Good News, a lot of private money being drawn to clean energy.
Bad News, climate change is already costing the US a billion dollars every three weeks.
Adapting will cost more than mitigating greenhouse gases.
Assessment from Richard Mattison, S&P Global Sustainable vice chair, attending the COP28 Meeting in Dubai.
Excellent PBS report putting Texas surprising renewable boom in context, with appearances by important players like George W. Bush.
At a moment when Michigan has joined states with an aggressive clean energy mandate, important to point out that Texas’ renewable energy standard predated them all – California, everybody.
Includes a valuable summary of the 2021 Blackout, and shows how that was caused by failure of fossil fuels, primarily gas.
For more on that, see my essential interviews with experts on that topic below. Compare Governor Greg Abbot’s Fox News interview, (either above in the PBS piece or bottom of this post) with his actual statements earlier the same day to savvy, onsite, Texas media.
Greg Abbot’s Fox appearance below. Draw your own conclusion.
Continue reading “PBS NewsHour: Excellent Reporting on Texas’ Renewable Boom”That awkward phase when your global climate conference is chaired by the Arab CEO of one of the world’s largest oil companies.
The president of Cop28, Sultan Al Jaber, has claimed there is “no science” indicating that a phase-out of fossil fuels is needed to restrict global heating to 1.5C, the Guardian and the Centre for Climate Reporting can reveal.
Al Jaber also said a phase-out of fossil fuels would not allow sustainable development “unless you want to take the world back into caves”.
The comments were “incredibly concerning” and “verging on climate denial”, scientists said, and they were at odds with the position of the UN secretary general, António Guterres.
Al Jaber made the comments in ill-tempered responses to questions from Mary Robinson, the chair of the Elders group and a former UN special envoy for climate change, during a live online event on 21 November. As well as running Cop28 in Dubai, Al Jaber is also the chief executive of the United Arab Emirates’ state oil company, Adnoc, which many observers see as a serious conflict of interest.
Churchill, Manitoba considers “Bear-dar” for early warning on marauding, hungry bears.
NBC’s Anne Thompson has been a hero for her long term reporting on climate impacts.
Kia and Hyundai – “Hold my Beer.”
Hyundai Motor America reported 70,079 vehicle sales in the United States in November (up 10.7% year-over-year), which is the 16th month of consecutive growth. So far this year, the brand sold 726,031 vehicles, over 11% more than a year ago. And there’s even better news for the Korean giant on the electric front.
Last month, sales of the Hyundai E-GMP-based all-electric cars—Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6—amounted to 2,372 and 1,386 respectively, for a total of 3,758. That’s a 216% increase year-over-year. The share of E-GMP BEVs out of Hyundai’s total volume improved to 5.4%, compared to 1.9% a year ago.
On top of that comes sales of Hyundai Kona Electric—for which numbers are not available because it’s counted together with the internal combustion engine Kona—was recently rated at 261 miles of EPA Combined range.
Above, interview with Fred Krupp of Environmental Defense Fund, who lauds new methane commitments.
Below, Guardian account of full on climate denial coming from controversial leadership with ties to the fossil fuel industry.
The president of Cop28, Sultan Al Jaber, has claimed there is “no science” indicating that a phase-out of fossil fuels is needed to restrict global heating to 1.5C, the Guardian and the Centre for Climate Reporting can reveal.
Al Jaber also said a phase-out of fossil fuels would not allow sustainable development “unless you want to take the world back into caves”.
The comments were “incredibly concerning” and “verging on climate denial”, scientists said, and they were at odds with the position of the UN secretary general, António Guterres.
Al Jaber made the comments in ill-tempered responses to questions from Mary Robinson, the chair of the Elders group and a former UN special envoy for climate change, during a live online event on 21 November. As well as running Cop28 in Dubai, Al Jaber is also the chief executive of the United Arab Emirates’ state oil company, Adnoc, which many observers see as a serious conflict of interest.
Continue reading “PBS Newshour: COP28 Update and Concerns”I’ve reported before on new approaches to the “problem” of wind turbine blade recycling.
I put “problem” in quotes, because, like the “problem” of recycling solar panels, the issue exists mainly in the social media disinformation space, egged on by a small army of misinformers and bad actors from various fossil fuel funded “think tanks” and the like.
These flimflammers make a living by relying on the ignorance of the average social media surfer, who has no concept of the scale of current fossil fuel waste streams, especially coal ash, which is the second largest waste stream in the US behind only household garbage.
In the video above, the BBC presenter mentions that wind turbine blades represent a potential 43 million tons of waste by 2050. Sound like a lot?
Only if you don’t understand that we will produce 200 million tons of coal ash, a deadly toxic brew of heavy metals and combustion products, in just the next few months.
Below, researcher Henry Hieslmair breaks it down, making the comparison with another alleged problem, used solar panels.
A do it yourself revolution in Nigeria’s largest city could create a distributed grid unique in the world.
Continue reading “Nigeria’s Push Toward Solar Could be a World Leader”The end of the long-running fuel subsidy last month has increased interest in solar, operators say, which could accelerate progress toward mitigating climate change in Africa’s largest economy. But experts say the government needs a clear plan to make the most of this new opportunity to advance Nigeria’s climate goals, which include eliminating fossil fuel-run generators widely used to keep the lights on in homes and businesses.
Reducing fuel costs was a popular but environmentally and economically costly system.
The state petroleum company, NNPC, says Nigeria spent 4.39 trillion naira ($9.7 billion) on the subsidy last year, leaving the government struggling to finance infrastructure projects, including rail systems that could help reduce emissions from vehicles.
Gas-powered generators also contribute significantly to emissions, having proliferated under the subsidy in a country where only half the population of more than 200 million have access to grid electricity. Those who do often endure blackouts.
Solar adoption, on the other hand, has largely been hampered by relatively high upfront costs, with only 1.25% of Nigerian households installing those systems, according to a 2022 study conducted by Boston Consulting Group and All On.
If 30% of Nigerian households turned to solar by 2030, 5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide would be avoided, reducing emissions from households by 30%, the study added.
The new president has acknowledged that removing the fuel subsidy “will impose an additional burden on the masses of our people,” who have seen gasoline prices triple while struggling with high inflation and unemployment.
I hear people say, “But, back in the time of the dinosaurs, the world was much warmer, but obviously full of life.”
To which I always answer, “Well, that’s an experiment we can run if we want to – but what we do know is that in those times there was no ice on the planet, and oceans were 200 feet higher.”
Usually gets a frown.
No one expects that any time soon, and frankly if things get that warm we will have had much greater worries much, much sooner. But for the sake of making an example, this video is worth bookmarking.
