Tag: Pollution

EPA investigating Colorado for discriminatory air pollution

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DENVER — The Environmental Protection Agency is investigating whether Colorado’s regulation of air pollution from industrial facilities discriminates against Hispanic residents and other racial minorities, according to a letter released Wednesday.

That’s a level of scrutiny long sought by Lucy Molina whose daughter goes to school near Colorado’s only petroleum refinery. Three years ago Molina had just stepped outdoors when she noticed a coating of ash on her Nissan Altima that wiped off on her fingers. Then she received a message that her daughter’s school was locked down and panicked. She later learned the refinery had malfunctioned, spewing a clay-like material into the air. She’d heard of lockdowns for shootings, but never for pollution.

Since then she’s pushed for community air monitoring and stronger protections, but says it all feels too late. She’s lived here for 30 years, and her kids are already young adults.

“If we would have known” years ago, she said. “We would have moved.”

Advocates say the Suncor refinery too often malfunctions, spiking emissions. They say Colorado rarely denies permits to polluters, even in areas where harmful ozone already exceeds federal standards.

Federal investigators said in the letter they will scrutinize the state’s oversight of Colorado’s biggest polluters including the Suncor oil refinery in North Denver where Molina lives, and whether the effect of that pollution on residents is discriminatory.

Suncor did not respond to a request for comment.

But it is already harder for oil and gas companies to get their air permits in Colorado than in some other energy-producing states, said John Jacus, chair of the Colorado Chamber of Commerce board of directors and an environmental compliance attorney. He said recent allegations that the state’s permit review process was faulty had the effect of slowing air permitting, a blow to business.

“It would be really good for air quality to shut everything down, but that’s not good for society,” Jacus said, adding there needed to be a balance between environmental protection and economic activity.

The EPA launched its investigation under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It has been going on since March but went little noticed until Wednesday’s letter, which explains its scope. The Act allows the EPA to negotiate agreements with states to promote equity. The Biden administration has stepped up its enforcement of environmental discrimination.

Colorado officials said they welcome the EPA review, more community participation and are reviewing their permitting policies to ensure they are focused on environmental justice.

“We’ve always prioritized the health and wellbeing of every Coloradan no matter their zip code, but we know we have even more to do,” said Trisha Oeth, our Director of Environmental Health and Protection in a statement.

But the EPA has found those priorities lacking at times.

The agency scrutinized the state’s handling of Suncor. Colorado’s only oil refinery is roughly 90 years old and is a major emitter of greenhouse gas emissions in the state.

In March, the EPA objected to a key air permit for the facility that state regulators were still reviewing 10 years after its original expiration date. The agency raised “significant environmental justice concerns” and said that the public wasn’t given enough opportunity to weigh in. The EPA didn’t object when the state issued a revised permit.

In July, the agency also said the state had issued permits for a mine, oil and gas wells and other small polluters even though they could contribute to violations of federal air quality standards. Colorado said it would improve its reviews, but balked at revisiting its permitting decisions.

There are some signs the agency chose Colorado because it could prove a willing partner.

“Colorado has been one of the states that has been a leader in addressing environmental justice in the legislature,” said KC Becker, the head of the EPA region that includes Colorado and a former state legislative leader.

Colorado has strengthened air monitoring requirements. It increased funding for air permit reviews. The state’s greenhouse gas reduction plan aims to reduce pollution in overburdened areas. It also worked with the EPA to ensure inspections target the most polluted areas and when companies reach settlements for wrongdoing, they pay for projects that benefit communities.

The EPA may have an easier time convincing Colorado to change than it would, say, Texas, said Jeremy Nichols, head of climate and energy programs at WildEarth Guardians.

Colorado’s changes have “given EPA an opening to say, ‘well, if that is what you are committed to then let’s really test this out, let’s see you prove your mettle here,’” said Nichols.

Nichols said Colorado is too deferential to industry. He wants to see the state deny permits much more often.

Ian Coghill, an attorney with Earthjustice that is challenging the Suncor permit, says the push and pull between the EPA and state hasn’t yielded major improvements. Revisions to Suncor’s permit, he said “didn’t change a lot.”

He is hopeful the civil rights investigation will force the state to make changes and detail the cumulative effect of pollution from industry on residents of North Denver.

“I’m definitely optimistic,” he said.

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The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

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December 28, 2022
Devastating disasters and flickers of hope: These are the top climate and weather stories of 2022 | CNN

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CNN
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From a small island in Polynesia to the white-sand beaches of Florida, the planet experienced a dizzying number of climate and extreme weather disasters in 2022.

Blistering summer heat broke records in drought-stricken China, threatening lives and food production. In the United States, drought and sea level rise clashed at the mouth of the historically low Mississippi River. And in South Africa, climate change made rainfall that triggered deadly floods heavier and twice as likely to occur.

Yet against the backdrop of these catastrophic events, this year also sparked some glimmers of hope:

Scientists in the US successfully produced a nuclear fusion reaction that generated more energy than it used – a huge step in the decades-long quest to replace fossil fuels with an infinite source of clean energy.

And at the United Nations’ COP27 climate summit in Egypt, nearly 200 countries agreed to set up a fund to help poor, vulnerable countries cope with climate disasters they had little hand in causing.

“There was some encouraging climate action in 2022, but we remain far off track to meet our goals of reducing global heat-trapping emissions and limiting future planetary warming,” Kristina Dahl, principal climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, told CNN. “There must be a stronger collective commitment and progress toward slashing emissions in 2023 if we are to keep climate extremes from becoming even more devastating.”

Here are the top 10 climate and extreme weather stories of 2022.

When the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupted in January, it sent tsunami waves around the world. The blast itself was so loud it was heard in Alaska – roughly 6,000 miles away. The afternoon sky turned pitch black as heavy ash clouded Tonga’s capital and caused “significant damage” along the western coast of the main island of Tongatapu.

The underwater volcanic eruption also injected a huge cloud of ash and sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, more than 30 kilometers (around 19 miles) above sea level, according to data from NASA satellites.

At the time, experts said the event was likely not large enough to impact global climate.

But months later, scientists found that the eruption actually belched an enormous amount of water vapor into the Earth’s stratosphere – enough to fill more than 58,000 Olympic-size swimming pools. The massive plume of water vapor will likely contribute to more global warming at ground-level for the next several years, NASA scientists reported.

Severe drought reveals incredible discovery at bottom of Mississippi river

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CNN

Searing temperatures, lack of rainfall and low snowpack pushed some of the world’s most vital rivers to new lows this year.

Northern Italy saw its worst drought in more than 70 years. The 400-mile River Po hit a record low due to an unusually dry winter and limited snowpack in the Alps, which feeds the river. The drought impacted millions of people who rely on the Po for their livelihood, and roughly 30% of the country’s food, which is produced along the river.

Also fed by winter snowpack in the Alps along with spring rains, Germany’s Rhine River dropped to “exceptionally low” levels in some areas, disrupting shipping in the country’s most important inland water way. Months of little rainfall meant cargo ships began carrying lighter loads and transport costs soared.

Meanwhile in the US, extreme drought spread into the central states and gauges along the Mississippi River and its tributaries plummeted. Barge traffic moved in fits and starts as officials dredged the river. The Mississippi River dropped so low that the Army Corps of Engineers was forced to build a 1,500-foot-wide levee to prevent Gulf-of-Mexico saltwater from pushing upstream.

After more than a year of negotiations, Democrats in late July reached an agreement on President Joe Biden’s long-stalled climate, energy and tax agenda – capping a year of agonizing negotiations that failed multiple times.

Biden signed the bill into law in August and signaled to the world that the US is delivering on its climate promises.

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin was influential in delaying the bill’s passage. Multiple White House and Biden administration officials for months had tried to convince the senator to support the bill over dinners in Paris and ziplining in West Virginia.

An analysis suggests the measures in the bill will reduce US carbon emissions by roughly 40% by 2030 and would put Biden well on his way to achieving his goal of slashing emissions in half by 2030.

‘We are in trouble here in Daytona’: Coastal homes collapse into the ocean

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CNN

Hurricane Nicole was the first hurricane to hit anywhere in the US during the month of November in nearly 40 years. The rare, late-season storm also marked the first time that a hurricane made landfall on Florida’s east coast in November.

Although Nicole was only a category 1, it had a massive wind field that stretched more than 500 miles, coupled with astronomically high tides that led to catastrophic storm surge. Homes and buildings collapsed into the ocean in Volusia County, with authorities scrambling to issue evacuation warnings.

Hurricane Nicole flooded streets, destroyed power lines and killed at least five people. The storm came just 42 days after deadly category 4 Hurricane Ian wreaked havoc on the west coast of Florida.

Negotiators from nearly 200 countries agreed at the UN climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, to set up a new fund for “loss and damage,” meant to help vulnerable countries cope with climate disasters. It was the first time wealthy, industrialized countries and groups, including longtime holdouts like the US and the EU, agreed to establish such a fund.

“We can’t solve the climate crisis unless we rapidly and equitably transition to clean energy and away from fossil fuels, as well as hold wealthy nations and the fossil fuel industry accountable for the damage they have done,” Rachel Cleetus, policy director and lead economist for the climate and energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, told CNN.

The summer’s series of floods started off in Yellowstone National Park in June, when extreme rainfall and rapidly melting snow washed out roads and bridges in the park, causing significant damage to the nearby town of Gardiner, Montana, at the park’s entrance. Authorities had to rescue more than 100 people from the floods.

The year also brought several 1,000-year rainfall events. A 1,000-year rainfall event is one that is so intense it’s only seen on average once every 1,000 years – under normal circumstances. But extreme rainfall is becoming more common as the climate crisis pushes temperatures higher. Warmer air can hold more moisture, which loads the dice in favor of historic rainfall.

Deadly flooding swept through Eastern Kentucky and around St. Louis in July after damaging, record-breaking rainfall in a short period of time.

California’s Death Valley, after a yearslong dry spell, saw its rainiest day in recorded history.

Meanwhile, down south, parts of Dallas, Texas, got an entire summer’s worth of rain in just 24 hours in August, prompting more than 350 high-water rescues.

Wildfires threaten London during record-breaking heat wave

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CNN

Europe experienced its hottest summer on record in 2022 by a wide margin. While the heat kicked off early in France, Portugal and Spain, with the countries reaching record-warmth in May, the most significant heat came in mid-July, spreading across the UK and central Europe.

The UK, in particular, topped 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) for the first time on record. Stephen Belcher, the UK Met Office’s chief scientist, said this would have been “virtually impossible” in an “undisrupted climate.”

Throughout western Europe, the heatwaves gravely increased wildfire risk, with one London fire official noting that the 40-degree day led to an “unprecedented day in the history of the London Fire Brigade.”

As water levels drop at this major lake, bodies begin to appear

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CNN

The past few years have been a reality check for western states that heavily rely on the Colorado River for water and electricity. Plagued by decades of overuse and a climate change-fueled drought, the river that serves 40 million people in seven western states and Mexico is draining at an alarming rate.

The water levels in its two main reservoirs – Lake Mead and Lake Powell – have plunged rapidly, threatening drinking water supply and power generation. In late July, Lake Mead – the country’s largest reservoir – bottomed out and has only rebounded a few feet off record lows. Its rapidly plunging levels revealed human remains from the 1970s and a sunken vessel from World War II.

The federal government implemented its first-ever mandatory water cuts this year for states that draw from the Colorado River, and those cuts will be even deeper starting in January 2023.

Floods caused by record monsoon rain and melting glaciers in Pakistan’s northern mountain regions claimed the lives of more than 1,400 people this summer, with millions more affected by clean water and food shortages. More than a third of Pakistan was underwater, satellite images showed, and authorities warned it would take months for the flood waters to recede in the country’s hardest-hit areas.

UN Secretary General António Guterres said the Pakistani people are facing “a monsoon on steroids,” referring to the role that the climate crisis had in supercharging the extreme rainfall. The hard-hit provinces Sindh and Balochistan saw rainfall more than 500% of average during the monsoon season.

Pakistan is responsible for less than 1% of the world’s planet-warming emissions, yet it is the eighth most vulnerable nation to the climate crisis, according to the Global Climate Risk Index.

Hurricane Ian was a Category 4 storm when it made landfall in southwest Florida in late September and left a trail of destruction from the Caribbean to the Carolinas. Insured losses from Ian are expected to reach up to $65 billion, according to recent data from reinsurance company Swiss Re.

The storm first struck Cuba before undergoing rapid intensification from a tropical storm to a category 3 hurricane in just 24 hours – something scientists told CNN is part of a trend for the most dangerous storms. That same week, Super Typhoon Noru in the Philippines grew from the equivalent of a category 1 hurricane to a category 5 overnight as residents around Manila slept, catching officials and residents unaware and unable to prepare.

Hurricane Ian’s size and intensity allowed it to build up a storm surge higher than any ever observed in Southwest Florida, devastating Fort Myers and Cape Coral. Ian killed more than 100 people, most by drowning. It will likely be one of the costliest hurricanes on record not only in Florida, but in the US.

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December 28, 2022
Model analysis of atmospheric observations reveals methane leakage in North China

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1. Background

Natural gas is a relatively clean burning fossil fuel, that causes less air pollution than coal and is widely used in the world. Recent studies have shown that the natural gas leaks from production, supply chain, and end-use facilities are a large source of atmospheric methane (CH₄), and the leaking budget is underestimated in many places by bottom-up inventories. CH₄ is the second most important greenhouse gas (GHG) contributing to global warming after carbon dioxide (CO₂), with a relatively shorter lifetime, making the reduction of CH₄ emission a suitable target for implementing rapid and achievable mitigation strategies of the Paris Agreement.

Over the last decade, natural gas has become the fastest-growing fossil energy source in China due to the coal-to-gas government initiative that has been implemented to reduce air pollution and CO₂ emissions. Natural gas consumption has increased dramatically from 108.5 billion standard cubic meters (bcm) (4% of primary energy consumption) in 2010 to a record level of 280 bcm (7.6% of primary energy consumption) in 2018. In addition, according to China’s energy plan, the share of primary energy from gas will keep increasing and is likely to reach 15% by 2030, while coal and oil consumption will decline. From 2010 to 2018, the length of gas supply pipelines in urban areas of China increased approximately three-fold from 298 to 842 thousand kilometers. However, CH₄ leakage from those pipelines has not been actively reported, and there is limited publicly available data on upstream emissions and local distribution of natural gas emissions in China.

2. Research Outline and Results

In this study, we used nine years (2010–2018) of CH₄ observations by the Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite “IBUKI” (GOSAT) and surface station data from the World Data Centre for Greenhouse Gases (WDCGG) to estimate CH₄ emissions in different regions of China. GOSAT observes the column-averaged dry-air mole fractions of CH₄ in the atmosphere, and the surface stations monitor CH₄ concentrations near surface. The observation data were used for simulations by the high-resolution inverse model NTFVAR (NIES-TM-FLEXPART-variational) to infer the surface flux of CH₄ emissions. Inverse modelling optimizes prior flux estimates, which are constrained so that an acceptable agreement between the simulated and observed atmospheric concentrations is achieved.

Figure 1 shows the model-estimated CH₄ fluxes in four regions of China. The four regions, North China (NE), South China (SE), North-west China (NW), and the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (TP), vary with respect climate, geographical features, types of agriculture, major economic activities, and CH₄ emission sources. The model-estimated average CH₄ emissions from the four subregions over the period 2010–2018 are 30.0±1.0 (average ± standard deviation) Tg CH₄ yr^-1 from the SE region, 23.3±2.7 Tg CH₄ yr^-1 from the NE region, 2.9±0.2 Tg CH₄ yr^-1 from the NW region, and 1.7±0.1 Tg CH₄ yr^-1 from the TP region. The trends in CH₄ emissions have varied in the different regions of China over the last nine years, with significant increase trends detected in the NE region and the whole China.

We focused our analysis on the NE region where natural gas production and consumption have increased dramatically and are likely one of the main contributors to the increase estimated in regional total CH₄ emissions. The CH₄ emissions from natural gas, including leakage from fuel extraction, processing, transport, and the end-use stage, were estimated using an approach that combined data for the province-level emissions inventory and published inverse model studies. The model-estimated total CH₄ emissions and the estimated natural gas emissions both increased significantly during 2010–2018 (Figure 2). The total amount of natural gas emissions due to leakages constitutes a significant waste of energy and value. For example, in 2018, natural gas consumption in the NE region was 101.5 bcm and the estimated total natural gas emissions were 3.2%–5.3% of regional consumption.

Figure 3 shows the changes in estimated CH₄ emissions from natural gas and the model-estimated total CH₄ emissions for 2010-2018 compared to previous years in the NE region. The year-over-year change in the model-estimated total CH₄ emission closely follows the changes in CH₄ emissions from natural gas. In January 2016, record cold wave hit the region causing a sudden increase in natural gas use, and natural gas suppliers recorded an increase in natural gas loss (i.e., the difference between the amount of gas purchased and the amount of gas sold). Simultaneously, the atmospheric observations also captured the emission changes, as reflected in our inverse estimates (Figure 3). The analysis shows a strong correlation between trends in natural gas use and the increase in the atmospheric CH₄concentration over the NE region, which is indicative the ability of GOSAT to monitor variations in regional anthropogenic sources.

3. Future Perspectives

The findings of our study highlight that the increase in natural gas use threatens China’s carbon reduction efforts. The increase in CH₄ leaks from natural gas production and the supply chain will adversely affect the interests of diverse stakeholders, despite the introduction of carbon reduction measures. Given that the large natural gas distribution pipelines span more than 900 thousand kilometers in China, natural gas leaks constitute a significant waste of energy and value. The year-over-year changes in regional emissions and trends were detected by satellite and surface observations in this study. In the future, additional observations using high-resolution satellites will help to more accurately quantify emissions and provide scientific directions for emission reduction measures. There is also a need to further detect and locate such leaks using advanced mobile platforms in order to effectively mitigate CH₄ emissions in China and bring about economic, environmental, and health benefits.

4. Data Availability

GOSAT data used in this study are available from the GOSAT Data Archive Service https://data2.gosat.nies.go.jp/index_en.html

In-situ methane observation data are archived on the WDCGG Global Network: https://gaw.kishou.go.jp/

Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR) emission inventories are available for download at

https://edgar.jrc.ec.europa.eu/

Global Fire Assimilation System (GFAS) fire emissions Database are from https://www.ecmwf.int/en/forecasts/dataset/global-fire-assimilation-system

Wetland emission by Vegetation Integrative SImulator for Trace gases (VISIT) model are available at

https://www.nies.go.jp/doi/10.17595/20210521.001-e.html

The NIES airborne and Japan-Russia Siberian Tall Tower Inland Observation network (JR STATION) data are available at

https://db.cger.nies.go.jp/ged/en/index.html

The Japanese 55-year Reanalysis (JRA-55) data from the Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA) are available at

https://search.diasjp.net/en/dataset/JRA55

5. Supplementary Information

○ Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite “IBUKI” (GOSAT)

The Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite “IBUKI” (GOSAT) is the world’s first spacecraft to monitor the concentrations of the two major GHGs CO₂ and CH₄ from space. NIES has promoted the GOSAT series projects for GHG observation from space, together with the Ministry of the Environment, Japan (MOE) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). GOSAT (IBUKI) is the first satellite in the series and has been observing column-averaged concentrations of CO₂ and CH₄ for more than 13 years since its launch in 2009. The second satellite, GOSAT-2 (IBUKI-2) was launched in 2018 and started observing carbon monoxide in addition to CO₂ and CH₄. Furthermore, the third satellite, Global Observing SATellite for Greenhouse gases and Water cycle (GOSAT-GW) is under development and due for launch in Japanese fiscal year 2023.

○ Lifetime of methane in the atmosphere

Methane is the second most important well-mixed GHG contributing to human-induced climate change after CO₂. The lifetime of CH₄ in the atmosphere refers to the time that CH₄ stays in the air after being emitted from a variety of sources. CH₄ is removed from the atmosphere mostly by chemical reactions. The atmospheric lifetime of CH₄ is 10 ± 2 years, which is relatively shorter than that of CO₂ (approximately 5 to 200 years) (IPCC, 2013).

○ Methane emission sources

Methane is emitted from a variety of anthropogenic and natural sources. Approximately 60% of all CH₄ emissions come from anthropogenic sources, such as agricultural activities, waste treatment, oil and natural gas systems, coal mining, stationary and mobile combustion, and certain industrial processes. Natural emissions include wetlands, freshwater bodies such as lakes and rivers, and geological sources such as terrestrial and marine seeps and volcanoes. Other smaller sources include ruminant wild animals, termites, hydrates and permafrost.

○ Underestimation of methane emissions from oil and gas using bottom-up inventories

Methane can leak into the atmosphere from upstream/downstream natural gas operations (i.e., extraction and gathering, processing, transmission and storage, and distribution) and end-use combustion. Atmospheric measurement studies have shown that a large amount of CH₄ emissions from oil and gas production are unaccounted for in bottom-up inventories. Using high-resolution satellite observations, Zhang et al. (2020) estimated a leakage equivalent to 3.7% (~60% higher than the national average leakage rate) of all the gas extracted from the largest oil-producing basin in the United States. Chan et al. (2020) reported eight-year estimates of CH₄ emissions from oil and gas operations in western Canada and found that they were nearly twice that from inventories. Weller et al. (2020) used an advanced mobile leak detection (AMLD) platform combined with GIS information of utility pipelines to estimate CH₄ leakage from pipelines of local distribution systems in the United States. They found that the leakage from those pipelines was approximately five times greater than that reported in inventories compiled based on self-reported utility leakage data.

○ High-resolution inverse model NIES-TM-FLEXPART-variational (NTFVAR)

Inverse modeling is an important and essential method for estimating GHGs emissions. The model uses atmospheric observation data as a controller in atmospheric models to optimize bottom-up emission inventories (prior fluxes).

The NIES-TM-FLEXPART-variational (NTFVAR) global inverse model was developed by Dr.Shamil Maksyutov’s group at NIES. NTFVAR is combined with a joint Eulerian three-dimensional transport model, the National Institute for Environmental Studies Transport Model (NIES-TM) v08.1i, and a Lagrangian model, the FLEXPART model v.8.0. The transport model is driven by JRA-55 meteorological data from JMA. The prior fluxes include gridded anthropogenic emissions from the EDGAR database, such as energy, agriculture, waste and other sectors; wetland emissions estimated by the Wetland emission by the VISIT model; biomass burning emissions estimated by GFAS; and climatological emissions from oceanic, geological, and termite sources. The inverse modeling problem is formulated and solved to find the optimal value of corrections to prior fluxes minimizing mismatches between observations and modelled concentrations. Variational optimization is applied to obtain flux corrections to vary prior uncertainty fields at a resolution of 0.1° × 0.1° with bi-weekly time steps. A variational inversion scheme is combined with the high-resolution variant of the transport model and its adjoint described by Maksyutov et al. (2021).

References:

Chan, E. et al. Eight-Year Estimates of Methane Emissions from Oil and Gas Operations in Western Canada Are Nearly Twice Those Reported in Inventories. Environmental Science & Technology 54, 14899-14909, doi:10.1021/acs.est.0c04117 (2020).

IPCC 2013: Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. [Stocker, T. F. Q. et al.]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA.

Maksyutov, S. et al. Technical note: A high-resolution inverse modelling technique for estimating surface CO₂ fluxes based on the NIES-TM – FLEXPART coupled transport model and its adjoint. Atmospheric Chemistry Physics 21, 1245–1266 doi:10.5194/acp-21-1245-2021(2021).

Weller, Z., Hamburg, S. & von Fischer, J. A National Estimate of Methane Leakage from Pipeline Mains in Natural Gas Local Distribution Systems. Environmental Science & Technology 54, 8958-8967, doi:10.1021/acs.est.0c00437 (2020).

Zhang, Y. et al. Quantifying methane emissions from the largest oil-producing basin in the United States from space. Science Advances 6, doi:10.1126/sciadv.aaz5120 (2020).

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National Institute for Environmental Studies

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December 22, 2022
Microplastics deposited on the seafloor triple in 20 years

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Newswise — The total amount of microplastics deposited on the bottom of oceans has tripled in the past two decades with a progression that corresponds to the type and volume of consumption of plastic products by society. This is the main conclusion of a study developed by the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) and the Department of the Built Environment of Aalborg University (AAU-BUILD), which provides the first high-resolution reconstruction of microplastic pollution from sediments obtained in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea.

Despite the seafloor being considered the final sink for microplastics floating on the sea surface, the historical evolution of this pollution source in the sediment compartment, and particularly the sequestration and burial rate of smaller microplastics on the ocean floor, is unknown.

This new study, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology (ES&T), shows that microplastics are retained unaltered in marine sediments, and that the microplastic mass sequestered in the seafloor mimics the global plastic production from 1965 to 2016. “Specifically, the results show that, since 2000, the amount of plastic particles deposited on the seafloor has tripled and that, far from decreasing, the accumulation has not stopped growing mimicking the production and global use of these materials,” explains ICTA-UAB researcher Laura Simon-Sánchez.

Researchers explains that the sediments analysed have remained unaltered on the seafloor since they were deposited decades ago. “This has allowed us to see how, since the 1980s, but especially in the past two decades, the accumulation of polyethylene and polypropylene particles from packaging, bottles and food films has increased, as well as polyester from synthetic fibres in clothing fabrics,” explains Michael Grelaud, ICTA-UAB researcher. The amount of these three types of particles reaches 1.5mg per kilogram of sediment collected, with polypropylene being the most abundant, followed by polyethylene and polyester. Despite awareness campaigns on the need to reduce single-use plastic, data from annual marine sediment records show that we are still far from achieving this. Policies at the global level in this regard could contribute to improving this serious problem.

Although smaller microplastics are very abundant in the environment, constraints in analytical methods have limited robust evidence on the levels of small microplastics in previous studies targeting marine sediment. In this study they were characterised by applying state-of-the-art imaging to quantify particles down to 11 µm in size.

The degradation status of the buried particles was investigated, and it was found that, once trapped in the seafloor, they no longer degrade, either due to lack of erosion, oxygen, or light. “The process of fragmentation takes place mostly in the beach sediments, on the sea surface or in the water column. Once deposited, degradation is minimal, so plastics from the 1960s remain on the seabed, leaving the signature of human pollution there,” says Patrizia Ziveri, ICREA professor at ICTA-UAB.

The investigated sediment core was collected in November 2019, on board the oceanographic vessel Sarmiento de Gamboa, in an expedition that went from Barcelona to the coast of the Ebro Delta, in Tarragona, Spain. The research group selected the western Mediterranean Sea as a study area, in particular the Ebro Delta, because rivers are recognized as hotspots for several pollutants, including microplastics. In addition, the influx of sediment from the Ebro River provides higher sedimentation rates than in the open ocean.

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Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona

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December 22, 2022
Expert on Human Exposure to Contaminants – Response to 3M & Forever Chemicals

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Newswise — Environmental health researcher, epidemiologist, and statistician, Scott Bartell, PhD, is a professor at the UCI Program in Public Health in the Department of of Environmental and Occupational Health and has joint appointments across all other UCI Public Health departments as well as the Department of Statistics at the UCI Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences.

For the past 25 years, Bartell has dedicated his research to quantifying human exposures and health effects caused by environmental contaminants, including perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Bartell can respond to any media inquiries about the recent public notice that 3M will stop making hazardous forever chemicals that have profound impacts on human health.

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University of California, Irvine

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December 20, 2022
EPA to tighten nitrogen oxide limits for new heavy trucks

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DETROIT — In a little over four years, new heavy truck makers will have to cut harmful nitrogen oxide pollution more than 80% under new standards released Tuesday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Some environmental and health advocates praised the standards but others said they don’t go far enough to curb nitrogen oxide, which can cause issues including respiratory illness, cardiovascular problems and even death.

Problems are more acute in industrial and port areas, causing health problems for low-income residents who live there. The EPA says 72 million people live near freight routes in the U.S.

The standards, coupled with greenhouse gas emission limits coming next year, and government investments, eventually will lead to zero-emissions electric and hydrogen fuel cell trucks carrying most of the nation’s freight, the agency said.

“This is just the first action under EPA’s clean trucks plan to pave the way toward a zero-emission future,” Administrator Michael Regan said in a prepared statement.

The standards, the first update in more than 20 years, limit nitrogen oxide emissions from new semis and other heavy trucks to 35 milligrams per horsepower hour. The current standard is 200 milligrams, the EPA said.

One horsepower hour is the equivalent of energy consumed by working at the rate of one horsepower for a single hour.

EPA officials say catalytic reduction technology is available for truck engine manufacturers to meet the large reduction when the standards take effect in 2027. The agency also says the standards can be met at a reasonable cost. The stronger standard will not change and will remain in place for multiple years, the EPA said.

As the fleet of heavy trucks is replaced by newer vehicles, it should reduce nitrogen oxide pollution by 48% by 2045, the EPA said.

The agency expects greenhouse gas standards and incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act to bring the replacement of all diesel trucks with zero-emissions alternatives, said Margo Oge, a former director of the EPA’s transportation and air quality office.

Oge, now a volunteer with the Environmental Protection Network, expects at least half of all new heavy trucks to be powered by batteries or hydrogen fuel cells by 2030.

The Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association said the new standards will be challenging to put in place, but its members will work with the EPA.

“Ultimately the success or failure of this rule hinges on the willingness and ability of trucking fleets to invest in purchasing the new technology to replace their older, higher-emitting vehicles,” the association said in a prepared statement.

A group representing independent truck drivers, the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association, said small business truckers won’t be able to afford new trucks, so they’ll stay with older, less-efficient ones.

The new rule lets the trucking industry keep making vehicles that pollute the air, the Natural Resources Defense Council said.

“The agency missed a critical opportunity to slash soot and smog and accelerate the shift to the cleanest vehicles,” the group said in a prepared statement.

However, the American Lung Association called the rule an important step in reducing emissions that can cause lifelong lung damage.

“Now, EPA must build on today’s rule,” the group said. “These standards must dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from trucks to drive a nationwide transition to zero-emission vehicles.”

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December 20, 2022
First on CNN: Biden administration moves to phase out compact fluorescent light bulbs and push market toward LEDs | CNN Politics

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The Biden administration is unveiling a new proposed rule that, if enacted, would effectively phase out compact fluorescent light bulbs and move the US light bulb markets decisively to more energy-efficient LEDs.

The Department of Energy is proposing the rule on Monday with the aim to finalize it by the end of President Joe Biden’s first term. The rule would more than double the current minimum light bulb efficiency level, from its current standard of 45 lumens per watt to over 120 lumens per watt for the most common bulbs. The details of the proposed rule were shared first with CNN.

This change will accelerate what White House National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi said is an “increasing shift in the marketplace toward LED lighting” over the last decade. Zaidi said moving away from compact fluorescents and even less efficient incandescent bulbs will ultimately lead to savings for consumers.

“The mandate to the Department of Energy from Congress is to find ways to save money for American consumers,” Zaidi told CNN in an interview. “LEDs are now an order of magnitude cheaper than just a decade ago.”

The proposed rule comes on top of the Biden administration’s move to get inefficient incandescent bulbs off the shelves by the summer of 2023. The Department of Energy finalized a rule to phase out the old-fashioned bulbs in the spring, capping off a decades-long bipartisan effort started in the Bush administration to get them off the shelves.

That was complicated by former President Donald Trump in 2019, whose administration undid a previous Obama-era light bulb rule. Trump once famously complained about the quality of the light coming from LED bulbs, telling House Republicans “I always look orange” in the energy-efficient lighting.

Zaidi said that LED lighting technology has improved tremendously since the early days of LEDs, providing better light for a fraction of the cost.

LED bulbs can last three to five times longer than a compact fluorescent bulb, and up to 30 times longer than an incandescent bulb, according to the Department of Energy. Unlike both incandescent and compact fluorescent bulbs, LEDs release very little heat, and thus waste less energy.

“If a particular light fixture was costing someone $10 in a year, then it’s going to be costing much, much less,” Zaidi said.

Even before the latest proposed rule, LED use in the US has grown significantly in recent years. Nearly 50% of US households said they used LED bulbs for most or all their indoor lighting, according to the 2020 Residential Energy Consumption Survey. It was a huge increase from the 2015 survey, where just 4% of households reported using LEDs for most or all indoor light use.

That same survey showed just 12% of US households said they used compact fluorescents as their predominant source of lighting, down from 32% in 2015.

DOE also estimates the proposed changes will help put a dent in planet-warming emissions, cutting 131 million metric tons of carbon dioxide and 903 thousand tons of methane over the next 30 years – roughly equal to the electricity that 29 million homes use in one year.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a statement the changes would “help lower energy costs and keep money in the pockets of American families while reducing our nation’s carbon footprint.”

The rulemaking is also part of an administration goal to take 100 actions in the past year to make energy efficiency standards stronger. The White House announced Monday it had surpassed its goal with stronger standards on gas furnaces, air conditioners and clothes dryers.

Zaidi told CNN it is part of a broader effort by the Biden administration to move Americans’ appliances to more energy efficient and cost-effective ones that also release far less heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions into the air. For instance, Zaidi said DOE is also at work on a rule to make residential cooking products like stoves and ovens more efficient.

Zaidi added the administration is trying to use a combination of federal standards and incentives to push consumers toward energy-efficient and cleaner products for their homes, whether it be a light bulb, an HVAC unit or a stove.

“We’re laying the foundation for people in every year of this administration being able to lock in more ways to save money on energy bills,” Zaidi said. “One of the things we’ve heard loud and clear is how focused consumers are on not only recognizing that energy costs are front of mind now, but that there are these products that help them avoid impacts to their bottom line as energy costs fluctuate in the future.”

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December 19, 2022
EU reaches deal on emissions trading, social climate fund

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BERLIN — European Union governments and lawmakers reached a deal Sunday on key elements of the 27-nation bloc’s green deal, reforming the EU’s trading system for greenhouse gas emissions and creating a new hardship fund for those hardest-hit by measures to curb climate change.

The two sides agreed to push European industries and energy companies to cut their emissions by speeding up the phase-out of free pollution vouchers. Doing so makes each ton of carbon dioxide that’s released into the atmosphere more expensive for polluters.

The EU’s executive Commission said the measure would require European industries to reduce their emissions by 62% by 2030 from 2005 levels, compared to a target of 43% under the previous rules.

To ensure a level playing field, the EU will also introduce a tax on foreign companies that want to import products which don’t meet climate-protection standards European companies have to comply with. The so-called Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism was agreed to last week.

Governments and the European Parliament also agreed to extend the bloc’s emissions trading system to cover road transport and the heating of buildings from 2027. This is likely to raise the price of gasoline, natural gas and other fossil fuels for consumers, providing an incentive to switch to cleaner alternatives.

The deal includes an emergency clause allowing the introduction to be postponed by a year if energy costs are particularly high.

Against the backdrop of the current energy crisis that has stoked inflation in Europe and beyond, negotiators agreed to also create a social climate fund that will help vulnerable households and small businesses cope with higher costs for fuel arising from the new measures.

The fund comprising tens of billions of euros will be phased in from 2026 and filled with proceeds from the auction of emissions vouchers.

“We can now safely say that the EU has delivered on its promises with ambitious legislation and this puts us at the forefront of fighting climate change globally,” said Czech Environment Minister Marian Jurecka, whose country holds the EU’s rotating presidency.

The provisional agreement needs to be formally adopted by the EU Parliament and governments. It is part of the bloc’s broader ‘ Fit for 55 ’ package intended to help the EU cut its emissions by 55% by 2030 from 1990 levels and achieve “net zero” by mid-century.

Separately Sunday, countries that are part of the North Seas Energy Cooperation were expected to sign an agreement with Britain on working together to expand the construction of offshore wind power and electricity interconnectors. The deal also envisages cooperation on the production of hydrogen with renewable energy.

The United Kingdom, which left the North Seas Energy Cooperation agreement when it quit the EU in 2020, already has the biggest installed capacity for offshore wind power in Europe. With further expansion planned, Britain could become a major exporter of wind power to continental Europe in future.

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December 18, 2022
Using CO2 emissions from industry to make climate-friendly plastics

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Newswise — Reducing industrial carbon dioxide emissions plays a key role in the fight against climate change. Utilization of CO₂ emissions is an important means to this end. A research project coordinated by VTT examines the capture and utilisation of carbon dioxide from the forest industry and waste incineration in the manufacture of different types of plastic products. Simultaneously, process concepts will be developed to enable the commercial utilisation of carbon dioxide emissions also in other fields of industry.

Carbon from industrial emissions of carbon dioxide can be bound in the products of the plastics and chemical industries. This creates possibilities for the development of new, climate-friendly plastics and other polymeric products.

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has long studied the possibilities for capture and utilization of carbon dioxide in different sectors. The Forest CUMP project, which was launched in August 2022, continues this work, focusing on the carbon dioxide emissions of the forest industry and waste incineration. The intended end-products would be polyolefins – polyethene and polypropene – which are present in Finnish everyday life in many products and packaging. Today these materials are manufactured almost exclusively from fossil raw materials.

Test plant to start in an industrial environment in 2024

The Forest CUMP project aims at developing a processing concept which would enable the scaling of the technology up to the level of industrial production. An interim goal in the commercialisation of the process is to build a small test plant in a selected industrial environment in 2024.

“We can utilise the results of the test plant in the development and design of an industrial-scale plant. In addition to technological development, we are studying the applicability of different sources of CO₂and methods for capture and purification of CO₂. We are also looking into the logistical angle linked with the transport and storage of the feedstocks – carbon dioxide and hydrogen – and the intermediate products – hydrocarbons”, says VTT Research Professor Juha Lehtonen.

Solutions are being developed together with corporate partners

The Forest CUMP project is being carried out in close cooperation with company partners as part of the Business Finland’s Veturi ecosystems, which promote sustainable development. Borealis is one of the Veturi companies. Forest CUMP is part of Borealis’ SPIRIT programme, which aims at green transition in the plastics industry.

“This is a significant development project that supports our vision, in which the carbon dioxide emissions from industry could be utilised for the production of e.g. durable plastic pipes out of them, which can bind carbon for long periods of time”, says Antti Ilves of Borealis

Focus of previous project on polyurethane products used in construction

The Forest CUMP project continues the work of the earlier BECCU project, which aimed at utilising carbon dioxide in the production of raw materials for polyurethane products such as insulation materials and industrial adhesives. The project developed technologies and a process concept for an entire value chain from the bioenergy production, and the capture of carbon dioxide, all the way to the production of chemicals and polymers. The Forest CUMP project is developing further the production technology of hydrocarbon intermediates developed in BECCU.

The Forest CUMP project, funded by Business Finland, is part of Business Finland’s Veturi ecosystem, which develops different kinds of solutions toward sustainable development and national carbon-neutral status together with some of the most significant Finnish companies. The project was launched in August 2022 and continues through the end of 2024. Participants in the project include the leading companies Borealis, Neste and ABB, and Metsä Spring, Kemira, Vantaa Energy, Stora Enso, Kleener Power Solutions, Carbon ReUse Finland, Fortum and Essity. LUT University is a research partner, alongside VTT.

The BECCU project was launched in 1 January 2020 and concluded in the autumn of 2022. The project received funding from Business Finland. Further information: beccu.fi

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December 16, 2022
California regulators approve plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045 | CNN

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CNN
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California’s air regulators approved an aggressive plan Thursday for the state to reach carbon neutrality by 2045 – in line with legislation signed by Governor Gavin Newsom earlier this year.

The plan, approved by the California Air Resources Board, looks to move one of the largest economies in the world to renewable energy and away from fossil fuels.

Known as the Scoping Plan, the actions and policies aim to slash fossil fuel usage to less than a tenth of current consumption by decreasing demand for liquid petroleum by 94% by 2045, mainly driven by a move away from gas-powered vehicles.

The board also says the plan will cut air pollution by 71% and gas emissions by 85% to below 1990 levels. Both goals are consistent with targets laid out in Governor Gavin Newsom’s $54.1 billion climate commitment intended to protect residents from wildfires, extreme heat and drought while moving away from big oil.

The plan will create four million jobs and save Californians some $200 billion in health costs for pollution-related illnesses by 2045, the board said, providing a path for California to meet its climate targets.

“California is leading the world’s most significant economic transformation since the Industrial Revolution – we’re cutting pollution, turning the page on fossil fuels and creating millions of new jobs,” said Newsom in a press release after the plan was approved.

After a public comment session, board members acknowledged that this plan is a roadmap to cutting greenhouse gases, and that not all of what is laid out may come to fruition.

One focus of the plan is a move to zero-emission transportation, including both personal vehicles and mass transit. While fossil fuels used in homes are also targeted, the state said gas-powered vehicles and other transportation are currently the largest source of carbon emissions.

In August, the board approved a rule requiring all passenger vehicles sold in the state to be zero-emission by 2035.

Beginning in 2026, all new residential buildings will be required to install electric appliances and in 2029, the requirements will begin extending to commercial buildings, according to the plan. For existing residential buildings, all appliance sales are required to be electric by 2035. Ten years later, all commercial buildings in the state will have to follow suit, the plan said.

While the board called the plan “achievable” some critics say the plan relies too much on what some of the board members acknowledged is an unproven method of carbon capture and sequestration instead of relying on natural and working lands to also house some of that carbon.

“This plan is failing the people of California and our planet – first by endorsing carbon capture, a faulty climate scheme promoted by the fossil fuel industry,” said Chirag Bhakta, the California state director for Food & Water Watch, in a statement to CNN.

“Carbon capture is a completely unproven and unworkable technology that only serves to provide cover for oil and gas drillers to continue business as usual,” Bhakta said.

The scoping plan also targets wildfires which are not only responsible for the destruction of forests, buildings and property, but also emit copious amounts of carbon dioxide.

In recent years, human-driven climate change has spurred massive blazes. The board pointing out that of the 20 largest wildfires in California, nine happened in 2020 and 2021.

The plan sets a goal of treating one million acres a year by 2025 through actions like prescribed burns and increased forest management. Currently, about 100,000 acres are treated a year.

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December 15, 2022
London Underground polluted with metallic particles small enough to enter human bloodstream

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Newswise — The London Underground is polluted with ultrafine metallic particles small enough to end up in the human bloodstream, according to University of Cambridge researchers. These particles are so small that they are likely being underestimated in surveys of pollution in the world’s oldest metro system.

The researchers carried out a new type of pollution analysis, using magnetism to study dust samples from Underground ticket halls, platforms and operator cabins.

The team found that the samples contained high levels of a type of iron oxide called maghemite. Since it takes time for iron to oxidise into maghemite, the results suggest that pollution particles are suspended for long periods, due to poor ventilation throughout the Underground, particularly on station platforms.

Some of the particles are as small as five nanometres in diameter: small enough to be inhaled and end up in the bloodstream, but too small to be captured by typical methods of pollution monitoring. However, it is not clear whether these particles pose a health risk.

Other studies have looked at overall pollution levels on the Underground and the associated health risks, but this is the first time that the size and type of particles has been analysed in detail. The researchers suggest that periodic removal of dust from Underground tunnels, as well as magnetic monitoring of pollution levels, could improve air quality throughout the network. Their results are reported in the journal Scientific Reports.

The London Underground carries five million passengers per day. Multiple studies have shown that air pollution levels on the Underground are higher than those in London more broadly, and beyond the World Health Organization’s (WHO) defined limits. Earlier studies have also suggested that most of the particulate matter on the Underground is generated as the wheels, tracks and brakes grind against one another, throwing up tiny, iron-rich particles.

“Since most of these air pollution particles are metallic, the Underground is an ideal place to test whether magnetism can be an effective way to monitor pollution,” said Professor Richard Harrison from Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences, the paper’s senior author. “Normally, we study magnetism as it relates to planets, but we decided to explore how those techniques could be applied to different areas, including air pollution.”

Pollution levels are normally monitored using standard air filters, but these cannot capture ultrafine particles, and they do not detect what kinds of particles are contained within the particulate matter.

“I started studying environmental magnetism as part of my PhD, looking at whether low-cost monitoring techniques could be used to characterise pollution levels and sources,” said lead author Hassan Sheikh from Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences. “The Underground is a well-defined micro-environment, so it’s an ideal place to do this type of study.”

Working with colleagues from Cambridge’s Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, Sheikh and Harrison analysed 39 dust samples from the London Underground, provided by Transport for London (TfL). The samples were collected in 2019 and 2021 from platforms, ticket halls, and train operator cabins on the Piccadilly, Northern, Central, Bakerloo, Victoria, Northern, District and Jubilee lines. The sampling included major stations such as King’s Cross St Pancras, Paddington, and Oxford Circus.

The researchers used magnetic fingerprinting, 3D imaging and nanoscale microscopy to characterise the structure, size, shape, composition and magnetic properties of particles contained in the samples. Earlier studies have shown that 50% of the pollution particles in the Underground are iron-rich, but the Cambridge team were able to look in much closer detail. They found a high abundance of maghemite particles, ranging in diameter from five to 500 nanometres, and with an average diameter of 10 nanometres. Some particles formed larger clusters with diameters between 100 and 2,000 nanometres.

“The abundance of these very fine particles was surprising,” said Sheikh. “The magnetic properties of iron oxides fundamentally change as the particle size changes. In addition, the size range where those changes happen is the same as where air pollution becomes a health risk.”

While the researchers did not look at whether these maghemite particles pose a direct health risk, they say that their characterisation methods could be useful in future studies.

“If you’re going to answer the question of whether these particles are bad for your health, you first need to know what the particles are made of and what their properties are,” said Sheikh.

“Our techniques give a much more refined picture of pollution in the Underground,” said Harrison. “We can measure particles that are small enough to be inhaled and enter the bloodstream. Typical pollution monitoring doesn’t give you a good picture of the very small stuff.”

The researchers say that due to poor ventilation in the Underground, iron-rich dust can be resuspended in the air when trains arrive at platforms, making the air quality on platforms worse than in ticket halls or in operator cabins.

Given the magnetic nature of the resuspended dust, the researchers suggest that an efficient removal system might be magnetic filters in ventilation, cleaning of the tracks and tunnel walls, or placing screen doors between platforms and trains.

The research was supported in part by the European Union, the Cambridge Trust and Selwyn College, Cambridge.

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December 15, 2022
EU reaches deal on critical climate policy after marathon talks

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A major overhaul of the bloc’s flagship carbon market and a brand new fund to protect vulnerable people from rising CO2 costs were agreed on by EU negotiators in the early hours of Sunday as part of a “jumbo” trilogue that started on Friday morning.

“After 30 hours of (net!) negotiation time we have an agreement about a new ETS and the creation of a social climate fund (SCF),” tweeted Esther de Lange, vice chair of the European People’s Party and a key climate lawmaker.

Touted as the cornerstone of Europe’s climate efforts, reforming the Emissions Trading System (ETS) is key to achieving the goal of slashing 55 percent of CO2 emissions by 2030 from 1990 levels.

“We just found an agreement on the biggest climate law ever negotiated in Europe,” said German MEP Peter Liese, who steered the negotiations on the bill.

As part of the hard-fought compromise, EU brokers stipulated that power generators and heavy polluters covered by the ETS will have to curb their pollution by 62 percent by the end of the decade, 1 percent more than what the European Commission had initially proposed.

Waste will be covered by the scheme from 2028, with potential derogations until 2030.

The deal also mandates that all the revenues generated by the carbon market “shall” be spent on climate action.

“That’s one of the biggest wins of the Parliament,” Liese told a briefing held shortly after the end of the talks.

Free CO2 certificates, given to industry to remain competitive against rivals from outside the bloc, will be phased out entirely by 2034 as a planned Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism is due to enter into force from 2026 at the end of a three-year transition period. The Commission and the Council sought an end-date of 2036, while the Parliament fought for a speedier phaseout by 2032.

The border tax covers cement, aluminum, fertilizers, electric energy production, hydrogen, iron and steel.

However, negotiators stopped short of introducing rebates to protect exports, arguing they would have proven incompatible with World Trade Organization rules. Instead, the EU’s 27 nations will be granted the right to ring-fence revenues to support companies at risk of being harmed by the phaseout of free permits.

The deal also calls for a parallel carbon market to cover fossil fuels used to power cars and heat buildings from 2027 — easily one of the most controversial elements due to worries that it could increase energy poverty and unleash political turmoil if not designed in a just way.

“Germany desperately wanted the second carbon market and the inclusion of other fuels. They got it and they should celebrate,” said German MEP Peter Liese | John Thys/AFP via Getty images

To reach a deal, Parliament dropped its call for a split between commercial users and private owners — something the Commission and Council had called unworkable.

But to make it more palatable, policymakers agreed the so-called ETS2 would come with an emergency brake to be triggered in the event carbon prices per ton exceed €90 — which would cause the start to be delayed by one year. The pact also foresees that prices will be capped at €45 at least until 2030.

To help low-income households swiftly shift to cleaner forms of transport and heating so that they won’t be unfairly hit by the measure, EU policymakers signed off on a Social Climate Fund worth €86.7 billion running from 2026 until 2032.

That’s much larger than the €59 billion fund supported by the Council; 25 percent will be raised through co-financing by EU governments while a so-called “all fuels approach” covering process emissions means more CO2 permits will be sold under the scheme.

Several negotiators said the talks were made particularly tough by Germany’s foot-dragging.

“Germany desperately wanted the second carbon market and the inclusion of other fuels. They got it and they should celebrate,” said Liese, adding that, “instead of celebrating, they created problems until the last minute.”

The agreement also confirmed that the ETS will be extended to the shipping sector.

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Federica Di Sario

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December 15, 2022
Highest metal concentrations in US public water systems found among Hispanic/Latino and American Indian communities

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Newswise — December 14, 2022–Significantly higher arsenic and uranium concentrations in public drinking water have been linked to communities with higher proportions of Hispanic/Latino, American Indian/Alaskan Native, and non-Hispanic Black residents, according to a new study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Arsenic and uranium were higher for Hispanic/Latino and American Indian communities nationwide, while higher proportions of non-Hispanic Black residents were associated with higher arsenic and uranium only in the West and Midwest regions where water arsenic and uranium are the highest.

Until now studies evaluating these associations were not possible because estimates of nationwide contaminant concentrations were not publicly available for the majority of public water systems. The findings are published online in the journal Nature Communications.

In many U.S. communities, drinking water is a significant source of exposure to arsenic and uranium, which are major environmental exposures associated with cancer, cardiovascular disease and other adverse health outcomes. The EPA sets a maximum contaminant level (MCL) of 30 µg/L for uranium and 10 µg/L for arsenic. However, EPA’s non-enforceable maximum contaminant level goal for both is 0 µg/L because there is no known safe level of exposure to either.

“Our findings are particularly relevant to public health because there is no safe level of exposure to inorganic arsenic and uranium,” noted Irene Martinez-Morata, MD, PhD candidate in Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and first author. “These findings support that inequalities in public water contaminant exposures are more severe in regions with more residents from communities of color relying on public drinking water and higher concentrations of specific contaminants in source water.”

“All communities, regardless of racial/ethnic makeup, deserve access to clean, high quality drinking water,” said Anne Nigra, PhD, Assistant Professor of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. “Our analysis indicates that this is not currently the case in the US. Even after accounting for socioeconomic status, communities of color have higher arsenic and uranium in their regulated public drinking water.”

The researchers used county-level, population-weighted concentration estimates of arsenic and uranium concentrations in public water systems across the U.S. — estimates based on the most recent publicly available nationwide monitoring data gathered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Water metal concentrations were available for a total of 2,585 counties for arsenic and 1,174 counties for uranium. Parallel analyses were conducted for each of these racial and ethnic groups: non-Hispanic Black, American Indian/Alaskan Native, Hispanic/Latino, and non-Hispanic White.

“The quality of your drinking water should not be related to the racial/ethnic makeup of your community,” remarks Martinez-Morata. “Our findings can advance environmental justice initiatives by informing federal regulatory action and financial and technical support to protect communities of color.”

An interactive map of county-level CWS metal concentrations is also available at: https://msph.shinyapps.io/drinking-water-dashboard/.

Co-authors are Dustin Duncan, Maya Spaur, Kevin Patterson, Seth Prins, and Ana Navas-Acien, Columbia Mailman School; Benjamin C. Bostick, Columbia Climate School; Otakuye Conroy-Ben, Arizona State University; and Miranda Jones, Johns Hopkins University.

The study was supported by National Institute of Dental & Craniofacial Research (DP5OD031849), National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (2T32ES007322, P300ES009089, P42 ES033719); and by a fellowship from La Caixa Foundation (ID100010434).

Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

Founded in 1922, the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health pursues an agenda of research, education, and service to address the critical and complex public health issues affecting New Yorkers, the nation and the world. The Columbia Mailman School is the fourth largest recipient of NIH grants among schools of public health. Its nearly 300 multi-disciplinary faculty members work in more than 100 countries around the world, addressing such issues as preventing infectious and chronic diseases, environmental health, maternal and child health, health policy, climate change and health, and public health preparedness. It is a leader in public health education with more than 1,300 graduate students from 55 nations pursuing a variety of master’s and doctoral degree programs. The Columbia Mailman School is also home to numerous world-renowned research centers, including ICAP and the Center for Infection and Immunity. For more information, please visit www.mailman.columbia.edu.

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December 14, 2022
A trash heap 62 meters high shows the scale of India’s climate challenge | CNN

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New Delhi
CNN
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At the Bhalswa landfill in northwest Delhi, a steady flow of jeeps zigzag up the trash heap to dump more garbage on a pile now over 62 meters (203 feet) high.

Fires caused by heat and methane gas sporadically break out – the Delhi Fire Service Department has responded to 14 fires so far this year – and some deep beneath the pile can smolder for weeks or months, while men, women and children work nearby, sifting through the rubbish to find items to sell.

Some of the 200,000 residents who live in Bhalswa say the area is uninhabitable, but they can’t afford to move and have no choice but to breathe the toxic air and bathe in its contaminated water.

Bhalswa is not Delhi’s largest landfill. It’s about three meters lower than the biggest, Ghazipur, and both contribute to the country’s total output of methane gas.

Methane is the second most abundant greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide, but a more potent contributor to the climate crisis because methane traps more heat. India creates more methane from landfill sites than any other country, according to GHGSat, which monitors methane via satellites.

And India comes second only to China for total methane emissions, according to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Global Methane Tracker.

As part of his “Clean India” initiative, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said efforts are being made to remove these mountains of garbage and convert them into green zones. That goal, if achieved, could relieve some of the suffering of those residents living in the shadows of these dump sites – and help the world lower its greenhouse gas emissions.

India wants to lower its methane output, but it hasn’t joined the 130 countries who have signed up to the Global Methane Pledge, a pact to collectively cut global methane emissions by at least 30% from 2020 levels by 2030. Scientists estimate the reduction could cut global temperature rise by 0.2% – and help the world reach its target of keeping global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius.

India says it won’t join because most of its methane emissions come from farming – some 74% from farm animals and paddy fields versus less than 15% from landfill.

In a statement last year, Minister of State for Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate change Ashwini Choubey said pledging to reduce India’s total methane output could threaten the livelihood of farmers and affect India’s trade and economic prospects.

But it’s also facing challenges in reducing methane from its steaming mounds of trash.

When Narayan Choudhary, 72, moved to Bhalswa in 1982, he said it was a “beautiful place,” but that all changed 12 years later when the first rubbish began arriving at the local landfill.

In the years since, the Bhalswa dump has grown nearly as tall as the historic Taj Mahal, becoming a landmark in its own right and an eyesore that towers over surrounding homes, affecting the health of people who live there.

Choudhary suffers from chronic asthma. He said he nearly died when a large fire broke out at Bhalswa in April that burned for days. “I was in terrible shape. My face and nose were swollen. I was on my death bed,” he said.

“Two years ago we protested … a lot of residents from this area protested (to get rid of the waste),” Choudhary said. “But the municipality didn’t cooperate with us. They assured us that things will get better in two years but here we are, with no relief.”

The dump site exhausted its capacity in 2002, according to a 2020 report on India’s landfills from the Center for Science and Environment (CSE), a nonprofit research agency in New Delhi, but without government standardization in recycling systems and greater industry efforts to reduce plastic consumption and production, tonnes of garbage continue to arrive at the site daily.

Bhalswa isn’t the only dump causing distress to residents nearby – it is one of three landfills in Delhi, overflowing with decaying waste and emitting toxic gases into the air.

Across the country, there are more than 3,100 landfills. Ghazipur is the biggest in Delhi, standing at 65 meters (213 feet), and like Bhalswa, it surpassed its waste capacity in 2002 and currently produces huge amounts of methane.

According to GHGSat, on a single day in March, more than two metric tons of methane gas leaked from the site every hour.

“If sustained for a year, the methane leak from this landfill would have the same climate impact as annual emissions from 350,000 US cars,” said GHGSat CEO Stephane Germain.

Methane emissions aren’t the only hazard that stem from landfills like Bhalswa and Ghazipur. Over decades, dangerous toxins have seeped into the ground, polluting the water supply for thousands of residents living nearby.

In May, CNN commissioned two accredited labs to test the ground water around the Bhalswa landfill. And according to the results, ground water within at least a 500-meter (1,600-foot) radius around the waste site is contaminated.

In the first lab report, levels of ammonia and sulphate were significantly higher than acceptable limits mandated by the Indian government.

Results from the second lab report showed levels of total dissolved solids (TDS) – the amount of inorganic salts and organic matter dissolved in the water – detected in one of the samples was almost 19 times the acceptable limit, making it unsafe for human drinking.

The Bureau of Indian Standards sets the acceptable limit of TDS at 500 milligrams/liter, a figure roughly seen as “good” by the World Health Organization (WHO). Anything over 900 mg/l is considered “poor” by the WHO, and over 1,200 mg/l is “unacceptable.”

According to Richa Singh from the Center for Science and Environment (CSE), the TDS of water taken near the Bhalswa site was between 3,000 and 4,000 mg/l. “This water is not only unfit for drinking but also unfit for skin contact,” she said. “So it can’t be used for purposes like bathing or cleaning of the utensils or cleaning of the clothes.”

Dr. Nitesh Rohatgi, the senior director of medical oncology at Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurugram, urged the government to study the health of the local population and compare it to other areas of the city, “so that in 15 to 20 years’ time, we are not looking back and regretting that we had a higher cancer incidence, higher health hazards, higher health issues and we didn’t look back and correct them in time.”

Most people in Bhalswa rely on bottled water for drinking, but they use local water for other purposes – many say they have no choice.

“The water we get is contaminated, but we have to helplessly store it and use it for washing utensils, bathing and at times drinking too,” said resident Sonia Bibi, whose legs are covered in a thick, red rash.

Jwala Prashad, 87, who lives in a small hut in an alleyway near the landfill, said the pile of putrid trash had made his life “a living hell.”

“The water we use is pale red in color. My skin burns after bathing,” he said, as he tried to soothe red gashes on his face and neck.

“But I can’t afford to ever leave this place,” he added.

More than 2,300 tonnes of Municipal Solid Waste arrive at Delhi’s largest dump in Ghazipur every day, according to a report released in July by a joint committee formed to find a way to reduce the number of fires at the site.

That’s the bulk of the waste from the surrounding area – only 300 tonnes is processed and disposed of by other means, the report said. And less than 7% of legacy waste had been bio-mined, which involves excavating, treating and potentially reusing old rubbish.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi deploys drones every three months to monitor the size of the trash heap and is experimenting with ways to extract methane from the trash mountain, the report said.

But too much rubbish is arriving every day to keep up. The committee said bio-mining had been “slow and tardy” and it was “highly unlikely” the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (which has now merged with North and South Delhi Municipal Corporations) would achieve its target of “flattening the garbage mountain” by 2024.

“No effective plans to reduce the height of the garbage mountain have been made,” the report said. Furthermore, “it should have proposed a long time ago that future dumping of garbage in them would pollute the groundwater systems,” the report added.

CNN sent a series of questions along with the data from the water testing questionnaire to India’s Environment and Health Ministries. There has been no response from the ministries.

In a 2019 report, the Indian government recommended ways to improve the country’s solid waste management, including formalizing the recycling sector and installing more compost plants in the country.

While some improvements have been made, such as better door-to-door garbage collection and processing of waste, Delhi’s landfills continue to accumulate waste.

In October, the National Green Tribunal fined the state government more than $100 million for failing to dispose of more than 30 million metric tonnes of waste across its three landfill sites.

“The problem is Delhi doesn’t have a concrete solid waste action plan in place,” said Singh from the CSE. “So we are talking here about dump site remediation and the treatment of legacy waste, but imagine the fresh waste which is generated on a regular basis. All of that is getting dumped everyday into these landfills.”

“(So) let’s say you are treating 1,000 tons of legacy (waste) and then you are dumping 2,000 tons of fresh waste every day it will become a vicious cycle. It will be a never ending process,” Singh said.

“Management of legacy waste, of course, is mandated by the government and is very, very important. But you just can’t start the process without having an alternative facility of fresh waste. So that’s the biggest challenge.”

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December 10, 2022
Rivers are Life Premieres ‘Keepers of the North’ Film to Illustrate Innovative Way of Recycling Plastic Waste

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Press Release
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Dec 9, 2022 13:00 EST

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, December 9, 2022 (Newswire.com)
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Rivers are Life is proud to present “Keepers of the North,” a film that takes viewers on a never-before-seen cross-country journey of Alaska’s plastic waste as it becomes something usable, hope-inspiring, and new.

WHO: The film explores a unique collaboration between Gulf of Alaska Keeper (GoAK), FedEx, the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, Dow, Pyxera Global, and the Center for Regenerative Design and Collaboration (CRDC), who have teamed up to take the harmful trash left in Alaska’s hard-to-reach shores and recycle it into an innovative, durable construction material dubbed RESIN8^TM.

The film focuses this story through the perspective of River Hero Chris Pallister, founder of GoAK. “From a cruise ship two miles off shore, Alaska’s shoreline looks pristine, but it’s not,” says Pallister. “It’s a … mess up here and people need to realize that.”

WHAT: “Keepers of the North” explores the challenges of cleaning up the Gulf of Alaska while exploring a new, scalable approach to making plastic waste useful.

As trash levels on Alaska’s gulf coast continue to rise, waste management, and the costs associated with it, have become a focal point to continue supporting cleanup efforts. “The difficulty with marine debris cleanup in Alaska is 33,000 miles of coastline,” explains Lori Aldrich, Hazardous Waste Project Manager with the State of Alaska. “Half of Alaska you cannot reach by road – you’ve got to take a plane, you’ve got to take a boat, you’ve got to take a combination of different things.”

“Keepers of the North” is the first official project presented by Rivers are Life. Rivers are Life played a lead role in bringing together these like-minded collaborators to overcome structural and natural barriers to collect and recycle the waste collected from Alaska’s coastline. From small, community-focused initiatives to large, multi-stakeholder efforts, Rivers are Life projects make a positive impact on river ecosystems and are scalable through the support of public and private sector collaborators who share common values and goals.

WHEN: Rivers are Life began filming “Keepers of the North” in July 2022. The film premiered on Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022.

WHERE: The story begins in the remote reaches of the Gulf of Alaska, where litter accumulates through ocean currents, fishing routes, and tourism. After local volunteers collect the garbage, they are faced with a new problem – what to do with it?

This film follows the litter collected by GoAK along its journey via FedEx shipment to a CRDC facility in Pennsylvania – where new technology is recycling historically hard-to-break-down ocean plastics into a better, durable product for bricks, concrete, and other important structural building substances. “Keepers of the North” is an inspiring film that shows how innovators can come together to test and scale solutions for waste and recycling.

“Keepers of the North” is now available for viewing at RiversareLife.com.

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ABOUT RIVERS ARE LIFE: Rivers are Life is on a mission to raise awareness of the true force and fragility of our river systems while showcasing their interconnectedness with all of us, our planet’s wildlife, and the ocean waste problem. Created to serve as a collective voice for global river ecosystems, Rivers are Life is comprised of River Heroes, organizations, and businesses dedicated to making a difference in local communities one project at a time. In sharing the stories of our waterways and those working to protect them, Rivers are Life believes we can cultivate a greater awareness of the importance of our planet’s rivers while driving innovative solutions, inspiring sustainability, and addressing waste.

Source: Rivers are Life

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December 9, 2022
Big Oil has engaged in a long-running climate disinformation campaign while raking in record profits, lawmakers find | CNN Politics

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CNN
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Big Oil companies have engaged in a “long-running greenwashing campaign” while raking in “record profits at the expense of American consumers,” the Democratic-led House Oversight Committee has found after a year-long investigation into climate disinformation from the fossil fuel industry.

The committee found the fossil fuel industry is “posturing on climate issues while avoiding real commitments” to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Lawmakers said it has sought to portray itself as part of the climate solution, even as internal industry documents reveal how companies have avoided making real commitments.

“Today’s documents reveal that the industry has no real plans to clean up its act and is barreling ahead with plans to pump more dirty fuels for decades to come,” House Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney told CNN in a statement.

For example, lawmakers reported, BP has stated it strives to “be a net zero company by 2050 or sooner,” but the committee found internal BP documents that show the company’s recent plans do not align with the company’s public comments.

In a July 2017 email between several of the company’s high-level officials about whether to invest in curbing emissions from one of its gas projects off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago, BP’s vice president of engineering stated that BP had “no obligation to minimize GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions” and that the company should only “minimize GHG emissions where it makes commercial sense,” as required by code or if it fits into a regional strategy.

The committee said documents uncovered also showed the fossil fuel industry has presented natural gas as a so-called “bridge fuel” to transition to cleaner sources of energy, all while doubling down on its long-term reliance on fossil fuels with no clear plan of action to full transition to clean energy.

A strategy slide presented to the Chevron Board of Directors from CEO Mike Wirth and obtained by the committee states that while Chevron sees “traditional energy business competitors retreating” from oil and gas, “Chevron’s strategy” is to “continue to invest” in fossil fuels to take advantage of consolidation in the industry.

In a 2016 email from a BP executive to John Mingé, then-Chairman and President of BP America, and others, about climate and emissions, an employee assessed that the company often adopted an obstructionist strategy with regulators, noting, “we wait for the rules to come out, we don’t like what we see, and then try to resist and block.”

“The fossil fuel industry has of late been involved in extensive “greenwashing”—misleading claims in advertisements, particularly on social media, claiming or suggesting that they are “Paris aligned,” and that they are committed to meaningful solutions,” Naomi Oreskes, a Harvard professor who has studied the fossil fuel industry’s rebuke of climate science, told CNN. “Numerous analyses shows that these claims are untrue.”

BP, Chevron, Exxon, Shell, the American Petroleum Institute and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce were the focus of Democratic lawmakers’ investigation. The companies have denied engaging in a disinformation campaign surrounding climate change and the role the industry has played in fueling it for decades. CNN has reached out to the companies and organizations for comment on the committee’s findings.

Todd Spitler, a spokesperson for Exxon, said in a statement the committee took internal company communications out of context.

“The House Oversight Committee report has sought to misrepresent ExxonMobil’s position on climate science, and its support for effective policy solutions, by recasting well intended, internal policy debates as an attempted company disinformation campaign,” Spitler said. “If specific members of the committee are so certain they’re right, why did they have to take so many things out of context to prove their point?”

Democratic lawmakers had hoped the committee’s hearings would be the fossil fuel industry’s “Big Tobacco” moment — a nod to the famous 1994 hearings when tobacco CEOs insisted that cigarettes were not addictive, triggering accusations of perjury and federal investigations.

The impact of House Oversight’s investigation into Big Oil will not be as immediate, but Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat and the chair of Oversight’s environmental subcommittee, said the findings have added to the historical record for the industry and its role in global warming.

“These hearings and reports have been historic because we succeeded in bringing in the heads of Exxon, Chevron, Shell, BP, API, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to testify under oath for the first time ever about efforts to mislead the public on climate and forced them to provide explosive internal documents” Khanna told CNN in a statement. “I have no doubt that this work will be analyzed for years to come and help deepen our understanding about the entire industry’s role in funding and facilitating climate disinformation.”

Democratic lawmakers said the oil and gas industry obstructed their investigation throughout the more than year-long process. Many of their requests for internal documents were heavily redacted by the companies, which did not specify reasons for withholding the information.

In other cases, documents were heavily redacted because companies like Exxon said the information was “proprietary and confidential,” though the lawmakers noted that is not a valid reason to withhold information in a committee subpoena.

“These companies know their climate pledges are inadequate but are prioritizing Big Oil’s record profits over the human costs of climate change,” Maloney said. “It’s time for the fossil fuel industry to stop lying to the American people and finally take serious steps to reduce emissions and address the global climate crisis they helped create.”

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December 9, 2022
UK government greenlights first new coal mine in three decades | CNN

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CNN
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The UK has greenlit a controversial plan to open the country’s first new coal mine in three decades, a little more than a year after the nation tried to convince the world to ditch coal at the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow.

Michael Gove, the UK housing and communities secretary, on Wednesday approved the plan to open the Whitehaven coal mine in Cumbria, a county in northwestern England that is home to the World Heritage-listed Lake District.

The controversial mine is expected to create more than 500 jobs. But the environmental trade-off is steep: The UK Climate Change Committee (CCC), an independent group that advises the government, has estimated the mine and the coal it will produce will emit around 9 million tons of planet-warming emissions every year.

Supporters of the mine argue the project will create jobs and secure the fossil fuel for British steelmaking; however, 85% of the coal mined is due to be exported.

The CCC has criticized the decision. Committee chairman Lord Deben said in a statement: “Phasing out coal use is the clearest requirement of the global effort towards Net Zero. We condemn, therefore, the Secretary of State’s decision to consent to a new deep coal mine in Cumbria, contrary to our previous advice. This decision grows global emissions and undermines UK efforts to achieve Net Zero.”

The mine’s approval was also met with fierce criticism from scientists and environmentalists.

“A new coal mine in Cumbria makes no sense environmentally or economically,” said Paul Ekins, Professor of Resources and Environmental Policy at the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources, in a statement. “It will add to global CO2 emissions, as the new supply will not replace other coal but divert it elsewhere, and it will become stranded in the 2030s as the steel industry globally moves away from coal.”

Ekins also said that the mine’s approval “trashes the UK’s reputation as a global leader on climate action and opens it up to well justified charges of hypocrisy – telling other countries to ditch coal while not doing so itself.”

The government initially approved the project, but then put it on hold after a wave of protests, including a 10-day hunger strike by two teenage activists.

It came under intense pressure to reject the plan in 2021, the year it hosted the COP26 talks in Glasgow.

Alok Sharma, the COP26 President and a lawmaker for the governing Conservative Party, campaigned against the mine.

“Opening a new coal mine will not only be a backward step for UK climate action but also damage the UK’s hard-won international reputation, through our COP26 Presidency, as a leader in the global fight against climate change,” he said ahead of the announcement on Wednesday.

The decision comes a little more than a year after the conference, and after lengthy discussions between the UK government, local authorities and the public.

The Cumbria County Council had also approved the plan three times, but it backtracked its decision last February and called for a planning inquiry, effectively shifting the decision to the national government.

The Whitehaven mine, also known as the Woodhouse Colliery, is scheduled to operate until 2049, which is just a year before the UK’s self-imposed deadline to slash greenhouse gas emissions to net zero (emitting as little greenhouse gas as possible, and offsetting any emissions that cannot be avoided).

According to the International Energy Agency, investment into new fossil fuels infrastructure must stop immediately if the world wants any chance of achieving net zero by 2050. The latest climate science shows that achieving net zero by mid-century is necessary to keep temperatures from rising well above 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared with pre-industrial times. Beyond that threshold, the world will face climate crisis impacts that could take millennia to correct, or could be irreversible altogether.

Climate activists have protested against the project, while West Cumbria Mining, which is developing the mine, said the project would bring hundreds of new jobs into a struggling region. Its opponents argue these jobs may not be secure, given the huge momentum in Europe to phase out coal.

“Opening a coal mine in Cumbria is investing in 1850s technology and does not look forward to the 2030s low carbon local energy future,” Stuart Haszeldine, a professor at the School of GeoSciences at the University of Edinburgh, said in a statement.

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December 7, 2022
Swiss climate activists lament election of oil lobbyist

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BERLIN — Swiss environmentalists criticized the election Wednesday of a top car- and oil-industry lobbyist to the new government, calling it a “disaster for climate policy.”

Lawmakers picked Albert Roesti of the nationalist Swiss People’s Party as one of two new members of the Cabinet, or Federal Council.

The election was necessary following the retirement of two long-serving members in the seven-seat government, which traditionally includes politicians from all the country’s major parties.

Roesti was until recently the president of Switzerland’s fuel importer association Swissoil. He remains the president of Auto Schweiz, the association of car importers in Switzerland. As part of his lobby work, Roesti successfully campaigned against a bill designed to reduce the Alpine nation’s greenhouse gas emissions.

“In the middle of the climate crisis the Swiss Parliament has elected the top car and oil lobbyist to the Federal Council,” the group Climate Strike said in a statement. “This is a disaster not just for Switzerland, but our entire generation.”

It called on other members of the government not to let Roesti head the Ministry for Environment, Energy and Transport. That post became vacant with the retirement of Simonetta Sommaruga, one of two departing ministers.

Also elected to the council Wednesday was Elisabeth Baume-Schneider, a member of the left-leaning Social Democrats.

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December 7, 2022
1,700 dead seals found on Russia’s Caspian coast

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MOSCOW — About 1,700 seals have been found dead on the Caspian Sea coast in southern Russia, officials said Sunday.

The authorities in the Russian province of Dagestan said that it’s still unclear what caused the animals’ deaths, but they likely died of natural reasons.

Regional officials initially said Saturday that 700 dead seals were found on the coast, but on Sunday Zaur Gapizov, head of the Caspian Environmental Protection Center, said according to the state RIA Novosti news agency that after a broader inspection of the coast the number of dead animals was 1,700.

Gapizov said the seals likely died a couple of weeks ago. He added that there was no sign that they were killed by poachers.

Experts of the Federal Fisheries Agency and prosecutors inspected the coastline and collected data for laboratory research, which didn’t immediately spot any pollutants.

Several previous incidents of mass deaths of seals were attributed to natural causes.

The data about the number of seals in the Caspian varies widely. The fisheries agency has said the overall number of Caspian seals is 270,000-300,000, while Gapizov’s center put the number at 70,000.

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December 4, 2022
Prince William, like his father, prioritizes the environment

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BOSTON — Prince William capped a three-day visit to Boston by meeting with President Joe Biden to share his vision for safeguarding the environment before attending a gala event Friday evening where he sounded an optimistic tone about solving the world’s environmental problems through “hope, optimism and urgency.”

The Prince of Wales paid homage to the late President John F. Kennedy, saying his Earthshot Prize was inspired by Kennedy’s audacious moonshot speech in 1962 that mobilized the nation to put astronauts on the moon. That same sense of urgency and scale is needed now to protect the environment, William said.

“In the same way the space effort six decades ago created jobs, boosted economies and provided hope, so too can the solutions borne of tonight’s Earthshot Prize winners,” William said.

The second annual Earthshot Prize offered 1 million pounds ($1.2 million) in prize money to each of the winners in five separate categories: nature protection, clean air, ocean revival, waste elimination and climate change. The winners and all 15 finalists will receive help in expanding their projects to meet global demand.

The winners, announced at Boston’s MGM Music Hall, were:

— A female-founded startup that’s providing cleaner-burning biomass stoves in Africa

— A United Kingdom company making biodegradable packaging from seaweed

— A “greenhouse-in-a-box” concept created to increase yields on small farms in India

— A technique for transforming atmospheric carbon into rock in Oman in the Middle East

— A woman-led effort to create a new generation of indigenous rangers in Australia.

Providing the star power for the glitzy show were Annie Lennox, Ellie Goulding and Chloe x Halle live in Boston, and Billie Eilish performing remotely. The event also featured videos narrated by naturalist David Attenborough and actor Cate Blanchett. Prizes were presented by actor Rami Malek, comedian Catherine O’Hara, and actor and activist Shailene Woodley.

The entertainers were eager to help.

“It’s the greatest crisis of our lifetime, and I appreciate what Prince William is doing,” Malek said before heading into the venue. “And in the next 10 years I think the impact will be staggering. And we can really effect change in the greatest way with these innovators who are being awarded this evening.”

Before the event, William met privately for 30 minutes with Biden after the two shook hands and spoke briefly in the cold near the water outside of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library and Museum. As William walked down the steps in his suit, Biden, wearing in a black winter coat, shouted: “Where’s your topcoat?”

William also met Caroline Kennedy, the ambassador to Australia and the late president’s daughter. William toured the museum with Kennedy and told her that her father was “the man who inspired our mission.”

William and his wife, Kate, earlier attended a welcome Wednesday at City Hall and then a Boston Celtics game before the royal couple spent much of Thursday hearing about the threats of climate change and solutions in the works.

William became heir apparent less than three months ago with the death of his grandmother, the queen, but he already has been crowned Britain’s chief environmentalist. That was apparent during the Boston visit, which earned praise for drawing attention to pollution and climate change and the need to scale up solutions.

“I just appreciate that they are using platform and publicity to bring attention to meaningful climate work,” said Joe Christo, managing director of Stone Living Lab, which researches nature-based approaches to climate adaptation and was among those who met the royal couple at Boston Harbor on Thursday.

“I do know his dad is a big environmentalist,” he said. “He seems to be doing a great job continuing that legacy.”

William is following in the footsteps of his environmentally minded grandfather Prince Philip — the late husband of Queen Elizabeth II — and more recently his father and Elizabeth’s successor, King Charles III.

William’s father, in his former capacity as prince, was for decades one of Britain’s most prominent environmental voices — blasting the ills of pollution. Last year, he stood before world leaders at a U.N. climate conference in Scotland and suggested the threats posed by climate change and biodiversity loss were no different than those posed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Now that he is king, Charles is expected to be more careful with his words and must stay out of politics and government policy, in accordance with the traditions of Britain’s constitutional monarchy. This year, he did not attend the U.N. climate conference, which was held in Egypt.

The caution presents an opportunity for William to step into that role as the royal family’s environmental advocate and speak more forcefully about the issues once associated with his father.

There is no better example than the Earthshot Prize.

“It’s a huge deal to Prince William,” Joe Little, the managing editor of Majesty Magazine. “He knows he can attract attention from the most important people. That really is the core of the Boston trip.”

William and Kate got a firsthand look at some recent innovations at a green technology startup incubator called Greentown Labs, in Somerville. Among them were solar-powered autonomous boats and low-carbon cement.

“Climate change is a global problem, so it’s so important to have global leaders talking about the importance of taking action,” said Lara Cottingham, vice president of strategy policy and climate impact for Greentown Labs.

The couple’s first trip to the U.S. since 2014 is part of the royal family’s efforts to change its international image. After Elizabeth’s death, Charles has made clear that his will be a slimmed-down monarchy, with less pomp and ceremony than its predecessors. William and Kate arrived in Boston on a commercial British Airways flight.

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Associated Press writer Zeke Miller contributed to this report in Boston.

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December 2, 2022