THE BRIEF [May 1-7’23]
12 chemical plants still emitting climate super pollutant, pumped hydro growing fast, GDP+social cost of carbon and Google still spreads climate misinformation via ads.
Welcome to this week’s edition of The Weekly Climate 🎉
References: [1], [2], [3], [4], [5] and [6].
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‼️News you can’t miss
Here’s one important scary/bad (🙀), good (😻), interesting (😼) and fossil (💩) news item.
🙀 11 chinese chemical plants and one 1 emits climate super pollutant
😻 Pumped hydro is growing fast
😼 What would the impact of GDP be if social cost of carbon was included?
💩 Google promised to stop spreading climate misinformation but are still doing that.
This week’s highlights
[#stiesdal] — Henrik Stiesdal, a Danish inventor and pioneer in the wind power industry, is now leading a start-up that bears his name, pursuing innovative ways to offer clean and affordable energy and tackle climate change. His suite of technologies includes massive tetrahedral structures for floating wind turbines, a new design for an electrolyzer that derives hydrogen gas from water, and an industrial oven that bakes farm waste to prevent carbon dioxide emissions. Stiesdal has raised about $100 million for his company and plans to mostly license the new products to others. He hopes to contribute to a significant cut in greenhouse gas emissions and ensure that Denmark and other Northern Europe countries stay in the forefront of the transition from fossil fuels to other energy sources.
[#legal] — The "rights of nature" legal movement, which argues that natural objects should have similar rights to humans, has gained traction in countries like Ecuador, New Zealand and Uganda, as well as in court rulings in India, Colombia and Bangladesh. The movement aims to grant legal protection to natural objects and ecosystems, such as giving a species of frog the right to exist or an ecosystem the right to be restored. However, some experts are skeptical about the effectiveness of these laws and their potential unintended consequences. The movement is also about changing attitudes towards nature and may have implications for the energy transition.
[#carboncapturepolicy] — Ahead of Cop28, governments are divided over the need for a phase-out of fossil fuels and the role of carbon capture in the energy transition. While some countries underlined the need to phase out fossil fuels, others claimed that they are currently the most affordable form of energy, especially in developing countries. The inclusion of "emissions" in the wording of the phase-out has been interpreted as creating a loophole that leaves the door open to the continuing use of fossil fuels if their emissions are kept out of the atmosphere with carbon capture and storage technology. The debate also revolved around the role of carbon management technologies for existing fossil fuel facilities, with some urging caution due to concerns about the cost, unclear timescales, potential to delay the transition, and environmental impacts.
That’s it for this week folks!
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