Scottish Government Grants Planning Approval to Latest Floating Wind Farm

20.03.2017

The Scottish government’s plans to establish the country as a world-leading hub for floating wind turbine technology took another step forward last week when planning approval was granted for the third demonstration project in Scottish waters.

On Friday, Minister for Business, Innovation and Energy Paul Wheelhouse approved planning consent for two turbine Dounreay Trì Floating Wind Demonstration Project, which will be located approximately six km off the Caithness coastline.

The move follows recent planning approval for the Kincardine Floating Offshore Wind farm and last year’s consent for the Hywind Scotland Pilot.

The government said it has now approved floating turbine projects boasting 92MW of capacity, establishing the country as “a world centre for this innovative technology”.

The latest project is being developed by Swedish engineering firm Hexicon, which has pioneered an innovative approach to installing multiple turbines on floating structures.

The project is expected to create around 100 jobs during the construction and installation process, before delivering enough clean power for around 8,000 homes.

“Once operational, this demonstrator project will help to develop this pioneering technology and cement Scotland’s reputation at the forefront of innovation in the renewables sector,” said Wheelhouse. “With the consent for this project, the Scottish Government has now approved a total of 92MW of floating offshore wind, enough to power almost 60,000 homes. This not only highlights our commitment to exploring this innovative technology, but offers real scope for the development of wind energy projects in deeper water, in Scotland and across the world.”

Marcus Thor, Dounreay Project Director, said the installation could help open up a major new market that promises to significantly reduce the cost of offshore wind power. “It is fantastic news for Hexicon that the Dounreay Tri project has permission to proceed,” he said. “We are grateful that Scotland is taking positive steps to lead in the development of this innovative technology. Hexicon is encouraged that this demonstration plant will lead to the deployment of many more floating wind farms around the world.”

The cost of offshore wind power has already fallen by about a third in the past four years as the industry has scaled up. But advocates of the technology are confident floating turbines can deliver significant further cost savings by removing the need for costly foundations and allowing wind farms to access deeper waters where winds are stronger and more reliable.

Hexicon said the next step for the Dounreay is to work towards a final investment decision that would allow the project to be constructed, installed and commissioned by 1 September 2018 under the terms of the Obligation Certification regime.

Source: businessgreen.com

3 Cities Prove Climate Action Works

20.03.2017

Obnovljivi grad — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

The climate crisis is a problem caused by humans that can be solved by humans. These three cities are proving it.

While a lot of media coverage around the crisis is doom and gloom, cities around the world are coming up with powerful solutions on the local level. Here’s how a Canadian city, an American city and a Chinese city are taking on climate action.

1. North America’s First Renewably Powered City

Vancouver’s ambitious vision to power the city entirely on renewable energy will help curb emissions from its two biggest emitters: transport and buildings.

Vancouver is the first city in North America to develop a renewable city strategy to derive 100 percent of the city’s entire energy needs from renewable sources by 2050. To achieve this goal, the city is prioritizing efforts around reducing emissions from its most polluting sectors, buildings and transportation and increasing the use and supply of renewables. In the transport sector, this includes measures such as the promotion of renewably powered car-sharing fleets and the development of standards to support renewably powered private vehicles. Simultaneously, retrofits of existing buildings and ensuring the grid energy supply is 100-percent renewable will spur the clean energy shift for the city’s building stock.

Underpinning the strategy is an innovative energy system model that maps energy demand across the year and by time of day, matching it with an energy supply model to identify the most economical ways energy demand can be met by renewable sources. In this way, Vancouver is using cutting-edge technology—employed for the first time by a municipality—to solve pressing energy concerns and guide plans for a 100 percent renewable future.

The Result: 80 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, from 2007 levels, by 2050 due to the renewable city strategy.

2. Legal Ordinance for Solar-Powered Buildings

New York City’s government agencies are now legally required to assess potential solar PV retrofits at all municipal buildings.

In 2016, New York City passed a law requiring local government agencies to assess all city-owned rooftops for solar photovoltaic (PV) potential, in order to support the city’s goal to install 100 MW of solar PV on municipal property by 2025. Agencies must report on factors including the potential reduction in energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, the financing of the project and whether buildings’ rooftops are suitable for a solar installation. In keeping track of the projects, the city will also take into consideration the financial savings accruing from CO2 emissions reductions in order to better reflect the value of the retrofits.

To date, the city has installed 8.8 MW of solar PV across 52 municipal buildings. Informed by the government agencies’ evaluations, New York City plans to develop a strategy to expand the initiative to 4,000 city-owned buildings, which include schools, hospitals, libraries, courthouses, firehouses, offices, police precincts, wastewater treatment plants and recreation centers and which will help the city reach its goal to reduce citywide greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050.

The Result: 35,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions will be reduced by solar projects by 2025.

3. Low-Carbon Megacity Encourages Green Growth

Guangzhou is planning for an increasing population and rising demand for energy with a multi-sector, low-carbon plan for green growth, targeting industry, infrastructure and buildings.

Guangzhou, a megacity with a population exceeding 13 million, is still in a stage of rapid economic development and urban construction. In 2012, Guangzhou launched the Pilot Low Carbon City Implementation Plan in an effort to reduce greenhouse emissions through systematic measures in the growing city. The plan includes the elimination of outdated industrial capacity and equipment and the promotion of energy-efficient technologies and green, low-carbon buildings. Transport infrastructure is also being targeted, with a new public transport system mainly based on rail transit.

Both market mechanisms, such as limiting entry permits for high-carbon projects to control greenhouse gas emissions, and institutional mechanisms, such as stricter emissions standards, have been used to promote low-carbon development under the plan. Green industries have developed quickly in the city, with an added value of $4.2 billion in 2014, an 11.1 percent increase compared to the previous year. As a commitment to the plan, Guangzhou announced in 2015 it will reach its carbon emissions peak by 2020.

The Result: 35.9M tons of CO2 emissions reduced between 2010 and 2014.

Source: ecowatch.com

Almost 90 Per Cent of US Rooftops Suitable for Solar Power, Google Finds

20.03.2017

Almost 90 per cent of rooftops in the US catch enough sunlight to be suitable for generating solar power, analysis by Google has found.

The tech giant’s ‘Project Sunroof’ initiative has analysed around 60 million buildings across all 50 US states since 2015, concluding that 79 per cent are technically viable for generating solar power – meaning the rooftops have enough unshaded area for PV panels.

The initiative found over 90 per cent of homes in Hawaii, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico were technically viable for solar rooftop PV, while buildings in states including Pennsylvania, Maine and Minnesota have closer to 60 per cent suitability.

According to the data, Houston in Texas has the most solar panel potential of any US city, with an estimated 18.940GWh of rooftop solar generation potential a year, just ahead of the cities of Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Antonio and New York.

Putting that into perspective, Google highlighted US Energy Information Administration data showing the average US home consumes almost 11GWh per year, meaning a single gigawatt of power is enough to supply 90 average homes for an entire year.

Google said it used satellite imagery from its Google Maps and Google Earth services alongside 3D modelling and machine learning for the research, while calculating and taking into account weather patterns and the position of the sun at different parts of the year.

The data suggests that if the top 10 US cities for solar potential installed their full PV capacity, they would produce enough energy to power eight million homes across the US each year.

Google itself is aiming to ensure its business and operations are powered by 100 per cent renewable electricity this year, making it one of the largest purchasers of renewables in the world.

In related news, executive chairman of Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc., Eric Schmidt, last week praised a reported breakthrough in fast-charging, long-lasting battery technology achieved by the original co-inventor of the lithium-ion battery, Professor John Goodenough.

The University of Texas at Austin recently revealed that 94-year old Goodenough – an engineering professor at the institution – led a team of engineers who have developed the ‘first’ all-solid-state battery cells, which they say could lead to safer, faster-charging, longer-lasting rechargeable batteries for handheld devices, electric cars, and stationary energy storage.

According to the University, the research – which was completed by Goodenough alongside senior research fellow Maria Helena Braga – demonstrated that the new battery cells have at least three times as much energy density as existing lithium-ion batteries commonly used today.

Energy density determines an electric vehicle’s driving range, so an EV with a higher energy density can travel for longer between charges, Goodenough explained. The breakthrough has also improved the battery formulation to allow a greater number of charges, thereby improving the battery’s life cycle and speeding up its recharge time.

Goodenough and his team are now working on several patents for the battery technology and hope to work with battery makers to help develop and test materials in EVs and storage devices.

“Cost, safety, energy density, rates of charge and discharge and cycle life are critical for battery-driven cars to be more widely adopted,” Goodenough said. “We believe our discovery solves many of the problems that are inherent in today’s batteries.”

Source: businessgreen.com

CO2 Emissions Stay Same for Third Year in Row – Despite Global Economy Growing

20.03.2017

Carbon dioxide emissions from energy have not increased for three years in a row even as the global economy grew, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said.

Global emissions from the energy sector were 32.1bn tonnes in 2016, the same as the previous two years, while the economy grew 3.1%, the organisation said.

The IEA put the halt in growth down to growing renewable power generation, switches from coal to natural gas and improvements in energy efficiency but said it is too soon to say that global emissions have peaked.

The biggest drop was seen in the US, where carbon dioxide emissions fell 3%, while the economy grew 1.6%, following a surge in shale gas supplies and more renewable power that displaced coal.

US emissions are at their lowest level since 1992, while the economy has grown 80% since that time.

Carbon dioxide output also declined in China, by 1%, and were stable in Europe, offsetting increases in most of the rest of the world, the IEA said.

Dr Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director, said: “These three years of flat emissions in a growing global economy signal an emerging trend and that is certainly a cause for optimism, even if it is too soon to say that global emissions have definitely peaked.

“They are also a sign that market dynamics and technological improvements matter. This is especially true in the United States, where abundant shale gas supplies have become a cheap power source.”

In China, coal demand declined as renewables, nuclear and natural gas increased in the power sector.

There was also a switch from coal to gas in industry and buildings driven by government policies to tackle air pollution.

Emissions in the EU were largely stable as gas demand grew 8% and coal fell by 10%.

The UK saw a significant coal-to-gas switch in the power sector in the face of cheaper gas and a carbon price floor which makes polluting coal a more expensive source of energy, the IEA said.

The pause in emissions growth was welcomed by the IEA, but it warned it was not enough to meet globally-agreed targets to limit temperature rises to below 2C above pre-industrial levels – considered to be the threshold for dangerous climate change.

Source: theguardian.com

Eating Healthier Food Could Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

19.03.2017

Povrće, Ishrana, Paprika, Smederevac — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

Eating healthier food could reduce greenhouse gas emissions, suggests a new study. As it turns out, some relatively small diet tweaks could add up to significant inroads in addressing climate change.

You are what you eat, as the saying goes, and while good dietary choices boost your own health, they also could improve the health care system and even benefit the planet. Healthier people mean not only less disease but also reduced greenhouse gas emissions from health care.

As it turns out, some relatively small diet tweaks could add up to significant inroads in addressing climate change.

That’s the finding of a new study led by UC Santa Barbara researchers, who analyzed the potential effects of healthier model diets for the United States. The results appear in the journal Climatic Change.

“To my knowledge, this is the first time anyone has done this,” said study director David Cleveland, a research professor in UCSB’s environmental studies program and geography department. “People have looked at what effect diets have both on climate and on health, but they’ve never examined the potential to mitigate climate change through the food system and the health care system together.”

The food system contributes about 30 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, with the largest proportion coming from animal-based food. In addition, the poor quality of the standard U.S. diet — including high levels of red and processed meat and low levels of fruits and vegetables — is a major factor in a number of preventable diseases. The U.S. spends $3 trillion on health care every year — 18 percent of the gross domestic product — much of it allocated to diseases associated with poor diets.

Cleveland and colleagues first used data from published meta-analyses that examined the effect of foods on diseases. Then, using life-cycle assessment data for the foods that changed in the healthier model diets, they analyzed the effects of the diets on greenhouse gas emissions for the food system. For the health care system, the researchers estimated the change in risk of diabetes, colorectal cancer and coronary heart disease due to the healthier diets and the subsequent effect on both health care costs and greenhouse gas emissions.

To create healthier model diets, the researchers altered the standard 2,000-calorie-a-day U.S. diet, changing the sources of about half of those calories. The different model diets progressively reduced the amount of red and processed meats, with the most stringent diet eliminating them completely. Fruit and vegetable intake was doubled, and peas and beans increased to replace the meat protein removed. Refined grains were partially replaced with whole grains. Added sugar, which Cleveland noted is a known health risk, was not reduced. Neither was dairy, eggs, fish or non-red meat.

“This means our estimates are probably very conservative, both in terms of health and climate change implications,” Cleveland said. “Just changing half of the diet and including only some of the diseases associated with diets, we found a huge effect.

“Food has a tremendous impact on the environment,” he added. “That means that there is enormous potential for our food choices to have positive effects on our environment as well on our health and our health care costs.”

That is exactly what the scientists found. The adoption of healthier model diets reduced the relative risk of coronary heart disease, colorectal cancer and Type 2 diabetes by 20 to 40 percent. Health care costs went down by $77 billion to $93 billion annually and direct greenhouse gas emissions dropped by 222 kilograms to 826 kilograms per person per year.

“In the third diet — which contained no red or processed meats — there was a savings of $95 billion out of the total annual cost of $230 billion for those three diseases,” Cleveland explained. “That’s not huge compared to the $3 trillion total in health care costs, but it’s a start. Results like these can also help motivate individual and policy changes.”

In terms of climate policy, the healthier diets could contribute up to 23 percent of the U.S. Climate Action Plan goal to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, Cleveland said. Further, the diets could generate up to 134 percent of California’s goal of reaching 1990 emission levels by 2020.

According to Cleveland, the findings add weight to the conclusion of several other recent studies: Diet change must be part of successful climate change mitigation policies, and climate change mitigation must be included in policies to improve the food system.

This creates an important opportunity for the University of California, Cleveland noted. “The UC Carbon Neutrality Initiative should have a major focus on climate change mitigation via the food system,” he said. “And the UC Global Food Initiative should have a major focus on the relationships among food, climate and health.”

(source: Science Daily)

This River is the First River Given Legal Status as a Person (PHOTO) (VIDEO)

18.03.2017

Whanganui river, New Zealand — Foto: Pixabay

New Zealand has recognized the Whanganui River as a legal person.

On Wednesday, New Zealand Parliament passed the Te Awa Tupua Bill which states that the river is “an indivisible and living whole,” making it the world’s first river to be given this special designation.

The river has been granted the ability to represent itself through human representatives, one appointed by the Whanganui Iwi (Maori people) and one by the Crown (government of New Zealand), Treaty Negotiations Minister Chris Finlayson explained to Newshub.

“I know some people will say it’s pretty strange to give a natural resource a legal personality, but it’s no stranger than family trusts, or companies, or incorporated societies,” Finlayson added.

Similarly, New Zealand’s Te Urewera national park also has “all the rights, powers, duties and liabilities of a legal person,” thanks to the Te Urewera Act.

More than 200 descendants of the Whanganui Iwi witnessed the bill’s passage. Songs were sung and tears were shed after Parliament’s third and final reading of the bill.

The decision marks the end of New Zealand’s longest-running court case, as the Whanganui Iwi have long fought for the recognition of their authority over the river.

Historic day for my beloved awa. The Whanganui River Claims Settlement Bill passes into law after its final reading today. Tears will flow. pic.twitter.com/eWQxbRpgsy
— Rachel Stewart (@RFStew) March 14, 2017

“Since the mid-1850s Whanganui Iwi have challenged the Crown’s impact on the health and wellbeing of the river and those who lived on it, and have fought to have their rights and their relationship with the River recognized,” said Gerrard Albert, Whanganui Iwi spokesperson, in a statement.

“Eighty years ago Whanganui Iwi started what was to become the longest running court case in New Zealand history over who owned the bed of the river. It has been a long, hard battle,” he continued. “We have always believed that the Whanganui River is an indivisible and living whole—Te Awa Tupua—which includes all its physical and spiritual elements from the mountains of the central North Island to the sea.”

The Whanganui River in the North Island of New Zealand is the country’s third-longest river and a culturally and spiritually important entity to the area’s tribes. According to a government website:

“The tribes of Whanganui take their name, their spirit and their strength from the great river which flows from the mountains of the central North Island to the sea. For centuries the people have travelled the Whanganui River by canoe, caught eels in it, built villages on its banks, and fought over it. The people say, ‘Ko au te awa. Ko te awa ko au’ (I am the river. The river is me).”

The bill includes $80 million (about USD$56 million) financial redress payment and another $30 million from the Crown to “promote the health and well-being” of the river.

Albert said that the Whanganui Iwi looks forward to working closely with other Iwi, local government, the Crown and other parties with an interest in the future of the river.

“It has taken us a century-and-a-half to get to this point. We will take a steady, calm and methodical approach to the next steps,” he said. “While today we close the book on this part of our history, tomorrow we start writing a new one.”

(source: Eco Watch)

Germany’s MEP Werke to Add EVs to Solar Leasing Business

17.03.2017

MEP Werke, the German clean energy company that allows customers to rent their rooftop solar panels in exchange for a monthly fee, has revealed plans to add electric vehicle leasing to its offering in a bid to boost the business case for domestic solar installations.

The firm, which launched its solar leasing business in 2013 now has 4,000 customers in Germany and 18MW of installed solar capacity, will this month start testing the market for customers to add a 10-year lease for a Peugeout iOn electric car to their monthly solar plan.

Adding an EV will make the most financial sense for customers with solar installations of around 4kWp or higher as it will allow them to maximise the use of the power tey generate, MEP Werke said. The service will initiallycost €272 per month, but the cost could come down if MEP Werke negotiates to add more models with different leasing terms in the future.

The move was prompted by cuts to solar subsidies in Germany, which mean exporting clean energy back to the grid is far less lucrative than it once was.

“In the past, there has been much more state support for solar energy,” MEP Werke chief executive Konstantin Strasser told BusinessGreen. “The best you could do was producing as much solar energy as possible and sell it into the grid at very attractive compensations. Nowadays, with the compensations being much smaller, we need new business models that make it again attractive for the consumers.”

Adding electric vehicles to a domestic solar package is a “natural advancement” for the firm, Strasser said.

“Our motivation is now to add further energy projects in order to enable our customers to not only produce their own green energy but to also use most of it by themselves in an efficient way,” he said. “EV is just perfect for that as you can use the EV as a mobile energy storage unit. With that you do not only maximise your energy self-consumption and have your solar energy system amortized much earlier, you can also drive with your energy and save costs for fuel. In the near future it will even be possible to return the stored energy into the house.”

Following a test phase MEP Werke plans to roll out the EV offer nationwide as an optional addition to solar leases. The company said it will act as the intermediary for the initiative, with its direct leasing partner named as SIXT Leasing. “MEP Werke will be the intermediary, responsible for all marketing and sales activities, enabling our customers to get the full package from the solar power system to smart metering and EV,” it said.

The move echoes the ambitions of US rival SolarCity, which was bought last year by Tesla as part of Elon Musk’s plan to offer “end-to-end” clean energy products, with solar panels, EVs and energy storage all on offer.

Over time MEP Werke said it will “steadily enlarge” its solar leasing business, citing plans to add energy-efficient white goods and energy storage to its offer.

Source: businessgreen.com

Reports: Renault Shares Drop Amid Emissions Testing Allegations

17.03.2017

Renault-Zoe — Foto: Renault Nissan Srbija

Shares in Renault plunged by as much as six per cent yesterday amid reports the French carmaker is being investigated for allegedly breaking emissions testing rules.

According to various reports, Renault could potentially face hefty fines from French authorities probing two of its car models – Captur and Clio IV – which have allegedly shown emissions levels around 300 per cent higher in real world driving conditions than in lab tests.

Moreover, French media have suggested the car giant’s entire senior management team could be embroiled in the accusations.

The news follows the high-profile allegations in 2015 against German car maker Volkswagen, which just this week pleaded guilty to charges of fraud in the US as part of a $4.3bn settlement.

Renault however dismissed “unbalanced” media reports, adding that it would not comment on a current investigation and therefore could not confirm the “veracity, completeness and reliability” of the information being reported.

“Renault will prove its compliance with the regulations and reserves its explanations for the judges in charge of investigating this case,” the carmaker said in a statement. “Groupe Renault reminds that none of its services has breached European or national regulations related to vehicle homologations. Renault vehicles are not equipped with cheating software affecting anti-pollution systems.”

The firm added that it would fully cooperate with the judges in an investigation it said raised “issues of interpretation of the standards governing the conditions of vehicle homologations”.

It follows reports last year the French car firm could phase out most of its diesel car models in Europe in response to the rising costs of meeting tighter EU emissions test regulations.

Greenpeace UK air pollution campaigner Mel Evans said the allegations against Renault and the Volkswagen ‘dieselgate’ scandal suggested there could be problems with emissions testing across the wider car manufacturing sector, and called on the industry to put a greater focus on EVs.

“The car industry has a lot to answer for,” said Evans. “While car companies keep selling new models that pollute more than they should, people living in UK cities are breathing illegal levels of air pollution that are harmful to health. If the car industry were serious about clean cars, they would stop making diesel cars completely and go 100 per cent electric.”

Source: businessgreen.com

5 Cities Leading the Charge on Climate Action

17.03.2017

San Francisko — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

The sheer number of people who live in cities now and who are expected to move into them in the coming years is startling. Around two-thirds of the world’s population is predicted to live in an urban area by 2050, which means there are also major financial implications when extreme weather like unexpected storms and flooding cause disruptions in businesses and governments.

The good news is that while cities are particularly at risk from the climate crisis, they are also behind some of the most powerful solutions. That’s why we’re taking a look at five of our favorite sustainable cities in the world and the steps they’ve taken to become leaders in clean energy and climate solutions.

1. Copenhagen, Denmark

Copenhagen is often ranked as one of the greenest cities on the planet. Why? For starters, in 2009 the city set a goal to become the world’s first carbon neutral capital by 2025 as part of its CPH 2025 Climate Plan. Copenhagen has focused on reducing energy consumption in a variety of ways, including using an energy-efficient district heating system that connects to nearly every household and innovative cooling systems that save around 70 percent of the energy compared to traditional air conditioning.

Copenhagen has also focused on reducing emissions and improving the health of its residents by improving mobility, integrating transport and building what’s known as a super cycle highways. Super cycle highways and other bike lanes around the city have led to 45 percent of the city’s residents commuting by bike every day.

2. San Francisco, California

It’s no secret that San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area are a serious tech-hub and home to some of the most innovative companies in the world, including Salesforce, Airbnb, Uber and Twitter. Innovations in technologies to improve energy efficiency in buildings and enhance its transportation system have helped make San Francisco a leader in sustainability and clean energy. Just look at the city’s public transit system: it’s not uncommon to see hybrid-electric buses driving down the city’s streets and more than half of all MUNI buses and light rails are zero-emission.

The Bay Area has also cut its water consumption drastically in recent years. As California has battled serious droughts, San Franciscans have reduced their water consumption to around 49 gallons of water per day on average (the national average is 80-100 gallons per day). These conservation tactics and other advances in sustainable food, recycling and composting are expected to help San Francisco reach its goal of becoming zero waste by 2020.

3. Vancouver, Canada

Vancouver has been on the forefront of environmental activism for decades. In 1990, it became one of the first North American cities to outwardly address the climate crisis by releasing a report called The Clouds of Change. This was just the beginning of an environmental strategy that Vancouver released years later in 2012, the Greenest City Action Plan, which set 10 goals to achieve by 2020, including increasing green jobs, reducing community-based greenhouse gas emissions and expanding green buildings around the city.

Additionally, Vancouver has committed to getting 100 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2050. This goal is particularly bold given that it targets all forms of energy in the city—including heating, cooling and transport—not just electricity. The city’s focus on clean energy and sustainability has led it to have the lowest greenhouse gas emissions per person of any major North American city. Between making sustainable improvements to neighborhoods’ energy consumption, striving for zero waste and continuing to develop its successful Greenest City Action Plan, Vancouver has set the stage for businesses and residents to work together to be one of the greenest and most climate change resilient cities on Earth.

4. Stockholm, Sweden

Stockholm is a growing city that seeks to be an attractive home for newcomers and do good for the planet at the same time. Awarded the first “European Green Capital” recognition by the European Commission in 2010, Stockholm aims to be fossil-fuel free by 2050.

How does the city plan to reach this goal? One component is Sweden’s shift from oil to “district” heating, which means the nation now uses heat from centralized sources (such as a power station) to more efficiently heat and cool its buildings. District heating alone accounts for more than 80 percent of heating and hot water in apartments today and is one of the key factors in how Sweden has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions in recent years.

Another reason for Stockholm’s success with sustainable living is its residents, who pride themselves on being “climate-smart.” Eight out of 10 residents feel the city should urge citizens to live more environmentally-friendly and believe being climate-smart should be a natural part of living in a city (we do too!).

5. Singapore

With a population of more than five million people, Singapore is often recognized as one of the most forward-thinking green cities in Asia. The city-state has developed a Sustainable Development Blueprint, which outlines sustainability goals leading up to 2030. The targets include improving energy efficiency by 35 percent, ensuring 80 percent of its buildings are certified green and having 80 percent of households be within a 10-minute walk to a train station.

Singapore has also improved its sustainability by making drastic changes in transportation. The city-state limits car ownership among its residents and has built effective public transportation systems, which has helped reduce pollution and crowding on streets and highways. Singapore’s public transit system helps residents navigate the city, along with biking and walking.

Source: ecowatch.com

Stopping Global Warming is Only Way to Save Great Barrier Reef, Scientists Warn

17.03.2017

The survival of the Great Barrier Reef hinges on urgent moves to cut global warming because nothing else will protect coral from the coming cycle of mass bleaching events, new research has found.

The study of three mass bleaching events on Australian reefs in 1998, 2002 and 2016 found coral was damaged by underwater heatwaves regardless of any local improvements to water quality or fishing controls.

The research, authored by 46 scientists and published in Nature, raises serious questions about Australia’s long-term conservation plan for its famous reef, which invests heavily in lifting water quality but is silent on climate-change action.

The researchers said the findings of their paper, Global Warming and Recurrent Mass Bleaching of Corals, applied to coral reefs worldwide.

Its publication comes the same day its lead author, Terry Hughes, is due to embark on an aerial survey to confirm the extent of another mass bleaching event on the Great Barrier Reef.

It is the first mass bleaching to occur for a second consecutive year on the reef, which suffered its worst ever damage in 2016 when 22% of coral was killed off in a single hit.

The study, which was unable to take in the effects of the latest event, warned a fourth mass bleaching event “within the next decade or two” gave the badly damaged northern section of the reef a “slim” chance of ever recovering to its former state.

Hughes said the latest event, which was notable for having nothing to do with the warming effect of El Niño weather patterns, highlighted how research on mass bleaching, even when fast-tracked, was unable to keep pace with the reef’s current state.

“It broke my heart to see so many corals dying on northern reefs on the Great Barrier Reef in 2016,” Hughes said.

“With rising temperatures due to global warming, it’s only a matter of time before we see more of these events. A fourth event after only one year would be a major blow to the reef.”

Hughes said he hoped coming weeks would “cool off quickly and this year’s bleaching won’t be anything like last year”.

“The severity of the 2016 bleaching was off the chart.”

Hughes, the convener of the National Coral Bleaching Taskforce, said the study clearly showed the need for climate change action in Australia’s reef conservation plan.

He said it also showed the folly of Australian and Queensland government support for one of the world’s largest coalmines, Adani’s proposed Carmichael mine, which will export coal in ships through reef waters.

This was not only because of the carbon emissions from the coal, but also from dredging and marine traffic through the reef.

The publication of the research comes the same week as Queensland government officials meet with Unesco officials in Paris to appeal for more time to make good on conservation efforts to ward off an “in-danger” listing for the reef. It also coincides with a visit by the Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, to India to lobby Adani to proceed with its mine plan.

The study found that 91% of coral on the reef had suffered from bleaching over the past two decades.

The researchers concluded that “local management of coral reef fisheries and water quality affords little, if any, resistance to recurrent severe bleaching events: even the most highly protected reefs and near-pristine areas are highly susceptible to severe heat stress.”

“On the remote northern Great Barrier Reef, hundreds of individual reefs were severely bleached in 2016 regardless of whether they were zoned as no-entry, no-fishing, or open to fishing, and irrespective of inshore–offshore differences in water quality.”

Likewise, past exposure to bleaching, or relative resistance among certain corals to minor bleaching, gave no protection in the face of severe heat stress, the study found.

Local protection of fish stocks and improved water quality “may, given enough time, improve the prospects for recovery”.

“However, bolstering resilience will become more challenging and less effective in coming decades because local interventions have had no discernible effect on resistance of corals to extreme heat stress, and, with the increasing frequency of severe bleaching events, the time for recovery is diminishing.

“Securing a future for coral reefs, including intensively managed ones such as the Great Barrier Reef, ultimately requires urgent and rapid action to reduce global warming.”

Bleaching comes when heat stress forces corals to expel tiny photosynthetic algae, which leaves them stark white.

Prolonged heat stress will kill the corals, but death rates take at least six months to confirm.

The researchers said fast-growing coral took 10-15 years to fully recover while longer-lived corals “necessarily take many decades”.

This kind of “sustained absence of another severe bleaching event (or other significant disturbance) … is no longer realistic while global temperatures continue to rise”, they said.

Source: theguardian.com

UK Climate Targets ‘Will Raise Household Energy Bills by £100 in a Decade’

17.03.2017

The cost of supporting new windfarms and nuclear power stations to meet the UK’s carbon targets will add nearly £100 to the average household energy bill by the end of the next decade, according to a government adviser.

But the Committee on Climate Change said it expected the increase to be more than offset by savings as people switched to more efficient fridge freezers, LED bulbs and better boilers.

The committee, a body of experts set up under the Climate Change Act to advise the government, found that a rise of £105, or 9%, to the average £1,160 dual fuel bill in 2016 was down to green policies. These included subsidies for windfarms and solar power through schemes such as the Renewables Obligation. A report by the committee predicts that meeting the UK’s carbon targets would see the cost of the subsidies rise to £200 of an average bill of £1,350 by 2030.

However, other factors were involved in the net increase. The committee also calculated that rising wholesale energy costs and other issues will add more than £200 a year to bills, while an ongoing switch to more energy-efficient appliances and gadgets is expected to save £150.

Matthew Bell, chief executive of the committee, told the Guardian that he thought it was worth spending the money on climate policies. “The reason we’re acting to reduce our emissions is climate change poses real risks, real risks to the UK as well as round the world.”

The cost was relatively modest, he said, adding: “What our analysis says quite clearly is that as a proportion of total energy costs, climate costs are a small minority portion. The vast majority of your energy bill is accounted by other things, like wholesale costs and transmission costs.”

Five of the big six energy suppliers have announced price hikes over the winter, sparking calls for a cap on bills.

Three energy companies outside of the major supplier group, including Bristol-based Ovo, which has 680,000 customers, and smaller suppliers Octopus and Utility Warehouse, signalled their support on Thursday for a relative price cap. The cap has been proposed by the Conservative MP John Penrose and would limit the gap between the best and worst deals on the market. About 50 MPs have backed a motion to be debated in parliament on Thursday, on the need to protect consumers on standard variable tariffs, which are the most common deal for British households.

Some of the energy companies, such as German-owned E.ON, laid the blame for their rises partly on the cost of supporting green policies. But the Committee on Climate Change said that such policies had in fact shaved £290 a year off the average household energy bill between 2008 and 2016, because they had encouraged a shift to A-rated fridge freezers, condensing boilers and a swing away from incandescent lightbulbs to energy-saving ones.

Bell said that future progress on more energy-efficient appliances was slowing slightly, but there was still potential for huge savings. “We’re still seeing only 1% of lighting being LEDs. And what we’ve not factored in at all is what IT will do for how we manage energy in our homes.”

The committee said British households’ energy costs are not high compared to the rest of Europe. Residential electricity prices are below average, and gas prices the third lowest among 15 EU countries.

Despite the government recently announcing a review into energy costs for businesses, the committee said climate policies were adding relatively little to companies’ bills and had not affected UK plc’s competitiveness.

Rebecca Williams, energy specialist at WWF, said: “This report shows that energy companies are wrong to blame the increase in energy bills solely on UK government policies. It is clear that the main driver here is rising fossil fuel costs.”

Source: theguardian.com

‘Airpocalypse’ Smog Events in China Linked to Melting Ice Cap, Research Reveals

16.03.2017

beijing, smog, china, kina, peking — Photo: Pixabay

Climate change played a major role in the extreme air pollution events suffered recently by China and is likely to make such “airpocalypses” more common, new research has revealed.

The fast-melting ice in the Arctic and an increase in snowfalls in Siberia, both the result of global warming, are changing winter weather patterns over east China, scientists found. Periods of stagnant air are becoming more common, trapping pollution and leading to the build up of extreme levels of toxic air.

The work is the latest to show that changes in the rapidly warming Arctic are already leading to severe impacts for hundreds of millions of people across North America, Europe and Asia. The US has also seen a rise in episodes of stagnant air, which may be leading to higher air pollution there.

“The very rapid change in polar warming is really having a large impact on China,” said Prof Yuhang Wang, at Georgia Tech in the US, who led the new research. “Emissions in China have been decreasing over the last four years, but the severe winter haze is not getting better.”

“Mostly that’s because of a very rapid change in the high polar regions where sea ice is decreasing and snowfall is increasing,” he said. “This perturbation keeps cold air from getting into the eastern parts of China, where it would flush out the air pollution.”

The new research is convincing, according to Prof Jennifer Francis, at Rutgers University in the US, who said people should be concerned at the growing evidence that the thawing Arctic is having major consequences further south. “Not all the impacts of a melting Arctic are bad – such as taking the edge off of winter cold snaps – but most of the effects will have a negative impact on the billions of people living in temperate regions,” she said.

Air pollution causes 1.4 million early deaths every year in China and the “airpocalypse” in 2013, when levels soared to 10 times national limits, grabbed global attention. The US embassy had been tweeting data on the “crazy bad” air, which led the Chinese government to open up its reporting and then to crack down on pollution later in 2013.

However, despite cuts in emissions helping clear the air in summer, the winter haze remained a serious problem, leading Wang’s team to investigate. Their research, published in the journal Science Advances, found that periods of stagnant air over east China correlated closely with years of very low Arctic ice and high snowfall in Siberia.

They then used climate models to show that these changes in the Arctic could cause domes of high pressure in the region, under which low winds meant air pollution builds up instead of being blown away.

The 2013 “airpocalypse” followed the record low Arctic ice in late 2012 and record high snow in northern Siberia. Arctic ice plunged to its second lowest extent in late 2016 and China was again hit with an extreme air pollution event this winter. “2013 was off the chart” in terms of poor ventilation conditions over east China, said Wang. “And the winter of 2016-17 was nearly as bad.”

The researchers concluded that “extreme haze events in winter will likely occur at a higher frequency in China” as climate change continues to heat up the Arctic. Wang said this should drive an increased urgency in cutting both air pollution and the carbon emissions that cause global warming.

“When you look at haze reduction, it is not just about reducing emissions of air pollutants, it is also about reducing emissions of greenhouses gases from China and all the other countries in the world, so we can possibly slow down the rapidly changing Arctic climate,” Wang said.

The emissions of greenhouse gases from human activity is responsible for at least half, and possibly up to two-thirds, of the fall in summer sea ice in the Arctic since the late 1970s, according to recent research.

Source: businessgreen.com

Costa Fires Up Giant £38m Eco-Efficient Coffee Roastery

16.03.2017

Costa has opened a giant £38m energy and resource-efficient coffee roastery in Essex, which it claims will be one of the most sustainable industrial buildings in the world.

The BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ accredited factory’s on-site renewable energy generation includes a 249kw solar PV system to provide power for the roastery, as well as a rainwater harvesting system designed to curb water use.

The building has a ‘zero energy’ shell, meaning it consumes less energy than it creates via its on-site renewable power – although this rating does not include the factory’s internal equipment, which is accredited separately, Costa said.

In addition, the company said it plans to operate a zero-waste-to-landfill policy for its roasting activities at the factory, while its internal equipment will also boast “a wide array of other sustainability features” drawing on lessons from its ‘Eco-Pod’ zero carbon coffee shop project in Telford.

The coffee chain said the new facility was a response to increasing global demand, adding that it would quadruple roasting capacity from 11,000 tonnes to 45,000 tonnes a year, while using more efficient processes that will boost its productivity by 25 per cent.

Covering more than 85,500 sq ft – the equivalent of over 30 tennis courts – the new roastery is the largest in Europe and will enable Costa to produce coffee for 2.1 billion cups a year, the firm said.

Construction of the building started in November 2015 with the site in Basildon chosen due to its proximity to Tilbury Docks where raw coffee beans are imported to the UK, halving the transport distance from docks to roastery compared to its old site in Lambeth, London.

The news follows both Costa’s tie-up with biomass specialists Bio-Bean to recycle more than 3,000 tonnes of waste coffee grounds from 850 of its stores into pellets for woodburning stoves and the recent launch of its new coffee cup recycling scheme at more than 2,000 of its UK outlets.

Dominic Paul, Costa’s managing director, said the factory had been carefully designed to improve efficiency and would include a coffee academy to help train 3,000 baristas per year.

“Costa is growing rapidly as a global business and our new roastery will provide the platform for sustained international expansion as we continue inspiring the world to love great coffee,” he said. “Today is about quality, capacity, investing in the future and being true to our heritage – it’s about embracing our traditions whilst continuing to innovate and drive global growth.”

Source: businessgreen.com

DONG Energy Retires World’s First Offshore Wind Farm

16.03.2017

The offshore wind industry yesterday marked the end of an era, as Danish utility DONG Energy announced it is to decommission the world’s first offshore wind farm after 25 years of service.

The company said it is to bring the Vindeby wind farm off the south east coast of Denmark back onshore, completing the first full project cycle for an offshore wind industry that over the past quarter of a century has been transformed from something of a curiosity to a multi-billion pound player in Europe’s clean energy transition.

The 11 turbine project underlines the progress that has been made in recent years, as the industry has scaled up and slashed the cost of offshore power.

The turbines, which were connected to the grid in 1991, are located just 1.5 kilometres offshore, are 54 metres tall, and provide power to around 2,200 households.

In contrast, DONG Energy said its latest Hornsea Project One development will connect 174 turbines located 120 kilometres offshore to the UK grid, with each turbine towering 190 metres above the waves, and the project delivering enough power for one million households.

“Vindeby Offshore Wind Farm is almost miniature-size in comparison with the giant projects which are now being realised in Northern Europe,” said Leif Winther, head of DONG Energy’s Danish offshore wind farms. “But without the experience gained from the world’s first offshore wind farm, we wouldn’t be where we are today. It’s fair to say that Vindeby is the cradle of the offshore wind industry, and that this is where the industry was born.”

The decommissioning project is also expected to highlight how offshore wind farms can be removed fully from the water, minimising the long term impact on marine habitats.

DONG Energy said the blades, nacelle and towers will be dismantled and the concrete foundations will be broken down on site and then collected afterwards. The bulk of the turbine components will be re-used or recycled, while one turbine will also become part of an exhibition at the Danish Museum of Energy.

The milestone comes as the offshore wind industry recently confirmed it has slashed costs by nearly a third over the past four years, beating a UK government target to deliver power at less than £100/MWh by 2020. The sector is also investing heavily in a new generation of technology innovations which are designed to bring costs down further.

Winther said the first generation of offshore turbines had played a key role in the industry’s cost reduction efforts.

“Vindeby Offshore Wind Farm has played a decisive role in scaling up the technology and reducing the costs to a level that makes offshore wind attractive to many countries facing replacement of end-of-life coal-fired power plants with new green energy sources,” Winther said.

In related news, DONG Energy this week announced it had entered into a partnership with Aggregated Micro Power Plc that will see it use the Ashford Power gas-fired power plant to help provide balancing services for its wind power fleet.

“As a company responsible for balancing the world’s largest wind portfolio, we have a constant focus on the short-term market which makes an asset like Ashford Power a natural fit,” said Søren Scherfig, head of trading and portfolio management at DONG Energy. “Given the highly flexible characteristics of the asset and our market insight, we look forward to realising its full potential.”

Source: businessgreen.com

European Parliament Backs Restoration of Ambitious Recycling Goals

16.03.2017

The European Parliament has yesterday voted in favour of strengthening proposed recycling and food waste targets as part of the EU’s upcoming circular economy package.

MEPs endorsed proposals for the bloc to deliver a 70 per cent recycling rate by 2030, alongside a five per cent cap on the share of waste going to landfill and a new goal to halve food waste.

The package backed by the Parliament diverges from the latest proposals from the European Commission, which would aim for a weaker target of a 65 per cent recycling rate by 2030.

The European Parliament will now debate with the Council of Ministers, which is yet to finalise its position on the imminent Circular Economy package.

Simona Bonafè, lead MEP on the circular economy package, welcomed the vote, which she said would move the proposed targets back in line with those previously proposed by the Commission.

“Today, Parliament by a very large majority has showed that it believes in the transition towards a circular economy,” she said. “We decided to restore the ambitious recycling and landfill targets in line with what the Commission had originally proposed in 2014.”

She added that there were compelling economic reasons for adopting more ambitious recycling targets. “Demand for raw materials by the world economy could increase by a further 50 per cent in the next 15 years,” she said. “In order to reverse this trend, we must adopt a circular development model which keeps materials and their value in circulation, the only solution able to keep together sustainability with economic growth.”

Supporters of more ambitious targets have argued that with some countries already boasting recycling rates of over 50 per cent and Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden sending virtually no municipal waste to landfill, it is clearly possible to significantly improve on the EU’s current recycling rate of around 44 per cent.

However, opponents, including some industry groups, have warned meeting the new targets would require high levels of investment that could impose additional costs on businesses and households.

Ray Georgeson, chief executive of the Resource Association, said the UK trade body “warmly welcomes the ambition shown by the European Parliament”.

“The European Parliament has sent an important signal of intent about the level of ambition needed in Europe to deliver the resource-efficient, employment-rich circular economy that we aspire to,” he added.

However, he also warned that the long-running debate over how recycling targets should be calculated needed to be resolved.

“The headline figures on recycling rates are less important than the trajectory and degree of ambition,” he said. “While debate remains unresolved on the harmonisation of the point of calculation of recycling rates, the headline figure is the wrong point upon which to assess the importance of the European Parliament’s proposals. We maintain the view that recycling should be calculated at the point where materials go for final recycling and concur with Simona Bonafè on this important issue.

“If the European Commission and Council ultimately find they cannot cope with the logic of this position, they at the very least should do the decent thing and reframe the description of their headline recycling targets as what they actually are – collection targets, not recycling targets. This is a level of transparency and integrity we would welcome.”

In related news, the London Waste and Recycling Board this week launched a new business plan for the period through to 2020 designed to boost the capital’s circular economy.

The new £50m plan will feature a new ‘flats taskforce’ to help people living in high rise accommodation recycle, alongside a £3m Circular Economy Accelerator programme, a £14m circular economy venture capital fund, and a £1.5m investment into a larger circular economy business development capital fund.

“This dynamic business plan will help accelerate local recycling rates, boost green businesses and cut waste across London,” said Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy, Shirley Rodrigues. “We need to make reducing waste easier and I’m really pleased LWARB will be investigating new ways to help the thousands of Londoners living in flats gain better access to recycling facilities. It is really important to support the rapid growth of re-use, regenerate the ‘circular’ economy and help new businesses succeed in this exciting sector.”

The new plan comes just days after the Welsh government similarly launched a new £6.5m fund to help small and medium-sized businesses invest in circular economy technologies and processes.

Source: businessgreen.com

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