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Tag: Environmental concerns

  • Saudi Arabia has ‘green vision’ at COP27, critics unmoved

    Saudi Arabia has ‘green vision’ at COP27, critics unmoved

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    SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt — Hydrogen cars and vehicles that capture their tailpipe pollutants. Computer mice made from recycled ocean waste plastic. Hundreds of millions of trees planted in the desert. Saudi Arabia’s vision of an environmentally friendly future is on display just a short drive from the venue of the U.N. climate summit being held in Egypt.

    What’s not highlighted in the glossy gallery are the earth-warming fossil fuels that the country continues to pump out of the ground for global export. Fossil fuel emissions are the reason why negotiators from nearly 200 countries have gathered at the annual two-week conference, haggling over how pollution can be cut and how fast to do it.

    In and around the conference, Saudi Arabia is presenting itself as a leader in green energies and eco-friendly practices, with flashy pavilions, glossy presentations and optimistic assessments of technologies like carbon capture, which can remove carbon dioxide from the air but is costly and years away from being deployed at scale.

    “We have hugely ambitious goals and targets,” Saudi climate envoy Adel al-Jubeir said at the two-day Saudi Green Initiative Forum on COP27′s sidelines. “We want to be an example to the world in terms of what can be done.”

    The effort is part of a large push by Saudi Arabia, which has some of the world’s largest reserves of oil and is a leader of the OPEC oil cartel, to make the case that the nation should be part of the transition to renewable energies while holding on to its role as the top global crude oil exporter. That vision is sharply contested by climate scientists and environmental experts, who argue that Saudi Arabia and other countries with large reserves of oil simply want to distract the world to continue with business as usual.

    The Saudi energy minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman al Saud, announced a raft of new green projects or updates to existing ones, from beefed up tree planting pledges to fresh solar energy energy projects in the pipeline.

    Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched his Saudi Green Initiative ahead of last year’s COP26 conference in Glasgow, Scotland, with a target for “net zero” greenhouse gas emissions by 2060.

    Still, energy exports are the Saudi economy’s mainstay, earning $150 billion in annual revenue, despite efforts to diversify revenue as the global transition away from fossil fuel reliance accelerates.

    At the Saudi forum, officials and invited guest speakers from renewable energy companies held forth on topics like clean hydrogen, greening the desert, and a futuristic desert city project called Neom.

    State-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco’s CEO, Amin Nasser, said the world needs more investment in oil and gas, not less, a message at odds with the sentiment among many country delegations and climate experts and activists attending COP27.

    “I’m concerned because of lack of investment in the oil and gas in particular,” said Nasser, touching on a frequent theme. Saudi Arabia has resisted calls to urgently phase out fossil fuels, warning that a premature switch has led to price spikes and shortages.

    “Yes, there is good investment happening in the alternatives,” such as wind and solar power, he said, adding that the amount of money spent on oil production capacity has fallen to $400 billion a year from $700 billion in 2014.

    “That is not enough to meet global demand in the mid to long term,” he said.

    An Aramco spokesman said Nasser wasn’t available for an interview.

    Among the Saudi announcements, there were plans to set up a regional center to “advance emissions reductions” and one to host a regional climate week ahead of next year’s COP meeting.

    Saudi Arabia is also set to build 13 renewable energy projects with a total generating capacity of 11.4 gigawatts, though experts said that’s a step back from numbers announced in previous years.

    Once they’re up and running, the new energy projects will cut carbon dioxide emissions by about 20 million tons a year.

    Saudi Aramco plans to build the world’s biggest carbon capture and storage hub, which will store up to 9 million tons of carbon dioxide when its up and running in 2027.

    It’s all part of the kingdom’s pledged to cut emissions by 278 million tons a year by 2030. That’s still small compared to about 10 billion metric tons of carbon spewed globally into the air annually.

    The kingdom also upgraded its tree planting goal to 600 million by 2030, including mangroves, up from its 450 million initial target.

    Climate experts weren’t convinced.

    “Saudi Arabia would be better placed to focus on cutting emissions rather than relying on carbon capture and storage and questionable reductions from planting trees, the offsets of which would simply allow them to continue increasing emissions from burning fossil fuels,” said Mia Moisio, a an energy policy expert focusing on Middle East and North Africa at the New Climate Institute think tank.

    “To keep emissions on a 1.5˚C pathway, all governments must focus on cutting fossil fuel emissions, not offsetting them.”

    The Climate Action Tracker, operated by the institute and its partners, rates Saudi Arabia as “highly insufficient.”

    The tracker analyzes nations’ climate targets and policies compared to the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement that spells out ideally limiting the Earth’s temperature rise to 1.5 Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit).

    Saudi authorities are promoting what they call a “circular carbon economy” to cut emissions from oil and gas operations, but the tracker says this it “only addresses a fraction of relevant emissions in Saudi Arabia and globally, as most emissions related to oil and gas come from fuel combustion rather than extraction and processing.”

    Saudi Arabia’s oil and gas assets spew 900 million tons of emissions a year, according to an inventory of top known sources of greenhouse gas emitters compiled by the Climate TRACE coalition and launched at COP27.

    There’s also a plan for a greenhouse gas crediting and offsetting scheme next year, with few details. Carbon credits, which allow countries and companies to pay to reduce their carbon footprints, say by planting trees, have become increasingly controversial, with critics saying they’re a license for polluting companies to keep polluting.

    At least year’s talks in Glasgow, Saudi Arabia faced accusations that its negotiators were working to block climate measures that would threaten demand for oil – a charge that the energy minister called a lie.

    As negotiations on the final agreement head into their second and final week, watchdog groups warned about the influence of so-called petrostates and industry lobbyists. They counted 636 people linked to fossil fuel companies on the meeting’s provisional list of participants, a quarter more than last year’s tally.

    “The Saudis may well be coming to COP27 with a green hat on and extolling the virtues of planting trees, but this is a state that continues to profit wildly from the destructive practices causing the climate crisis,” said Alice Harrison, a campaigner at Global Witness, one of the groups that did the count. “Any exhibitions, talks or shows to the contrary are pure greenwashing.”

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    Follow AP’s climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

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    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Cocoa farmers fear climate change lowering crop production

    Cocoa farmers fear climate change lowering crop production

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    KOREAGUI, Ivory Coast — For more than 40 years, Jean Baptiste Saleyo has farmed cocoa on several acres of his family’s land in Ivory Coast, a West African nation that produces almost half the world’s supply of the raw ingredient used in chocolate bars.

    But this year Saleyo says the rains have become unpredictable, and he fears his crop could be yet another victim of climate change.

    “When it should have rained, it didn’t, it didn’t rain,” Saleyo said as he inspected the ripeness of one of his cocoa pods. “It’s raining now, but its already too late.”

    Cocoa farming employs nearly 600,000 farmers here in Ivory Coast, ultimately supporting nearly a quarter of the country’s population — about 6 million people, according to the Coffee-Cocoa Council.

    And it makes up about 15% of Ivory Coast’s national GDP, according to official figures.

    National production remains on track because the amount of land being cultivated is on the rise. But experts say small-scale farmers are hurting this year. For the cocoa tree to fruit well, rains need to come at the right times in the growing cycle. Coming at the wrong times risks crop disease.

    Some who are used to producing 500 kilograms are looking at only 200 kilograms this year, said Jean Yao Brou, secretary-general of the Anouanze cooperative, which helps farmers bring their crops to markets.

    “Our producers have big worries with the production,” he said.

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  • UN climate talks near halftime with key issues unresolved

    UN climate talks near halftime with key issues unresolved

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    SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt — As the U.N. climate talks in Egypt near the half-way point, negotiators are working hard to draft deals on a wide range of issues they’ll put to ministers next week in the hope of getting a substantial result by the end.

    The two-week meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh started with strong appeals from world leaders for greater efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions and help poor nations cope with global warming.

    Scientists say the amount of greenhouse gases being pumped into the atmosphere needs to be halved by 2030 to meet the goals of the Paris climate accord. The 2015 pact set a target of ideally limiting temperature rise to 1.5 Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) by the end of the century, but left it up to countries to decide how they want to do so.

    With impacts from climate change already felt across the globe, particularly by the world’s poorest, there has also been a push by campaigners and developing nations for rich polluters to stump up more cash. This would be used to help developing countries shift to clean energy and adapt to global warming; increasingly there are also calls for compensation to pay for climate-related losses.

    Here is a look at the main issues on the table at the COP27 talks and how they might be reflected in a final agreement.

    KEEPING COOL

    The hosts of last year’s talks in Glasgow said they managed to “keep 1.5 alive,” including by getting countries to endorse the target in the outcome document. But U.N. chief Antonio Guterres has warned that the temperature goal is on life support “and the machines are rattling.” And campaigners were disappointed that agenda this year doesn’t explicitly cite the threshold after pushback from some major oil and gas exporting nations. The talks’ chair, Egypt, can still convene discussions on putting it in the final agreement.

    CUTTING EMISSIONS

    Negotiators are trying to put together a mitigation work program that would capture the various measures countries have committed to reducing emissions, including for specific sectors such as energy and transport. Many of these pledges are not formally part of the U.N. process, meaning they cannot easily be scrutinized at the annual meeting. A proposed draft agreement circulated early Saturday had more than 200 square brackets, meaning large sections were still unresolved. Some countries want the plan to be valid only for one year, while others say a longer-term roadmap is needed. Expect fireworks in the days ahead.

    SHUNNING FOSSIL FUELS

    Last year’s meeting almost collapsed over a demand to explicitly state in the final agreement that coal should be phased out. In the end, countries agreed on several loopholes, and there are concerns among climate campaigners that negotiators from nations which are heavily dependent on fossil fuels for their energy needs or as revenue might try to roll back previous commitments.

    MONEY MATTERS

    Rich countries have fallen short on a pledge to mobilize $100 billion a year by 2020 in climate finance for poor nations. This has opened up a rift of distrust that negotiators are hoping to close with fresh pledges. But needs are growing and a new, higher target needs to be set from 2025 onward.

    COMPENSATION

    The subject of climate compensation was once considered taboo, due to concerns from rich countries that they might be on the hook for vast sums. But intense pressure from developing countries forced the issue of ‘loss and damage’ onto the formal agenda at the talks for the first time this year. Whether there will be a deal to promote further technical work or the creation of an actual fund remains to be seen. This could become a key flashpoint in the talks.

    MORE DONORS

    One way to raise additional cash and resolve the thorny issue of polluter payment would be for those countries that have seen an economic boom in the past three decades to step up. The focus is chiefly on China, the world’s biggest emitter, but others could be asked to open their purses too. Broadening the donor base isn’t formally on the agenda but developed countries want reassurances about that in the final texts.

    CASH CONSTRAINTS

    Countries such as Britain and Germany want all financial flows to align with the long-term goals of the Paris accord. Other nations object to such a rule, fearing they may have money withheld if they don’t meet the strict targets. But there is chatter that the issue may get broader support next week if it helps unlock other areas of the negotiations.

    SIDE DEALS

    Last year’s meeting saw a raft of agreements signed which weren’t formally part of the talks. Some have also been unveiled in Egypt, though hopes for a series of announcements on so-called Just Transition Partnerships — where developed countries help poorer nations wean themselves off fossil fuels — aren’t likely to bear fruit until after COP27.

    HOPE TILL THE END

    Jennifer Morgan, a former head of Greenpeace who recently became Germany’s climate envoy, called the talks this year “challenging.”

    “But I can promise you we will be working until the very last second to ensure that we can reach an ambitious and equitable outcome,” she said. “We are reaching for the stars while keeping our feet on the ground.”

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    Follow AP’s climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

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    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Corps finds no radioactive contamination at Missouri school

    Corps finds no radioactive contamination at Missouri school

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    FLORISSANT, Mo. — Testing by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers found no radioactive contamination at a Missouri school that was shut down last month amid fears that nuclear material from a contaminated creek nearby had made its way into the school, Corps officials said Wednesday.

    Teams from the Corps’ St. Louis office began testing the interior of Jana Elementary School in Florissant, Missouri, and the soil around it in late October, days after the school board closed the school. The closure followed testing by a private firm that found levels of radioactive isotope lead-210 that were 22 times the expected level on the kindergarten playground, as well as concerning levels of polonium, radium and other materials inside the building.

    The Corps said preliminary results found no evidence of radioactive material above what would be naturally occurring.

    “From a radiological standpoint, the school is safe,” Col. Kevin Golinghorst, St. Louis District commander for the Corps of Engineers, said in a news release. “We owe it to the public and the parents and children of Jana Elementary School to make informed decisions focused on the safety of the community, and we will continue to take effective actions using accurate data.”

    Corps officials tested inside the school and took samples from 53 locations in the soil on the school grounds. Overall, Golinghorst said, nearly 1,000 samples were taken.

    The Corps said a public event will be held Nov. 16 to discuss the findings with the community.

    A spokeswoman for the Hazelwood School District said officials were in a meeting Wednesday morning but would comment later.

    The school, with about 400 students, sits along Coldwater Creek, a 19-mile (31-kilometer) waterway contaminated decades ago with Manhattan Project atomic waste. The Corps used radiation detection instruments to scan surfaces inside the school, and dug holes up to 28 feet (8.5 meters) deep in the soil.

    Students are taking virtual classes for the next month, then will be reassigned to other schools. It hasn’t been determined when Jana Elementary will reopen.

    Coldwater Creek was contaminated in the 1940s and 1950s when waste from atomic bomb material manufactured in St. Louis got into the waterway near Lambert Airport, where the waste was stored. The result was an environmental mess that resulted in a Superfund declaration in 1989.

    The site near the airport has largely been cleaned up but remediation of the creek itself won’t be finished until 2038, Corps officials have said.

    Children have often played in the creek, and a 2019 federal report determined that those exposed to the waterway from the 1960s to the 1990s may have an increased risk of bone cancer, lung cancer and leukemia. Environmentalists and area residents have cited several instances of extremely rare cancers that have sickened and killed people.

    The Corps of Engineers earlier found contamination in a wooded area near the school, but hadn’t previously tested the school or its grounds. This summer, lawyers involved in a class-action lawsuit representing local residents seeking compensation for illnesses and deaths received permission from the Hazelwood School District to perform testing.

    Results from testing done by Boston Chemical Data Corp. were released in October, prompting the decision to shut down the school. Phone and email messages seeking comment from the law firm that funded the testing weren’t immediately returned on Tuesday.

    It’s unclear exactly what any cleanup would involve, how long it would take or who would pay for it.

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  • Leaders push for climate action, fossil tax at UN talks

    Leaders push for climate action, fossil tax at UN talks

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    SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt — World leaders are making the case for tougher action to tackle global warming Tuesday, as this year’s international climate talks in Egypt heard growing calls for fossil fuel companies to help pay for the damage they have helped cause to the planet.

    United Nations chief Antonio Guterres warned Monday that humanity was on “a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator,” urging countries to “cooperate or perish.”

    He and leaders such as Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley said it was time to make fossil fuel companies contribute to funds which would provide vulnerable countries with financial aid for the climate-related losses they are suffering.

    The idea of a windfall tax on carbon profits has gained traction in recent months amid sky-high earnings for oil and gas majors even as consumers struggle to pay the cost of heating their homes and filling their cars. For the first time, delegates at this year’s U.N. climate conference are to discuss demands by developing nations that the richest, most polluting countries pay compensation for damage wreaked on them by climate change, which in climate negotiations is called “loss and damage.”

    The U.S. mid-term elections were hanging over the talks Tuesday, with many environmental campaigners worried that defeat for the Democrats could make it harder for President Joe Biden to pursue his ambitious climate agenda.

    Also hanging over the conference was the fate of one of Egypt’s most prominent jailed pro-democracy activists, Alaa Abdel-Fattah, who has been imprisoned for most of the past decade. His family stepped up pleas for world leaders to win his release after he stepped up a longtime hunger strike. Abdel-Fattah stopped even drinking water on Sunday, the first day of the conference, vowing he is willing to die if not released, his family says.

    Egypt’s longtime history of suppressing dissent has raised controversy over its hosting of the annual conference, known as COP 27, with many international climate activists complaining that restrictions by the host are quieting civil society.

    On Tuesday, more world leaders were to take the stage, including Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif of Pakistan, where summer floods caused at least $40 billion in damage and displaced millions of people. After the speeches, the conference delegates will delve into negotiations on a range of issues — including for the first time on compensation, known as loss and damage.

    Some of the strongest pleas for action came so far from leaders of poor nations that caused little of the pollution but often get a larger share of the weather-related damage.

    Nigeria’s Environment Minister Mohammed Abdullahi called for wealthy nations to show “positive and affirmative” commitments to help countries hardest hit by climate change. “Our priority is to be aggressive when it comes to climate funding to mitigate the challenges of loss and damage,” he said.

    Leaders of poorer nations, joined by French President Emmanuel Macron, talked about the issue as one of justice and fairness.

    “Our part of the world has to choose between life and death,’’ Tanzania President Samia Suluhu Hassan said.

    “Africa should not pay for crimes they have not committed,” Central African Republic President Faustin Archange Touadera said, adding that rich nations were to blame for the climate problem.

    “Climate change is directly threatening our people’s lives, health and future,” Kenyan President William K. Ruto said of the African continent, which he said is looking at $50 billion a year in climate change damage by 2050. Ruto said Kenya is choosing to not use many of its “dirty energy” resources even though it could help the poor nation financially, and has instead opted for cleaner fuels.

    Loss and damage “is our daily experience and the living nightmare of millions of Kenyans and hundreds of millions of Africans,” Ruto said.

    Seychelles President Wavel John Charles Ramkalawan said, “Like other islands, our contribution in the destruction of the planet is minimal. Yet we suffer the most.” He called on wealthier countries to assist in repairing the damage.

    Meanwhile, the mother of the Egyptian activist Abdel-Fattah, Laila Soueif, called for world leaders, including British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, to pressure the Egyptian government to free him.

    “The Egyptian authorities are your friends and proteges not your adversaries. If Alaa dies you too will have blood on your hands,” she said in a video message on Facebook.

    Soueif, a university professor, said she waited Monday outside the prison where Abdel-Fattah is held for a letter, but received nothing. She was planning to go to the prison Tuesday, hoping for proof her son is alive.

    Abdel-Fattah’s youngest siter, Sanaa Seif, is in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh to raise the case of her brother and other jailed activists. She is scheduled to speak about Egypt’s human rights record in an event along with the Secretary General of Amnesty International Agnes Callamard.

    Sunak said he raised Abdel-Fattah’s case in his meeting Monday with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. Sunak said he would continue to “press for progress” in Abdel-Fattah’s case, according to Downing Street.

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    Follow AP’s climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

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    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Drought tests resilience of Spain’s olive groves and farmers

    Drought tests resilience of Spain’s olive groves and farmers

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    QUESADA, Spain — An extremely hot, dry summer that shrank reservoirs and sparked forest fires is now threatening the heartiest of Spain‘s staple crops: the olives that make the European country the world’s leading producer and exporter of the tiny green fruits that are pressed into golden oil.

    Industry experts and authorities predict Spain’s fall olive harvest will be nearly half the size of last year’s, another casualty of global weather shifts caused by climate change.

    “I am 57 years old and I have never seen a year like this one,” farmer Juan Antonio Delgado said as he walked past his rows of olive trees in the southeast town of Quesada. “My intention is to hang on as long as I can, but when the costs rise above what I make from production we will all be out of a job.”

    High temperatures in May killed many of the blossoms on the olive trees in Spanish orchards. The ones that survived produced fruits that were small and thin because of not enough water. A little less moisture can actually yield better olive oil, but the recent drought is proving too much for them.

    This year has been the third-driest in Spain since records were started in 1964. The Mediterranean country also had its hottest summer on record.

    Spain’s 350,000 olive farmers typically harvest their crops in early October, ahead of their full ripeness, in order to produce the olive oil. But with his olives still too puny to pick, Delgado left most of the fruit on his trees, hoping for rain. So far, no luck.

    If the wished-for rain doesn’t arrive soon, the country will produce nearly half as many olives as it did last year, according to Spain’s agriculture minister.

    “Our forecast for this harvest season is notoriously low,” Agriculture Minister Luis Planas told The Associated Press. “The ministry predicts that it won’t even reach 800,000 tonnes (882,000 U.S. tons),” compared with 1.47 million tonnes (1.62 million U.S. tons) in 2021.

    Olive trees cover 2.7 million hectares (6.8 million acres) of Spain’s soil, with a full 37% of them found in Jaén province, which is known for its “sea of olives” and where Delgado farms.

    On average, Spain grows more than three times as many olives as Italy and Greece, which also are seeing smaller yields.

    Olive oil production in the European Union as a whole is forecast to fall drastically compared with last year, according to the Committee of Professional Agricultural Organizations and the General Confederation of Agricultural Cooperatives,

    The European farming organizations, known by the acronyms COPA and COGECA, warned in September that the yield could drop by 35% due to drought and high temperatures. The two groups called the situation in Spain “particularly worrying.”

    The smaller harvest is driving up prices, according to Italian olive oil producer Filippo Berio. The company said the price of European olives for extra virgin oil has soared from 500 euros per tonne ($495) to 4,985 euros ($4,938) per tonne.

    Along with warmer than usual weather, the drought is affecting Spanish olives in other ways. Farming method consultant Antonio Bernal is witnessing the return of long-forgotten diseases during his visits to Quesada. He believes that milder winters are helping fungi to proliferate.

    Bernal also fears that the most widespread variety of olive cultivated in Jaén won’t be able to adapt to such a quickly changing climate.

    “The solution is to stop climate change: Olive groves cannot adapt at a pace to assume such a fast change,” Bernal said.

    Besides the olive branch being the universal symbol of peace, the olive is a symbol of the Mediterranean. Plato was said to have dispensed his wisdom under an olive tree and the olive’s widespread cultivation in Spain goes back to the Romans.

    When it got too dry for orange and lemon trees, olive trees were counted on to continue thriving. The short, gnarly trees cling to dry, rocky ground and seem not to mind when the sun comes pounding down. Under torrid midday conditions, microscopic pores on their leaves close to reduce water loss.

    “For Jaén, the olive has been our culture, our way of subsisting and feeding our families,” said olive farmer Manuel García.

    Yet even the hearty olive has limits. These days, the fruit represents the challenges communities face in a hotter, dryer world.

    Researcher Virginia Hernández is an olive expert based at the Institute of Natural Resources and Agrobiology in Seville, Spain. She is studying how to adapt irrigation practices to drought, specifically the point at which “sub-optimum” quantities of water can be used to promote sustainability.

    With less rain likely to become a norm, using water sparingly is critical, Hernández said. She thinks a more intelligent use of high-tech irrigation systems combined with more drought-resistant varieties of trees could save the industry as the planet warms.

    According to climate experts, the Mediterranean is expected to be one of the fastest warming regions of the world in the coming years. The trick is convincing farmers that reducing their output some today might save their livelihoods tomorrow, the kind of adaptability at which olives are particularly adept, Hernández said.

    “The truth is that the olive is the paradigmatic species when it comes to resisting a lack of water,” she said. “I can’t think of another that can hold up like the olive. … It knows how to suffer.”

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    Joseph Wilson reported from Barcelona, Spain. Photojournalist Bernat Armangue and videojournalist Iain Sullivan contributed from Quesada.

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    Follow AP’s coverage of the climate and environment: https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

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  • Climate Questions: Who is most vulnerable to climate change?

    Climate Questions: Who is most vulnerable to climate change?

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    Most of the world’s population has been affected in some way by climate change — 85% of the world, in fact. But the effects of climate change haven’t been equally felt by all. Some communities have seen a slight rise in temperature here and there, but others have had their entire communities wiped out.

    As the rise of global temperatures and sea-level continues to affect the world with increasingly frequency and intensity, who are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change?

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    EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is part of an ongoing series answering some of the most fundamental questions around climate change, the science behind it, the effects of a warming planet and how the world is addressing it.

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    The answer is clear, according to climate scientists, climate and environmental justice experts and international research efforts on the question. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found in a 2022 report that vulnerability to climate change is “exacerbated by inequity and marginalization linked to gender, ethnicity, low income or combinations thereof.”

    “(The) poor, ethnic minorities, and women are very clearly the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change that we are already seeing today: heat waves; displacement and smoke due to fires; and price shocks due to supply chain interruptions, higher energy prices,” Daniel Kammen, a professor of energy at the University of California, Berkeley and a coordinating lead author on IPCC reports, told The Associated Press.

    These populations are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change because of racism, sexism and pursuit of profits over protection of people, according to Bineshi Albert, co-executive director of the Climate Justice Alliance.

    “Due to the continued search for profits by our current economic system and (by) the fossil fuel industry in particular, there are entire neighborhoods that are deemed worthy of becoming sacrifice zones, and this breaks down every time around race, class, and national lines,” she said.

    Research also shows that disabled people are more vulnerable to effects of climate change than abled bodied people.

    The increased vulnerability to climate change experienced by these populations and who is to blame for causing these inequities have become increasing topics of conversation at the international level. Debate about loss and damage — the climate harm caused by some nations to others, how much and what should be done about it — has waged on since at least COP23.

    A study published in July 2022 found that richer nations like the U.S. caused climate harm to poorer countries.

    In terms of repairing damage already caused to vulnerable populations and countries and helping them become less vulnerable, experts told the AP that it starts with including them in developing policies.

    “A natural start is to develop policies to target these underserved communities with enhanced attention and support,” Kammen said.

    Albert said it should go a step further with direct economic investments in communities most vulnerable to climate change.

    “Economic resources should go directly to those on the frontlines of the climate crisis to develop and implement their own community-led solutions,” she said. “Communities rather than profits must be the motive if we are truly going to solve the climate crisis.”

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    Follow Drew Costley on Twitter: @drewcostley.

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    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Tourists on Peru riverboat freed after pollution protest

    Tourists on Peru riverboat freed after pollution protest

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    LIMA, Peru — An Indigenous leader in Peru’s Amazon region said Friday that his community had released 98 riverboat passengers — 23 of them foreign tourists — who had been detained overnight as a protest to demand government attention to complaints of oil pollution.

    Wadson Trujillo said the passengers, including citizens of Germany, Great Britain, Spain and France as well as Peru, set off along the Maranon River at 1:45 p.m. local time aboard the vessel named Eduardo 11, which had been held since the day before by residents of Cuninico. The passengers were en route from Yurimaguas to Iquitos, the main city in Peru’s Amazon region.

    But he said the people of Cuninico would continue protests — and blocking the passage of boats — until the government gives them concrete help.

    “We have seen ourselves obliged to take this measure to summon the attention of a state that has not paid attention to us for eight years,” he told The Associated Press by telephone.

    He asked the government of President Pedro Castillo to declare an emergency in the area to deal with the effects of oil pollution.

    Trujillo said oil spills in 2014 and again in September this year “have caused much damage” to people who depend on fish from the river as a significant part of their diet.

    “The people have had to drink water and eat fish contaminated with petroleum without any government being concerned,” he said.

    He said the spills had affected not only the roughly 1,000 inhabitants of his township but nearly 80 other communities, many of which lack running water, electricity or telephone service.

    Peru’s Health Ministry took blood samples in the region in 2016 and found that about half the tests from Cuninico showed levels of mercury and cadmium above levels recommended by the World Health Organization.

    “The children have those poisons in their blood. The people suffer from stomach problems — that is every day,” Trujillo said.

    Prime Minister Aníbal Torres said in response to Indigenous demands that the “evils of 200 years of republican life cannot be resolved in a day, in a few months or in a few years.”

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  • UN: Russian invasion has uprooted 14 million Ukrainians

    UN: Russian invasion has uprooted 14 million Ukrainians

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    UNITED NATIONS — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has driven some 14 million Ukrainians from their homes in “the fastest, largest displacement witnessed in decades,” sparking an increase in the number of refugees and displaced people worldwide to more than 103 million, the U.N. refugee chief said Wednesday.

    Filippo Grandi, who heads the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, told the U.N. Security Council that Ukrainians are about to face “one of the world’s harshest winters in extremely difficult circumstances,” including the continuing destruction of civilian infrastructure that is “quickly making the humanitarian response look like a drop in the ocean of needs.”

    Humanitarian organizations have “dramatically scaled up their response,” he said, “but much more must be done, starting with an end to this senseless war.”

    But given “the likely protracted nature of the military situation,” Grandi said his agency is preparing for further population movements both inside and outside Ukraine.

    In his wide-ranging briefing, Grandi told members of the U.N.’s most powerful body that while Ukraine continues to grab headlines, his agency has responded to 37 emergencies around the world in the last 12 months arising from conflicts.

    “Yet, the other crises are failing to capture the same international attention, outrage, resources, action,” he said.

    Grandi pointed to the more than 850,000 Ethiopians displaced in the first half of the year, and said the recent surge in conflict in that nation’s northern Tigray region has had “an even more devastating impact on civilians.”

    The U.N. refugee agency is also in Myanmar, where the country’s military rulers are facing armed resistance and an estimated 500,000 people were displaced in the first half of the year, Grandi said.

    Humanitarian access remains “a huge challenge,” he said, adding that a return home remains distant for the almost 1 million Rohingya Muslim refugees who fled from Myanmar to neighboring Bangladesh.

    In Congo, brutal attacks including sexual violence against women have added more than 200,000 people to the 5.5 million already displaced in the country, Grandi said.

    He lamented that “the horrors” he witnessed when he worked in Congo 25 years ago are repeating themselves, “with displacement being, once again, both a consequence of conflict and a complicating factor in the web of local and international tensions.”

    Addressing a council responsible for ensuring international peace and security, Grandi said: “Surely we can do better in trying to bring peace to this beleaguered region.”

    The refugee chief said these crises and others, including the longstanding issue of refugees from Afghanistan and Syria and the complex flow of migrants from the Americas, “are not only fading from media attention but are being failed by global inaction.”

    Reasons for displacement are also becoming more complex, with new factors forcing people to flee including the climate emergency, Grandi said.

    He urged greater attention and much greater financing for preventing and adapting to the warming planet, warning that otherwise tensions and competition will grow “and spark wider conflict with deadly consequences, including displacement.

    “And what is a starker example of `loss and damage’ than being displaced and dispossessed from one’s home?” he asked.

    Last week, Grandi said he met emaciated Somalis who had walked for days to get help and whose children had died on the way, and Somali refugees “pushed into already drought-affected areas of Kenya.”

    He praised the Kenyan government, despite its own challenges, for “ making a landmark shift from encampment of refugees to inclusion — a transition that I hope all will robustly support.”

    Grandi expressed hope that this month’s U.N. summit on climate change in Egypt and the summit in the United Arab Emirates next year will take into account both climate’s link to conflict and the displacement it causes.

    But Grandi said this is not enough. He said the U.N. refugee agency needs $700 million by the end of the year to avoid severe cuts in its services.

    He further called for strengthened peacebuilding to prevent the recurrence of conflict, including by reinforcing the police, judiciary and local government in fragile countries. He said that security also must be improved for humanitarian workers who are under increasing threat and that the Security Council needs to overcome its divisions on humanitarian issues.

    “Because what I saw in Somalia last week was a condemnation of us all,” Grandi said.

    He pointed to “a world of inequality where extraordinary levels of suffering are getting scandalously low levels of attention and resources,” adding that those who contribute the least to global challenges such as climate change “are suffering most from their consequences.”

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  • UK leader reverses decision not to attend UN climate talks

    UK leader reverses decision not to attend UN climate talks

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    LONDON — U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday said he will attend this month’s U.N. climate summit in Egypt, reversing a decision to skip it that had drawn criticism at home and abroad.

    Sunak’s office previously said he had to skip the gathering, known as COP27, which start on Sunday. It cited “pressing domestic commitments,” including preparations for a major government budget statement scheduled for Nov. 17.

    But Sunak tweeted Wednesday that he would attend the two-week gathering because “there is no long-term prosperity without action on climate change.”

    “There is no energy security without investing in renewables,” he wrote.

    Sunak’s earlier decision to skip the talks were criticized by many, including British government climate adviser Alok Sharma, who will hand over presidency of the Conference of the Parties, or COP, at the summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. The U.K. hosted last year’s COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland.

    Sunak’s about-face came the day after former Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed he will be going to the climate talks at the invitation of the host country. Under Johnson, who left office in September, the U.K. committed to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and to eliminate coal from its energy mix by 2024.

    Environmentalists worry there could be backsliding on those commitments because of the energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    The opposition Labour Party’s climate spokesman, Ed Miliband, said Sunak had been “shamed into going to COP27.”

    “His initial instinct tells us about all about him: he just doesn’t get it when it comes to the energy bills and climate crisis,” Miliband said.

    Green Party lawmaker Caroline Lucas said Sunak’s initial decision and subsequent U-turn was “an embarrassing misstep on the world stage.”

    “Let this be a lesson to him — climate leadership matters,” she tweeted.

    ———

    Follow AP’s climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

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  • Political spat over climate risks in investments gets hotter

    Political spat over climate risks in investments gets hotter

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    ST. PAUL, Minn. — The political fight is only getting fiercer over whether it’s financially wise or “woke” folly to consider a company’s impact on climate change, workers’ rights and other issues when making investments.

    Republicans from North Dakota to Texas are ramping up their criticism of “ESG investing,” a fast-growing movement that says it can pay dividends to consider environmental, social and corporate-governance issues when deciding where to invest pension and other public funds. At the same time, Democrats in traditionally blue states like Minnesota are considering whether to make ESG principles an even bigger part of their investment strategies.

    The “E” for environment component of ESG often gets the most attention because of the debate over whether to invest in fossil-fuel companies. In the wide-ranging social, or S, bucket, investors look at how companies treat their workforces, reckoning a happier group with less turnover can be more productive. For the G, or governance aspect, investors make sure companies’ boards keep executives accountable and pay CEOs in a way that incentivizes the best performance for all stakeholders.

    The ESG industry has scorekeepers that give companies ratings on their environmental, social and governance performance. Poor scores can steer investors away from companies or governments seen as bigger risks, which can in turn raise their borrowing costs and hurt them financially.

    Florida has become one of the hottest battlegrounds for ESG. Gov. Ron DeSantis in August prohibited state fund managers from using ESG considerations as they decide how to invest state pension plan money. And even as his state cleans up from the environmental destruction caused by Hurricane Ian, DeSantis plans to ask the Florida Legislature in 2023 to go even further by prohibiting “discriminatory practices by large financial institutions based on ESG social credit score metrics.”

    Pension funds are often caught in the middle of the battles. Questions are flowing into the Florida Education Association from teachers about what DeSantis’ moves will mean for their retirements.

    “I usually tell them it’s still unclear what this exactly means,” said Andrew Spar, president of the union, which represents 150,000 teachers and educators across the state. Much is still to be determined, including exactly which funds the pension investments will steer toward.

    In contrast, the Minnesota State Board of Investment is considering a proposal to adopt a goal of making its $130 billion in pension and other funds carbon-neutral. The board already uses shareholder votes to advance climate issues. It seeks out climate-friendly investment opportunities and eschews investments in thermal coal. While the new proposal goes farther, it does not call for total divestment from fossil fuel companies, as many climate change activists advocate.

    The ESG debate has spilled into the race for Minnesota’s state auditor. Democratic incumbent Julie Blaha — who has singled out DeSantis as one of the leaders she believes are politicizing the discussion about ESG — has cited the investment board’s high returns in recent years as evidence the approach works.

    “To be a good fiduciary, you have to consider all the risks, and the evidence is clear that climate risk is investment risk,” Blaha said.

    But Blaha’s Republican challenger, Ryan Wilson, says investment returns must come first, and that all risks must be considered. He says the board shouldn’t “disproportionately dictate” that climate risk should matter more than other risks.

    Proponents say considering a company’s performance on ESG issues can boost returns and limit losses over the long term while being socially responsible at the same time. By using such a lens, they say investors can avoid companies that are riskier than they appear on the surface, with stock prices that are too high. An ESG approach could also unearth opportunities that may be underappreciated by Wall Street, the thinking goes.

    As for returns, there is no consensus on whether an ESG approach means lower or higher returns.

    Morningstar, a company that tracks mutual funds and ETFs, says slightly more than half of all sustainable funds ranked in the top half of their category for returns last year. Over five years, the showing is better with nearly three-quarters ranking in the top half of performers in the category.

    Rejecting ESG can be costly in ways besides investment performance.

    A Texas law that took effect in September 2021 banned municipalities from doing business with financial institutions that have ESG polices against investments in fossil fuel and firearms companies, industries that are important to the Texas economy. It turned out to be an expensive decision.

    Barred from underwriting local jurisdictions’ municipal bonds, five big underwriters — JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Bank of America and Fidelity — exited those markets. A Wharton School study estimated that the loss of those big players would cost Texas communities an extra $303 million to $532 million in higher interest payments on their bonds. Fidelity says it has since restored its good standing with Texas by certifying to the state that it does not boycott energy companies or discriminate against the firearms industry.

    Several big Wall Street banks and investment management companies have become favorite targets of the anti-ESG politicians because they’ve been outspoken in their embrace of ESG. Republican state treasurers have pulled or plan to pull over $1.5 billion this year out of BlackRock, the world’s largest investment company, which has a goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or sooner. Missouri last month became the latest. Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick accused BlackRock of putting the advancement of “a woke political agenda above the financial interests of their customers.”

    Coal-producing West Virginia passed a law in June that allows for the disqualification of banks and other financial institutions from doing business with the state if they “boycott” energy companies. Treasurer Riley Moore soon banned BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo, blaming them for contributing to high energy prices by driving capital away from the industry.

    “We’re not going to pay for our own destruction,” Moore said.

    State officials have also been critical of ESG scores from ratings agencies and other outfits. For instance, S&P Global offended North Dakota State Treasurer Thomas Beadle because it rated the state as “neutral” for social and governance metrics but “moderately negative” for environmental factors because its economy and budget rely heavily on the energy sector.

    His state’s lawmakers last year prohibited their investment board from considering “socially responsible criteria” for anything but maximizing returns. Beadle told senators considering potential next steps that ESG has created “significant headwinds” for energy companies trying to raise capital, and that it could affect his state’s tax revenues.

    Besides state capitols, other big battlegrounds are federal agencies, where leaders of the backlash include the State Financial Officers Foundation, a group of Republican state treasurers, auditors and other officials. They’re trying to block rules being drafted at the Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Labor to require standardized climate disclosures by companies and to make it easier for pension plan fiduciaries to consider climate change and other ESG factors.

    The industry has heard the pushback and has even been surprised by how quickly it’s accelerated. But it’s pledging to plow ahead.

    US SIF is an industry group advocating sustainable investing whose members control $5 trillion in assets under management or advisement. Its CEO, Lisa Woll, believes that most of the national and state politicians railing against ESG investing probably don’t understand it.

    “If they did, it’s very difficult to make these kinds of allegations,” Woll said. “It feels more like a talking point than an informed critique.”

    ———

    Choe reported from New York.

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  • Ian ruins man-made reefs, brings algae bloom to Florida

    Ian ruins man-made reefs, brings algae bloom to Florida

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    FORT MYERS, Fla. — Hurricane Ian not only ravaged southwest Florida on land but was destructive underwater as well. It destroyed man-made reefs and brought along red tide, the harmful algae blooms that kill fish and birds, according to marine researchers who returned last week from a six-day cruise organized by the Florida Institute of Oceanography.

    Researchers who used the cruise to study marine life in the Gulf of Mexico following the hurricane say it left in its wake red tide and destroyed artificial reefs from as far away as 30 miles (48 kilometers) from the coast of southwest Florida.

    “The one-time vibrant reefs are now underwater disaster sites themselves,” said Calli Johnson, safety dive officer for the research cruise. “Where there used to be a complete ecosystem, there are now only fish that were able to return after swimming away.”

    Before the Category 4 storm made landfall a month ago, southwest Florida had a reputation for being one of the best saltwater fishing destinations in the U.S. Saltwater and freshwater fishing in Florida has an economic impact of around $13.8 billion, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

    “Time will tell how this affects our greater economy, because changes in the fishing industry and tourism will come from changes in our underwater world,” Johnson said.

    The marine researchers on the cruise found high counts of the naturally-occurring algae that causes red tide offshore Punta Gorda, Boca Grande and southwest of Sanibel Island. It will be several weeks before researchers can analyze water samples that were collected to determine the threat to sea life off the Florida coast.

    The red tide outbreak also is threatening manatees off Sarasota and Charlotte counties that rely on seagrass for food, according to the Ocean Conservancy.

    “Florida is at a crossroads, with a record number of manatees dying,” said J.P. Brooker, director of Florida conservation for the Ocean Conservancy. “We must keep this issue at the forefront, so leaders statewide will invest in solutions to improve water quality—protecting natural habitats to save our beloved manatees.”

    Through mid-October, there have been 719 manatee deaths recorded by Florida wildlife officials. There were 982 manatee deaths last year.

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  • Groups to US: Protect Nevada flower from mine or face court

    Groups to US: Protect Nevada flower from mine or face court

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    RENO, Nev. — Conservationists who won a court order against U.S. wildlife officials say they’ll sue them again for failing to protect a Nevada wildflower whose last remaining habitat could be destroyed by a lithium mine.

    The Center for Biological Diversity filed a formal 60-day notice this week of its intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for missing this month’s deadline to finalize its year-old proposal to add Tiehm’s buckwheat to the list of endangered species.

    The service concluded in its Oct. 7, 2021, proposal that the desert wildflower — which is only known to exist where the mine is planned halfway between Reno and Las Vegas — was in danger of going extinct.

    Under federal law, the agency had one year to issue a final rule listing the 6-inch-tall (15-centimeter-tall) flower with yellow blooms, or explain why it had decided against taking such action.

    “Tiehm’s buckwheat is staring down the barrel of extinction and it can’t wait one more day for Endangered Species Act protection,” said Patrick Donnelly, the center’s Great Basin director.

    “The service is dragging its feet on protecting this rare wildflower and apparently needs the threat of legal action to do it’s job,” he said.

    Agency officials refused to explain why they missed the deadline.

    “We do not comment on litigation,” U.S. Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Laury Marshall emailed to The Associated Press.

    The center first petitioned the agency for a federal listing in 2019. It won a federal court order the following year forcing the agency to render an initial decision on whether there was enough scientific evidence to warrant a full review of the plant’s status. The agency then proposed the endangered status, pending a year-long review.

    “We find that Tiehm’s buckwheat is in danger of extinction throughout all of its range due to the severity and immediacy of threats currently impacting the species now and those which are likely to occur in the near term,” the agency said last October.

    The primary threats are destruction, modification or curtailment of its habitat from mineral exploration and development, road development and other vehicle use, livestock grazing, invasive plant species and herbivory, the agency said. Climate change may further exacerbate the risks, and “existing regulatory mechanisms may be inadequate to protect the species,” it said.

    The agency said then that fewer than 44,000 of the plants were known to exist, and the number likely was lower after thousands were destroyed in 2021 in what agency officials concluded was an unprecedented attack by rodents in the high desert near the California line.

    Scott Lake, a lawyer for the center, said in the formal notice of intent to sue to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Fish and Wildlife Service Director Martha Williams on Tuesday that the “as-yet-unexplained collection/destruction events” have eliminated approximately 40% of the flower’s population.

    “Additional disturbances within the species’ habitat continued to occur through 2021 and 2022, underscoring the significant risk that this species faces to its survival,” Lake said.

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  • UK says new PM Rishi Sunak won’t go to UN climate conference

    UK says new PM Rishi Sunak won’t go to UN climate conference

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    Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak leaves 10 Downing Street for the House of Commons for his first Prime Minister’s Questions in London, Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2022. Sunak was elected by the ruling Conservative party to replace Liz Truss who resigned. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

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  • EPA awarding nearly $1 billion to schools for electric buses

    EPA awarding nearly $1 billion to schools for electric buses

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    WASHINGTON — Nearly 400 school districts spanning all 50 states and Washington, D.C., along with several tribes and U.S. territories, are receiving roughly $1 billion in grants to purchase about 2,500 “clean” school buses under a new federal program.

    The Biden administration is making the grants available as part of a wider effort to accelerate the transition to zero-emission vehicles and reduce air pollution near schools and communities.

    Vice President Kamala Harris and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan are set to announce the grant awards Wednesday in Seattle. The new, mostly electric school buses will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, save money and better protect children’s health, the White House said.

    As many as 25 million children ride familiar yellow school buses each school day and will have a “healthier future” with a cleaner fleet, Regan said. “This is just the beginning of our work to … reduce climate pollution and ensure the clean, breathable air that all our children deserve,” he said.

    Only about 1% of the nation’s 480,000 school buses were electric as of last year, but the push to abandon traditional diesel buses has gained momentum in recent years. Money for the new purchases is available under the federal Clean School Bus Program, which includes $5 billion from the bipartisan infrastructure law President Joe Biden signed last year.

    The clean bus program “is accelerating our nation’s transition to electric and low-emission school buses while ensuring a brighter, healthier future for our children,” Regan said in a statement.

    The EPA initially made $500 million available for clean buses in May but increased that to $965 million last month, responding to what officials called overwhelming demand for electric buses across the country. An additional $1 billion is set to be awarded in the budget year that began Oct. 1.

    The EPA said it received about 2,000 applications requesting nearly $4 billion for more than 12,000 buses, mostly electric. A total of 389 applications worth $913 million were accepted to support purchase of 2,463 buses, 95% of which will be electric, the EPA said. The remaining buses will run on compressed natural gas or propane.

    School districts identified as priority areas serving low-income, rural or tribal students make up 99% of the projects that were selected, the White House said. More applications are under review, and the EPA plans to select more winners to reach the full $965 million in coming weeks.

    Districts set to receive money range from Wrangell, Alaska, to Anniston, Alabama; and Teton County, Wyoming, to Wirt County, West Virginia. Besides Washington, major cities that won grants for clean school buses include New York, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta and Seattle.

    Environmental and public health groups hailed the announcement, which comes after years of advocacy to replace diesel-powered buses with cleaner alternatives.

    “It doesn’t make sense to send our kids to school on buses that create brain-harming, lung-harming, cancer-causing, climate-harming pollution,” said Molly Rauch, public health policy director for Moms Clean Air Force, an environmental group. “Our kids, our bus drivers and our communities deserve better.”

    Harris and Regan are expected to announce the awards at an event in Seattle with Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Gov. Jay Inslee. Murray is running for reelection against Republican Tiffany Smiley.

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  • Ukraine alleges Russian dirty bomb deception at nuke plant

    Ukraine alleges Russian dirty bomb deception at nuke plant

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    KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s nuclear energy operator said Tuesday that Russian forces were performing secret work at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, activity that could shed light on Russia’s claims that the Ukrainian military is preparing a “provocation” involving a radioactive device.

    Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu made an unsubstantiated allegation that Ukraine was preparing to launch a so-called dirty bomb. Shoigu leveled the charge over the weekend in calls to his British, French, Turkish and U.S. counterparts. Britain, France and the United States rejected it out of hand as “transparently false.”

    Ukraine also dismissed Moscow’s claim as an attempt to distract attention from the Kremlin’s own alleged plans to detonate a dirty bomb, which uses explosives to scatter radioactive waste in an effort to sow terror.

    Energoatom, the Ukrainian state enterprise that operates the country’s four nuclear power plants, said Russian forces have carried out secret construction work over the last week at the occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine.

    Russian officers controlling the area won’t give access to Ukrainian staff running the plant or monitors from the U.N.’s atomic energy watchdog that would allow them to see what the Russians are doing, Energoatom said Tuesday in a statement.

    Energoatom said it “assumes” the Russians “are preparing a terrorist act using nuclear materials and radioactive waste stored at” the plant. It said there were 174 containers at the plant’s dry spent fuel storage facility, each of them containing 24 assemblies of spent nuclear fuel.

    “Destruction of these containers as a result of explosion will lead to a radiation accident and radiation contamination of several hundred square kilometers (miles) of the adjacent territory,” the company said.

    It called on the International Atomic Energy Agency to assess what was going on.

    The U.N. Security Council held closed-door consultations Tuesday about the dirty-bomb allegations at Russia’s request.

    Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia sent a five-page letter to council members before the meeting claiming that according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, Ukraine’s Institute for Nuclear Research of the National Academy of Sciences in Kyiv and Vostochniy Mining and Processing Plant “have received direct orders from (President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy’s regime to develop such a dirty bomb” and “the works are at their concluding stage.”

    Nebenzia said the ministry also received word that this work “may be carried out with the support of the Western countries.” And he warned that the authorities in Kyiv and their Western backers “will bear full responsibility for all the consequences” of using a “dirty bomb,” which Russia will regard as “an act of nuclear terrorism.”

    Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyansky was asked by reporters after the council meeting what evidence Russia has that Zelenskyy gave orders to develop a “dirty bomb.” He replied, “it is intelligence information.”

    “We shared it in our telephone conversation with counterparts who have the necessary level of clearance,” he said. “Those who wanted to understand that the threat is serious, they had all the possibilities to understand that. Those who want to reject it as Russian propaganda, they will do it anyway.”

    Polyansky said the IAEA can send inspectors to investigate allegations of a “dirty bomb.”

    Britain’s deputy U.N. ambassador James Kariuki told reporters after the meeting that “we’ve seen and heard no new evidence” and the U.K., France and the U.S. made clear “this is a transparently false allegation” and “pure Russian misinformation.” He said, “Ukraine has been clear it’s got nothing to hide” and “IAEA inspectors are on the way.”

    In a related matter, Russia asked the Security Council to establish a commission to investigate its claims that the United States and Ukraine are violating the convention prohibiting the use of biological weapons at laboratories in Ukraine.

    Soon after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, its U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, claimed that secret American labs in Ukraine were engaged in biological warfare — a charge denied by the U.S. and Ukraine.

    Russia has called a Security Council meeting Thursday on Ukraine’s biological laboratories and its allegations.

    The Kremlin has insisted that its warning of a purported Ukrainian plan to use a dirty bomb should be taken seriously and criticized Western nations for shrugging it off.

    The dismissal of Moscow’s warning is “unacceptable in view of the seriousness of the danger that we have talked about,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

    Speaking during a conference call with reporters, Peskov added: “We again emphasize the grave danger posed by the plans hatched by the Ukrainians.”

    At the White House, U.S. President Joe Biden was asked Tuesday if Russia is preparing to deploy a tactical nuclear weapon after making its claims that Ukraine will use a dirty bomb.

    “I spent a lot of time today talking about that,” Biden told reporters.

    The president was also asked whether the claims about a Ukrainian dirty bomb amounted to a false-flag operation.

    “Let me just say, Russia would be making an incredibly serious mistake if it were to use a tactical nuclear weapon,” Biden said. “I’m not guaranteeing you that it’s a false-flag operation yet … but it would be a serious, serious mistake.”

    Dirty bombs don’t have the devastating destruction of a nuclear explosion but could expose broad areas to radioactive contamination.

    ———

    Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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  • US sued over lack of protection plan for rare grouse

    US sued over lack of protection plan for rare grouse

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    ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An environmental group is suing U.S. wildlife managers, saying they have failed to protect a rare grouse found in parts of the Midwest that include one of the country’s most prolific areas for oil and gas development.

    A lawsuit filed Tuesday by the Center for Biological Diversity says the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is nearly five months late in releasing a final rule outlining protections for the lesser prairie chicken.

    Once listed as a threatened species, the prarie chicken’s habitat spans parts of New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas — including a portion of the oil-rich Permian Basin that straddles the New Mexico-Texas state line.

    Environmentalists have been pushing to reinstate federal protections for years. They consider the species severely threatened, citing lost and fragmented habitat as the result of oil and gas development, livestock grazing, farming and the building of roads and power lines.

    The Fish and Wildlife Service in 2021 proposed listing the southern population in New Mexico and the southern reaches of the Texas Panhandle as endangered and those birds in the northern part of the species’ range as threatened. The agency had a deadline of June 1.

    “The oil and gas industry has fought for decades against safeguards for the lesser prairie chicken, and the Fish and Wildlife Service is late issuing its final rule,” said Michael Robinson, a senior conservation advocate with the environment group. “The agency has slow-walked every step, and these imperiled birds keep losing more habitat.”

    The Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday cited its policy for not commenting on pending litigation.

    The species was once thought to number in the millions. Now, surveys show, the five-year average population across the entire range hovers around 30,000 individual birds.

    Landowners and the oil and gas industry say they have had success with voluntary conservation programs aimed at protecting habitat and boosting the bird’s numbers. The Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, which oversees the conservation effort, has yet to report the results of the 2022 survey done earlier this year.

    With a listing under the Endangered Species Act, officials have said that landowners and oil companies already participating in the voluntary conservation programs wouldn’t be affected because they already are taking steps to protect habitat. However, a listing would prevent any activities that result in the loss or degradation of existing habitat.

    The species’ regulatory history dates to an initial petition for protection in 1995.

    A little smaller and lighter in color than the greater prairie chicken, the lesser prairie chicken is known for spring courtship rituals that include flamboyant dances by the males and a cacophony of clucking.

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  • Putin scrambles to boost weapons production for Ukraine war

    Putin scrambles to boost weapons production for Ukraine war

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    KYIV, Ukraine — Russian President Vladimir Putin, facing military production delays and mounting losses, urged his government Tuesday to cut through bureaucracy to crank out enough weapons and supplies to feed the war in Ukraine, where a Western-armed Ukrainian counteroffensive has set back Russia’s forces.

    In other developments, Ukrainian authorities asked citizens not to return home and further tax the country’s battered energy infrastructure, and Western countries mulled how to rebuild Ukraine when the war ends.

    The Russian military’s shortfalls in the eight-month war have been so pronounced that Putin had to create a structure to try to address them. On Tuesday, he chaired a new committee designed to accelerate the production and delivery of weapons and supplies for Russian troops, stressing the need to “gain higher tempo in all areas.”

    Russian news reports have acknowledged that many of those called up under a mobilization of 300,000 reservists Putin ordered haven’t been provided with basic equipment such as medical kits and flak jackets, and had to find their own. Other reports have suggested that Russian troops are increasingly forced to use old and sometimes unreliable equipment and that some of the newly mobilized troops are rushed to the war front with little training. Last week, Putin tried to show all is well by visiting a training site in Russia where he was shown well equipped soldiers.

    To substitute for increasingly scarce Russian-made long-range precision weapons, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said Russia was likely to use a large number of drones to try to penetrate Ukrainian air defenses. Russia’s “artillery ammunition is running low,” the British report said Tuesday.

    The Institute for the Study of War, in Washington, added that “the slower tempo of Russian air, missile, and drone strikes possibly reflects decreasing missile and drone stockpiles and the strikes’ limited effectiveness of accomplishing Russian strategic military goals.”

    The Russian military has still managed to inflict heavy damage and casualties, ruining homes, public buildings and Ukraine’s power grid. The World Bank estimates the damage to Ukraine so far at 350 billion euros ($345 billion).

    Recent Russian attacks have focused largely on Ukraine’s energy facilities, especially electricity generation and transmission. Electricity shortfalls are so severe that Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk on Tuesday asked citizens living abroad not to return this winter to avoid placing further strain on the power supply.

    “We need to survive the winter but, unfortunately, the (electricity) networks will not survive,” Vereshchuk said on Ukrainian television. “We understand that the situation will only get worse, and this winter we need to survive.”

    In Berlin, European Union leaders brought together experts to work on a “new Marshall Plan” for rebuilding Ukraine — a reference to the U.S.-sponsored plan that helped revive Western European economies after World War II.

    German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the meeting is addressing “how to ensure and how to sustain the financing of the recovery, reconstruction and modernization of Ukraine for years and decades to come.”

    Scholz, who co-hosted the meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, said he’s looking for “nothing less than creating a new Marshall Plan for the 21st century — a generational task that must begin now.”

    On the diplomatic front, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters in Kyiv after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday that his country will continue to stand by Ukraine’s side in this war and support its people as long as it takes — by helping to rebuild the destroyed country and sending more weapons.

    “Reconstruction is not waiting for the war to end. It must begin now,” the German president said, adding that “not only is Germany helping with the reconstruction, but we’re also helping Ukraine to prevent the brutal destruction, to make sure that the population is protected in the best possible way.”

    He promised that Germany would help rebuild destroyed towns immediately and send two more MARS Medium Artillery Missile Systems and four type 2000 self-propelled howitzers.

    On the battlefront, Russian missiles set a gas station on fire late Tuesday in the south-central city of Dnipro, killing at least two people and wounding at least three, Ukrainian news agencies reported.

    In the southern city of Mykolaiv, residents lined up for water and essential supplies Tuesday as Ukrainian forces advanced on the nearby Russian-occupied city of Kherson.

    One of Moscow’s allies on Tuesday urged Russia to step up the pace and scale of Ukraine’s destruction.

    Ramzan Kadyrov, the regional leader of Chechnya who has sent troops to fight in Ukraine, urged Moscow to wipe off the map entire cities in retaliation for Ukrainian shelling of Russia’s territory. Authorities in Russia’s Kursk and Belgorod regions that border Ukraine have repeatedly reported Ukrainian shelling that has damaged infrastructure and residential buildings.

    “Our response has been too weak,” Kadyrov said on his messaging app channel. “If a shell flies into our region, entire cities must be wiped off the face of the Earth so that they don’t ever think that they can fire in our direction.”

    Kyiv wants to step up the fight, but says it needs more war materiel.

    “We need more weaponry, we need more ammunition to win this war,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told reporters in Berlin. He added: “We need tanks from our partners, from all of our partners; we need heavy armored vehicles, we need additional artillery units, howitzers.”

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    Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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  • Renters face charging dilemma as U.S. cities move toward EVs

    Renters face charging dilemma as U.S. cities move toward EVs

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    PORTLAND, Ore. — Stephanie Terrell bought a used Nissan Leaf this fall and was excited to join the wave of drivers adopting electric vehicles to save on gas money and reduce her carbon footprint.

    But Terrell quickly encountered a bump in the road on her journey to clean driving: As a renter, she doesn’t have a private garage where she can power up overnight, and the public charging stations near her are often in use, with long wait times. On a recent day, the 23-year-old nearly ran out of power on the freeway because a public charging station she was counting on was busy.

    “It was really scary and I was really worried I wasn’t going to make it, but luckily I made it here. Now I have to wait a couple hours to even use it because I can’t go any further,” she said while waiting at another station where a half-dozen EV drivers circled the parking lot, waiting their turn. “I feel better about it than buying gas, but there are problems I didn’t really anticipate.”

    The great transition to electric vehicles is underway for single-family homeowners who can charge their cars at home, but for millions of renters like Terrell, access to charging remains a significant barrier. People who rent are also more likely to buy used EVs that have a lower range than the latest models, making reliable public charging even more critical for them.

    Now, cities from Portland to Los Angeles to New York City are trying to come up with innovative public charging solutions as drivers string power cords across sidewalks, stand up their own private charging stations on city right-of-ways and line up at public facilities.

    The Biden administration last month approved plans from all 50 states to roll out a network of high-speed chargers along interstate highways coast-to-coast using $5 billion in federal funding over the next five years. But states must wait to apply for an additional $2.5 billion in local grants to fill in charging gaps, including in low- and moderate-income areas of cities and in neighborhoods with limited private parking.

    “We have a really large challenge right now with making it easy for people to charge who live in apartments,” said Jeff Allen, executive director of Forth, a nonprofit that advocates for equity in electric vehicle ownership and charging access.

    “There’s a mental shift that cities have to make to understand that promoting electric cars is also part of their sustainable transportation strategy. Once they make that mental shift, there’s a whole bunch of very tangible things they can — and should — be doing.”

    The quickest place to charge is a fast charger, also known as DC Fast. Those charge a car in 20 to 45 minutes. But slower chargers which take several hours, known as Level 2, still outnumber DC fast chargers by nearly four to one, although their numbers are growing. Charging an electric vehicle on a standard residential outlet, or Level 1 charger, isn’t practical unless you drive little or can leave the car plugged in overnight, as many homeowners can.

    Nationwide, there are about 120,000 public charging ports featuring Level 2 charging or above, and nearly 1.5 million electric vehicles registered in the U.S. — a ratio of just over one charger per 12 cars nationally, according to the latest U.S. Department of Transportation data from December 2021. But those chargers are not spread out evenly: In Arizona, for example, the ratio of electric vehicles to charging ports is 18 to one and in California, which has about 39% of the nation’s EVs, there are 16 zero-emissions vehicles for every charging port.

    A briefing prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy last year by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory forecasts a total of just under 19 million electric vehicles on the road by 2030, with a projected need for an extra 9.6 million charging stations to meet that demand.

    In Los Angeles, for example, nearly one-quarter of all new vehicles registered in July were plug-in electric vehicles. The city estimates in the next 20 years, it will have to expand its distribution capacity anywhere from 25% to 50%, with roughly two-thirds of the new power demand coming from electric vehicles, said Yamen Nanne, manager of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s transportation electrification program.

    Amid the boom, dense city neighborhoods are rapidly becoming pressure points in the patchy transition to electrification.

    In Los Angeles, the city has installed over 500 electric vehicle chargers — 450 on street lights and about 50 of them on power poles — to meet the demand and has a goal of adding 200 EV pole chargers per year, Nanne said. The chargers are strategically installed in areas where there are apartment complexes or near amenities, he said.

    The city currently has 18,000 commercial chargers — ones not in private homes — but only about 3,000 are publicly accessible and just 400 of those are DC Fast chargers, Nanne said. Demand is so high that “when we put a charger out there that’s publicly accessible, we don’t even have to advertise. People just see it and start using it,” he said.

    “We’re doing really good in terms of chargers that are going into workplaces but the publicly accessible ones is where there’s a lot of room to make up. Every city is struggling with that.”

    Similar initiatives to install pole-mounted chargers are in place or being considered in cities from New York City to Charlotte, N.C. to Kansas City, Missouri. The utility Seattle City Light is also in the early stages of a pilot project to install chargers in neighborhoods where people can’t charge at home.

    Mark Long, who lives in a floating home on Seattle’s Portage Bay, has leased or owned an EV since 2015 and charges at public stations — and sometimes charges on an outdoor outlet at a nearby office and pays them back for the cost.

    “We have a small loading area but we all just park on the street,” said Long, who hopes to get one of the utility’s chargers installed for his floating community. “I’ve certainly been in a few situations where I’m down to 15, 14, 12 miles and … whatever I had planned, I’m just suddenly focused on getting a charge.”

    Other cities, like Portland, are working to amend building codes for new construction to require electrified parking spaces for new apartment complexes and mixed-use development. A proposal being developed currently would require 50% of parking spaces in most new multi-family dwellings to have an electric conduit that could support future charging stations. In complexes with six spaces or fewer, all parking spaces would need to be pre-wired for EV charging.

    Policies that provide equal access to charging are critical because with tax incentives and the emergence of a robust used-EV market, zero-emissions cars are finally within financial reach for lower-income drivers, said Ingrid Fish, who is in charge of Portland’s transportation decarbonization program.

    “We’re hoping if we do our job right, these vehicles are going to become more and more accessible and affordable for people, especially those that have been pushed out of the central city” by rising rents and don’t have easy access to public transportation, Fish said.

    The initiatives mimic those that have already been deployed in other nations that are much further along in EV adoption.

    Worldwide, by 2030, more than 6 million public chargers will be needed to support EV adoption at a rate that keeps international emissions goals within reach, according to a recent study by the International Council on Clean Transportation. As of this year, the Netherlands and Norway have already installed enough public charging to satisfy 45% and 38% of that demand, respectively, while the U.S. has less than 10% of it in place currently, according to the study, which looked at electrification in 17 nations and government entities that account for more than half of the world’s car sales.

    Some European cities are far ahead of even the most electric-savvy U.S. cities. London, for example, has 4,000 public chargers on street lights. That’s much cheaper — just a third the cost of wiring a charging station into the sidewalk, said Vishant Kothari, manager of the electric mobility team at the World Resources Institute.

    But London and Los Angeles have an advantage over many U.S. cities: Their street lights operate on 240 volts, better for EV charging. Most American city street lights operate on 120 volts, which takes hours to charge a vehicle, said Kothari, who co-authored a study on the potential for pole-mounted charging in U.S. cities.

    That means cities considering pole-mounted charging must also come up with other solutions, from zoning changes to making charging accessible in apartment complex parking lots to policies that encourage workplace fast-charging.

    There also “needs to be a will from the city, the utilities — the policies need to be in place for curbside accessibility,” he said. “So there is quite a bit of complication.”

    Changes can’t come fast enough for renters who already own electric vehicles and are struggling to charge them.

    Rebecca DeWhitt rents a house but isn’t allowed to use the garage. For several years, she and her partner strung a standard extension cord 40 feet (12 meters) from an outlet near the home’s front door, across their lawn, down a grassy knoll and across a public sidewalk to reach their Nissan Leaf on the street.

    They upgraded to a thicker extension cord and began parking in the driveway — also a violation of their rental contract — when their first cord charred under the EV load. They’re still using their home outlet and it takes up to two days to fully charge their new Hyundai Kona. As of now, their best alternative for a full charge is a nearby grocery store which can mean a long wait for one of two fast-charging stations to open up.

    “It’s inconvenient,” she said. “And if we didn’t value having an electric vehicle so much, we wouldn’t put up with the pain of it.”

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    Associated Press Climate Data Reporter Camille Fassett in Denver, AP Video Journalists Eugene Garcia in Los Angeles and Haven Daley in San Francisco and AP Business Editor Courtney Bonnell in London contributed to this report.

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    Follow Gillian Flaccus on Twitter: @gflaccus

    Follow AP’s climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

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    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • COP27’s Coke sponsorship leaves bad taste with green groups

    COP27’s Coke sponsorship leaves bad taste with green groups

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    LONDON — This year’s United Nations climate summit is brought to you by Coke.

    Soft drink giant Coca-Cola Co.’s sponsorship of the flagship U.N. climate conference, known as COP27, sparked an online backlash and highlighted broader concerns about corporate lobbying and influence.

    The COP27 negotiations aimed at limiting global temperature increases are set to kick off next month in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh. The Egyptian organizers cited Coca-Cola’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and key focus on climate when they announced the sponsorship deal in September, which triggered immediate outrage on social media.

    Activists slammed the company for its outsized role contributing to plastic pollution and pointed to the deal as an example of corporate “greenwash” — exaggerating climate credentials to mask polluting behaviors. An online petition calling for Coke to be removed as a sponsor has garnered more than 228,000 signatures, while hundreds of civil society groups signed an open letter demanding polluting companies be banned from bankrolling or being involved in climate talks.

    Coca-Cola said its participation underscores its ambitious plans to cut its emissions and clean up plastic ocean trash.

    Critics say corporate involvement goes against the spirit of the meetings, where tens of thousands of delegates from around the world gather to hammer out global agreements on combating climate change to stop the earth from warming to dangerous levels. This year, the focus is on how to implement promises made at previous conferences, according to the Egyptian presidency.

    At COP meetings, “the corporate presence is huge, of course, and it’s a slick marketing campaign for them,” said Bobby Banerjee, a management professor at City University of London’s Bayes Business School, who has attended three times since 2011.

    Over the years, the meetings have evolved to resemble trade fairs, with big corporations, startups and industry groups setting up stalls and pavilions on the sidelines to lobby and schmooze — underscoring how a growing number of companies want to engage with the event, sensing commercial opportunities as climate change becomes a bigger global priority.

    IBM, Microsoft, Boston Consulting Group and Vodafone also have signed up as sponsors or partners but have drawn less flak for their participation than Coca-Cola.

    The United Nations Climate Change press office referred media inquiries to the organizers, saying it was a matter between Egypt and the company. The Egyptian presidency didn’t respond to email requests for comment. U.N. Climate Change’s website says it “seeks to engage in mutually beneficial partnerships with non-Party stakeholders.”

    Georgia Elliott-Smith, a sustainability consultant and environmental activist who set up the online petition, said she’s calling on the U.N. “to stop accepting corporate sponsorship for these events, which simply isn’t necessary, and stop enabling these major polluters to greenwash their brands, piggybacking on these really critical climate talks.”

    Environmental groups slammed the decision to let Coca-Cola be a sponsor, saying it’s one of the world’s biggest plastic producers and top polluters. They say manufacturing plastic with petroleum emits carbon dioxide and many of the single-use bottles are sold in countries with low recycling rates, where they either end up littering oceans or are incinerated, adding more carbon emissions to the atmosphere.

    In a statement, Coca-Cola said it shares “the goal of eliminating waste from the ocean” and appreciates “efforts to raise awareness about this challenge.” Packaging accounts for about a third of Coke’s carbon footprint, and the company said it has “ambitious goals,” including helping collect a bottle or can for every one it sells, regardless of maker, by 2030.

    Coca-Cola said it will partner with other businesses, civil society organizations and governments “to support cooperative action” on plastic waste and noted that it signed joint statements in 2020 and 2022 urging U.N. member states to adopt a global treaty to tackle the problem “through a holistic, circular economy approach.”

    “Our support for COP27 is in line with our science-based target to reduce absolute carbon emissions 25% by 2030, and our ambition for net zero carbon emissions by 2050,” the company said by email.

    Experts say sponsorships overshadow a bigger problem behind the scenes: fossil fuel companies lobbying and influencing the talks in backroom negotiations.

    “The real deals are handled indoors, you know, in closed rooms,” said Banerjee, the management professor. At the first one he attended — COP17 in Durban, South Africa, in 2011 — he tried to get into a session on carbon emissions in the mining industry, a topic he was researching.

    “But guess what? They turned me away, and who walks into the room to discuss, to develop global climate policy? CEOs of Rio Tinto, Shell, BP, followed by the ministers,” Banerjee said, adding that a Greenpeace member behind him was also blocked. “This group of people — mining companies and politicians — are deciding on carbon emissions.”

    Elliott-Smith, the environmental activist, attended last year’s COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, as a legal observer to the negotiations. While she’s not naive about corporate-political lobbying, she was “really shocked at the amount of corporates attending the conference, (and) of the open participation between CEOs and climate negotiating delegations in these conversations.”

    In Glasgow, retailers, tech companies and consumer goods brands were signed up as partners, but fossil fuel companies were reportedly banned by the British organizers. Still, more than 500 lobbyists linked to the industry attended, according to researchers from a group of NGOs who combed through the official accreditation list.

    This year, oil and gas companies might feel more welcome because Egypt is expected to spotlight the region and attract a big contingent from Middle Eastern and North African countries, whose economies and government revenue depend on pumping oil and gas.

    Egypt historically sided with developing countries resisting pressure to cut emissions further, which say they shouldn’t have to pay the price for rich countries’ historical carbon dioxide emissions.

    Ahead of the meeting, U.N. human rights experts and international rights groups criticized the Egyptian government’s human rights track record, accusing authorities of covering up a decade of violations, including a clampdown on dissent, mass incarcerations and rollback of personal freedoms, in an attempt to burnish its international image. The country’s foreign minister told The Associated Press earlier this year that there would be space for protests.

    Against this backdrop, “it will be that much easier to censor, prohibit or silence attempts by civil society seeking to hold the process accountable to delivering the needed outcomes,” said Rachel Rose Jackson, director of climate research and policy at watchdog group Corporate Accountability. “It will also make the polluter PR and greenwashing surrounding the talks that much more effective.”

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    Follow all AP stories on climate change at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

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    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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