WMO Commits to a Greener Future

04.10.2021

environmental-protection-priroda — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

Photo-illustration: Unsplash (Aaron Burden)

The World Meteorological Organization has signed a long-term agreement with Services Industriels de Genève (SIG) to connect the WMO building to a new environmentally friendly initiative called GENILAC.

The agreement was signed by WMO Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas and senior SIG executives at a ceremony on 28 September and represents a major step in the commitment to green the WMO.

GENILAC is a 100 percent renewable thermal solution which uses lake water to both cool and heat buildings in the centre of Geneva.

Using water from deep in Lac Leman and the magic of thermal dynamics, Genilac will allow WMO to heat and cool its headquarters. This will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 80 percent, as well as electricity (80 percent less) and water (10 percent) used for cooling systems.

WMO is excited to be a founding partner in such an important and innovative project. This project along with the installation of photovoltaic panels on the roof, and the replacement of the building management and automation systems will allow us to drastically reduce WMO’s carbon footprint and maintain the highest environmental standards.

Source: WMO

Europe’s Nature Under Pressure — Challenges and Solutions

04.10.2021

The European Environment Agency’s (EEA) work and other assessments have shown that European ecosystems are under serious threat. Centuries of exploitation have left their mark on Europe’s natural world and most protected habitats and species are not in good conservation status. The EEA Signals 2021, published today, presents an overview of the problems Europe’s nature is facing and points to strategies to reverse the situation.

“EEA Signals 2021 — Europe’s nature” provides a snapshot of the state of European nature — its habitats and species — and a window to the world of conservation, data collection and strategies to restore biodiversity and ecosystems. The ‘EEA Signals’ is a series of short articles based on previously published EEA data, information, and expert interviews.

This year’s ‘EEA Signals’ focuses on the value of nature and why strong ecosystems are important for people’s well-being. An article on the state of nature outlines the challenges Europe’s nature is currently facing while other pieces look at the main causes behind the worrying situation and the most promising ways to allow nature to recover and flourish.

James Vause, lead economist at the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), and contributor to the Dasgupta review on the economics of biodiversity, gives an interview about how accounting can help halt biodiversity loss.

Dr Beate Jessel, President of the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, offers insights about the links between biodiversity and climate change, and what could be done to boost nature’s resilience in a changing climate.

Petr Voříšek from the Czech Society for Ornithology, and member of the coordination team of the European Breeding Bird Atlas 2, explains how data on bird populations are put together and what particular challenges Europe’s bird populations face today.

The EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 is Europe’s long-term plan to protect nature and reverse the degradation of ecosystems. Together with other initiatives, it is a core part of the European Green Deal, which outlines the EU’s long-term ambition of becoming the first climate-neutral continent with a sustainable economy by 2050.

The ‘EEA Signals’ is an annual, easy-to-read publication, that looks at key issues related to the environment and climate. Recent EEA Signals reports have looked at pollution (2020), soil (2019), water (2018), and energy (2017).

Source: EEA

Three Ways You Can Protect Rivers

03.10.2021

river-reka-crna-gora — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

Rivers provide immense benefits and services to people, communities, and the planet—from drinking water to crop irrigation. Unfortunately, invaluable river systems all over the world are under increased stress from damming of free-flowing waters, an uptick in pollutants, overfishing, and more.

WWF partners with governments, businesses, international financial institutions, and communities to ensure healthy rivers exist to conserve wildlife and provide a sustainable future for all. We’ve mapped the world’s free-flowing rivers and help manage freshwater resources in a warming climate.

Rivers enrich our lives and need protection. Here are three ways to support river conservation so we can keep rivers healthy, sustainable, and flowing for generations to come.

Understand the deep connection between rivers and food

When we imagine feeding 7.6 billion people on the planet, we often conjure images of crops or cattle farms. But we should also consider rivers. A new WWF report shows that one-third of global food production and 40 percent of global fish consumption depends on rivers.

And while the contributions of rivers to our food system are now clearer than ever, we are at risk of damaging one of our greatest tools in feeding the planet. Over the past 50 years, we have lost 84 percent of our freshwater species populations, and food systems are responsible for 50 percent of biodiversity loss in freshwater. We are pumping out too much water, catching too many fish, damming free-flowing rivers for hydropower, and flooding rivers with pollutants. If we’re to feed 10 billion by 2050 within our planet’s limits, we have to better protect rivers as one of our greatest resources.

Advocate for low-impact renewable energy

To meet renewable energy targets, hydropower is projected to double by 2050. With that level of development, we would lose most of the world’s remaining long free-flowing rivers and many of the benefits they provide to people and nature. Therefore we must invest in the right renewables in the right places to prevent greater nature loss and harm to communities.

Over 160,000 miles of free-flowing rivers are at risk from planned hydropower dams, including the Okavango, Amazon, and Irrawaddy. These proposed dams would collectively generate less than 2 percent of the renewable energy needed to meet climate targets—a relatively small contribution to tackling the climate crisis that would have devastating consequences for our remaining free-flowing rivers, and the people and wildlife that depend on them.

Engage with local rivers

Many local organizations host clean-up initiatives for local streams and rivers. Volunteering for these initiatives is a great way to familiarize yourself with local waterways and be hands-on in their conservation. Studies also show that spending time outdoors for at least two hours per week has long-term health benefits. So while you’re improving the health of your river, you can improve your own health as well.

If volunteer opportunities are limited, explore fishing, rent a kayak, or just take a stroll along a local waterway. Any time spent connecting with the rivers that sustain us is well-spent.

Source: WWF

Why The Global Fight to Tackle Food Waste Has Only Just Begun

02.10.2021

povrće_hrana — Foto-ilustracija: Unsplash (Iñigo De la Maza)

Our global food systems are having a profound impact on human and planetary health. They are responsible for 70 percent of the water extracted from nature, account for up to one-third of human-linked greenhouse gas emissions, and agriculture has been identified as the threat to 24,000 of the 28,000 species (over 86 percent) at risk of extinction.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP’s) Food Waste Index Report 2021, people globally waste 1 billion tonnes of food each year. A staggering one-third of all food produced globally is lost or wasted. The evidence is becoming too hard to ignore. Food systems reform is critical to tackling the planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss and pollution and waste.

UNEP is playing a crucial role in the transition towards sustainable food systems. It serves as custodian of the food waste element of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.3, which aims to halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains.

In a historic first this week, the UN held the inaugural Food Systems Summit, uniting global leaders in a drive to find novel ways to produce healthy fare for the world’s growing population without harming the planet.

UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen led the system-wide UN Taskforce, established to ensure the Summit built on the unique capabilities of the UN to deliver on its agenda. In her remarks, Ms. Andersen underlined UNEP’s commitment to joining up with other UN agencies to support countries as they arrive at and implement ambitious commitments to transform our relationship with food – for people and the planet.

UNEP was also instrumental in developing several solution clusters emerging from the Summit Process, including the coalitions on ‘Food is Never Waste’ and ‘Healthy Diets from Sustainable Food Systems’.

Ahead of the second International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste on 29 September, we sat down with UNEP’s food systems expert Clementine O’Connor to discuss the issues – and opportunities – brought on by food waste.

UNEP: It seems that food waste as a global problem appears to be a fairly recent phenomenon. Is it now only now getting the attention it deserves?

Clementine O’Connor (CO): I co-authored a study called the Preparatory Study on Food Waste Across EU 27 for the European Union (EU) in 2010, when the topic was not high on political agendas or very salient in many households. Few countries had measured food waste. There were some emerging actions, policies and awareness campaigns, but these were at quite a small scale – with notable exceptions in the UK and the Netherlands. However, the estimate in the study of 89 million tonnes of food waste in the EU each year generated much attention. The EU designated 2014 the European Year Against Food Waste. With a growing body of research and through international and cross supply chain partnerships, momentum has built unrelentingly. Today, we have food waste embedded in the SDGs, with Target 12.3, which seeks to halve food waste globally by 2030 and tracks progress through a global index.

UNEP: How is UNEP helping to tackle the food waste crisis?

CO: UNEP launched the Think Eat Save global public awareness campaign in 2013, with a dinner at UNEP’s headquarters in Nairobi for hundreds of ministers and high-level officials made with perfectly good food grown by Kenyan farmers but rejected by UK supermarkets due to cosmetic imperfections. UNEP contributed to the creation of Champions 12.3, a coalition of executives committed to halving food waste by 2030, and developing the Food Loss and Waste Accounting and Reporting Standard. UNEP’s Food Waste Index Report published this year provides a common methodology for measuring food waste and tracking progress on SDG 12.3 and provides new estimates of global food waste based on the most comprehensive food waste data collection to date. Countries and companies are adopting a Target – Measure – Act approach, with a few countries already nearing a 25 percent reduction in household food waste

The Food Waste Index Report has shown that household food waste is a global challenge and supports action in areas that are just getting started. UNEP is now launching Regional Food Waste Working Groups in Africa, Asia Pacific, Latin American, the Caribbean, and West Asia as part of the GO4SDGs Initiative. These working groups will provide technical support and peer-to-peer learning at the regional level, helping 25 countries measure baselines and develop national food waste prevention strategies.

Photo-illustration: Unsplash (Pattie Mitchell)

UNEP also helped develop the ‘Food is Never Waste’ Coalition emerging from the UN Food Systems Summit process and launched last week. With commitments from 12 countries and counting, the C40 Cities Group and a diverse group of stakeholders, UNEP, together with this coalition of leaders, is helping connect the dots between global hunger and the three planetary crises of climate, nature and pollution, and scaling up action in the eight years to come.

UNEP: How important is it to quantify the issue of food waste?

CO: Data creates a case for action. Previously there was an assumption that consumer food waste was a high-income country problem – the UNEP Food Waste Index Report demonstrates that it is significant in almost every country that has measured it. Data makes the problem visible. It helps countries identify hotspots, measure the impact of interventions, and track progress on SDG 12.3, with all of the benefits this entails, from food security to climate change mitigation.

UNEP: How much of a behavioural change shift is required to reach some of these targets?

CO: Nobody wants to waste food. It is morally objectionable in every culture. Behavioural insights are helping us identify the reasons food goes to waste in our homes and point to the interventions that have the highest impact in turning this around. We are wasting on average 74 kilograms of food at home per person per year. This is greater than the average person’s weight. While halving this is a major challenge, research shows us ways to make this easy – by adopting high impact behaviours that are easy to incorporate into existing routines. For example, research by Australian NGO OzHarvest points to two such measures. Scheduling a “Use It Up” meal once a week, using up leftover ingredients with adaptable recipes (such as samosas, stir-fries or soup), and creating an “Eat Me First” shelf in your fridge, drawing attention to perishables that need to be eaten quickly. Unilever’s research in Canada had strikingly similar findings, with recommendations for a “Use-Up Day” and “Flexipes”.

UNEP: Many of these recommendations are relatively small steps. But if all these actions were taken – what sort of impact could it have on greenhouse gas emissions or achieving targets?

CO: Food loss and waste are responsible for 8 to 10 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, and thus reducing food waste is one of the most important ways any of us can reduce our emission of greenhouse emissions and contribution to climate change. With collaborative action across supply chains, reducing food waste at home, a few key behaviour changes by consumers, and policies that keep food out of the landfill, we can have a huge impact on the triple planetary crisis, with benefits across the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

UNEP: Do you see enough signs pointing in the right direction that you are hopeful we can achieve success?

CO: Yes. This has been a momentous year – 148 countries have held food systems dialogues and are now developing national food systems pathways under the auspices of the UN Food Systems Summit. The ‘Food is Never Waste’ Coalition is helping us pull in the same direction globally. UNEP’s Regional Working Groups will be helping 25 countries measure baselines and develop national food waste prevention strategies. We will host a webinar on 7 October with international banks, foundations and climate finance facilities to demonstrate how countries can fund and deliver these strategies. There is certainly a long way to 2030 – but we can do it together.

One Planet Network

UNEP works in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Programme (FAO) under the One Planet Network on Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production (10YFP) – a global commitment to accelerate the shift towards sustainable consumption and production in both developed and developing countries. Sustainable consumption and production is a stand-alone goal (SDG 12) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and Target 12.1 calls for the implementation of the 10YFP. UNEP’s Executive Director is a member of Champions 12.3, a high-level coalition dedicated to delivering SDG 12.3.

Source: UNEP

An Important Step Towards the Conservation of Endangered Migratory Birds

01.10.2021

quail-prepelica-ptica — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

Photo: The Bird Protection and Study Society of Serbia

The Bird Protection and Study Society of Serbia (BPSSS) welcomes the recent amendments to The Rulebook on Declaring a Closed Hunting Season for the Protected Wild Game Species, which established changes in the hunting season of three endangered wild bird species in Serbia.

At the end of August, the amendments to the Rulebook were agreed by the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management and the Minister of Environmental Protection.

The mentioned document introduces a temporary ban on Turtle Dove hunting, which lasts until August 14, 2024, and includes two hunting seasons. A temporary ban on hunting is also introduced for Grey Partridges and it will last until October 14, 2024, or three hunting seasons. From next year, the hunting season for Common Quails will be shortened and will last from August 15 until September 30.

“We see changes in the hunting season for Turtle Dove, Grey Partridge and Common Quail as a way to a permanent ban on hunting these migratory bird species. All three have the status of vulnerable species (VU) on the Red List of Birds of Serbia. Ornithologists in Serbia have been fighting since 2001 to end hunting on endangered migratory birds, especially Turtle Doves and Common Quails since their populations are decimated, habitats degraded or lost, and hunting in Serbia is extremely poorly regulated and controlled”, said Milan Ružić, Executive Director of the Bird Protection and Study Society of Serbia.

Ornithologists from BPSSS state that it is necessary to make additional efforts to permanently protect a larger number of bird species that are now considered game species, and whose populations in Serbia are endangered.

Among them is the Bean Goose, whose global population has experienced a dramatic decline of almost 80 percent, while in Serbia it is recorded irregularly and in extremely small numbers, plus marked as a critically endangered species (CR) on the national Red List. Permanent protection is also needed for the Common Pochard and Garganey, whose numbers are declining globally and regionally, while in Serbia they have the status of endangered species (EN).

Source: The Bird Protection and Study Society of Serbia

ABB Launches the World’s Fastest Electric Car Charger

01.10.2021

ABB’s new Terra 360 is a modular charger which can simultaneously charge up to four vehicles with dynamic power distribution. This means that drivers will not have to wait if somebody else is already charging ahead of them. They simply pull up to another plug. The new charger has a maximum output of 360 kW and is capable of fully charging any electric car in 15 minutes or less, meeting the needs of a variety of EV users, whether they need a fast charge or to top their battery up while grocery shopping.

“With governments around the world writing public policy that favors electric vehicles and charging networks to combat climate change, the demand for EV charging infrastructure, especially charging stations that are fast, convenient and easy to operate is higher than ever,” said Frank Muehlon, President of ABB’s E-mobility Division. “The Terra 360, with charging options that fit a variety of needs, is the key to fulfilling that demand and accelerating e-mobility adoption globally.”

“It’s an exciting day for ABB, who as the global leader in electric vehicle fast charging, is playing a key role in enabling a low carbon society,” said Theodor Swedjemark, Chief Communications and Sustainability Officer at ABB. “With road transport accounting for nearly a fifth of global CO2 emissions, e-mobility is critical to achieving the Paris climate goal. We will also lead by example by switching our entire fleet of more than 10,000 vehicles to non-emitting vehicles.”

Available in Europe from the end of 2021, and in the USA, Latin America and Asia Pacific regions in 2022, Terra 360 is designed with the daily needs and expectations of EV drivers in mind. Leveraging the rich field experience gained by ABB E-mobility’s large installed base, the Terra 360 delivers speed and convenience along with comfort, ease-of-use and a sense of familiarity.

Its innovative lighting system guides the user through the charging process and shows the State of Charge (SoC) of the EV battery and the residual time before the end of an optimal charge session. The world’s fastest EV charger is also wheelchair accessible and features an ergonomic cable management system that helps drivers plug in quickly with minimal effort.

As well as serving the needs of private EV drivers at fueling stations, convenience stores and retail locations, Terra 360 chargers can also be installed on an organization’s commercial premises to charge electric fleet cars, vans and trucks. This gives owners the flexibility to charge up to four vehicles overnight or to give a quick refill to their EVs in the day. Because Terra 360 chargers have a small footprint, they can be installed in small depots or parking lots where space is at a premium.

Terra 360 chargers are fully customizable. To personalize the appearance, customers can ‘brand’ the chargers by using different foiling or changing the color of the LED light strips. There is also the option to include an integrated 27” advertisement screen to play video and pictures.

ABB is a world leader in electric vehicle infrastructure, offering the full range of charging and electrification solutions for electric cars, electric and hybrid buses, vans, trucks, ships and railways. ABB entered the e-mobility market back in 2010, and today has sold more than 460,000 electric vehicle chargers across more than 88 markets; over 21,000 DC fast chargers and 440,000 AC chargers, including those sold through Chargedot.

ABB high-power chargers are already being deployed around the world through the company’s partnerships with international charging operators such as IONITY and Electrify America.

To explore ABB’s electric vehicle charging technology, visit www.abb.com/ev-charging.

ABB (ABBN: SIX Swiss Ex) is a leading global technology company that energizes the transformation of society and industry to achieve a more productive, sustainable future. By connecting software to its electrification, robotics, automation and motion portfolio, ABB pushes the boundaries of technology to drive performance to new levels. With a history of excellence stretching back more than 130 years, ABB’s success is driven by about 105,000 talented employees in over 100 countries.

Source: ABB

EBRD and EU Help Furniture Manufacturer in Serbia to Invest in Modern Equipment

30.09.2021

couch-nameštaj — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

With eyes on the EU market, Novi Stil from Jagodina invests in quality to become more competitive.

Like other countries in the Western Balkans, Serbia faces a ‘brain drain’. However, Novi Stil, a company based in Jagodina and specialising in the production of tailor-made furniture, is a story of that trend in reverse.

Its founder Dragan Tasić was born in Serbia but grew up and finished his studies in Switzerland where, after graduation, he worked in the car industry. “When our school year would end, my friends and i would discuss where each of us would go on summer holiday. I would always respond ‘home to Serbia’ as, to me, Serbia was always my first home,” he recalls. He returned to Serbia for good in 2008 to start his own car dealership.

“Coming back here and starting from scratch was not easy, as I had to learn so many new things and read about laws and regulations that were relevant to my business. I was determined to develop my own business, I worked a lot and eventually it took off.”

After successfully starting and expanding his car dealership, Mr Tasić seized a new opportunity in 2015. He took over a furniture company from a family friend who was looking to withdraw from the business.

“That is how we started Novi Stil. I knew nothing about furniture production and this was another new challenge for me. Again, my strong determination, patience, hard work and good organisation were the key ingredients for success.”

Novi Stil makes tailor-made furniture for homes, but also for companies, retail units and schools. Their clients are mainly in Serbia, but thanks to Mr Tasić’s network from his school days, they have some clients in Switzerland too.

Looking to expand his firm and invest in modern equipment, Mr Tasić learned about an EBRD- and European Union (EU)-supported programme, which includes specialised credit lines for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and is offered through local partner banks. He applied for a loan from UniCredit Bank to purchase three new machines. Following his successful investment, he received a grant worth 15 percent of the loan amount, funded by the EU.

“Our work helps SMEs to boost their competitiveness by providing them with well-structured finance for investments in equipment to improve production processes, implement international standards and so on. The goal is to help these businesses modernise their activities so they can take advantage of trade opportunities in the Western Balkans and the wider European market,” explains Matteo Colangeli, EBRD Regional Director for the Western Balkans and Head of Serbia.

With new machines, Novi Stil is able not only to produce better-quality furniture, but also to make the process much quicker and achieve significant energy savings, explains Mr Tasić.

The company has already set foot in Switzerland and is now exploring opportunities to expand to other countries in Europe.

“Our products are now fully competitive to those made in the EU in terms of quality, because the latest technology that we use allows us to produce high-end products. Our price is also more competitive. We have seen how exporting to Switzerland can work and I am hopeful that in the future we will be able to export our products to Germany or Austria, too. We just need to establish business contacts there, like we did in Switzerland,” adds Mr Tasić.

Source: EBRD

The Energy Hat-Trick

29.09.2021

How to introduce energy efficiency, mitigate carbon footprint and reduce electricity bills? And can it be achieved at a single blow? This triple benefit is possible to attain by building the solar power plant. Since Serbia has excellent potential for electricity production from solar radiation and thanks to recently adopted laws in the energy sector, people frequently consider how to use this solar capital.

The idea of solar power plant construction is entertained by big companies and citizens, who have now gotten a chance to become prosumers. That means they will leave their usual role as electricity buyers and take on the new part of energy producers. There are many benefits of using renewable energy resources. The following might be the shortest and simplest explanation that Miloš Kostić offered. He is the manager of the MT-KOMEX company, which has been building solar power plants in Serbia for ten years.

“When we install a solar power plant on a roof, we have an opportunity to consume the energy we produce and to reduce the amount of energy we take directly from the grid. That way, the savings are made because all expenses incurred by energy transport are eliminated. In addition, the users gain independence from their suppliers. At the same time, the carbon emissions are reduced as well as the amount on electricity bills. Finally, the awareness on environmental protection is being raised”, notes Kostić.

Guided by these principles, the heads of the Stojanov and Stojanov Auto companies from Novi Sad decided to install solar power plants on the roof of their facilities. They wanted to provide for electricity supply in an ecological, efficient, and cheap way. Thus, in April this year, three solar power plants were commissioned, whose total capacity is 225.3 kW. To implement this project, they relied on the MT-KOMEX company. This enterprise has been in this business for more than 25 years. In its portfolio, it has more than 40 solar power plants constructed in Serbia, among other projects. The construction on the Renault-Nissan facility took four days. Some 168 photovoltaic panels were installed, with 330 W of individual capacity, all coming from the German company Luxor Solar. The installed capacity is 55.44 kW, while the active power is 50 kW. In addition, the inverters with 20 and 10 kW capacities were installed. The company that made them is the Austrian manufacturer Fronius. For the substructure for all three facilities, the German company K2 was selected, and their special substructure type Multi Rail. This power plant will generate approximately 64,472 kWh a year, making around 30,267 kg of CO2 savings a year.

In focus:

One hundred fifty-six photovoltaic panels were installed on the JEEP facility, with 30 W of individual capacity, coming from the same supplier Luxor Solar. The installed capacity is 51.48 kW, while the active power is 45 kW. Forthis power plant, the Fronius inverters were chosen with 20, 15, and 10 kW capacity. According to the plan, the solar power plant was built in four days. The annual production of this power plant will be around 61,366 kW, and CO2 yearly savings will reach 28,823 kg.

On the third FIAT facility, 320 photovoltaic panels were installed with a singular capacity of 370 W, produced by the Canadian Solar company. The installed capacity is 117.40kW, while the active power is 100kW. The engineers here decided to stick with checked inverters from the Austrian producer Fronius, whose capacity is 20 kW. The solar power plant on the FIAT facility will generate approximately 139,106 kWh a year. It will also make annual savings up to 111,235 kg CO2. It took seven days to build this power plant.

The MT-KOMEX company team isn’t only engaged in solar power plant construction. They have expanded their business to the development of e-mobility. Their experts have installed more than 200 EV chargers around the country so far. In addition to that, they constructed several solar canopies so that energy for EV charging could partially come from renewable energy resources. As leaders of e-mobility in our country, it doesn’t seem unusual that they launched the first regional platform charge&GO for billing the use of parking lots for EV charging. Thanks to this platform and mobile application, the owners of electric vehicles can find chargers fast and easily in Serbia and more than 30 countries worldwide. Furthermore, it is essential to say that there is no additional roaming expense for using the chargers in our partner’s network. At the very end, let’s get back to the beginning of this story. The electricity bills are higher year after year, and solar energy isn’t something we lack across this land.

Do you find it is about time you took advantage so that the solar power plant on your roof could work for you?

Prepared by: Jovana Canić

Text published in the Energy portal Magazine WATER RESOURCES.

What Are Nature-Based Solutions and How Can They Help Us Address the Climate Crisis?

27.09.2021

Photo: Wikipedia/US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Nature-based soluti ns refer to a suite of actions or policies that harness the power of nature to address some of our most pressing societal challenges, such as threats to water security, rising risk of natural disasters, or climate change.

These solutions involve protecting, restoring, and sustainably managing ecosystems in ways that increase their resiliency and ability to address those societal challenges, while also safeguarding biodiversity and improving human wellbeing.

Take mangroves, for example. Mangrove forests along coastlines are not only important for sustaining fisheries but also for providing protective natural barriers against erosion and strong storms. They filter water, provide valuable timber and food resources to coastal communities, and can store huge amounts of carbon. Conserving and restoring these ecosystems benefits people in coastal communities by reducing vulnerabilities and increasing their resilience to the effects of climate change.

In short, nature-based solutions can be a win-win for people and nature.

But nature-based solutions aren’t always the best answer. For example, planting non-native trees to offset carbon emissions can be detrimental to biodiversity and can even reduce the availability of water, and the potential climate benefits don’t outweigh the cost. It’s important that we make science-driven decisions to apply the right solution in the right place.

And nature-based solutions aren’t the only solutions we should use to help countries, communities, or corporations adapt to climate change.

“We should think of managing climate risks as being something like investing in stocks,” says WWF’s Jeff Opperman, Global Freshwater Lead Scientist. “It’s best to invest in a diversified portfolio. If you’re trying to keep a low-lying coastal community safe against the impacts of flooding, for example, it’s best to not to put all your investment into just one solution, like levees,” he says. “Instead, you use a range of strategies that complement one another. Nature-based solutions can be key assets in a diversified portfolio.”

You can read the whole article HERE.

Source: WWF

Devastating Wildfires Cause Record Emissions in Northern Hemisphere

27.09.2021

wildfire_šumski_požar — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

Photo-illustration: Unsplash (Matt Howard)

Europe’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) has been closely monitoring a summer of extreme wildfires across the Northern Hemisphere, including intense hotspots around the Mediterranean basin and in North America and Siberia. The intense fires led to new records in the CAMS dataset with the months of July and August seeing their highest global carbon emissions respectively.

CAMS reports that not only large parts of the Northern Hemisphere were affected during this year’s boreal fire season, but the number of fires, their persistence and intensity were remarkable.

For example, the wildfires in Sakha Republic in northeastern Siberia have been burning since June and only started receding in late August although some continued in early September. In North America, parts of Canada, the Pacific Northwest and California, which have been experiencing large wildfires since the end of June and beginning of July and are still ongoing, according to the ECMWF Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service.

Key points:

· Dry conditions and heatwaves in the Mediterranean contributed to a wildfire hotspot with many intense and fast developing fires across the region, which created large amounts of smoke pollution.

· July was a record month globally in the GFAS dataset with 1258.8 megatonnes of CO2 released. More than half of the carbon dioxide was attributed to fires in North America and Siberia.

· According to GFAS data, August was a record month for fires as well, releasing an estimated 1384.6 megatonnes of CO2 globally into the atmosphere.

· Arctic wildfires released 66 megatonnes of CO2 between June and August 2021.

· Estimated CO2 emissions from wildfires in Russia as a whole from June to August amounted to 970 megatonnes, with the Sakha Republic and Chukotka accounting for 806 megatonnes.

“It is concerning that drier and hotter regional conditions – brought about by global warming – increase the flammability and fire risk of vegetation. This has led to very intense and fast-developing fires. While the local weather conditions play a role in the actual fire behaviour, climate change is helping provide the ideal environments for wildfires. More fires around the world are anticipated in the coming weeks, too, as the fire season in the Amazon and South America continues to develop”, said Mark Parrington, Senior Scientist and wildfire expert at.

The wildfires came as the Northern hemisphere experienced its second warmest summer on record, tied with 2019 and slightly behind summer of 2020.

The Northern Hemisphere land-only summer temperature was the highest on record, besting the now-second highest set in 2016 by 0.20°C (0.36°F), according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Satellite Observations

Photo-illustration: Unsplash (Samuel Jeronimo)

Scientists at CAMS use satellite observations of active fires in near-real-time to estimate emissions and predict the impact of resulting air pollution. These observations provide a measure of the heat output of fires known as fire radiative power (FRP), which is related to the emission.

CAMS estimates daily global fire emissions with its Global Fire Assimilation System (GFAS) using the FRP observations from the NASA MODIS satellite instruments. The estimated emissions of different atmospheric pollutants are used as a surface boundary condition in the CAMS forecast system, based on the ECMWF weather forecast system, which models the transport and chemistry of atmospheric pollutants, to predict how global air quality will be affected up to five days ahead.

CAMS is implemented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts on behalf of the European Commission with funding from the EU. The boreal fire season typically lasts from May to October with peak activity taking place between July and August.

Climate and Air Quality

Wildfires have a major impact on air quality around the world.

A new Air Quality and Climate Bulletin published by WMO, with input from CAMS, showed that meteorological extremes fuelled by climate and environmental change triggered unprecedented sand and dust storms and wildfires that affected air quality in 2020 – a trend which continues in 2021.

This partly offset the improvements in air quality as a result of the fall in human-caused emissions of air pollutants fell during the COVID-19 economic turndown.

Source: WMO

Key Renewables Payers Call for Collaboration Between Renewable Energy and Agriculture Sectors

26.09.2021

rice-cultivation-hrana — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

Energy use is responsible for about one-third of greenhouse gases emitted by the food systems. With its continuously declining costs, renewables have become an attractive and effective way to fuel the achievement of key sustainable development goals including food security. However, large disparities remain in the access to and use of sustainable, clean energy for agricultural activities across the world. In the lead up to the UN Food Systems Summit and the High-Level Dialogue on Energy, accelerated action is needed to achieve sustainability and climate resilience for both food and energy systems.

To push for fast-moving progress, leading renewable energy players under the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) Coalition for Action issue a joint statement today, urging renewable energy and agriculture sectors to break down silos and collaborate. By jointly advancing the integration of renewables in the agriculture sector, stakeholders can make an essential contribution towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals and global climate objectives.

In the joint statement, Coalition for Action members urge governments, the renewable energy sector, and the agriculture sector to jointly consider the following five recommendations:

1. Cross-sectoral strategies to co-ordinate the planning and implementation of energy transition and food systems transformation.

2. Multifaceted financing tools to improve access to capital for farmers, enterprises and end-users.

3. Innovative, cross-sectoral business models that enable energy access and improved agricultural yields while protecting biodiversity, ecosystems and communities.

4. Capacity-building initiatives to provide local actors with relevant skills, knowledge and resources to integrate renewable energy solutions in agriculture projects.

5. Improved data on renewables applications in agriculture to de-risk projects, improve acceptability and effectively guide sustainable investments.

Strong collaboration across sectors will be critical to successfully delivering on the energy transition and food systems transformation. Earlier this year, IRENA signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy technologies in agri-food, fisheries and forestry chains and sustainable bioenergy. Following the partnership, IRENA and FAO are working together on a joint report about renewable energy use for agri-food systems, to be released towards the end of this year. Both organisations are also leading an Energy Compact on “Energising Agri-food Systems with Renewable Energy” to be submitted during the UN High Level Dialogue On Energy this week—to implement a set of actions that support the advancement of renewables solutions in agri-food systems.

Source: IRENA

EBRD Launches Energy Compact for its Urban Sustainability Programme

25.09.2021

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is launching its own Energy Compact to support the energy transition, focussed on investments within its flagship urban sustainability programme, EBRD Green Cities. The Compact is a response to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7, which aims to provide clean and affordable energy for all.

Under this pledge, the EBRD commits itself to almost double investments in EBRD Green Cities’ priority investments to around EUR 1.9 billion by end-2023 from EUR 1,011 million as of August 2021. In the same period, the number of Green City Action Plans – the plans each city draws up after joining the programme, identifying priority environmental issues to address – is to rise to 50 from 19 currently completed.

On Friday in New York, the UN is hosting a High-Level Dialogue on Energy, whose outcomes will include a global roadmap towards the achievements of SDG 7 by 2030 and net zero emissions by 2050, as well as a series of Energy Compacts from member states and non-state actors such as the EBRD. The Dialogue is preceded by three days of multi-stakeholder pre-summit events.

Nandita Parshad, Managing Director, Sustainable Infrastructure Group, EBRD, announced the EBRD Energy Compact for Green Cities at a Wednesday event and stressed the importance of the focus on energy:

“When it comes to addressing the climate emergency, cities must be front and centre: they account for over 70 percent of global emissions, and the megatrend towards urbanization especially in the developing world, will place even more focus – quite rightly so – on the need for clean air, decarbonised urban transportation, and green and reliable energy access for all.”

With cities growing but their leaders aware of the need to slow the pace of climate change, a key task for planners is to work out how to provide energy to expanding urban populations without aggravating climate problems or worsening air quality. This applies particularly to cities around the EBRD regions – central and eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the southern and eastern Mediterranean. The numerous challenges they face include insufficient infrastructure investment, demographic changes and poor air quality, all linked to a historical legacy of high energy and carbon intensity.

Solving these problems in a multi-faceted way was the inspiration behind the EBRD Green Cities programme, set up in 2016, which aims to help cities identify, prioritise and tackle these urban challenges to create more sustainable living spaces. It has proved so popular that, in its first five years, it has grown to include 49 cities.

The EBRD Energy Compact is based on the flagship EBRD Green Cities programme designed to introduce bottom-up planning through Green Cities Action Plans for green priority investments for cities. These include planning and financing aimed at forwarding SDG7, such as improving energy efficiency in buildings, supporting green urban mobility, water, waste management and digitalisation of city services.

The annual impact of Green Cities investments already translates into significant energy savings, estimated to be 2.4 million Gigajoules annually.

Source: EBRD

New Global Methane Pledge Aims to Tackle Climate Change

24.09.2021

landscape-zagađenje-vazduh — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

A new joint agreement by the European Union and the United States to cut global methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030 could mark a crucial step in tackling climate change and getting the world closer to the goals of the Paris Agreement to keep global temperature rise to below 2°C.

The announcement on Friday, which ushered in the start of what is hoped to be a ‘the Global Methane Pledge,’ will see the agreement formally launched at the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties COP26, to be held in Glasgow from 31 October and 12 November.

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas tens of times more powerful than carbon dioxide in warming the atmosphere. It is a short-lived climate pollutant with an atmospheric lifetime of roughly a decade. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) research shows that methane is responsible for at least a quarter of today’s global warming and reducing human-caused methane, which accounts for more than half of all methane emissions, is one of the most effective ways of combatting climate change.

The recent Global Methane Assessment launched by the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) found that cutting human-caused methane by 45 percent this decade would keep warming beneath the threshold agreed by world leaders. This alone would avoid nearly 0.3°C of global warming by the 2040s. Each year it would prevent 255,000 premature deaths, 775,000 asthma-related hospital visits, 73 billion hours of lost labour from extreme heat, and 26 million tonnes of crop losses globally.

Methane from human activity falls into three main sectors: agriculture (40 percent), fossil fuels (35 percent) and waste (20 percent). Livestock farming is a key cause of methane in the agriculture sector. In the fossil fuel sector, oil and gas extraction, processing and distribution accounts for 23 percent, and coal mining accounts for 12 percent of emissions. With pre-existing technology, a 75 percent reduction in methane from the oil and gas sector is possible, 50 percent of this could be done at no net cost.

“Cutting methane emissions is the best way to slow climate change over the next 25 years,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP.

“The Global Methane Pledge has great potential to increase ambition and improve cooperation by countries. UNEP will support efforts to turn commitments into actual emissions reductions through the International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO) and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition.”

UNEP is increasingly working to highlight and combat methane emissions in the oil and gas sector, including through IMEO, a data-driven, action-focused initiative to address methane. It does this by collecting, integrating and reconciling data from all sources to provide transparency, science, reports and recommendations on how governments can use this data to develop and implement policies to curb methane emissions from fossil fuels.

UNEP’s work in reducing methane emissions is part of its wider efforts to address the triple planetary crises of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss.

To help advance these goals, UNEP has developed a Six-Sector Solution to cutting emissions. The solution provides a roadmap for reducing emissions across sectors to meet the annual 29-32 gigaton reduction needed to limit temperature rise. The six sectors identified are agriculture and food; forests and land use; buildings and cities; transport; energy, and cities.

Source: UNEP

Živinice joins the Clean Air Regions Initiative

23.09.2021

Bosna_priroda — Foto-ilustracija: Unsplash (Ramiz Dedaković)

The municipality of Živinice (Bosnia and Herzegovina) signed the declaration on the Clean Air Regions Initiative, raising the number of participants to ten.

Mayors of ambitious municipalities signed the Clean Air Regions Declaration on 30 June at the first Energy Community Just Transition Forum with the aim to undertake voluntary measures aimed to reduce air pollution at local level.

The pioneer signatories of the Clean Air Regions Initiative are the municipalities of Banovići, Kakanj, Lukavac, Maglaj and Tuzla from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Pljevlja from Montenegro, Bitola from North Macedonia and Niš and Novi Sad from Serbia.

After launching the Clean Air Regions Initiative (CARI) at the Just Transition Forum on 30 June 2021, representatives of the participating municipalities in septembr have come together for the first two-day workshop to kick off work on developing ambitious local air quality policies and measures in line with the aims of the CARI declaration.

Source: Energy Community

Froneri Ice-Cream –Pleasure With an Environmental Protection Touch

22.09.2021

Fabrika sladoleda Froneri Adriatic, Stara Pazova — Foto: Executive Group

Thanks to the Fronery Adriatic company and its continuous investments, once a little local plant in Stara Pazova was turned into an advanced ice-cream factory for the 21 century. Today, this is where more than 200 of the most prominent world brands’ products are made. Besides the Froneri products, which are well recognized in the Serbian market under the Nestlé brand, there are also ice-cream brands such as Milka, Oreo, Nesquik, Cadbury, and Daim. The investments amount to 50 million euros. Production capacities are increased by 400 percent, allowing the Froneri Adriatic factory in Stara Pazova to become prominent as the leading ice-cream manufacturer in South Eastern Europe.

This plant currently exports its products to more than 25 countries, from Israel and Great Britain to the United States of America, South Africa, and almost all countries in Europe, so everyone with a sweet tooth worldwide will enjoy ice-creams made in Serbia. Additionally, there are plans for regular investment in environmental protection technology and recycling. That will help furthermore the development of Stara Pazova and the Serbian economy, which lead us to our conversation with Cristian Doxan , the general manager of the Froneri Adriatic Company, whom we asked about the company strategy for sustainable growth and environmental protection.

EP: Since sustainability and environmental protection are among the company’s priorities, tell us something about the techniques applied for the water usage reductions?

Cristian Doxan: During the last year, which was packed with challenges concerning the scale of the global pandemic, our company has cut water consumption by 6 percent. This year, we intend to reduce water consumption furthermore by another 5 percent. One of our techniques is optimizing water consumption during the production process, calculated by the unit of produced ice-cream quantity. That way, we get to, along with increased ice-cream production, save even more water year by year.

In focus:

EP: What are the results concerning communal waste reduction?

Cristian Doxan: Communal waste has been reduced by a fifth, namely 20 percent, last year, while the quantity of entirely recycled waste amounted to 1,450 tonnes in 2020. It has become our practice to recycle even a surplus ice cream remaining from the production process and turn it into a renewable energy source. It is the safest way of organic waste disposal, with no environmental impact whatsoever, and we do this in cooperation with authorized distributors and companies. Our target is to completely recycle all waste coming from the production in the next four years through the Zero to landfill project, which is underway.

EP: What is the Zero to landfill project?

Cristian Doxan: As the name suggests, Zero to landfill is a concept of waste quantity reduction that ends up in landfills. The main goal is that companies aim to significantly reduce the disposal of waste at landfills and recycle waste from the production process. Although it is challenging to reach actual zero targets, since we can’t recycle all waste, the objective is to attain 99 percent.

EP: What about the plastics in the packaging? Will you be able to replace the plastic for family packs, too, as well as the packaging of the ice cream bar that contains tin foil?

Cristian Doxan: When it comes to plastic waste, we are running projects to reduce disposable plastic usage in our ice-cream packaging. For example, plastic spoons have been replaced with wooden ones and this way we have cut the use of plastic for up to 18 million pieces. We intend to reduce plastic usage by 36 tonnes by the end of this year. Furthermore, since we have ongoing projects for the replacement of plastic parts in packaging with paper (cups, lids, and family packs), we aim to cut down the use of plastic by 200 tonnes by the end of 2022, namely for more than 50 million pieces of disposable plastic. Family packs are otherwise made of plastic that we can fully recycle.

Interviewed by: Milena Maglovski

Read the story in the new issue of the Energy portal Magazine WATER RESOURCES.

Why Public Finance for Climate Matters

21.09.2021

wind-turbine-vetro-vetropark — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

The Presidents of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Investment Bank (EIB), Odile Renaud-Basso and Werner Hoyer, appealed yesterday for urgent action on climate change, while comparing their complementary work on tackling it in their overlapping regions.

The EBRD works across 38 economies in three continents with a unique mandate that focuses on promoting market-oriented economies and private and entrepreneurial initiative.

The EIB is the investment bank of the European Union (EU), providing banking services throughout the EU and beyond and implementing the EU’s ambitious climate plan, the EU Green Deal.

Both multilateral development banks (MDBs) focus on climate action through climate financing mechanisms, aiming for more than 50 percent green investment by 2025 and for all their investments to be aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement on limiting climate change well before that.

While public finance actors such as the MDBs play an important role in addressing climate change, said the EBRD’s Renaud-Basso, it is also “very important to get all economic players aligned on this objective. This implies having … clear and convincing market signals that will show the way and trigger action from the private sector.”

Speaking with her EIB counterpart at a joint online sustainability event entitled “Building the Green Consensus,” she added that driving policy to create markets for green and sustainable development was “something that MDBs can help with.”

Crowding in the private sector is widely regarded as the next big step-up in action to address climate change. MDBs like the EBRD and EIB are seen as catalysts for creating conditions that will attract private companies to invest, thereby massively raising the amount of climate capital available.

The EIB and EBRD presidents agreed it was important for regional and global MDBs to align definitions, criteria, and methodology for issuing climate finance, so as to create an orderly environment in which private capital feels comfortable operating.

“I believe that we need all MDBs on board on this issue,” said EIB President Hoyer. “Time is running out.”

Source: EBRD

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