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Commercial Green Hydrogen Just Got A Step Closer

Posted on December 7, 2020December 7, 2020 by dishanth

Green hydrogen development advanced further this week after the world’s first pilot project for green hydrogen heating of homes was approved. While proponents of green hydrogen—the low-carbon emission hydrogen made from electrolysis with power from renewables—cheer this world-first trial, the structure of the project’s funding offers a glimpse into what green hydrogen desperately needs to become a feasible solution to emission reductions—solid government support.

Green hydrogen has been the hype of the past year in clean energy technologies. From governments to oil majors, everyone is talking up green hydrogen solutions to cut emissions in sectors where this is more difficult than in electricity production, such as chemicals and ammonia production.

Today, nearly all—or 99.6 percent—of global hydrogen production comes from fossil fuels—coal, oil, or natural gas.

“Although there is a tremendous amount of hype regarding green hydrogen, it barely registers across the full value chain for hydrogen’s uses,” Wood Mackenzie said in a report this year.

The first-ever trial of 100-percent green hydrogen use for home heating and cooking is expected to offer insights into how feasible it could be in replacing natural gas. The trial also shows that for green hydrogen to become mainstream in technologies, not only in media, government support, incentives, co-funding, and collaboration with industry is a must.

This week, the UK and Scottish authorities announced they would fund the world’s first trial of a 100 percent green hydrogen generation, storage, and distribution network to heat 300 homes in Scotland as part of the UK and Scottish ambitions to achieve net-zero emissions within three decades.

The UK’s energy regulator Ofgem on Monday said it was awarding US$24 million (18 million British pounds) to the H100 Fife project in Fife, Scotland, which will see 300 homes heated with and cooking with green hydrogen made from electrolysis from offshore wind power. The project also receives a further investment of US$9.2 million (6.9 million pounds) from the Scottish Government.

“I see this project as a critical step towards understanding our decarbonization options for heat and will deliver a purpose-built end-to-end hydrogen system, so I warmly welcome Ofgem’s investment in the project,” said Scotland’s energy minister Paul Wheelhouse.

Exploring the options for hydrogen production and ways to cut hydrogen costs is one of the key pillars in the UK’s The Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution, which the government unveiled last month.

Political momentum in support of hydrogen has grown over the past year, but governments need to strongly support hydrogen, especially low-carbon hydrogen, in the near term and include it in long-term policies for emissions reduction, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its Hydrogen report this year.

“Low-carbon production capacity remained relatively constant and is still off track with the SDS [Sustainable Development Scenario],” the IEA said, noting that “More efforts are needed to: scale up to reduce costs; replace high-carbon with low-carbon hydrogen in current applications; and expand hydrogen use to new applications.”

Companies are working on developing green hydrogen projects. One of the latest announcements came from Italy’s major Eni, which, together with top utility Enel, plans to produce green hydrogen through electrolyzers powered by renewable energy and located near two of the Eni refineries where green hydrogen appears to be the best decarbonization option.

Offshore wind developer Ørsted and fertilizer producer Yara in October said they were developing a project to replace fossil hydrogen with renewable hydrogen in the production of ammonia in the Netherlands.

“If the required public co-funding is secured and the right regulatory framework is in place, the project could be operational in 2024/2025,” Ørsted said.

Green hydrogen requires a lot of policy support, collaboration, funding, research and development (R&D), and private capital to become an industry.

Green hydrogen costs are set to fall by up to 64 percent by 2040, according to WoodMac research from August.

“Even with a multitude of challenges that await the nascent green hydrogen market, we firmly believe there will be some form of low-carbon hydrogen economy soon,” said Ben Gallagher, Wood Mackenzie Senior Research Analyst.

“Given the degree of explicit policy, corporate and social support that has blossomed in 2020, green hydrogen will successfully scale and realise huge production cost declines,” Gallagher noted.

By Tsvetana Paraskova

Source Oil Price

Malaysia’s Petronas eyes net-zero emissions by 2050

Posted on November 4, 2020November 16, 2020 by dishanth

“We are making this commitment to make a positive change — not only to ride the energy transition — but because a fundamental shift is needed and the organisation wants to be part of the solution, for the world that yearns for a path towards a more sustainable future,” Petronas chief executive Tengku Muhammad Taufik said.

Petronas said it will optimise hydrocarbon efficiency and capture, employ more low-carbon and renewables-based solutions, and advance emission reduction technologies as part of its strategy to achieve its carbon neutrality goal. But it did not give specific details of how this would affect its oil and gas operations. Petronas produces around 1.8mn b/d of oil equivalent (boe/d), is a major LNG exporter and operates about 400,000 b/d of refining capacity.

Petronas follows in the footsteps of European majors such as BP, Total and Shell, which have set similar targets. The Malaysian firm described its 2050 goal as an “aspiration”.

The 2050 target is envisioned on the grounds of sustainability practices that have already been a part of Petronas’ business and decision-making for “more than two decades”, the company said.

Petronas said in mid-October that it is considering exiting the Gharraf oil field in southern Iraq as part of moves to become “cleaner and greener” to align with the expectations of its stakeholders and customers. But the company will also continue to look at opportunities in oil and gas that are accretive, Tengku Taufik said at the time.

Petronas created a third business division — gas and new energy — last year, adding to its focus on cleaner energy sources. Natural gas will be a major part of this, reflecting the company’s position as one of the world’s leading LNG exporters. It is also moving into solar energy, making its first international acquisition, of Singapore-based Amplus Energy Solutions, in April 2019.

The company has already pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emission to 49.5mn t of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) by 2024. It cut GHG emissions by 1.2mn t of CO2e in 2019, capping it at a total of 47.9mn t of CO2e for the year.

By Subethira Ahrumugam

Source: Argus Media

Infosys turns carbon neutral 30 years ahead of 2050, the timeline set by the Paris Agreement

Posted on October 29, 2020 by dishanth

Infosys (NYSE: INFY), the global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting, published its Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Vision for 2030. This announcement is part of Infosys’ long-standing commitments focused across core areas: climate change, technology for good, diversity and inclusion, energizing local communities, ethics and transparency, data privacy and information management. This legacy of purpose and impact has inducted the company into the prestigious Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) and made it part of the DJSI World and DJSI Emerging Markets Indices.

As part of its ongoing Environmental, Social and Governance efforts, including leveraging renewables, orchestrating energy efficiencies and driving unique fully funded community-based carbon offset projects, Infosys is now carbon neutral in compliance with PAS 2060 standards. According to The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Infosys’ work campuses are some of the most energy-efficient in the world. In fact, over the past years, the company has reduced its per capita electricity consumption by over 55 percent with the ambition to transition to renewable energy. It is the first Indian signatory to the RE100 global campaign. Infosys has also successfully developed a portfolio of community-based carbon offset projects. These focus primarily on socio-economic development of rural communities and contributions to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The projects not only address climate change, but also benefit over 100,000 rural families.

Infosys, since inception, has recognized that the integration of ESG factors in corporate and business decision-making is an ongoing commitment.

R. Narayana Murthy, Founder – Infosys, said, “Longevity and success for a company comes from living in harmony with the context in which it operates. Right from the first day, Infosys has recognized and fulfilled its responsibilities towards overcoming the challenges in our context. It has also taken on new responsibilities like reducing carbon emission, improving air quality, optimally using water and solar power. The Infosys Foundation has helped the poor by addressing their needs in education, healthcare, nutrition and shelter as well as providing shoulder to the efforts of our governments during times of disaster. Today, nearly four decades after embracing these values, I am happy that Infosys continues to strive hard for these values to make our context better.”

Nandan Nilekani, Co-founder and Chairman, Infosys, said, “Infosys has always balanced success as a business with unwavering focus on exemplary governance and responsiveness to the needs of the ecology and society. As an early proponent of responsible business, we understand our obligation to integrate ESG factors into what we do, which is only increasing in importance particularly in the wake of COVID-19. Our company began to take action to combat climate change in 2008 and I am delighted to announce Infosys’ carbon neutrality in 2020. Today, our 2030 vision reflects how ESG will continue to be integral to Infosys’ sustainable business performance.”

To understand Infosys’ ESG priorities better, watch this video. To learn more about Infosys’ ESG efforts around the world, see Infosys ESG Vision 2030.

Highlights of ESG Achievements:

In FY2020, over 44 percent of Infosys’ electricity consumption was met through renewable energy sources. The company also invested in 60 MW of solar PV capacity.
Over 700,000 students from India’s engineering colleges advance their digital skills on InfyTQ – Infosys’ next-gen learning platform, as part of the company’s social commitment to reskilling and facilitating job creation.
Infosys ranked number three on the 2019 Forbes ‘World’s Best Regarded Companies’ list based on its trustworthiness, honesty, social conduct, fairness to employees and performance of its products and services.
Infosys Foundation and Infosys Foundation USA spend over $55 million each year on impactful projects focused on education, healthcare, rural development, destitute care and art & culture.

Salil Parekh, Chief Executive Officer, Infosys, said, “As a progressive business committed to the well-being of stakeholders, Infosys is incredibly proud of the investments its founders have made to make the business truly sustainable and socially responsible. The company’s ESG roadmap for 2030 reflects its continued aspiration to be a well-governed model organization for diverse talent with an inclusive workplace and community strategies to leverage technology for good.”

Highlights of Ongoing ESG Goals:

Continue to be carbon neutral across Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions every year. Eliminate 75 percent Scope 1 and 2 Greenhouse Gas emissions and reduce by 30 percent absolute Scope 3 Greenhouse Gas emissions.
Expand reskilling initiatives to empower 10 million-plus people with digital skills and 80 million-plus lives with technology for good programs in e-governance, healthcare, and education.
Nurture an inclusive and gender-diverse workforce with at least 45 percent of women employees.
Continue to bring the interests of all stakeholders to the fore through an empowered, diverse and inclusive Board.
Further strengthen data privacy and information security standards across global operations, having been awarded the accredited certification on ISO 27701 by Bureau Veritas Certification (BVC)

About Infosys

Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting. We enable clients in 46 countries to navigate their digital transformation. With nearly four decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises, we expertly steer our clients through their digital journey. We do it by enabling the enterprise with an AI-powered core that helps prioritize the execution of change. We also empower the business with agile digital at scale to deliver unprecedented levels of performance and customer delight. Our always-on learning agenda drives their continuous improvement through building and transferring digital skills, expertise, and ideas from our innovation ecosystem.

Visit www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise navigate your next.

Safe Harbor

Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects, financial expectations, and plans for navigating the COVID-19 impact on our employees, clients, and stakeholders are forward-looking statements intended to qualify for the ‘safe harbor’ under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding COVID-19 and the effects of government and other measures seeking to contain its spread, risks related to an economic downturn or recession in India, the United States and other countries around the world, changes in political, business, and economic conditions, fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry and the outcome of pending litigation and government investigation. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our the United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2020. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the Company unless it is required by law.

Source: Eco Voice

Karicare infant formula to go carbon neutral

Posted on October 11, 2020 by dishanth

French food company Danone says it will make its New Zealand milk formula brand, Karicare, carbon neutral by 2030.

Karicare will join other Danone brands – including Evian bottled water, which is already carbon neutral – as it moves to becoming a net-zero carbon company by 2050.

Karicare Gold Plus+ Organic is expected to be certified carbon neutral in 2022, with the rest of the range progressively certified up to 2030 at the latest.

Danone managing director for Nutricia Oceania, Rodrigo Lima, said the company was committed to making products in a way that minimised impacts on climate change.

“Danone’s approach to carbon neutrality is to focus on reductions first and foremost,” Lima said.

“We continuously act together with our partners to reduce our emissions in agriculture, operations and packaging, then taking responsibility for offsetting remaining emissions to achieve a carbon neutral position.

“With carbon neutral Karicare, we’re providing consumers with a more sustainable option and giving them the opportunity to choose a better future for their family.”

Danone infant formula has about 40 per cent market share in New Zealand.

It’s New Zealand processing plants make base powder for other Danone plants in the Asia-Pacific region and international products for the domestic and Asia-Pacific markets.

Last year Danone announced a $40 million investment to build a biomass boiler at its milk spray drying plant in Balclutha, making it carbon neutral by 2021.

The boiler, powered by forest waste, would cut the plant’s carbon emissions by 20,000 tonnes per year.

Danone also planned to move to 100 per cent renewable electricity at its New Zealand plants next year.

Between the move to renewable energy and biomass-based heating, the total operational carbon emissions at the Balclutha plant were expected to be reduced by 95 per cent.

All Karicare packaging will be either recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025, the company said.

Source: Stuff

P&G Embraces Natural Climate Solutions to Accelerate Progress on Climate Change and Will Make Operations Carbon Neutral for the Decade

Posted on July 20, 2020August 12, 2020 by dishanth

The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) announced a new commitment to have its global operations be carbon neutral for the decade through a series of interventions that protect, improve and restore nature. Recognizing the next decade represents a critical window for the world to accelerate progress on climate change, P&G will go beyond its existing Science Based Target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by additionally advancing a portfolio of natural climate solutions. These efforts will deliver a carbon benefit that balances any remaining emissions over the next 10 years, allowing P&G operations to be carbon neutral for the decade. Based on current estimates, the Company will need to balance ~30 million metric tons of carbon from 2020 to 2030.

P&G’s priority continues to be reducing emissions. P&G has an existing goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% and purchasing 100% renewable electricity by 2030 and is on track to deliver on its 2030 commitments. In addition, P&G will continue pursuing new wind, solar and geothermal projects to further accelerate the transition to renewables. These eﬀorts are aligned with what climate science says is needed to help ensure the Company does its part to limit global temperature increase and will continue well beyond 2030. However, based on today’s technologies, there are some emissions that cannot be eliminated by 2030. By investing in natural climate solutions, the Company will accelerate its impact over the next 10 years.

A Critical Window

Recent reports have highlighted that the world is falling short of the greenhouse gas emission reductions needed and that the next decade represents a critical window to reduce emissions and be on a path to limiting temperature increase to 1.5°C. That task will get much harder if society doesn’t start curbing emissions before the decade ends. By 2050, carbon emissions must fall to zero, or close to it. Failure to act now will put future generations at greater risk from climate change impacts and make achieving the global targets of the Paris Accord more difficult.

“Climate change is happening, and action is needed now,” said David Taylor, P&G Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. “By reducing our carbon footprint and investing in natural climate solutions, we will be carbon neutral for the decade across our operations and help protect vulnerable ecosystems and communities around the world.”

Natural Climate Solutions: “Nature alone can solve up to one-third of climate change”

P&G will partner with Conservation International and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to identify and fund a range of projects designed to protect, improve and restore critical ecosystems like forests, wetlands, grasslands and peatlands. In addition to sequestering more carbon, an important aspect of natural climate solutions is the potential to deliver meaningful environmental and socioeconomic co-benefits that serve to protect and enhance nature and improve the livelihoods of local communities. As P&G moves forward, the company will seek to identify, measure and communicate relevant co-benefits from its investment in nature.

P&G is developing a detailed project portfolio and investing in projects across the globe. Projects already identified include:

– Philippines Palawan Protection Project with Conservation International – To protect, improve and restore Palawan’s mangroves and critical ecosystems. Palawan is the world’s fourth most “irreplaceable” area for unique and threatened wildlife.

– Atlantic Forest Restoration Planning with WWF – In the Atlantic Forest on Brazil’s east coast, laying the groundwork for forest landscape restoration with meaningful impacts on biodiversity, water, food security and other co-benefits for local communities.

– Evergreen Alliance with Arbor Day Foundation – Bringing corporations, communities and citizens together to take critical action to preserve the necessities of life affected by climate change—including planting trees to restore areas devastated by wildfires in Northern California and enhance forests in Germany.

“Nature must be a key part of any strategy to combat the climate crisis,” said Dr. M. Sanjayan, CEO of Conservation International. “Research shows that we cannot meet our climate goals unless we protect, restore and improve the management of carbon-rich ecosystems. Done right, these efforts can deliver a third of the emissions reductions needed within the next decade, and importantly, support the livelihoods of communities on the front lines of climate change. We’re delighted to be working with Procter & Gamble to protect nature – an investment that is a win for people and our planet.”

“We’ve worked with P&G to drive climate progress and safeguard forests for over a decade, because the scope of their business means they can deliver results at a scale that matters,” said Carter Roberts, U.S. President and CEO of WWF. “Importantly, that progress hasn’t been limited to their own corporate footprint. P&G was an early partner in the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance, which has helped expand corporate renewable energy procurements across the United States. Today’s announcement marks further progress by putting a greater focus on the role that preserving nature can play – not just in absorbing carbon emissions, but in providing the services and resources that sustain life on earth. We look forward to working with P&G to achieve these new commitments over the next decade.”

P&G Brands take the lead on carbon footprint reduction and climate positive habit changes

Committing to going beyond its Science Based Target for reducing operational emissions is important, but the Company will not stop there. For more than two decades, P&G has been committed to harnessing the scientific rigor of the Life Cycle Assessment of its products to better understand the emissions from its supply chain and consumer use of its products (Scope 3 emissions). Up to 85% of P&G’s Scope 3 emissions are from consumer use of its products. P&G reaches five billion people through its brands, and with this scale comes a responsibility to give consumers the power to reduce their own carbon footprints with products that are designed to help save energy, water and natural resources.

– More than 60% of a laundry detergent’s footprint is in the consumer use phase, mostly related to the energy used to heat the water. Ariel and Tide have been optimizing detergent formulas for high efficiency in low temperature washing and inspiring positive “Turn to 30” and “Cold Water Wash” laundry behaviors. The goal is to have 70% of machine loads be low-energy cycle loads, and major progress has been achieved by educating consumers in the U.S. over the last ten years on the benefits of low-energy wash cycles. P&G estimates that since 2015, the avoided emissions from consumers increasing their use of low-energy laundry cycles have been roughly 15 million metric tons of CO2, which is equivalent to taking three million cars off the road.

– Busting a popular myth, Cascade is showing consumers how the dishwasher is designed to be more water and energy efficient than washing in the sink. Cascade and Fairy Automatic Dish Washing Tablets allow consumers to skip pre-wash and save water and the energy needed to heat the water. Fairy and Dawn Dish Washing Liquid’s grease cutting power enables water and energy savings: by reducing the water temperature 20°C (36°F), consumers can save up to 50% CO2 of the total footprint every wash.

“Our role as leaders is to make a lower emission economy and lifestyle possible, affordable and desirable for everyone,” said Virginie Helias, P&G’s Chief Sustainability Officer. “It is our responsibility to protect critical carbon reserves and invest in solutions that regenerate our planet. Consumers also want to do more to address climate change. As a company, we touch five billion people with our brands; we are striving to make a difference every day by encouraging responsible consumption with products that are effective and intuitive to enable adoption of new lower emission habits.”

Today at 8am EST/2pm CET, P&G is convening experts and climate leaders for a roundtable hosted by National Geographic to discuss the power of nature as a climate solution. Participants include P&G CEO David Taylor, P&G Chief Sustainability Officer Virginie Helias, Conservation International CEO Dr. M. Sanjayan, Word Wildlife Fund U.S. CEO Carter Roberts, and climate activists Clover Hogan, Jiaxuan Zhang, Kehkashan Basu and Vanessa Nakate.

To learn more about P&G’s new commitment to advance natural climate solutions and become carbon neutral for the decade, visit our Multi Media Release site.

About Procter & Gamble

P&G serves consumers around the world with one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Always®, Ambi Pur®, Ariel®, Bounty®, Charmin®, Crest®, Dawn®, Downy®, Fairy®, Febreze®, Gain®, Gillette®, Head & Shoulders®, Lenor®, Olay®, Oral-B®, Pampers®, Pantene®, SK-II®, Tide®, Vicks®, and Whisper®. The P&G community includes operations in approximately 70 countries worldwide. Please visit https://www.pg.com/ for the latest news and information about P&G and its brands.

Source: Ecovoice Australia

Amazon signs big allies in pledge to be carbon neutral

Posted on June 28, 2020June 28, 2020 by dishanth

SEATTLE—Amazon has attracted new allies for The Climate Pledge that founder and CEO Jeff Bezos announced last September.

Indian information technology consulting giant Infosys, U.S. wireless market share leader Verizon and U.K. consumer goods manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB) signed the pledge, which calls on companies to eliminate or offset all greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.

The three large companies, based on three continents and in three very different industries, illustrate the range of challenges and corporate approaches to the climate emergency, which continues amid widespread protests against systemic racism and a global pandemic — both adding urgency and complexity to the climate response.

Through these unprecedented challenges, Amazon has “stayed the course” on the pledge, according to Kara Hurst, Amazon vice-president and head of worldwide sustainability. Each Amazon business unit is developing internal goals to decarbonize, she said via email. Business leaders are given emissions information “so they can incorporate that into their decision-making.”

The addition of new signatories to The Climate Pledge “will drive a new wave of investments and development of innovative low carbon products and services that will be required to meet their commitments,” Hurst said in a corporate blog post.

But even as more companies join — Amazon says several more announcements are in the offing — activists question the adequacy of The Climate Pledge target, touted by Bezos as a decade earlier than the Paris Agreement’s emission reductions that scientists say preserve a chance of limiting global warming to 2 C (3.6 F) above pre-industrial levels.

“Amazon’s Climate Pledge raises more questions than it answers about how major companies will successfully decarbonize their operations. Science has shown the next ten years matter the most to slow the climate emergency — 2040 may be too late,” Elizabeth Jardim, senior corporate campaigner with Greenpeace USA, said in a statement after Amazon announced the new signatories to The Climate Pledge.

Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, whose pressure campaign in late 2018 and 2019 preceded Bezos’ Climate Pledge announcement, want the company to reach zero emissions by 2030.

Each of the three companies comes to The Climate Pledge with some goals already in place — including some surpassing the pledge targets — and challenges and opportunities specific to their businesses.

Infosys, for example, began reporting its greenhouse gas emissions, largely from diesel generators at corporate campuses, electricity use and business travel, in 2008 — a step Amazon took for the first time last year, disclosing 2018 emissions of 44.4 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e)

Infosys pledged in 2011 to be carbon neutral in 2018, and set an internal price on carbon emissions in 2017. It pushed the carbon neutral goal back to 2020 and has again delayed it, until 2021, citing in its latest corporate sustainability report “the unprecedented COVID-19 scenario and the resulting uncertainties.”

Infosys reported fiscal year 2020 direct and indirect emissions (such as fuel combustion for operations and emissions from purchased electricity) of 139,407 tons of CO2e. The company reported an additional 151,502 tons of CO2e from emissions generated by activities up and down the supply chain but outside of a company’s direct control.

In addition to focusing on its own operations, Infosys has invested heavily in emissions offsets — payments to third parties for practices expected to avoid emissions or remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, such as switching to more efficient cook stoves or planting trees. The company reports a portfolio of offset credits sufficient to cancel out 461,626 tons of CO2e, from projects to bring biogas systems and stoves that don’t use firewood to people in rural villages.

Verizon has, in the last 18 months, accelerated efforts to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, said James Gowen, the company’s chief sustainability officer and vice-president of supply chain operations.

“Earlier this year, our CEO reiterated our commitment to the Paris Agreement,” Gowen said in an email. “So when Jeff and his team reached out about The Climate Pledge, we saw this as the perfect way to continue to expand the breadth and boldness of our program.”

In 2018, Verizon’s direct and indirect emissions were just over 4.4 million tons of CO2e. It also accounted for 98,188 tons of CO2e from business travel.

Some 91 per cent of the company’s direct and indirect emissions came from electricity used to power its networks, providing a relatively straightforward pathway to decarbonization through improving cooling systems and testing higher operating temperatures in network facilities, and purchases of wind and solar energy. The company last year pledged to be carbon neutral by 2035.

Verizon in February announced plans to purchase more renewable energy, drawing on a $1 billion (U.S.) bond issue devoted to emissions reductions, but it ranks last among the four largest U.S. wireless providers in clean energy usage, according to a report released Tuesday by Green America, a non-profit pursuing social justice and environmental health through consumer-driven economic changes, and based on corporate disclosures of 2018 energy use.

T-Mobile ranked first with a commitment to reach 100 per cent renewable energy next year.

RB, which makes a range of consumer products under brand names including Lysol, Clearasil and Woolite, announced it was accelerating its climate mitigation plans earlier this month.

The company reports emissions in 2019 totalled 36.4 million tons of CO2e. More than three-quarters of its reported emissions are related to consumer use. In addition to moving to 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030 and investing in efficiency improvements at its factories, the company is trying to drive changes in consumer behaviour.

Critics of corporate climate pronouncements call out their reliance on emissions offsets to reach the goal.

There is broad agreement that it’s important to incentivize these practices, including the natural climate solutions such as reforestation and wetlands preservation that one widely cited study estimates could account for more than a third of emissions reductions needed by 2030. But their use to balance out ongoing corporate emissions from things with no immediate zero-carbon alternative, such as air transportation and steel production, continues to draw skepticism.

Amazon declined to say how much of its 2040 greenhouse-gas footprint it anticipates “neutralizing” through the use of offset credits, nor would it specify requirements, if any, embedded in The Climate Pledge.

Each company that signs the pledge “will have its own needs and will map out its own journey to become net zero, and offsets should only be the last piece of the puzzle for any remaining emissions,” Hurst said, adding that offsets must be “additional, quantifiable, real, permanent, and socially beneficial.”

“For Amazon’s Climate Pledge to be a credible effort we need far more transparency than simply reporting emissions data,” Greenpeace’s Jardim said. “We need concrete plans for how companies will transition off fossil fuels in the next decade, as well as commitments to prioritize deep decarbonization pathways over carbon offsetting.”

By Benjamin Roma – The Seattle Times

We can build a carbon-neutral world by 2050. Here’s how.

Posted on February 4, 2020August 12, 2020 by dishanth

Is a carbon-neutral world possible by 2050? Yes. Will it happen? Again, yes. No politician will be able to ignore the social and economic pressures as climate impacts become more severe – but the longer it takes, the more expensive it will become. Governments, states, cities, businesses and investors know this.

The Paris Agreement provides an international framework for countries to set clear goals and increase their ambition, over time, to reach a net-zero carbon world. The Carbon Neutral Coalition – comprising 26 countries, 15 cities, 17 regions and states, and 192 companies – is spearheading ambitious efforts to implement policies and incentives that will support the process. The 20 cities of the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance are taking action to drive aggressive emissions reductions. The Under2Coalition of 205 jurisdictions – representing 43 countries and six continents – is developing deep decarbonisation plans for 2050. And 412 companies have committed to set ‘science based targets’ to achieve the same aim.

Setting a clear goal that aligns with climate science takes bold leadership – mainly because it may not be possible to clearly articulate exactly how it will be achieved. But the intent sends a powerful signal to customers, investors, employees and other stakeholders about the direction of travel, which in turn helps to drive policy, behavioural changes and investment in solutions that will ultimately support the ability of companies to achieve the goal.

More and more companies are switching to renewable energy, or are committing to do so
Image: International Renewable Energy Agency

Mahindra is one of the companies not only setting this goal, but encouraging others to do the same. Anand Mahindra, chairman of the Mahindra Group, issued a challenge to the business community in Davos this year: he wants to see 500 businesses commit to setting science-based targets in time for the Global Climate Action Summit in California in September. It will take just 88 more companies to realise this call to action.

Setting a target is one thing; delivering it is another. Most companies begin this journey with the win-win solutions that can typically be realised through increasing energy productivity and switching to low carbon sources of power. These actions alone can make a big difference in reducing a company’s carbon footprint, as well as reducing operating costs.

An increasing number of companies are setting – and achieving – targets to consume 100% renewable power and the market is responding to support this. It is not necessarily true that the more power you use, the more difficult it is to switch. It has more to do with the options for accessing renewable power and these are increasing due to increased affordability and demand.

Reducing emissions from transport can be trickier – but solutions in this sector are also accelerating. The long-term trend towards the electrification of ground transport means that power utilities have a huge market opportunity as demand moves from gasoline to electricity. However, for this to be a carbon-smart choice, it does require an alignment of low-carbon power transition to be part of the solution. New partnerships across cities, power providers and electric vehicle companies are sprouting up to help ensure that the shift to electric vehicles also means a shift to clean mobility. And 18 companies have joined the EV100 initiative, setting a goal to switch to 100% electric vehicles.

Implementing the financially viable actions that can reduce emissions today makes business sense. But it won’t be long before tougher investment decisions need to be made. For some sectors that rely on fossil fuel for energy or industrial processes, government intervention to create mechanisms necessary for low-carbon transition is essential.

Rules that will come into play in 2021 for the aviation sector will drive the need for net-zero growth, which is achievable in the near-term through using the carbon market to offset emissions. The implementation and development of innovative low-carbon fuels and technologies, meanwhile, will play an important role in the longer term.

The shipping sector has also created a framework that will push for more aggressive carbon reduction through the implementation of improved technology. Other sectors that come under the remit of the Paris Agreement are seeing government intervention to support the transition through inclusion in carbon pricing schemes – whether through increased taxation or inclusion in carbon pricing regimes that enable market forces to determine the optimal economic choices.

But it is not just the fossil fuel-intensive sectors that are facing challenges in reducing their emissions. The land use sector is also increasingly under the spotlight. The nature of the food, agriculture and land use system means it is trickier to navigate political, ideological, social and environmental issues to put pressure on these sectors to reduce their emissions. However, the growing need to not only curb emissions from the sector, but to also ramp up the ‘carbon absorption’ capabilities of forests, soil, oceans and other natural sinks means it is time to address this challenge. It is a simple scientific fact that if the global goal of carbon neutrality by 2050 is to be met, the role of natural carbon sinks (forests, oceans and soils, as well as other natural systems that ‘suck up’ carbon) will play an increasingly important role.

This, in turn, is sparking greater interest in the value proposition of nature-based solutions. For companies that rely on land, ocean or water-based resources within their value-chain, multi-stakeholder collaboration has helped drive efforts to address a broader range of sustainability issues. As a result, the carbon and climate benefits are not always a major focus. As intervention from governments and businesses that will rely on nature-based solutions to meet carbon-neutral goals becomes increasingly necessary, this area is gaining fresh attention and innovation. Whilst there are still challenges surrounding methodologies to effectively measure, verify and account for carbon emissions, smart technology is helping to increase transparency and build credibility. Robust accounting mechanisms along with appropriate governance are also needed to enable new financing flows.

All of these things together may not achieve the net-zero goal entirely. But as the price of carbon increases, as new innovations and technologies become more affordable, and as consumer behaviours shift, what may now seem unrealistic could soon play a role in dealing with the most stubborn carbon reduction challenges. These solutions range from affordable carbon capture and storage technologies, new forms of clean energy, carbon absorbing materials such as plastics and cement, to diets based on lower protein intake from meat.

The longer it takes to reduce greenhouse emissions and restore natural carbon sinks, the more extreme the climate impacts will become. The sooner we act on the low-hanging fruit at the same time as discussing workable solutions to the more challenging areas for mitigation and adaptation, the better chance we have to build a carbon-neutral world by 2050. Businesses have a huge role to play in this process. In the run up to 2020, as governments are developing their plans to deliver the Paris Agreement, now is exactly the right time to be part of building a carbon-neutral world with rules that make business sense.

Written by

Emily Farnworth, Head of Climate Change, World Economic Forum

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Davos 2020 will be carbon neutral: here’s how

Posted on January 14, 2020August 12, 2020 by dishanth

In January 2020, the World Economic Forum will call on companies to raise their ambitions for climate action at the Annual Meeting in Davos-Klosters under the theme “Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World.” The meeting’s 50th edition will bring together over 3,000 participants from around the world. For the fourth year, it will also be climate neutral.

So what exactly does being climate neutral mean?

For one thing, we do everything we can to reduce emissions in the first place. This involves looking at everything: from our use of materials and resources (this year, we are actually changing the configuration of the Congress Centre layout to use less carpet), to the food we serve (more local, seasonal and plant-based than ever before) and transportation (our fleet of cars and buses is 90% hybrid or electric this year).

We will keep on looking for ways to reduce our environmental footprint. For everything that we cannot eliminate, we offset by investing in schemes that reduce emissions levels in the atmosphere.

We have been calculating and offsetting all emissions to the Annual Meeting – including staff and participant air travel – by funding certified offsetting projects around the world since 2017. Beyond carbon emission reduction, these initiatives also create jobs and improved living conditions. For example, one of the projects selected to offset the 2018 meeting was Rwandan Boreholes, which has already provided 50 million litres of water to over 68,000 people and saved 85,000 tonnes of wood that would have been used to boil water for purification.

To offset the 2020 Annual Meeting, the Forum has decided to continue supporting two key projects: the Jacundá project in the Amazonian “Arc of Deforestation” known for its disappearing tropical forest, which protects an area of 95,000 hectares of native forest and sustainably produced rubber, açai and brazil nuts, and the Biogas for Greener Farms, which uses methane generated by the processing of manure in biogas digesters as energy and the residue as fertiliser for local farms in Switzerland.

Here are some other examples of offsetting projects supported by the Forum in collaboration with South Pole, a leading provider of global climate solutions.

Waste Composters

Although composting human waste, manure, or landfill is hardly new, reducing its carbon emissions is a more recent concern. Biogas digesters recycle the output of composting to have a twofold benefit: reducing greenhouse gas emissions and enabling the production of green energy. Benefits include maintaining soil fertility and supporting food safety.

Composting New Dehli ensures that solid waste from fruit and vegetable markets in Delhi, India, doesn’t end up in landfills and transforms 73,000 tonnes of it into about 200 tonnes of compost every year. In Cambodia, the National Biodigester programme not only treats waste then used as fertilizer by over 18,000 farms but also replaces biomass stoves, saving 150,000 tonnes of wood since 2006.

Cook Stoves

Conventional stoves are inefficient and produce indoor smoke – the equivalent of burning 400 cigarettes per hour. Cook stoves, which have fewer fumes and require less energy and wood, provide health, energy and environmental benefits.

In India, where it’s estimated that toxic fumes from conventional cookstoves cause 500,000 premature deaths per year, The Breathing Space Cook Stove has already provided efficient cookstoves to over 200,000 families. In Mali, Katene Clean Cookstoves created 400 jobs in a local stove manufacturing factory and planted 2,400m2 of trees to counter desertification in a country that is more than half covered by the Sahara.

Communities gathering firewood in China’s Mamize Nature Reserve in Sichuan province threaten the surrounding biodiversity and the habitat of giant pandas, an issue the WWF Mamize Firewood-Saving Cook Stove Project has been working to address.

Small interventions on cooking stoves, such as improved ignition rates, can also benefit users financially – Highveld Air Quality – NFS project in South Africa, for example, saves users about $30 a year.

Hydro

Sustainable hydro plants are the most efficient way to generate electricity, but their cost is often a barrier to their construction. In Brazil, Incomex Hydro has set up three hydro plants, which produce clean energy and reduce over 83,000 tonnes of CO2 per year – that’s the equivalent of electricity use for 14,000 houses.

On a bigger scale, China’s Huóshui Grouped Small Hydropower has been supplying energy for over half a million rural Chinese homes every year and has supported the community with sustainable agricultural workshops for over 170 people, social initiative funding, and an educational programme about environment protection in which about 200 students have taken part.

Wind Power

Another renewable source of energy that can satisfy the world’s increasing demand is wind power. In Viet Nam, where economic growth and power demands are outpacing supplies, Bac Lieu Wind Farm set up the first large-scale coastal wind power project of the country.

In India, Mitcon wind plants have been supplying the national grid, creating employment, and supporting women entrepreneurs. Argentina’s economic difficulties from the early 2000s generated an energy crisis and an inability to meet power demands in sustainable ways. Today, Rawson windfarm works in Patagonia, one of the windiest regions of the world.

Reducing emissions remains the first priority of the Forum’s sustainability efforts for the Annual Meeting 2020, which form part of the boarder institutional sustainability strategy. Offsetting is used to neutralize the emissions that could not be avoided, in a way that fosters sustainable development in Switzerland and abroad.

Written by

Aylin Elci, Communications Officer, World Economic Forum Geneva

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.