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Month: September 2020

Boris Johnson pledges to protect 30% of UK land as world leaders sign commitment to act on climate crisis

Posted on by dishanth
Boris Johnson pledges to protect 30% of UK land as world leaders sign commitment to act on climate crisis

Boris Johnson will pledge to protect 30 per cent of the UK’s land by 2030, which will see an additional 400,000 hectares of land in England protected to support the recovery of nature.

The prime minister will make the pledge during a virtual United Nations event on Monday, where he is set to warn that countries must act to reverse the loss of biodiversity.

He will sign the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature at the event, alongside other world leaders including Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel, Justin Trudeau and Jacinda Ardern, who are among 64 leaders from five continents warning that humanity is in a state of emergency due to the climate crisis.

The 10-point pledge aims to counteract the damage done to systems that underpin human health and wellbeing.

Currently, 26 per cent of land in England comprises of national parks, areas of outstanding beauty and other protected areas. Mr Johnson’s commitment will see an additional four per cent being protected, equivalent to the size of the Lake District and South Downs national parks combined.

Commitments outlined in the pledge include a renewed effort to reduce deforestation, stop unsustainable fishing practices, eliminate environmentally harmful subsidies and begin he transition to sustainable food production systems and circular economy over the next 10 years.

The pledge has been described as a “turning point” by which future generations will judge world leaders’ willingness to take action on the climate crisis.

Mr Johnson will say during the virtual event: “We must turn these words into action and use them to build momentum, to agree ambitious goals and binding targets.

“We must act now, right now. We cannot afford to dither and delay because biodiversity loss is happening today and it is happening at a frightening rate.

“Left unchecked, the consequences will be catastrophic for us all. Extinction is forever – so our action must be immediate.”

Environmental groups welcomed the commitment, but called on the UK government to invest in existing protected sites and put the new pledge into law.

Dr Richard Benwell, chief executive of The Wildlife and Countryside Link, said: “Just eight per cent of England is currently protected for wildlife, so designating 30 per cent of land to restore nature would be a tremendous step forward…

“Of course, designation alone isn’t a guarantee of change. As with marine protection and existing terrestrial protected sites, strong management and investment are also needed.”

WWF-UK chief executive Tanya Steele said the announcement must be “backed up by urgent ambition”, calling for “strong legislation to avoid damaging trade deals and to stop the food we eat from destroying the environment”.

“Only then can we meet our climate targets, put nature on the path to recovery and set our sights on global leadership at Cop26,” she added.

Earlier this month, the UN announced that the world had failed to meet a single target to stop the destruction of nature. The WWF and the Zoological Society of London also released damning reports and studies in recent weeks, revealing the global populations of mammals, birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles plunged by 68 per cent on average between 1970 and 2016.

 

 

By Kate Ng

Source: Independent

Oxford Offsetting Principles: Academics launch new guidelines for carbon offsetting

Posted on by dishanth
Oxford Offsetting Principles: Academics launch new guidelines for carbon offsetting

Academics from the University of Oxford have today launched a new standard for carbon offsetting, in a bid to ensure the growing number of net zero strategies adopted by state and corporate actors are effective in their stated goal of halting increases in the atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases.

As things currently stand, a patchwork of voluntary and regulatory standards govern approaches to offsetting and how net zero is defined, a lack of cohesion that critics claim has led to a glut of low-quality offsets that undermine the credibility and effectiveness of net zero strategies.

The hope is that new principles, dubbed The Oxford Offsetting Principles, will help provide greater clarity to the broader industry on what consitutes a credible offset and become a key resources for cities, governments, and companies looking to avoid accusations of ‘greenwash’ as they seek to design and deliver robust net zero commitments that align with climate science.

“Adopting the Oxford Offsetting Principles and publicising their adoption can create the demand for offsets necessary to reach net zero emissions,” explained Professor Cameron Hepburn of the university’s Smith School of Enterprise and Environment. “Creating demand for long-lived greenhouse gas removal and storage is vital, whether we like it or not, to reaching the Paris goals.”

Credible net zero aligned offsetting is contingent on a number of key elements, according to the guidelines. First up, companies or state actors must prioritise emissions reduction before embarking on offsetting programmes, demonstrate the environmental integrity of any offsets that are sourced by the organisation, and disclose how all purchased offsets are then used.

Next, they should prioritise offsets that directly remove carbon from the atmosphere and offsets that remove carbon from the atmosphere permanently or almost permanently by shuttling it into long-lived storage.

Finally, all credible strategies should support the development of a ‘net zero aligned’ offset market.

Dr Ben Caldecott, Lombard Odier associate professor of sustainable finance and COP26 strategy advisor for finance, predicted the principles could prove a boon to the growing number of financial institutions looking to clean up their operations and portfolios.

“The Oxford Offsetting Principles can be used by financial institutions to design and deliver credible plans for achieving net zero,” he said. “Financial institutions can also assess the plans of investees and borrowers. This can inform risk and impact analysis, as well as engagement and stewardship activities.”

The new report also highlights the need for a “credible approach” to nature-based carbon offsets, such as forest restoration.

Professor Nathalie Seddon, director of the university’s Nature-based Solutions Initiative, emphasised that nature-based offsetting should be approached carefully. “Irrespective of any carbon benefits, scaling up the protection and restoration of ecosystems is vital,” she said. “While carbon offsets can help to fund some of this work, nature-based solutions should be valued and funded for the broad suite of benefits they bring, now and into the future. However, nature-based solutions are not an alternative to geological storage and rapid decarbonisation of the economy.”

 

 

By Cecilia Keating

Source: Business Green

Transforming a power station for our net zero future

Posted on by dishanth
Transforming a power station for our net zero future

A timeline from coal to negative emissions at Drax – told by the engineers who were there

Biomass power generation would have seemed impossible to the engineers who began building Drax Power Station in 1967. Today, however, sustainably-sourced compressed wood pellets have enabled the Yorkshire power station – once the country’s largest single source of emissions – to rapidly decarbonise, with carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions 85 per cent lower than in 2013.

But the unique nature of Drax presents a more powerful opportunity for its future: negative emissions.

Through bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), Drax aims to not just be carbon neutral, but carbon negative by 2030 and, in the process, act as an anchor in the country’s largest industrial decarbonisation cluster. Securing a green economy in the UK, opening up new career paths and leading the country to net zero emissions by 2050.

This is the story of how the UK’s biggest coal power station transformed itself through ingenuity and innovation into a decarbonisation powerhouse.

“You have to take your hat off to the team involved in designing and building the biomass systems,” says Carl Clayton, head of BECCS at Drax. “When you look back at the journey Drax has gone on.”

 

Drax before biomass and the origin of the idea

When Drax Power Station officially opened in 1975, with three generators, each capable of powering a whole northern city, the UK’s energy system looked very different from today. Coal was king, but just the year before, the miners’ strike – combined with the oil crisis – had forced the Heath government to implement three-day working weeks in a desperate bid to reduce electricity consumption. Drax’s capability to power some three million homes represented a new era of plentiful energy across the country.

By the dawn of the 21st century the power station had doubled in size and capacity to become the biggest in the UK and house six generator units. The energy sector, however was beginning to change. It was becoming increasingly apparent the UK and the world needed to move away from coal and fossil fuels, yet continue to meet a growing demand for electricity.

Drax had already made strides towards reducing pollution from electricity generation and in the 1980s and 90s was the first coal-fired power station to install flue-gas desulphurisation technology, which removes 90 per cent of coal’s harmful sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions – the cause of acid rain. But moving away from coal entirely was a whole new question.

“We made a lot of people’s heads hurt with this project,” says Drax chief innovation officer Jason Shipstone. “No one had the answers. It was a bit like going for a walk, knowing where you need to end up, but not knowing the best way to get there.”

 

Chief innovation officer Jason Shipston beside a giant steam turbine, Drax Power Station
Credit: Drax

 

A new fuel for a low carbon power station

Experimentation into alternative fuels became a focus for the research and development team. Initially, they combined materials such as wood powder and sunflower husks with coal at low percentages to understand if they could be used without detrimental effects on the boilers.

Eventually, compressed wood biomass pellets sourced from sustainably managed working forests were settled on as the best possible, renewable fuel source. But biomass is a very different material than a lump of coal. It’s a more volatile substance, it must be kept dry while being transported and stored, as well as handled in a safe way to prevent it combusting.

This meant innovations were needed throughout the supply chain. Covered train wagons were specially designed to transport the fuel and the four giant biomass storage domes, capable of holding 300,000 tonnes of pellets between them, were constructed at Drax Power Station.

 

Two of the four biomass wood pellet storage domes at Drax Power Station, North Yorkshire
Credit: Drax

 

Even as experimentation and construction progressed the power station continued to operate. “Everything else had to carry on as normal. This had to be seamless. We had to work the same as Drax has always worked – reliable and available,” says Shipstone.

In 2009, Drax engineers overcame the final challenge to successfully run a 600-plus megawatt (MW) Drax generator from a co-fired boiler, kickstarting a decade of major transformation, innovation and, ultimately decarbonisation. The conversion of the a first generating unit to run entirely on biomass alone to produce low carbon, renewable electricity in 2013 represented a further landmark moment for Drax.

“When I joined Drax in 2013, there were still some colleagues who were less keen on the transition away from coal,” says Clayton. “Looking back on that now – it seems crazy to question it. If we hadn’t, the power station could have closed down like others in the area.”

 

Head of BECCS Carl Clayton inspecting BECCS pilot plant at Drax Power Station, North Yorkshire
Credit: Drax

 

In just five years, Drax converted three more generating units to run on biomass. With each conversion also came greater knowledge of working with biomass and what it was capable of. Building on this knowledge and previous experience of carbon capture research and development, 2018 saw Drax Power Station begin a new era. One that could have an even farther reaching impact on the UK’s decarbonisation.

 

From biomass to negative emissions

The skills, experience and understanding of biomass developed at Drax have made it a world leader in bioenergy – from sustainable forest management through to the power it can produce. However, by adding carbon capture to the equation Drax can pioneer BECCS technology and have an impact across the Humber industrial cluster – currently the UK’s highest emitting region – and beyond.

“Now we have a very novel opportunity to do something the world is saying it needs and to demonstrate how it can be done elsewhere,” says Clayton.

BECCS and negative emissions starts by using sustainably sourced biomass. The forests used to supply biomass absorb CO2from the atmosphere. When the biomass is used to generate electricity, the same CO2 re-enters the atmosphere. By adding carbon capture, that CO2 can be transported and stored, permanently and safely, in rock formations, deep underground. It means CO2 will be removed from the atmosphere permanently, whilst reliable, renewable electricity is generated.

The idea sounds ambitious, but carbon capture usage and storage (CCUS) is already a proven technology, deployed at scale at fossil fuelled power stations around the world. And once again, it’s a field in which Drax has experience to build upon.

The White Rose Project was a plan to capture CO2at new coal-fired power station on Drax’s site near Selby and transport it to storage sites in the North Sea. It was stopped when the government cut short its CCS commercialisation programme in 2015.

The political climate around decarbonsiation has shifted since then, with the UK now legally bound to achieving net zero emission in 2050. White Rose offers a platform from which BECCS can launch, with research into pipework of different materials, transporting CO2 at different pressures and engineering for infrastructure installations, as well as research into geology already completed.

“There’s no reason it couldn’t be done. There’s nothing you can’t engineer,” says Clayton. “Transporting CO2 to the coast and taking it out to North Sea storage beds and sequestering it: all of the work pre-exists. Drax and the Humber have a good starting point in understanding the full chain of BECCS.”

Beyond transporting CO2 from Drax’s biomass generators to storage locations, the infrastructure put in place can also capture emissions from other facilities in the Humber industrial cluster. This shared infrastructure can create a zero carbon ecosystem that future-proofs industry in the region, creating new jobs and leading the UK into a green recovery.

 

Credit: Drax

 

Its reach is not limited to the UK though, “We’re trying to ensure that our learnings in both biomass and CCUS will be transferable and we can help the world’s economies create their own negative emissions, technologies and projects,” says Clayton. “We can make sure that sustainability is at the top of the agenda as the world generates energy and deploys its resources in the future.”

 

This is a contributed article from Drax, which is a partner of the world’s first Net Zero Festival taking place over three days from 30 September

 

 

By Drax

Source: Business Green

California Governor Signs Order to Ban Sale of New Gas-Powered Cars by 2035

Posted on by dishanth
California Governor Signs Order to Ban Sale of New Gas-Powered Cars by 2035

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order Wednesday that would ban the sale of new cars in California that run only on gasoline by the year 2035. The bid to reduce emissions and combat the climate crisis would make California the first state to ban the sale of new cars with internal combustion engines, according to POLITICO.

“This is the most impactful step our state can take to fight climate change,” said Newsom in a statement that accompanied the signing of the executive order. “For too many decades, we have allowed cars to pollute the air that our children and families breathe. Californians shouldn’t have to worry if our cars are giving our kids asthma. Our cars shouldn’t make wildfires worse – and create more days filled with smoky air. Cars shouldn’t melt glaciers or raise sea levels threatening our cherished beaches and coastlines.”

The threats posed by the climate crisis are playing out in dramatic fashion in California. This summer, the state has seen record-setting wildfires, heat waves and drought. Those mounting climate crisis-related challenges have spurred the move away from the state’s leading source of greenhouse gas emissions, as The Washington Post reported.

“We can’t continue down this path,” Newsom said at a briefing, as The Guardian reported. “If you care about your kids and your grandkids, if you care about disadvantaged communities, if you care about seniors, if you care about rural communities, if you care about inner city communities that have been underserved by our fossil fuel economy, then you care about the core construct that we are advancing here in this executive order.”

Newsom added that the order will create “green collar jobs” that Californians are well-positioned to capitalize on since 34 electric car manufacturers are already in the state.

“Our second largest export in the state of California are electric vehicles,” he said, according to The Guardian. “Those 34 manufacturers, those public trading manufacturers, represent close to half a trillion dollars of market capitalization, some $500bn … this is an economic opportunity.”

For the order to be successful, the technology, scalability, and affordability of electric cars would have to improve dramatically in the next decade. Also, the state will need to make sure charging stations are readily available. California currently has the largest market for electric and hybrid vehicles, with roughly 257,000 new registrations for electric vehicles in 2018, according to The Washington Post. Yet, that number was not even 10 percent of the state’s new car market.

While the order is sure to meet legal challenges, it may set the trend that carmakers need to increase their investment in fossil-fuel-free vehicles.

“The automotive industry was already on the road toward electrification as a long term goal, but many automakers have been guilty of setting short term targets for their electrification strategy that never came to fruition,” said Jessica Caldwell, director of insights at Edmunds, an online resource for car data, in an emailed comment to CNN. “This rule, if implemented, establishes a specific timeline that they’ll collectively need to adhere to. California is a major market that automakers desperately need to maintain sales within to ensure their own viability.”

The announcement also earned the praise of environmental groups.

“The Governor’s Executive Order is a meaningful step in addressing the climate crisis and protecting the health of Californians,” said Coalition for Clean Air in an email to NPR. “Electrifying transportation will also create jobs and help California move forward in its economic recovery.”

 

 

By Jordan Davidson

Source: Eco Watch

What if a school could run on renewables? Here’s one that does.

Posted on by dishanth
What if a school could run on renewables? Here’s one that does.

Issue

Asia’s development is heavily dependent upon education, and Green School Bali is leading the way in showing how sustainable technologies can make schooling more accessible.

The first of three non-profits started by husband and wife team John & Cynthia Hardy, the school’s aim is “educating for sustainability”, and it is teaching by example.

In Bali that means using sustainable local resources in everything from the unique bamboo architecture to the hybrid renewable power system.

With over 500 students, 300 teachers and 78 buildings Green School Bali needs 330 – 350 kWh of energy to stay operational. Solar power was meeting 20% of that need, with diesel generators providing the balance.

 

Insight

To expand their sustainable energy output, the school decided against more solar panels in favour of a different sustainable technology – hydropower from the nearby Ayung River.

‘We educate for sustainability, through community-integrated, entrepreneurial learning, in a wall-less, natural environment. Our holistic, student-guided approach inspires and empowers us to be changemakers.’ – Green School Way

Best known by tourists for white water rafting, the longest river on Bali runs 68.5km from the northern mountain ranges down to the Badung Strait at Sanur. The Green School has now put the river to another use powering its innovative Vortex Micro Hydro System.

 

 

Innovation

The Vortex Micro Hydro System was designed and installed in Green School Bali by Belgian company Turbulent. It is only the second of its kind in the world, the first being in Donihue, Chile.

The vortex system channels about 1.4 m3/s of water from an upstream natural dam into a vortex bowl. The water spins a turbine connected to a 16/1 gearbox that spins a generator at 1500 rpm or 50 Hertz. The generator is synchronised and locked into the grid supply through a 250 meter long cable producing 13 kilowatts of continuous power. The power is controlled by an electronic gate at the inlet to the vortex. The control system is also streaming the production and performance data to the Internet, which can be monitored through a smartphone application and shut down remotely in case of emergencies.

The other advantages of the vortex are that it runs 24 hours per day compared to solar, which only operates during daylight hours, and diesel generating plants which typically operate at only 60 – 70% uptime.

Installing the system was not without its difficulties, since a natural river is prone to varying water levels, flooding and debris.

 

 

Impact

The experiment has been so successful that the school believes that within four years their new systems will not only provide 100% of the school’s needs, they will help nearby communities light and cool their homes.

The system is also a source of learning for students who are being actively educated in environmental science and entrepreneurship.

“I have visited many different places and many schools but Green School is the most unique and impressive school I have ever visited.” Ban Ki-moon, Former Secretary-General, United Nations

 

 

REPORT from Green School Bali

Source: Tech For Impact

How flexibility can create an energy independent Sri Lanka

Posted on by dishanth
How flexibility can create an energy independent Sri Lanka

We have reached a defining moment for the energy industry in Sri Lanka, as the government has announced a policy for the country to reach 80% renewable energy by 2030.

This is a bold and ambitious target that will play a major role in enabling Sri Lanka to meet its climate change goals as part of the Paris agreement.

However, with the right policy framework in place, we could achieve even more. We could enable Sri Lanka to become energy independent, create thousands of jobs and increase the stability of the network to avoid future blackouts.

 

Current and future scenarios

The Sri Lankan energy generation is currently around 40% renewable, which is predominantly hydro power, with the remaining 60% largely coming from coal and combined cycle gas turbines (CCGTs).

A significant proportion of energy generation in the country is delivered by just a few generators. The result? When one power station experiences an issue, it has dramatic energy supply consequences for the entire nation.

That’s what we saw in August when a technical failure at the Kerawalapitiya Grid Substation left the entire country without power for several hours.

The Ceylon Electricity Board controls the major functions of power generation, transmission, distribution and retailing in Sri Lanka. It recently published its draft Long Term Generation Expansion Plan (LTGEP), outlining its plans for energy generation over the next 20 years.

Although the draft LTGEP has a significant share of renewables included, the majority (55%) of the new capacity would be from conventional coal and CCGT’s which do not support renewables well.

Traditional inflexible plants such as coal and CCGT are efficient when running continuously on high load, but their disadvantage is poor ramp rate, start and stop capability and part load efficiency.

This means that they won’t be well suited to working alongside the increased level of renewable generation that is expected by the 2030 target and would create an unnecessarily expensive energy system.

If that target is achieved, then renewables will become the “new base load”, so we must write the rules for the rest of the system according to what works best for renewable power. That means installing additional capacity which can run efficiently on part load, have fast ramp rates and no limits on start and stops.

 

Focus on flexibility

According to our 2019 White Paper, The optimal path for greater use of renewable energy in Sri Lanka, the country could achieve 70% renewable penetration by investing in 7 GW of solar and 4 GW of wind, two technologies that are rapidly declining in cost.

The document was written before the government announced its policy to achieve 80% renewable energy, but we’ve conducted further modelling which shows that the more ambitious target is also achievable.

To make this highly renewable system work effectively, there must be a focus on flexibility, as energy storage and flexible gas engines can help balance the peaks and troughs of solar and wind generation. The paper therefore advises installing 1.4 GW of newly built flexible engine power plant capacity and 1.6 GW of battery energy storage.

This energy mix would achieve a 70% drop in emission intensity compared to the current plan, while still having enough capacity to meet growing electricity demand of the nation.

This cost-optimal energy system plan will also enable 100% renewable power generation in the future, as gas engines can be converted to run on clean, synthetic fuels, once commercially feasible.

 

Preventing blackouts

A flexible, renewable power system would reduce Sri Lanka’s reliance on a few major power plants, as these technologies can be decentralised and spread across the country in smaller solar, wind and gas engine plants and batteries.

The chances of future blackouts will be greatly reduced by this new model, and when they do occur, they would have a far smaller local impact.

To enable this future, power plant tenders must be technology agnostic to enable the most cost-optimal forms of generation to come to the fore and support the greater amount of renewable electricity on the grid.

 

A boost for jobs and the economy

The renewables revolution, supported by significant flexibility, could create thousands of new jobs in Sri Lanka for local people, enabling entrepreneurs to deliver neighbourhood projects that help to achieve national renewable targets.

Our power system modelling shows that a more flexible grid could generate huge savings of around 925 billion rupees (five billion US dollars) for Sri Lanka between now and 2037.

Around 370 billion rupees (two billion US dollars) of the total savings are from operation cost, mainly fuel, which is currently imported to Sri Lanka. By utilising the country’s own solar and the wind resource, Sri Lanka would not only save money, but also be more energy independent.

 

Energy independence

The COVID-19 pandemic had a fascinating impact on energy markets around the world, but particularly in Europe, where we saw unprecedented levels of renewable energy generation.

Through our Energy Transition Lab, we found that countries with high levels of power network flexibility were able to capitalise on the changing circumstances, while inflexible nations had major issues.

This was most notable in Germany, where grid inflexibility meant that, at midday on 5 July, it was exporting more than 10 GW from its neighbours and paying almost 167 billion rupees (900,000 USD) per hour to do so.

This is a lesson that should be learnt by countries around the world, including Sri Lanka.

By building a grid with high levels of renewables and flexibility, Sri Lanka will be able to become an energy independent nation. It can supply all of its own power and reduce its reliance on importing fuels.

In fact, if an interconnector was built with India, it could become an exporter of electricity during times of high levels of renewable generation – or import energy when there is a surplus in neighbouring countries – becoming a pioneering model for island nations around the world to follow.

The Long Term Generation Expansion Plan needs to be aligned with the government’s ambitious plan to reach 80% renewables by 2030. If successful, it would be transformational for the country – creating jobs, boosting the economy, reducing emissions and creating an energy independent Sri Lanka.

 

 

Published by Roshan De Saram (Charted Engineer specialized in the power and energy sectors)

Airbus reveals new zero emission concept aircraft

Posted on by dishanth
Airbus reveals new zero emission concept aircraft

Toulouse, 21 September 2020 – Airbus has revealed three concepts for the world’s first zero-emission commercial aircraft which could enter service by 2035. These concepts each represent a different approach to achieving zero-emission flight, exploring various technology pathways and aerodynamic configurations in order to support the Company’s ambition of leading the way in the decarbonisation of the entire aviation industry.

All of these concepts rely on hydrogen as a primary power source – an option which Airbus believes holds exceptional promise as a clean aviation fuel and is likely to be a solution for aerospace and many other industries to meet their climate-neutral targets.

“This is a historic moment for the commercial aviation sector as a whole and we intend to play a leading role in the most important transition this industry has ever seen. The concepts we unveil today offer the world a glimpse of our ambition to drive a bold vision for the future of zero-emission flight,” said Guillaume Faury, Airbus CEO. “I strongly believe that the use of hydrogen – both in synthetic fuels and as a primary power source for commercial aircraft – has the potential to significantly reduce aviation’s climate impact.”

The three concepts – all codenamed “ZEROe” – for a first climate neutral zero-emission commercial aircraft include:

 

 

A turbofan design (120-200 passengers) with a range of 2,000+ nautical miles, capable of operating transcontinentally and powered by a modified gas-turbine engine running on hydrogen, rather than jet fuel, through combustion. The liquid hydrogen will be stored and distributed via tanks located behind the rear pressure bulkhead.

 

 

A turboprop design (up to 100 passengers) using a turboprop engine instead of a turbofan and also powered by hydrogen combustion in modified gas-turbine engines, which would be capable of traveling more than 1,000 nautical miles, making it a perfect option for short-haul trips.

 

 

A “blended-wing body” design (up to 200 passengers) concept in which the wings merge with the main body of the aircraft with a range similar to that of the turbofan concept. The exceptionally wide fuselage opens up multiple options for hydrogen storage and distribution, and for cabin layout.

 

“These concepts will help us explore and mature the design and layout of the world’s first climate-neutral, zero-emission commercial aircraft, which we aim to put into service by 2035,” said Guillaume Faury. “The transition to hydrogen, as the primary power source for these concept planes, will require decisive action from the entire aviation ecosystem. Together with the support from government and industrial partners we can rise up to this challenge to scale-up renewable energy and hydrogen for the sustainable future of the aviation industry.”

In order to tackle these challenges, airports will require significant hydrogen transport and refueling infrastructure to meet the needs of day-to-day operations. Support from governments will be key to meet these ambitious objectives with increased funding for research & technology, digitalisation, and mechanisms that encourage the use of sustainable fuels and the renewal of aircraft fleets to allow airlines to retire older, less environmentally friendly aircraft earlier.

Note to editors: To evaluate and validate these new concept aircraft and assess whether they could be matured into viable future products, Airbus will be focusing its efforts on a number of technological pathways. Grazia Vittadini, Chief Technology Officer, Jean-Brice Dumont, EVP Engineering and Glenn Llewellyn, VP Head of Zero Emission Aircraft, will reveal Airbus’ technology roadmap for 2020-2025 at 14:00 CEST, 21 September 2020 during a virtual event on Airbus social media channels.

 

 

Source: Airbus.com

JLL to achieve global net zero carbon emissions by 2030

Posted on by dishanth
JLL to achieve global net zero carbon emissions by 2030

JLL (NYSE: JLL) is pleased to announce the next stage in its ambitious sustainability program by committing to achieve net zero carbon emissions across all JLL-occupied buildings by 2030. The firm also advocates a net zero approach for all its clients and suppliers.

JLL made the announcement with the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) on the opening day of Climate Week NYC, underlining its continued focus on taking bold climate action. In September 2019, JLL became the first property consultancy in the UK to sign up to the WorldGBC’s Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment (NZCB), which helped establish a blueprint for JLL’s global NZCB Commitment.

The WorldGBC NZCB Commitment is unique in positioning energy efficiency as a central component to achieving decarbonization across global portfolios, in addition to generating and procuring renewable energy to meet reduced energy demand.

The majority of JLL’s reductions will be achieved through the implementation of measures to deliver its science-based target by the Science Based Target initiative (SBTi), as aligned to the 1.5C ambition of the Paris Agreement. Any residual emissions will be addressed via the purchase of eligible carbon offsets. JLL will seek to minimize the purchase of offsets by driving the take up of renewable energy and improving the energy efficiency of its portfolio as a priority.

JLL’s Net Zero Carbon Building Commitment in numbers:

  • 460 buildings
  • 474,967 m2 total floor area
  • 27,761 tonnes of CO2e portfolio carbon emissions
  • 93,000 employees

“By committing to achieve net zero carbon emissions across our global office network by 2030, JLL is again demonstrating our determination to play a full part in mitigating climate change,” said Christian Ulbrich, JLL CEO. “Through our own ambitious sustainability targets, and through the advice and services we provide to our clients, we will work to fulfil our corporate purpose of shaping the future of real estate for a better world.”

“As real estate is responsible for 40% of the world’s carbon emissions, JLL is dedicated to reducing our own emissions and also to partner with our clients to help them do the same,” says Richard Batten, Global Chief Sustainability Officer, JLL. “Having committed to a science-based target, JLL is proud to be a signatory of the WorldGBC’s Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment covering all of our global operational buildings portfolio. We encourage all in the real estate sector to join this Commitment to create a decarbonized built environment; there is an urgency for us all to work together to achieve this important goal.”

“We are delighted to welcome JLL’s global operations to the Commitment, joining a group of leading organizations, cities, states and regions all acting to advance net zero buildings towards the mainstream,” says Cristina Gamboa, CEO, World Green Building Council. “A sustainable future is our only future. We must continue to drive momentum, ambition and leadership towards decarbonizing the built environment, not only to combat the climate crisis but also unlock a green recovery from COVID-19 that benefits people, the planet and economies.”

JLL’s Net Zero Carbon Building Commitment will be delivered by five actions:

  • Commit to only occupying assets that achieve net zero operational carbon globally by 2030
  • Measure, assess and publicly disclose the energy and carbon emissions performance of portfolio via annual JLL Global Sustainability Report
  • Increase energy-efficiency measures in both new and existing buildings; switch to electric, low emission and alternative fuel vehicles; use renewable energy in offices; buy renewable energy certificates when there is no direct supply
  • Verify Scope 1 and 2 emissions and related energy consumption annually through assurance at a site and portfolio level, in accordance with internationally recognized standards
  • Commit to educating and influencing clients and suppliers to mainstream net zero carbon, influence policymakers and decisions, and drive action through industry engagement

 

About JLL

JLL (NYSE: JLL) is a leading professional services firm that specializes in real estate and investment management. JLL shapes the future of real estate for a better world by using the most advanced technology to create rewarding opportunities, amazing spaces and sustainable real estate solutions for our clients, our people and our communities. JLL is a Fortune 500 company with annual revenue of $18.0 billion in 2019, operations in over 80 countries and a global workforce of nearly 93,000 as of June 30, 2020. JLL is the brand name, and a registered trademark, of Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated. For further information, visit jll.com.

 

About World Green Buildings Council

The WorldGBC is a global network of Green Building Councils operating in 70 countries, with an aim to transform the places people live, work, play, heal and learn. WorldGBC’s mission is to create green buildings for everyone, everywhere – adapting to the changing climate. The WorldGBC has set a number of goals to achieve by 2050, including:

  • Limit global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius
  • Reduce the building and construction sector’s CO2 emissions by 84 gigatonnes
  • Ensure all buildings are net zero emissions

These goals are set to ensure WorldGBC plays their part in delivering on the ambition of the 2016 Paris Agreement.

 

 

Source: JLL

Norway is now recycling up to 97% of it’s plastic bottles thanks to their regulations.

Posted on by dishanth
Norway is now recycling up to 97% of it’s plastic bottles thanks to their regulations.

It’s no longer news anymore – plastic is a menace and we need to deal with it. As of now, tons of plastic are being produced all over the world, and as a consequence, tons are getting disposed of too. It needs to be lowered if we want this planet to survive. But it’s not an easy task. While we might say pollution is bad and we need to put a stop to it, we can’t say the same about plastic. This cheap product has played a major role in the advancement of human civilizations and we still haven’t found cheaper and feasible replacements for plastic. Ideas are floating out there but nothing concrete has manifested yet. The best way we can deal with this issue is by recycling plastic.

Norway understood this problem a long time ago. The country which almost always stays among the top 10 ‘happiest countries’ in the world knew that plastic is malleable, light, cheap, and extremely useful to simply ban it. Rather, they could incentivize people and companies in such a way that encourages them to dispose of plastic in a better way so that it could be recycled.

The plan was simple. Since 2014, the government of Norway imposed an environmental tax on every plastic importer and producer, marked at 40 cents per bottle. Now, these producers are generating millions of bottles per year – so the math makes the final tax amount huge. But the Norway government also offers a way out. If a company engages in active recycling of plastic products, then the tax starts to get lower. Once the company recycles about 95% of the plastic, the tax is completely dropped.

The Norway government has not forgotten the role of citizens either. Citizens play a major role in both the creation of plastic waste as well as its management. So, it is up to the government to encourage them to do the right thing. In Norway, when a citizen buys a bottled product, they have to pay a ‘mortgage’. Of course, they can get back their mortgage – they just have to deposit the used bottle in any one of the 3,700 mortgage machines found in convenience stores and markets all over the country. These mortgage machines analyze the barcode and then the bottle is registered. It gives a coupon back to the customer.

It is quite an efficient system which is controlled by a non-profit organization called Infinitum. Quite surprisingly, this organization is owned by organizations and companies that are in the beverage industry and produce plastic themselves. So, they are pretty responsible about it. If any international importer wants to sell their plastic products in Norway, they have to sign an agreement with the organization and join them.

It’s not like this is the only country that is taking such a step towards plastic waste creation. Similar schemes are also present in Germany as well as in California, along with some other states in the US. But this system has been the most effective, as mentioned in Positive News by Stan Nerland, the director of logistics at Infinitum. As of 2017, it was seen that Infinitum had collected above 591 million plastic bottles. The CEO of the organization, Kjell Olav Meldrum, mentioned to The Guardian back in 2018 that because of their effective system, many of the bottles circulating in the hands of the people of Norway are actually made of recycled plastic. About 97% of the plastic present in Norway is being recycled!

The situation of plastic in the world as of now is dire. About 8 million tons of plastic is being released into the ocean every year and if this rate continues, then by 2050, plastic products will be outweighing fish population in the water bodies. Norway’s model provides hope. And numerous countries are also looking forward to start similar models. The UK wants to set up such a scheme where consumers are rewarded for their part in recycling plastic. Representatives from countries like US, China, Canada, France, Croatia, Kazakhstan, India and others have visited Norway to gain more insight.

If the countries join together to help us in this fight, then we still have some hope of winning this war against plastic. But we should not forget our individual roles in this war and remain conscious of the waste we are generating.

 

 

By Mayukh Saha

Source: Truth Theory

Green Party plan for regenerative farming to start from the grassroots

Posted on by dishanth
Green Party plan for regenerative farming to start from the grassroots

The success of a Nelson organic community garden is a blueprint the Green Party hopes to replicate throughout the country.

Green Party co-leader James Shaw was in Nelson on Saturday, where he visited the Waimarama Community Garden to talk about his party’s policy for sustainable and regenerative farming.

A week ago the Greens launched their Future of Farming plan, which pledged $297m to support farmers and growers to transition to more environmentally-friendly farming practices.

Along with that was $10m for community food production projects, similar to the one at Waimarama.

Run by volunteers, the Waimarama Community Garden specialises in organic produce, seeds and compost, and provides garden space and educational workshops for the public.

Shaw said Nelson was at the forefront of efforts to increase food resiliency and support community food production.

 

VIRGINIA WOOLF/STUFF
Aaron Stallard, Green Party candidate for Nelson, left, Kate Fulton, Nelson City Councillor, James Shaw, Green Party co-leader, and Ben Bushell of Community Compost at the event on Saturday morning.

 

“This will be one of those examples that will be used around the country, for the kinds of community composting and regenerative farming examples we want to see more of.

“The idea is to scale up this kind of work here in Nelson and right around the country so communities, households and local businesses can get involved in processing their own food waste, turning it into high quality compost and then turning that into sustainable food grown locally.”

Shaw said while the plan was a practical way of reducing food waste and providing high-quality sustainable food for low-income families, there was also an educational component as well.

“It means that people who don’t normally have the opportunity to think about where food comes from, they get connected to that system and become more conscious about the waste they produce in their homes and businesses.”

Shaw said while an exact delivery method of the money had not been set out, if passed the $10m would go a long way.

“[Community gardens] do run on the smell of an oily rag – that funding should give the whole sector a shot in the arm.

“If we can get the funding over the line… it will provide a real boost to initiatives like [Waimarama], who are doing such good work and are such a good example to the rest of the country.”

Speaking on the party’s broader farming plan, Shaw said the $300m investment would help remove the financial barriers for farmers to transition to more environmentally sustainable practices.

Some of these changes would include tightening the limits on nitrogen fertilisers, and banning the import of palm kernel as a stock feed.

“We know farmers are really proud of the land and have a deep connection to the land,” Shaw said.

“A lot of farmers are stuck in a hamster wheel. They’re highly indebted, they want to move towards more sustainable models of farming and food production, but are stuck.”

 

 

By Tim Newman

Source: Stuff