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German train operator to swap plastic cups and plates for porcelain in carbon-neutral drive

Posted on January 11, 2023 by dishanth

German train operator Deutsche Bahn will offer onboard food and drink in porcelain or glass to cut waste onboard its intercity and high-speed train services from 1 January 2023.

The reusable cups, plates and bowls will be free for customers to eat or drink from when ordering to-go products at the train’s bistro area, though passengers can still request plastic and cardboard packaging if they prefer it.

Rail customers will be able to choose between “high-quality” glass or porcelain for hot and cold drinks or food without needing to pay a deposit.

Deutsche Bahn’s passenger services chief Michael Peterson has said the “company is ‘driving forward its green transformation in onboard catering’”,The Guardian reported.

The move also lines up with a new supply chain law taking effect from January in Germany, which considers the environmental impact of medium and large companies.

The Supply Chain Act was passed in June 2021 by German parliament, and incorporates social responsibility as well as specific environmental risks.

Within this, all restaurants and cafes will be required to provide takeaway products in reusable packaging. There won’t be a single-use packaging ban, but a free alternative must be presented to consumers.

Sustainability is at the forefront of Deutsche Bahn’s core brand messaging, with the rail operator’s ‘This is green’ tagline signposting travellers to specified climate protection goals the company has outlined.

For example, according to the rail operator’s website, by 2030 Deutsche Bahn will have halved the amount of CO2 emissions produced. it’s also stated online that Deutsche Bahn already recycle more than 95 percent of the raw materials used.

Deutsche Bahn has set itself the goal of being climate neutral by 2040.

“To achieve this, we are utilizing an approach with three critical instruments: the shift to 100 per cent renewable power, the end of diesel and the start of the heat transition,” the German rail operator’s website says.

In August, rail analysts reported that short-distance train travel in Germany had increased by almost half after the new ticket was introduced.

Source INDEPENDENT

Social forestry project wins the Liveability Challenge 2022

Posted on June 13, 2022 by dishanth

A social forestry project has won the 2022 edition of the Liveability Challenge, a yearly search for ways to tackle the most difficult sustainability challenges faced in Southeast Asia.

Fairventures Social Forestry, a team from Germany, emerged ahead of five other finalists to clinch the grand prize of S$1 million (US$728,000) in funding from Temasek Foundation, the sponsor of the Liveability Challenge and philanthropic arm of Temasek, Singapore’s state-investment company.

This marks the first time in the Challenge’s history that a nature-based solution has won top prize.

This year’s Challenge was themed around decarbonisation, agritechnology as well as nature-based solutions to climate change.

The Fairventures project aims to sustainably manage forests and improve livelihoods in Jambi, Indonesia, using a scalable social forestry model that incorporates blended finance.

Steve Melhuish, impact investor at Planet Rise and one of The Liveability Challenge judges, said: “What we really liked about Fairventures was that it is a true nature-based solution with a proven track record that has helped communities and has had a real carbon impact.”

Melhuish also commended Fairventures for its sustainable business model; it has secured offtakers for its products which include crops, timber and carbon credits.

Lim Hock Chuan, head of programmes, Temasek Foundation, also one of the judges, said: “This is one of the few nature-based solutions ventures that was genuinely end-to-end, with blended finance to make the project sustainable and viable. It also addressed a very big problem: what to do with vast expanses of degraded land in Indonesia.”

Tisha Ramadhini (centre) and Paul Schuelle (right) from social forestry venture Fairventures, winner of the 2022 edition of The Liveability Challenge, receiving the prize from judge Lim Hock Chuan, head of programmes, Temasek Foundation. This marks the first time in the Challenge’s history that a nature-based solution has won top prize. Image: Eco-Business

The winner was chosen from a field of finalists that included an initiative to curb the energy consumption of data centre through artificial intelligence and digital twin technology by a team from Singapore called Red Dot Analytics, and a large-scale carbon sequestration project by British team CQUESTR8.

Also among the finalists were GAIT, a team from Singapore and New Zealand that measures carbon, and Wasna, a team from Belgium and Singapore that makes low-cost cultivated meat using a universal serum.

The sixth finalist was ImpacFat, a Japan-Singapore team that produces alternative meat products using cell-based fish fat.

Additional prizes of S$50,000 from Quest Ventures went to Fairventures and ImpacFat, S$100,000 from Purpose Venture Capital was awarded to Red Dot Analytics, and S$100,000 from Amasia went to GAIT.

A further S$100,000 from PlanetRise was awarded to Fairventures. Wasna was also given S$100,000 by Silverstrand Capital.

According to an audience poll, Red Dot Analytics was the most popular candidate, followed by GAIT and Wasna.

Last year’s Liveability Challenge winner was SeaChange, a US-based company which produced construction materials like concrete and cement from CO2 dissolved in seawater.

Other past winners include TurtleTreeLabs, a Singapore-based company developing lab-grown milk, and Sophie’s Kitchen, a US-based firm developing sustainable, microalgae-based proteins.

Source Eco Business

Bountiful wind, sun boost German renewable power this year

Posted on March 29, 2022 by dishanth

Germany recorded about 25% more electricity generated from renewable sources in the first three months of the year compared with the same period last year thanks to unusually windy and sunny weather, industry officials said Monday.

Preliminary calculations by the energy lobby group BDEW and the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research indicate that Germany generated about 74.5 billion kilowatt hours of renewable power in the first quarter.

Renewable energy provided about 54% of Germany’s energy needs in January and February, they said.

The German government has pledged to ramp up the use of solar and wind power as part of its plan to wean the country off Russian fossil fuels because of the war in Ukraine.

But like other European countries, Germany is expected to fill part of the shortfall with fossil fuel imports from other regions of the world in the short term.

Source Independent

Germany’s Scholz seals deal to end Merkel era

Posted on December 9, 2021December 9, 2021 by dishanth

Olaf Scholz will head a three-party coalition with broad plans for Germany’s transition to a green economy, under a deal to end 16 years of government led by Angela Merkel.

Almost two months after his Social Democrat party won federal elections, he will go into power with the Greens and business-friendly Free Democrats.

Climate protection forms a big part of the coalition deal.

The parties aim to phase out coal use by 2030, eight years ahead of schedule.

They will also seek to use 2% of German territory for wind power and focus on hydrogen-based energy too. By 2030, the parties want 80% of electricity to be sourced from renewable energy and 15 million electric cars to be on German roads.

There are also plans to legalise the sale of cannabis in licensed premises, with controls on the quality and distribution of the drug.

Germany is Europe’s biggest economy, so decisions taken by the new government will have a big effect on its neighbours.

In a news conference, Mr Scholz, 63, said “sovereignty of Europe is a cornerstone of our foreign policy”. He highlighted Germany’s friendship with France and partnership with the US.

He spoke of daring to make greater progress in a coalition “on equal terms”. He also pointed out that the three parties’ wider memberships still had to approve what has been labelled a “traffic-light” coalition, because of the parties’ red, yellow and green colours.

Olaf Scholz has served as vice chancellor since 2018 but is set to take over from Angela Merkel in the second week of December

He will only take over as chancellor from Mrs Merkel after a vote in the Bundestag, expected between 6 and 9 December.

Mr Scholz will enter office during a difficult period of the Covid-19 pandemic, with Germany one of several European countries where infections have skyrocketed to record levels in recent weeks.

On Wednesday, he said the coalition would ramp up vaccinations and consider making jabs compulsory for health staff and other essential worker.

“The situation is bleak,” Mr Scholz said. “The coronavirus is still not vanquished.”

‘Biggest challenge of our time’

The Social Democrats won the 26 September vote, ahead of Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democrat alliance, which saw its worst-ever election result. The Greens achieved their best-ever result, under candidate Annalena Baerbock, who spoke of an ambitious alliance aiming to start a paradigm shift to transform the economy.

Describing the climate crisis as the biggest challenge of our time she said: “We can transform our economy so it becomes climate neutral. We have an agreement where climate neutrality is a common denominator.”

Ms Baerbock is expected to become foreign minister in the new government, while her Greens co-leader Robert Habeck gets the role of vice-chancellor as well as overseeing energy transition.

The new finance minister is set to be Christian Lindner, the Free Democrat leader whose party has a wide following of young voters. “The younger generation has given us this job to overcome the status quo of recent years,” he said.

What are their plans?

Making Germany climate neutral by 2045 is a big focus of the deal, entitled “Daring more progress”. Phasing out coal will take place “ideally” by 2030, and solar energy will become compulsory on the roofs of new commercial buildings and the general rule for new private homes. The 16 states will have to provide 2% of their area for wind power. The goal to phase out cars with internal combustion engines remains the EU’s target of 2035.

Minimum wages will rise to €12 (£10) an hour and another 400,000 new apartments will be built every year, a quarter of which will be social housing, to tackle Germany’s housing crisis.

The voting age will be lowered from 18 to 16, with plans to reform electoral law to bring an end to ever-increasing numbers of MPs. The new Bundestag has 735 seats. Changing the voting age for European elections requires a simple parliamentary majority, but for federal elections it would need two-thirds support.

Immigrants will be able to apply for German citizenship after five years. They will also be allowed dual citizenship under the coalition’s plans. This would transform the lives of millions of immigrants, many of who remain foreign nationals despite having lived in Germany for decades.

A Covid crisis team will be set up at the chancellery to focus on the pandemic. Mr Scholz said vaccination was the way out of the pandemic and in some care settings involving vulnerable people it should be made compulsory. Mr Scholz said the coalition had agreed to invest €1bn in bonuses for health workers.

On foreign policy, the parties said they wanted “to raise Europe’s strategic sovereignty”, which effectively means more independence on energy, security and other international issues. However, Germany’s relationship with the US and its membership of the Nato alliance will remain central to its security.

Germany’s no-new-debt rule was lifted during the pandemic as more funds were needed to address the crisis. But by 2023, the coalition says it wants to bring back the debt brake which is enshrined in Germany’s constitution.

A ban on doctors advertising that they carry out abortions will be lifted, to enable public information to be provided about the method without fear of prosecution.

Source BBC

Green hydrogen: How half the water flushing a toilet could power your home for days

Posted on November 9, 2021 by dishanth

Emission-free hydrogen could, one day, entirely replace fossil fuels – and a start up in Germany believes it has the key ingredient to make it accessible to all.

Born in a climate-change affected South Pacific Island, Vaitea Cowan believes deeply in green hydrogen technology. She co-founded Enapter more than three years ago.

“I wanted to replace all the diesel generators in New Caledonia and all the remote areas that didn’t need to rely on dirty diesel, ” she says.

“But then realising the potential for green hydrogen to replace fossil fuels, I wanted to be part of this change.”

Green solutions will only be adopted if they are the most economically attractive. And that’s our mission at an after to make green hydrogen cost-competitive with fossil fuels.

Vaitea Cowan, Co-founder, Enapter

With headquarters in Germany, the company has deployed its ion exchange membrane electrolysers in over 100 projects across 33 countries. The technology turns renewable electricity into emission-free hydrogen gas.

Developed more quickly and cheaply than once thought possible, the AEM electrolyser already fuels cars and planes, powers industry and heats homes.

Enapter’s hydrogen generators have recently won Prince William’s Earthshot Prize in the ‘Fix Our Climate’ category.

What is green hydrogen?

Much of the planet’s hydrogen is locked up in water. So-called ‘green’ hydrogen is an emission-free way of extracting it. This extraction relies on renewable energy, which is used to power electrolysis. Electrolysis is the chemical process needed to separate the hydrogen and oxygen atoms in the water.

Extracting hydrogen this way has been facing criticism, because of its low efficiency and high cost. Enapter says, however, that their AEM Electrolyser solves these problems and provides a quick and easy way to produce green energy, even at home.

Half of the water used to flush a toilet can power a home for days

Enapter says its electrolyser uses about 2.4 litres of water to generate enough hydrogen for a couple’s home for several days.

However, the exact number of days depends on the power storage capacity. This amount of water is equal to half of the water used for flushing a toilet once (5 litres), and eight times less than the water consumption of a dishwasher (20 litres).

The Earthshot Prize will help Enapter to start mass production.

“The production site, we started to build six weeks ago, will go into mass production at the beginning of 2023”, says Vaitea.

By 2050, Enapter’s hopes to produce 10% of the world’s hydrogen.

Source euronews.green

Climate pledges see world closing on Paris goal, researchers say

Posted on May 24, 2021 by dishanth

BERLIN — Recent pledges by the United States and other nations could help cap global warming at 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) by the end of the century, but only if goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to “net zero” by 2050 succeed, scientists said Tuesday.

More than 190 countries agreed in Paris six years ago to keep average temperature increases below that level — ideally no more than 1.5 C (2.7 F) — by 2100 compared to pre-industrial times.

The Climate Action Tracker, compiled by a group of researchers who translate emission pledges into temperature estimates, projects that the world is currently set to overshoot the Paris accord’s target by 0.9 degrees.

But if 131 countries that make up almost three-quarters of global emissions meet their pledged or discussed “net zero” goal, then the 2-degree target could be met, said Niklas Hoehne of the New Climate Institute. That’s 0.1 C cooler than the previous optimistic forecast the group made in December.

Hoehne said U.S. President Joe Biden’s recent ambitious new climate goals had contributed significantly to the revised estimate, along with the European Union, China, Japan and Britain.

But the pledges still fall short and have to be further revised going forward, he said.

“We have to halve global emissions in the next 10 years,” he said.

Asked whether the more ambitious goal of 1.5 C is still within reach, Hoehne said it was technically and politically feasible.

Germany has invited about 40 countries to a virtual meeting this week to discuss further international efforts to curb global warming, ahead of a U.N. summit in Glasgow in November.

Germany’s top court last week ordered the government to set clearer goals for emissions reduction after 2030.

Source NBC News