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Rethinking Climate Change
James Arbib shares his vision on addressing the Climate Challenge in an effective uplifting manner.
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- Are we doomed?
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Labour’s ‘rooftop revolution’ to deliver solar power to millions of UK homes
Ed Miliband sets new rules on solar panels and approves three giant solar farms as Labour seeks to end years of Tory inaction
Keir Starmer’s Labour government unveils plans for a “rooftop revolution” today that will see millions more homes fitted with solar panels in order to bring down domestic energy bills and tackle the climate crisis.
The energy secretary, Ed Miliband, also took the hugely controversial decision this weekend to approve three massive solar farms in the east of England that had been blocked by Tory ministers.
The three sites alone – Gate Burton in Lincolnshire, Sunnica’s energy farm on the Suffolk-Cambridgeshire border and Mallard Pass on the border between Lincolnshire and Rutland – will deliver about two-thirds of the solar energy installed on rooftops and on the ground in the whole of last year.
Now, before Wednesday’s king’s speech, which will include legislation for setting up the new publicly owned energy company GB Energy, ministers are working with the building industry to make it easier to buy new homes with panels installed, or instal them on existing ones.
Ministers are looking at bringing in solar-related standards for new-build properties from next year.
At present, while formal planning permission is not required, there are restrictions on where and how high up on buildings they can be placed. There are also restrictions in conservation areas and on listed buildings. These may also be re-examined.
Miliband, who has promised to triple the amount of solar power in the UK by 2030, as well as double onshore wind and quadruple offshore wind, said on Saturday night: “I want to unleash a UK solar rooftop revolution. We will encourage builders and homeowners in whatever way we can to deliver this win-win technology to millions of addresses in the UK so people can provide their own electricity, cut their bills and at the same time help fight climate change.”
His officials insisted the new government was showing its willingness to “take on the Nimbys” as part of the fight against the climate crisis.
As one of his first acts last week, Miliband lifted the Tories’ de facto ban on the building of new onshore windsfarms.
Miliband’s rapid moves on solar power were welcomed by UK energy experts, who said they would speedily rectify a huge imbalance in the use of renewable energy in Britain.
At present, most power from renewable sources is concentrated in the north but has to be transmitted to the south, where demand is most intense. “Unfortunately, these transmission lines are congested and power supplies from the north to the south are often curtailed,” said Sugandha Srivastav, of Oxford University’s Smith School of Enterprise and Environment.
“Instead, gas generators have to be turned on to provide electricity for households in the south, and as we all know, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, gas can be extremely expensive. So solar in the south is going to fix a key problem. It will keep power costs low, which is what we desperately need.” In addition, the opening of the Gate Burton, Sunnica and Mallard Pass solar farms will increase the nation’s capacity for using solar radiation to generate electricity. “The three farms will have a capacity of around 1.35 gigawatts, which is almost 10% of current capacity– so this is very welcome,” said Hamish Beath, an energy consultant at Imperial College London.
However, the decisions have caused local outcries. The Tory MP for Rutland and Stamford, Alicia Kearns, said she was “utterly appalled” by Miliband’s decision to give the go-ahead to the Mallard Pass farm.
The government hit back, saying the move was justified on the grounds it will provide clean energy to power about 92,000 homes over the next 60 years.
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‘Dark oxygen’ in depths of Pacific Ocean could force rethink about origins of life
Charged metallic lumps found to produce oxygen in total darkness in process akin to how plants use photosynthesis
In the total darkness of the depths of the Pacific Ocean, scientists have discovered oxygen being produced not by living organisms but by strange potato-shaped metallic lumps that give off almost as much electricity as AA batteries.
The surprise finding has many potential implications and could even require rethinking how life first began on Earth, the researchers behind a study said on Monday.
It had been thought that only living things such as plants and algae were capable of producing oxygen via photosynthesis – which requires sunlight.
But four kilometres (2.5 miles) below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, where no sunlight can reach, small mineral deposits called polymetallic nodules have been recorded making so-called dark oxygen for the first time.
The discovery was made in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), an abyssal plain stretching between Hawaii and Mexico, where mining companies have plans to start harvesting the nodules.
The lumpy nodules – often called “batteries in a rock” – are rich in metals such as cobalt, nickel, copper and manganese, which are all used in batteries, smartphones, wind turbines and solar panels.
The international team of scientists sent a small vessel to the floor of the CCZ aiming to find out how mining could affect the strange and little-understood animals living where no light can reach.
“We were trying to measure the rate of oxygen consumption by the seafloor,” lead study author Andrew Sweetman of the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) told AFP.
To do so, they used a contraption called a benthic chamber, which snatched up a bunch of sediment.
Normally, the amount of oxygen trapped in the chamber “decreases as its used up by organisms as they respire”, Sweetman said.
But this time the opposite happened – the amount of oxygen increased. This was not supposed to happen in complete darkness where there is no photosynthesis.
This was so shocking that the researchers initially thought their underwater sensors must have been on the blink. So they brought up some nodules to their ship to repeat the test. Once again, the amount of oxygen increased.
They then noticed how the nodules were carrying a startling electric charge.
On the surface of the nodules, the team “amazingly found voltages almost as high as are in an AA battery”, Sweetman said. This charge could split seawater into hydrogen and oxygen in a process called seawater electrolysis, the researchers said.
This chemical reaction occurs at about 1.5 volts – approximately the charge of an AA battery.
Nicholas Owens, the SAMS director, said it was “one of the most exciting findings in ocean science in recent times”.
The discovery of oxygen produced outside of photosynthesis “requires us to rethink how the evolution of complex life on the planet might have originated”, he said.
“The conventional view is that oxygen was first produced around 3bn years ago by ancient microbes called cyanobacteria and there was a gradual development of complex life thereafter,” Owens said.
Sweetman said the team’s discovery showed that “life could have started elsewhere than on land”.
“And, if the process is happening on our planet, could it be helping to generate oxygenated habitats on other ocean worlds such as Enceladus and Europa and providing the opportunity for life to exist?” he said.
The study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, was partly funded by Canada’s The Metals Company, which is aiming to start mining the nodules in the CCZ next year.
Source
Temasek ramps up sustainable living, decarbonisation drive
The Singapore state fund released its first sustainability report outlining top priorities when announcing its annual results.
Temasek is looking to increase its investments in areas that promote sustainable living, focusing on companies whose products and services align with environmental and social objectives. “Amidst the four structural trends around which we make investments...This is the fastest growing part,” Temasek Chief Investment Officer Rohit Sipahimalani said at the release of the fund's inaugural sustainability report. The document outlines the fund’s strategy to achieve net zero by 2050. Temasek’s four structural trends around which investments are made include sustainable living, digitisation, the future of consumption, and longer lifespans.
Sustainable living used to be the smallest segment among the four from 2016 to 2022. It now grows into the largest. As of March 31, the value of investments aligned with its sustainable living investment trend reached S$44 billion ($32.6 billion). Temasek has invested S$3 billion in this structural trend over the past financial year. This is the first time the state-owned investor has publicly disclosed the figure, which accounted for 12% of its net portfolio value of S$389 billion in FY2024 ended March 31. Relevant investments include companies in real estate, including Mapletree and CapitaLand. Agri-food companies such as DeHaat, and industrials such as Ascend Elements are also part of the portfolio. Sembcorp Industries and Topsoe are among its climate transition investments.
EMISSIONS ACCOUNTING
Temasek increased its internal carbon price on April 1 by 30% to $65 per ton of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e). An internal carbon price is a monetary cost that companies can assign to their carbon emissions. The fund intends to progressively raise its carbon price to $100 per tCO2e by 2030. Annually, Temasek deducts the carbon footprint of its portfolio multiplied by a carbon price from a portion of returns above the cost of capital, earmarking this amount for management incentives. The returns above the cost of capital are deferred until it achieves the 2030 goals. "So, this is not just a theoretical number," Sipahimalani said.
He said Temasek reviews its internal carbon price every two years, and even the 2030 target could be raised or lowered based on forward-looking estimates. The investor has seen a year-on-year reduction in total portfolio emissions by 22%, or 6 million tCO2e. The reduction was primarily driven by three factors: the sale of Sembcorp Energy India Limited, decarbonisation efforts by Temasek’s portfolio companies, and changes in portfolio composition. “We should, however, expect a nonlinear trajectory of portfolio emissions as we journey towards net zero,” Sipahimalani caveated.
The state investor is also selectively looking to invest in comparatively high-emitting industries such as businesses involved in energy-transition commodities. Such investments come under consideration if they have a clear transition pathway, according to Temasek.
The top five companies making approximately 80% of total portfolio emissions are Singapore Airlines, Sembcorp Industries, Olam Group, PSA International, and ST Telemedia.
Temasek is also committed to decarbonising via three key pathways, the fund announced at its sustainability briefing. Firstly, it plans to step up investments that support the transition to a low-carbon economy, including hydrogen technologies, energy-efficient solutions, and alternative production processes in hard-to-abate sectors. Secondly, Temasek will engage major portfolio companies with the highest potential for impact on their climate transition journeys and decarbonization plans. Thirdly, it will leverage voluntary carbon markets to enable nature and technology-based solutions that support decarbonisation and conserve natural systems.
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Oslo's 'Climate Budget' Is Building a Cleaner City
In the stylish Grünerløkka neighborhood in Oslo, construction workers are busy rehabilitating Sophies Minde, an old medical clinic, into a new nursery school and maternal health center. Tidy piles of building materials along the perimeter of the construction site wait to join the choreography of excavators and workers moving in deliberate sequence. But amid the activity, one tell-tale indicator of construction remains notably absent: noise.
Oslo is one of fastest growing cities in Europe and construction is critical to transforming its urban landscape. But thanks to the city’s climate policy, construction is now going net zero — eliminating greenhouse gas emissions — by using electric machinery and other interventions to reduce the use of fossil fuels.
"This is something I have worked towards for three years," said Mathias Kolsaker, a construction project manager at Sophies Minde. "I notice the difference when I go out on the construction site and hear how silent these electrical machines are compared to the old diesel-driven machines."
Quieter and cleaner construction sites are just one way the city is being shaped by its Climate Budget, which was created in 2016 by Oslo’s Climate Agency after Norway signed the 2015 Paris Agreement to help limit global temperature rise well below 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F).
The fiscal tool puts a cap on climate-harming emissions permitted across the city each year, monitors progress over time and helps identify the most impactful interventions. And since it is integrated into the yearly municipal budgeting process, it builds accountability for achieving high targets.
The results have been dramatic, prompting changes in multiple sectors, improving people’s lives and creating a model that other cities are now following.
Urban contributions to climate change are complex and not easy to track. How do city governments begin to change the trajectory of the many different sources of urban greenhouse gas emissions? And how can we be sure urban emissions are actually declining?
The Climate Budget is Oslo’s way of ensuring accountability for its ambitious pledge to reduce its city-level greenhouse gas emissions by 95% by 2030 compared to 2009 levels.
"The Climate Budget was started because our politicians got tired of climate action plans that they … sent out into the bureaucracy, but then it was never really followed up," said Heidi Sørensen, director of the Oslo Climate Agency. "They needed a governance system."
Now climate considerations are at the heart of policymaking for the city. The Climate Budget allows city agencies to share the burden of emissions reduction in a transparent, collaborative manner that is anchored within the finance department. While the resulting actions taken are not necessarily unique to Oslo, the Climate Budget is a novel framework that ensures accountability of greenhouse gas emissions reduction.
"Everyone who has a budget could have a climate budget," said Sørensen. "It will create a better city, with lots of co-benefits that all people, even those who are a little bit skeptical of climate change, will benefit from."
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