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New World Bank president
signals that time is up on billion euro subsidies for fossil fuels
Washington, euronews - October 13, 2023 - Fossil fuel and agricultural subsidies should be redirected to climate action, Ajay Banga suggested at the bank's annual meeting. The World Bank’s new president has called into question the vast amounts of money that governments spend subsidising fossil fuels. Speaking at the bank’s annual meeting in Morocco on Wednesday, Ajay Banga said that the $1.25 trillion (€1.18 tn) that goes towards making fuel, fisheries and agriculture cheaper every year is too much. These three sectors are responsible for up to $6 trillion (€5.7 tn) of environmental impact, and the bank wants to see climate change action prioritised instead. “I'm not saying to get rid of all of those. I consider some of those subsidies mission-critical to the social contract with the government and its citizens. But I don't believe that $1.25 trillion qualifies,” Banga told a panel at the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank in Marrakech. “I just believe that this topic of subsidies needs discussion,” he said, acknowledging that it was not a popular topic given the politics involved. ‘Exactly how we should be responding to the energy crisis’: UK mega wind farm produces first power. Human-driven climate change made South America's deadly heatwaves 100 times more likely, study says
Why do governments subsidise fossil fuels?
Governments around the world spend nearly half a trillion euros a year on making the use of fossil fuels cheaper, according to an IMF report from 2021.
These subsidies come in different forms, including tax breaks, low-interest loans and petrol price caps. The latter, for example, helps limit the cost of fuel for people filling up their cars. Getting rid of subsidies like these can be politically difficult, as it pushes up living costs. But most subsidies actually benefit the rich, according to a recent World Bank report.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has also said that fossil fuel subsidies are ultimately an inefficient way of helping consumers. “It is far better for governments to spend time and money on structural changes that bring down fossil fuel demand, rather than on emergency relief when fuel prices go up,” IEA analysts said earlier this year. In its own ‘Detox Development’ report from June 2023, the World Bank notes that if the social costs of fossil fuels - like their impact on climate change and air pollution - were factored in, then the price would be even greater than their free market price. Getting rid of fossil fuel subsidies will also make it easier for renewables to compete. Stockholm is introducing a petrol and diesel car ban in its city centre to slash emissions
What power does the World Bank have?
Comprising five institutions and 189 member countries, the World Bank aims to wipe out poverty in developing countries. It is also increasingly committed to sustainable development solutions. The bank is pivoting to focus more on climate change, following calls from wealthy governments like the US and Germany that fund it, according to reports from Climate Home News. The World Bank doesn’t have the power to force governments to get rid of fossil fuel subsidies; it can only advise and pressure them. But pressure is mounting on this system from numerous quarters. “People will say that there isn’t money for climate but there is - it’s just in the wrong places,” said the World Bank’s senior managing director Axel Van Trotsenburg when ‘Digital Detox’ came out. “If we could repurpose the trillions of dollars being spent on wasteful subsidies and put these to better, greener uses, we could together address many of the planet’s most pressing challenges,” he added. Phase out or phase down? Fight over fossil fuels heats up in run-up to COP28
Why are agricultural subsidies so controversial too?
Banga told reporters that the bank would “look at every other place where pools of money exist which could be used or redirected - whether it is subsidies in the world on fuel and agriculture that cause environmental issues or whether it is voluntary carbon markets.”
$500 billion (€474 bn) on agricultural subsidies might not sound so harmful on the face of it. But agriculture is the second largest contributor to global greenhouse gases, and industrial farming of livestock is tied to a range of environmental ills.
A recent report from ActionAid found that since the Paris Agreement, banks have provided 20 times more financing to fossil fuels and agriculture activities in the Global South than Global North governments have provided as climate finance to countries on the front lines of the climate crisis.
It called for an end to industrial agricultural subsidies, and more funding for just transitions to renewable energy and agroecology.
hydrogen solution found
Clean Hydrogen: a Call to Action with HPP
NATIONS ARE BUSY FINDING WAYS TO MAKE HYDROGEN PRODUCTION COMPETITIVE THROUGH RENEWABLE ENERGY.
New York, iea – September 21, 2023 - According to data from the International Energy Agency, a kilo of hydrogen produced from natural gas costs on average two dollars, from renewable sources five. The main hub for producing hydrogen capable of powering industries, transport and private homes is all here. Every nation is currently committed to finding ways to make hydrogen production competitive through renewable energy. After careful research, the best solution on the market appears to be present which would also magically solve the problem of pollution, we are talking about the company Hydrogen Production HPP of which Pulpan is CEO which presents innovative engineering for the production of clean energy and hydrogen production; she works only with partners and investors selected by hydrogensupplies@gmail.com who meet high standards of quality and reliability who feel incentivized to improve the world and save it from pollution. The proposed technology is the response to continuous requests for help from institutions to reduce pollution; furthermore it is the serious proposal for the production of clean energy at lower costs to be used in all sectors. The objective is to guarantee more services in the territories in addition to the reduction of pollution, and more employment and work opportunities for citizens. The partners involved do not pursue any financial risk until the entire project is taken over, and from the activation of the structure the economic and energy benefits begin to arrive for the happiness of the partnerships, improving and consequently delivering a better world to our children. It is now the future: CEO Pulpan proposes to reach carbon neutrality more quickly with clean hydrogen also produced with its own technology which responds to the search for true circular energy because the technology it presents consists of forms of energy produced in an ethical and sustainable, i.e. from the transformation of renewable but also recycled sources, without resorting to those of fossil origin, which in addition to being limited throughout the world today also have a strong environmental impact. The engineering project is an example of circular energy because it produces energy and hydrogen from the processing of matter, from the processing of non-recyclable materials and also from organic waste without polluting. In fact, following continuous pollution problems that burden the territories and institutions. CEO Pulpan's technology which also boasts efficient treatment of non-recyclable materials such as: plastic and non-recyclable plastic, industrial waste, separated household waste, sewage sludge, scrap, electronic waste, used tires and oily sludge from storage tanks, scraps from the paper industry and other organic waste materials, all used to produce electricity, heat and hydrogen (depending on the buyer's needs and the input material, some of these can even be reintroduced into the value chain and reconverted and reused directly in new materials). The plant meets the demands of the territories and offers enough energy at costs much lower than the market because it can treat and process 2000 tons of material per day. With this system, companies can, on the one hand, solve their disposal problems and, on the other hand, use electricity as well as the low-cost hydrogen created in the disposal process, for example for fuel cell trains, cars, buses , trucks or other manufacturing processes. This technology is certainly the cheapest process for making hydrogen available in large quantities without producing pollution.
New Energy Efficiency Directive published
BY THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION
Brussel, commissioneurope - September 20, 2023 - The new, recast Energy Efficiency Directive (EU) 2023/1791, which was adopted by the European Parliament and the Council earlier this year, has been published in the EU Official Journal today and will enter into force in 20 days. After its entry into force, EU Member States will have two years to transpose most of the different elements in the directive into national law. Today’s publication marks the final step in the legislative process that started with the Commission proposal in July 2021, as part of the ‘Fit for 55’ package, which was supplemented by an additional proposal as part of the REPowerEU plan in May 2022. The new directive introduces a series of measures to help accelerate energy efficiency, including embracing the “energy efficiency first” principle in the energy and non-energy policies. Changes from the previous directives 2018/2002 and 2012/27/EU include the following Establishing an EU legally-binding target to reduce the EU’s final energy consumption by 11.7% by 2030 (relative to the 2020 reference scenario). This includes for each Member State the requirement to set its indicative national contribution based on objective criteria reflecting national circumstances. If the national contributions do not add up to the EU target, an ambition gap mechanism is applied by the Commission. Increasing annual energy savings from 0.8% (at present) to 1.3% (2024-2025), then 1.5% (2026-2027) and 1.9% from 2028 onwards. That’s an average of 1.49% of new annual savings for the period from 2024-2030. Obliging Member States to prioritise vulnerable customers and social housing within the scope of their energy savings measures. Introducing an annual energy consumption reduction target of 1.9% for the public sector as a whole. Extending the annual 3% buildings renovation obligation to all the levels of public administration. Introducing a different approach, based on energy consumption, for business to have an energy management system or to carry out an energy audits. Bringing in a new obligation to monitor the energy performance of data centres, with an EU-level database collecting and publishing data. Promoting local heating & cooling plans in larger municipalities. Progressively increasing the efficient energy consumption in heat or cold supply, also in district heating.
DOE Awards $2M for Innovations to Source Domestic Lithium from Geothermal Brines
The solutions will advance cost-effective methods for the U.S. to secure a domestic lithium resource
Washington, Industrial Media Staff - September 19, 2023 - The U.S. Department of Energy announced the winners of its first-ever American-Made Geothermal Lithium Extraction Prize. Three teams will split a total of $2 million for prototyped innovations to directly extract lithium from the hot water used to produce geothermal energy, known as geothermal brines. Lithium is a crucial element in the clean energy supply chain, but the U.S. currently imports about 99% of its lithium supply. Work under the prize helps support access to cost-effective, domestic sources of this critical mineral for batteries for stationary storage and electric vehicles. Advancing geothermal lithium extraction will also help ensure American leadership in the clean energy future and create U.S. jobs and a strong domestic supply chain. Geothermal brines often have high concentrations of minerals like lithium, salt and zinc. While exact concentrations of these minerals depend on the location and surrounding geology, the use of direct lithium extraction (DLE) in geothermal brines offers a promising opportunity to source domestic lithium - while also generating clean electricity from geothermal resources. DOE’s Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO) launched the Geothermal Lithium Extraction Prize to help cost-effectively advance and scale DLE technologies and techniques. Over the course of two years, Geothermal Lithium Extraction Prize competitors advanced through three competition phases - moving from concepts developed in phase 1, through a design stage in phase 2 and finally to fabricating and testing prototypes in the third and final phase.
Chemists Uses Nature as Inspiration for Sustainable, Affordable Adhesive System
Current adhesives create all sorts of environmental problems
West Lafayette, Purdue University - September 14, 2023 - Glue holds the world together. Without adhesives, much of modern human civilization — including our cellphones, cars, furniture, walls and the packages arriving on our doorstep — would simply fall apart. The trouble with all those adhesives is that they are not sustainable. A team of chemists at Purdue University led by Jonathan Wilker, professor of chemistry in the College of Science and of materials engineering, aims to change that with a new, completely sustainable adhesive system. The team’s findings were released in a paper in Nature. “Our current adhesives create all sorts of environmental problems,” Wilker said. “Almost all glues are petroleum-based and do not degrade. The bonded materials in our products stay stuck together. Consequently, we cannot recycle many of the materials that we put into our recycling bins. Discarded products will sit in landfills for centuries and, sometimes, contribute to ocean microplastics.” Wilker and his lab have spent years studying the science of sticky substances, analyzing marine animals that adhere, like mussels and oysters and trying to create better, sustainable, affordable adhesives that work as well as any glue from the hardware store. He has a drawer of those commercial glues in his lab, which give off a strong and familiar smell. “Those volatile petrochemicals in these glues can be toxic, which is a further problem with current technologies,” Wilker said. One example is the common building material plywood, which is formed of wood pieces held together with formaldehyde-based adhesives. Newly built houses are off-gassing formaldehyde, exposing residents to this carcinogen. These substances are harmful both to the environment and to human health. However, people and companies are accustomed to using traditional adhesives; they’re strong, easy to produce and relatively inexpensive. Any new adhesive must work at least as well as traditional products, which is why Wilker keeps that drawer around: to test them, side by side, against innovative substances. “By studying how nature makes adhesives, we are learning how to design new technologies for our future society,” Wilker said. “Given all of the problems generated by current glues, we feel an obligation to create something better. Ideally, new adhesives will be bio-based and nontoxic. Strengths should be as high as current products. Then we would like to bond them strongly when needed and also be able to take the substrates apart when wanted. Further design constraints that we grapple with, in order to have impact, are costs needing to be low and having all starting compounds available at large scales.” After a series of experiments on a range of different biologically sourced and sustainable ingredients, the team settled on epoxidized soy oil for a main component. Epoxidized soy oil is already produced globally on a massive scale. For their work, the smallest container that they could purchase was a 55-gallon drum of the substance. Since each experiment uses just a little epoxidized soy oil, the level in their drum has dropped only a few inches after several years of testing. Wilker and his team added the epoxidized soy oil to malic acid, a compound most known for giving apples their tart flavor. Then they added tannic acid, to provide an aspect of the chemistry that mussels use for attaching themselves to rocks and each other. Tannic acid is a component of tannins, common in trees, red wine and black tea. Those three ingredients added up to an adhesive that is inexpensive, effective, scalable, practical to produce and completely sustainable. “If you combine these components under the right conditions, adhesives can be made that are as strong as epoxies,” Wilker said. Epoxies are generally considered to be the highest performance class of adhesives. “All of the components are bio-based, safe and already available at train car scales. A bonus is that the adhesive is easy to make. Basically, you can mix and heat the components.” Other bio-based compounds can also be used with epoxidized soy oil, generating an entire family of new sustainable adhesives. To test the adhesive’s performance, the scientists bonded together objects — wood, plastics or metals — and then used an instrument for breaking the bonds and measuring forces. In many cases, their new adhesives held up well, sometimes performing similarly to, or even better than, traditional toxic adhesives such as a superglue and an epoxy. Further research will refine the system and work to maximize societal and environmental impacts in areas ranging from medical innovations to industrial materials to packaging. Their team’s innovations may pave the way to a more sustainable system for holding the world together. Wilker disclosed his adhesives to the Purdue Innovates Office of Technology Commercialization, which has applied for a patent to protect the intellectual property. This research was supported by the Office of Naval Research.
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