was the biggest surprise.

“These observations add to a growing body of evidence that grizzlies are undergoing a substantial range increase in northern Canada and the timing of our observations suggests denning locally,” the authors wrote.

Clark delved deeper into the study in an essay for The Conversation:

Three dynamic ecosystems—forest, tundra and ocean—converge at Wapusk, and all are changing quickly as the Arctic warms.

What we’ve seen in Wapusk is consistent with how researchers expect northern carnivore populations to respond to climate change.

The study adds more evidence that grizzly bears are showing up in places where they are not usually found. Other scientists have suggested that increased sightings of so-called “pizzly” or “grolar” bears—or grizzly-polar hybrids—are the result of grizzly bears in Alaska and Canada expanding north due to the warming environment, thus bringing them in contact with polar bears.

“The combination of warmer temperatures and vegetation growth means there is more overlap between the species and I’d expect that overlap to increase,” Chris Servheen, a grizzly bear expert at the University of Montana, told the Guardian in 2016.

It is not currently clear if the three bear species are interacting with each other, or what effect their combined presence has on the larger environment.

“How they interact is a really big question,” Clark told the Canadian Press. “There’s all kinds of things that could go on.”

Source: Eco Watch

Slow Arctic Freeze Raises Risk of Polar Bear Extinction, Say Scientists

Record absence of ice after freak warm spells denies pregnant bears birthing dens and triggers ‘extirpation event’ warning.

Photo-illustration: Pixabay

A record slow freeze of many regions of the Arctic this winter is making it harder for pregnant polar bears to find birthing dens.

The delayed formation of sea ice during autumn has worried biologists, who fear a first “extirpation event” – the local extinction of a species – may be approaching faster than forecast for the most affected populations.

The waters around Svalbard, an archipelago between Norway and the North Pole, have a little over half the average area of ice for this time of year. According to the Norwegian Ice Service, the 172,291 sq km (66,522 sq m) of ice on 14 November was the lowest for this time of year since records began in 1967.

October also saw a huge departure from previous trends, particularly in the Barents Sea, which had freakishly warm weather in February and August. Scientists say these shifts, which are caused by the manmade heating of the globe, are disrupting the behaviour of species that depend on thick winter ice, such as narwhals, seals, belugas and polar bears.

“We’re restructuring a whole ecosystem. Sea ice is to the Arctic what soil is to the forest. Without sea ice we’ll still have an ecosystem but it won’t include polar bears & many other species,” tweeted the scientist Andrew Derocher, who has studied the bears for 35 years.

“It’s sounds like a broken record, reporting record-breaking low sea ice cover in Svalbard. This area has warmed dramatically in recent years. Polar bears here may be the first extirpation event,” he wrote, though he noted that so far the problem was restricted to habitat loss.

One of 19 polar bear populations in the Arctic, Svalbard has close to 2,500 individual bears. This number has been stable for the past 15 years, but pressures are growing.

Because of the delay in ice formation, bears have to wait longer to hunt for seals, which means they are missing out on an autumn feeding season that is important for them to build up fat.

A recent study showed bears survived previous warm periods by gorging on beached whales, but this was unlikely to be enough to cope with the current pace of climate change.

Although there has been some ice formation in recent days, it was still the second lowest on record on Thursday.

The most immediate concern is for pregnant females, who normally travel across the ice at this time to make maternity dens on Hopen and other islands that are important for reproduction, said Jon Aars of the Norwegian Polar Institute.

“Unless sea ice forms within the next few weeks, pregnant females will have to swim,” he said, noting this uses five times as much energy and runs down fat reserves that are important for producing milk and raising cubs.

Previous research in other Arctic regions have shown that pregnant females declined in weight and litter sizes went down from 1.8 to 1.6 between 1993 and 2017.

Aars said if current climate trends continued bears would struggle, although it was hard to say when the tipping point would be.

“In 2000, we didn’t foresee that Svalbard would be ice-free at this time of the year,” he said. “If this continues, there’ll be a threshold where it will be hard for the bears to reproduce. Things can happen fast. I’m not optimistic about whether the bears will survive. If the sea ice disappears, then so will the bears.”

Source: The Guardian

A Country with the Best Attitude Towards the Natural Environment

BERNE 17.08.2015 - Philippe Guex. © Béatrice Devènes
Philippe Guex, Ambassador of Switzerland

With its unspoilt nature, clean lakes and rivers, Switzerland has had a healthy advantage for reaching the highest position in a category concerning ecology. What nature has unselfishly given to this country, nestled in the fairy-tale landscape of the Alpine massif, the Swiss are trying to preserve by applying regulations in various sectors and whose integral part is an aspiration to conserve the environment. In addition to the Federal Constitution, which in its articles on nature and cultural heritage protection, on agriculture and implicitly on spatial planning and forests defines a way of preserving nature and landscapes, Switzerland has adopted five laws mainly associated with nature and landscape that contribute to the realisation of constitutional mandates. We asked Philippe Guex, the ambassador of Switzerland to Serbia, how much the Swiss are satisfied with the accomplished level of environmental protection.

EP: What are the most important measures which have been taken by the society and government to preserve the pristine landscapes Switzerland is famous for?

Philippe Guex: The Federal Act on the Protection of Nature and Cultural Heritage (NHG; SR 451) defines the duties of the Confederation to conserve the landscape, local and historical sites, and natural and cultural monuments or to preserve them undiminished where the general interest prevails. The Federal Acts on Spatial Planning and Forests also regulate the area of nature and landscape protection, and the Federal Act on Agriculture (LwG; SR 910. 1) mandates the federal government to ensure that agriculture makes a significant contribution to maintaining the cultural landscape. Direct payments help to achieve this goal. Besides, the Federal Act on the Protection of Waters (GschG; SR 614. 20) aims also to preserve and enhance waters as landscape elements. Despite all these efforts, however, landscape quality in Switzerland is still declining (FOEN 2017).

Photograph: swiss-image.ch/Andreas Gerth

EP: Swiss citizens happen to be champions of recycling. They have been giving a second life to around 90% of glass, over 90% of aluminium cans, over 80% of PET, etc. How long did it take to achieve this high citizens’ response and how much did it reduce the need for and the capacity of landfills? 

Philippe Guex: Switzerland started in the 1970s with the separate collection of paper and glass bottles. In the subsequent years, additional waste fractions have been introduced, for example, batteries, aluminium cans, textiles compost etc. These separate collections have been supported and even demanded by the citizens.

The most important act for the reduction of the need for landfills was the interdiction of the landfilling of combustible waste (e.g. municipal waste) by law in the year 2000. Today, municipal waste has to be recycled or incinerated in Municipal Solid Waste Incinerators by the recovery of energy and metals from the residues of incineration.

About 80 per cent of the drinking water originates from groundwater resources. About 40 per cent is consumed without any treatment, about 31 per cent after a UV-disinfecting or another single step treatment

EP: Not so long ago we heard about electric-powered carriages (horse and electric power combined) in Avenches which were introduced for garbage and old paper collection. What are the benefits of their usage and has their use become common in other municipalities too?

Photograph:  swiss-image.ch/Jan Geer

Philippe Guex: The prototype electric-powered carriage was presented in Avenches during the summer of 2012. Aims are to promote the engagement of horses for community tasks such as garbage or old paper collections. The electric carriage functions the same way as an E-bike; suggesting that once the horse loses power the E-carriage kicks in! This apparently supports the horse in its efforts and perseverance. Of course, the innovative project also presents an ecological, practical and noise-free solution for suburban traffic. Some common tasks, garbage collection, for example, consume large quantities of hydrocarbon, as the motorised vehicles used to carry out the task constantly stop and go, then pick-up speed only to break, stop and go once again just around the corner. With the possible use of E-carriages, tradition would thus merge with technology.

EP: Switzerland is the most environmentally friendly country in the world according to the World Economic Forum, with substantial use of renewable energy resources. What percentage of electricity produced in Switzerland comes from renewable sources?

Photograph: swiss-image.ch/Sylvia Michel

Philippe Guex: Hydropower is the largest power source in Switzerland. In 2017, hydropower accounted for 59.6% of total electricity generation. Municipal waste incineration and solar power accounted for most of the remaining renewable electricity generation (6%). Nuclear energy provided 31.7% of Switzerland’s electricity generation.

Switzerland has the sixth highest share of renewable energy in electricity generation among the member countries of the International Energy Agency (IEA) thanks to large hydropower generation. The share of hydropower is the fifth highest after Norway, Austria, Canada and New Zealand.

In 2017, the Swiss people voted on a legal package to implement the Energy Strategy 2050 and to phase out nuclear power gradually in the coming decades. Retired nuclear capacity will be replaced by more renewables and electricity trade, while electricity demand will be stabilized by higher efficiency while maintaining low carbon generation and the high standards of supply security. A further set of market reform measures and a recast of the CO2 Law are currently being prepared to set the country on course for its 2030 climate target.

Prepared by: Tamara Zjacic

Government Approves Nottingham’s Plan to Tackle Air Pollution

Photo: Pixabay

It is the first local authority to have it approved as part of the government’s wider £3.5bn programme to reduce harmful emissions from road transport.

The government has given the green light for Nottingham City Council to implement its new plan to tackle air pollution.

Photo: Pixabay

It is the first local authority to have its air quality plan approved as part of the government’s wider £3.5 billion programme to reduce harmful emissions from road transport across the UK.

The plan includes the retrofit of 171 buses with technology to reduce emissions as well as changing the age and emissions policy for hackney carriages and supporting an increase in low emission taxis.

A £1 million government fund will provide a licensing discount for drivers, a taxi rank with charging points, home chargers and help expand the council’s ‘try before you buy’ scheme which started this week.

Nottingham City Council has also received funding to support the conversion of its own fleet, including replacing heavy, high polluting vehicles such as bin lorries with electric vehicles (EVs).

The council worked with officials from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs(Defra) and the Department for Transport (DfT) for the past three years to identify measures to reduce levels of pollution “in the shortest possible time” and deliver compliance with legal air quality limits.

Councillor Sally Longford, Portfolio Holder for Energy and Environment said: “We worked hard on a plan that would reduce air pollution in the shortest possible time for our citizens and we’re thrilled this has now been agreed, along with nearly £1m funding for extra measures to support taxi drivers.

What Are the Biggest Challenges for Saving the Oceans?

Foto: Pixabay

Oceans stretch across 70 percent of our planet, and the vast majority of the world beneath them is unmapped and unexplored. Their depths may still hold many secrets, but we know they face serious risks from overfishingand pollution. The biggest threat of all is climate change, which could affect billions of people in coastal communities, said marine biologist and conservation strategist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson.

Johnson is the founder and president of Ocean Collectiv, a strategy consulting firm that looks at conservation solutions through a social justice lens. Developing those solutions has never been more necessary. As Johnson said, “The lack of public and corporate reaction and response to the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report—which tells us we have 12 years maximum to avoid catastrophic climate change—is terrifying.”

Photo-illustration: Pixabay

We talked to her about what’s at stake and the types of solutions she thinks are most promising.

In order to protect our oceans, what policy changes do we need at the national and international levels?

The top three are ending the use of fossil fuels, closing the high seas to fishing and protecting 30 to 50 percent of the coastal ocean.

Beyond policy, what else should we be focusing our efforts on? Enforcement? Public engagement? Technology?

We need to be pressuring corporations to adopt sustainable practices ASAP and to raise the bar for what qualifies as sustainable. For example, some of the fisheries being certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council are far from deserving of that label.

From an environmental-justice standpoint, who stands to lose the most if we fail to adequately protect ocean and coastal ecosystems?

Poor people and people of color in coastal communities will be most at risk. Sea-level rise, overfishing, pollution and coastal development affect them first and worst, and they have the fewest options for alternative livelihoods or relocation.

What ocean-related issues did you follow in this year’s election cycle?

Climate change! I’m excited that Jared Polis has been elected governor of Colorado on a platform of getting Colorado to 100 percent renewable energy by 2040, the most ambitious goal yet for any state.

On the flip side, ballot measures across the country to restrict drilling and accelerate shifts to renewable energy failed amidst heavy oppositional funding from the fossil fuel industry.

However, because the Democrats won the House, Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, who lists climate change science and mitigation as priorities, is poised to take the helm of the science committee, which is cause for hope.

What’s one of the best solutions you’ve seen used to combat an ocean-related problem or to help people who depend on the ocean?

Ocean farming. Regenerative ocean farming, as pioneered by Greenwave and others, means growing seaweed and shellfish (oysters, mussels, clams)—not constructing more salmon farms. Seaweed and shellfish don’t need to be fed; they grow with just sunlight and the nutrients and plankton already in seawater.

As pioneering ocean farmer Brendan Smith put it, “the real kicker” is that these low-maintenance ocean plants and animals “require no fresh water, no deforestation and no fertilizer,” plus they improve water quality and create habitats for other species.

Because seaweed grows so quickly (kelp can grow over one foot a day) it can provide healthy food and clean biofuels while being a significant part of the climate solution. And developing this industry creates good jobs. (There’s more about this in my recent article in Scientific American, co-authored with my mom: “Soil and Seaweed: Farming Our Way to a Climate Solution.”)

Also, Mr. Trash Wheel. It collects trash from rivers or harbors before it ends up in the sea. So practical and effective—solutions don’t need to be high-tech.

By: Tara Lohan

Source: Eco Watch

Tropics Could Face Six Climate Disasters at Once by 2100

Photo-illustration: Pixabay

In a year that saw record-breaking heat waves, record-breaking hurricanes and record-breaking wildfires, it’s hard to imagine how the future could look any more like a disaster movie than the present. But that is exactly what researchers from the University of Hawaii at Mānoa have predicted in a study published in Nature Climate Change Monday.

The results describe a scenario “like a terror movie that is real,” study lead author and University of Hawaii associate geography Prof. Camilo Mora told The New York Times.

Photo: Pixabay

The researchers reviewed more than 3,000 papers to assess how climate change is predicted to increase various extreme weather events and found that, by 2100, some especially vulnerable tropical countries could face as many as six such crises at once.

“The evidence of climate change impacting humanity is abundant, loud and clear,” study co-author and University of Hawaii at Mānoa Assistant Prof. Daniele Spirandelli said in a press release. “Clearly, the outstanding question is—how many wake up calls will it take to wake up?”

Usually, climate scientists focus on one climate-related hazard to study at a time, such as flood or drought. But this approach can miss the fact that climate-related dangers can build on each other. For example, global warming evaporates soil moisture in dry places, leading to droughts, heat waves and wildfires. In wet places, higher temperatures increase rain and flooding. As the oceans warm, water evaporates faster off the surface, causing wetter hurricanes with stronger wind speeds, with storm surges made worse by sea level rise.

“Greenhouse gas emissions pose a broad threat to humanity by simultaneously intensifying many hazards that have proven harmful in the past,” Mora said in the press release.”Further, we predict that, by 2100, the number of hazards occurring concurrently will increase, making it even more difficult for people to cope.”

The researchers created an app so that you can see whether your home might be hit with multiple hazards if we fail to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by century’s end. New York, for example, will face four climate hazards by 2100 in a business as usual emissions scenario, including sea level rise and extreme rainfall. But the hardest hit areas will be the tropics. The Atlantic Coast of South and Central America would be one of the regions that could be hit by six crises at once.

The paper also supports the idea that climate change will impact the rich and poor differently.

“The largest losses of human life during extreme climatic events occurred in developing nations, whereas developed nations commonly face a high economic burden of damages and requirements for adaptation,” the study authors wrote, as The New York Times reported.

Source: Eco Watch

Climate-Heating Greenhouse Gases at Record Levels, Says UN

Photo: UNIDO

Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are far above pre-industrial levels.

Photo: UNIDO

Source: The Guardian

Dead Fish to Power Cruise Ships

Foto-illustracija: Pixabay

Norwegian company to fuel liners with biogas made from leftovers of fish processing.

Photo: Pixabay

Waste fish parts will be used to power ships in a new initiative to use green energy for polluting cruise liners.

The leftovers of fish processed for food and mixed with other organic waste will be used to generate biogas, which will then be liquefied and used in place of fossil fuels by the expedition cruise line Hurtigruten.

Heavy fossil fuels used by ocean-going transport are an increasing problemas they are even more polluting than fuels for land-based vehicles, emitting sulphur and other contaminants. The fuels contribute to air pollution as well as to climate change. Converting vessels to use biogas will cut down on pollutants and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The 125-year-old company, based in Norway, is also banning single-use plastics in an effort to be more environmentally sustainable. It operates cruises in the Arctic and Antarctic, both highly sensitive environments.

Biogas can be generated from most forms of organic waste by speeding up and harnessing the natural decomposition process to capture the methane produced. Organic waste is produced by all food industries but is frequently disposed of in landfill, where it contributes to greenhouse gas emissions as it decomposes.

Shipping has come under increasing scrutiny as many vessels use heavy fuel oil, which is cheap but would be banned on land for its polluting qualities. The daily greenhouse gas emissions from the world’s largest cruise liners can be as great as those of a million cars on the road.

Battery power is also a promising technology for ocean-going transport, but building batteries powerful enough has been a problem to date. Advances in battery manufacture are making it possible to install batteries big enough to last a voyage.

Hurtigruten is currently building three new hybrid-powered cruise ships in Norway, to be delivered in the next three years.

Daniel Skjeldam, the chief executive of Hurtigruten, said: “Norway is a large shipping nation, but fishery and forestry are also large sectors. They create jobs and produce income, but they also produce a lot of waste products. The steady access to high volumes of organic waste gives the Nordic countries a unique position on the biogas market. We are pushing for more innovation, more investment. I believe we have just seen the beginning of what in a few years will be a huge sector.”

Source: The Guardian

EU Approves €107m German Public Support for Greener Buses

Photo-illustration: Pixabay

It will enable the retrofitting of diesel buses used for public transport in around 90 municipalities.

6,000 Climate Activists Block 5 London Bridges, Demand Urgent Action

Foto: pixabay

On Saturday, More than 6,000 climate activists shut down five bridges in Central London. The protest, organized under the banner of Extinction Rebellion to call for urgent action on climate change, was the first to intentionally block the bridges “in living memory,” the group reported.

The mood was festive as demonstrators from around London held the bridges—Waterloo, Blackfriars, Southwark, Lambeth and Westminster—from around 10 a.m. to well into the afternoon. Extinction Rebellion had been building to Saturday’s “Rebellion Day” since it launched itself into the public consciousness a little over two weeks ago by blocking traffic outside London’s Parliament Square. The group hopes to pressure the government into increased climate action by using non-violent civil disobedience. Eighty-two were arrested during Saturday’s demonstration, BBC News confirmed.

Foto: pixabay

“Because the last two governments have rolled back significant policies which would have helped the UK reduce its carbon dioxide emissions,” Margot Gibbs, a 30-year-old journalist from North London, told EcoWatch when asked why she was there. “And because a massive change is required.”

Specifically, the group is calling for the UK government to institute policies that will allow the country to reach carbon neutrality by 2025, and to create a “Citizens’ Assembly” to oversee those radical changes.

Saturday’s protest wrapped up at 5:30 p.m. with a tree-planting ceremony in Parliament Square, according to Extinction Rebellion. A crowd of around 3,000 watched as an apple, plum and evergreen tree were planted just outside where the UK government meets. But that isn’t the end for the growing movement. Organizers are calling for people to join them back at the square next Saturday for “Rebellion Day 2.

Source: Eco Watch

‘Majority of Global Firms to Step up Efficiency Spending’

Johnson Controls says businesses want to reduce their carbon footprint, save money, boost energy security and enhance their reputation.

More than half of global organisations are planning to increase their energy efficiency spending in the next year.

That’s according to Johnson Controls, which has conducted a survey of nearly 2,000 facility and energy management executives from across 20 countries.

It revealed 57% of organisations in the US and 59% of global organisations are looking to increase investment in energy efficiency measures in the next year, with many of these organisations planning to increase spending on smart building measures at a greater rate than more traditional efficiency measures.

Building controls improvements were cited as the most popular investment for the next 12 months among US organisations, with 68% of respondents planning to implement such measures.

Building system integration also saw a 23% increase in respondents planning to invest in 2019, the largest increase of any measure in the survey.

Photo-illustration: Pixabay

Tesco and WWF ‘to Halve Environmental Impact of Shopping’

Photo-illustration: Unsplash
Photo-illustration: Unsplash

Tesco and WWF have teamed up and committed to halve the environmental impact of shopper’s baskets within a year.

The four-year partnership between the nation’s largest retailer and the environmental organisation aims to eliminate food and packaging waste while encouraging customers to buy more sustainable products.

Research conducted by the two organisations reveals nearly 80% of shoppers want supermarkets to offer more responsibly sourced, sustainable food.

The supermarket and environmental body want to help educate the 59% of the public that say they are confused about which foods are sustainable and dispel the myth believed by 75% of shoppers that cost was a barrier to going green.

Tanya Steele, the WWF’s UK CEO, said: “Demand for food poses one of the biggest dangers to our planet. It’s the leading cause of deforestation, destroying countless habitats and threatening wildlife to the point of extinction.

“We have the power to not only stop but to reverse the damage, if we act now. That is why we are delighted to be partnering with Tesco, to help create a food system that doesn’t cost the Earth.”

Source: Energy Live News

Diesel Pollution Stunts Children’s Lung Growth, Major Study Shows

Photo-illustration: Unsplash

Pollution from diesel vehicles is stunting the growth of children’s lungs, leaving them damaged for life, a major study has found.

The research, conducted with more than 2,000 school children in London, is the first such study in a city where diesel pollution is a significant factor, and has implications for cities around the world. It also showed that charges to deter polluting trucks from entering the city did reduce air pollution a little but did not reduce the harm to children’s lungs.

Photo-illustration: Unsplash

The World Health Organization classifies air pollution, which causes 7 million early deaths every year, a global public health emergency. Ninety per cent of children around the world breathe unsafe air. Growing children are especially vulnerable to toxic air and previous research has linked it to low birth weights, cot deaths, obesity and mental health problems.

Most urban areas in the UK have illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution, and the government has suffered three legal defeats over the inadequacy of its plans. The latest government action plan, which environmental lawyers called “pitiful”, revealed air pollution was even worse than previously feared.

“We are raising a generation of children with stunted lung capacity,” said Prof Chris Griffiths, at Queen Mary University of London, who led the research team. “This reflects a car industry that has deceived the consumer and central government, which continues to fail to act decisively to ensure towns and cities cut traffic. The public very much wants better air quality, and they are right.”

The study, published in the Lancet Public Health, found the capacity of children’s lungs was reduced by about 5% when NO2 pollution was above legal levels. Lung capacity peaks at age 18, then declines, Griffiths said. “If your lungs are already smaller than they should be as you enter adulthood, then as they decline with age you’ll be at higher risk of an early death,” as well as at a higher risk of lung diseases, he said.

The researchers said doctors should consider advising parents of children with lung problems to avoid living in high-pollution areas if possible, or to limit their exposure.

“This new study reveals the terrible legacy of successive governments’ failure to act over illegal levels of air pollution,” said Andrea Lee, at environmental lawyers ClientEarth. A new, stricter ultra low emission zone (ULEZ), which will extend the low emission zone (LEZ) charge that applies to polluting trucks to cars, will begin London in April 2019, but Lee said: “Action is also needed at a national level.”

“We need ministers to implement emergency measures to tackle pollution around schools and nurseries and fund the move to cleaner forms of transport, not wash their hands of the problem and leave it for local government to sort out,” she said.

Samantha Walker, at Asthma UK, said: “It is disappointing that theLEZ in London has not helped to improve children’s lung capacity and shows that a piecemeal approach to reducing air pollution does not work.”

The new research tested the lung capacity of eight- to nine-year-old children from 28 primary schools across east London between 2009 and 2014. It began just after LEZ charges began and continued after the rules were tightened in 2012. Air pollution was reduced by an average of 1-2μg/m3 at the roadside, but at the end of the study the annual average was still about 70μg/m3, far above the 40μg/m3 legal limit.

Referring to the stunting of lung growth and asthma symptoms, Griffiths said: “It is disappointing that we didn’t see an impact.” But he said it was critical public health policies were evaluated to test their effectiveness, and that the work has informed the design of the stricter ULEZ.

The results of the study would apply to many cities, Griffiths said: “Air quality in London is bad, but it is similarly bad in other UK cities and cities across Europe, and of course in India and China it is notoriously bad.”

The Guardian revealed in 2017 that hundreds of thousands of children were being exposed to illegal levels of air pollution from diesel vehicles at schools and nurseries across England and Wales, with the poorest neighbourhoods most severely affected.

The new research has “many notable strengths”, including detailed air pollution measurements and high quality data on the children’s respiratory health, according to a commentary in the Lancet Public Health by Hanna Boogaard and Annemoon van Erp, at the Health Effects Institute in Boston, US.

But they noted it was not possible to include control groups in the study and that the NO2 reductions were quite small, making it harder to link air pollution to stunted lungs. Nonetheless, a statistically significant link was shown. Evidence from California suggests it is a causal link, because children’s lung damage there reduced as air quality improved between 1994 and 2011.

Source: Guardian

Supermarkets Still Produce Thousands of Tonnes of Plastic Bags

Photo-illustration: Unsplash
Photo-illustration: Unsplash

Big supermarkets are producing billions of single-use plastic bags each year despite charges that are designed to reduce their use by the public.

The UK’s 10 leading supermarkets, including Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Morrisons, Waitrose, Co-op and Aldi, continue to put plastic bags into their shops three years after the introduction of 5p charges under EU law.

Data gathered by Greenpeace and published on Thursday reveal that the supermarkets are putting 810,000 tonnes of single-use plastic packaging on to the market every year. The figures confirm a Guardian investigation that showed that leading supermarkets refuse to be open about the amount of plastic they put on to the market.

A survey of the top 10 supermarkets by Greenpeace revealed that they are putting 1.1bn single-use plastic bags, 1.2bn plastic produce bags for fruit and vegetables and 958m reusable “bags for life” on top of the 810,000-tonne plastic footprint.

Iceland, followed by M&S, had the highest consumption of single-use plastic bags. Tesco had the highest sales of “bags for life” and Lidl, Sainsbury’s and Tesco the highest use of plastic produce bags relative to market share.

In 2015, the UK adopted an EU directive into law and introduced 5p charges for plastic bags. A 30% reduction in plastic bag littering was recorded this year, environmental scientists said.

But the Greenpeace report said more action was needed given the continued production of single-use bags on such a scale. “A significant increase to the price of bags, or ending sales completely, should help drive further reductions,” it said. The report added that some retailers were exploring reusable produce bags.

Some countries have gone further than a bag charge: France has banned single-use plastic bags at the checkout and in loose food sections.

The report by Greenpeace and the Environmental Investigations Agency said supermarkets were still not doing enough to reduce their plastic footprint.

Read more: Guardian

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