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Turning waste biomass into clean fuel: cheap, portable equipment, cuts emissions, earns income for rural poor

November 2, 2022 by Kathryn O'Neill

The burning of biomass accounts for 10% of primary energy used worldwide: wood, peat, animal dung, corn stalks, rice husks, hay, straw, and other agricultural waste. Billions of people, mainly in remote and poorer regions, rely on such fuels for cooking, heating, and other household needs. But it’s a major source of emissions as well as pollution. And, annually, an estimated $120bn worth of crop and forest residues are burned out in the open … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Biofuels, Energy, Innovations Tagged With: agriculture, biomass, CDR, cooking, crops, forests, heating, India, Kenya, pollution, torrefaction, waste

New U.S. study: damage per ton of CO2 costs $185, not the official $51

October 7, 2022 by Maximilian Auffhammer

Maximilian Auffhammer at the Energy Institute at Haas reviews a new paper that suggests CO2 causes over three times as much damage in dollar terms as the figure currently used by the US government, $51 per ton. The new study shows $185 per ton of CO2 as the Social Cost of Carbon (SCC). The updated model is superior to previous models, says Auffhammer. It’s also open source, so anyone can use it, criticise it, and tweak the numbers to get … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Policies Tagged With: agriculture, CO2, damage, emissions, Energy, modelling, mortality, SCC, SeaLevel, US

EVs vs Biofuels: new study looks at ethanol’s impact on agricultural land use, food prices, emissions

July 21, 2022 by Josh Gabbatiss

For transport, biofuels have lower emissions than gasoline/petrol, but EVs will have the lowest emissions of all. Hence the opposition to those biofuels, along with objections to the valuable cropland used to make the ethanol. But the overall advantage depends on the speed of transition to EVs charged with clean electricity. Now, a calculation has been made of the amount of agricultural land preserved for global food production - or kept as … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Biofuels, Energy, Transport and energy Tagged With: agriculture, biofuels, Brazil, CarbonSinks, China, electrification, emissions, ethanol, EVs, Food, India, maize, transport, US

Methane emissions reach unexpected new highs. Is climate change causing a runaway effect?

July 11, 2022 by Simon Redfern

Simon Redfern at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore summarises his co-authored study that says methane emissions are four times more sensitive to climate change than that estimated in the latest IPCC report, which was only published in February 2022. The study follows the observation that, despite the pandemic stalling the world economy, methane emissions have reached new highs. Not because methane emissions have risen but because … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Environment, Oil, Gas & Coal Tagged With: agriculture, emissions, gas, hydroxyl, IPCC, landfills, methane, removal, wildfires

SAFFiRE: cheap, Sustainable Aviation Fuel from agricultural waste

July 6, 2022 by Ryan Horns

SAFFiRE (Sustainable Aviation Fuel From [i] Renewable Ethanol) is a 10-ton-per-day pilot plant project. The goal is 7bn gallons of sustainable, low-carbon aviation fuel by 2040. Ryan Horns at NREL explains that the sustainable fuel is made from corn stover, an agricultural waste product, chemically broken down into sugars that can then be converted to fuels. The SAFFiRE process can take advantage of the existing infrastructure of over 200 ethanol … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Biofuels, Energy, Transport and energy Tagged With: agriculture, aviation, biofuels, biomass, ethanol, fuel, jetfuel, SAF, waste

All estimates of the ‘cost’ of climate action should include the savings and benefits

March 29, 2022 by Alexandre Köberle, Toon Vandyck, Céline Guivarch and Joeri Rogelj

Too many climate mitigation scenarios calculate the cost of that transition without measuring the savings and benefits, explain Alexandre Köberle and Joeri Rogelj at Imperial College London, Toon Vandyck at the EC's Joint Research Centre, and Celine Guivarch at the Centre International de Recherche sur l’Environnement et le Developpement, writing for Carbon Brief. This leads to a pessimistic view of the challenges ahead, and public aversion to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Energy Outlooks Tagged With: agriculture, biodiversity, Climate, health, inequality, infrastructure, IPCC, modelling, productivity, scenarios, transition, wellbeing

COP26: a strategy for tackling “imported deforestation”

November 5, 2021 by Alain Karsenty and Nicolas Picard

Palm oil, beef, cocoa, coffee, soy, and other agricultural products are responsible for deforestation in the producing countries. Of the 10m hectares of tropical forest lost each year, two-thirds can be unambiguously attributed to agricultural expansion and international trade is responsible for about half of this. The EC is due in December to unveil a legislative proposal to address the issue. Alain Karsenty and Nicolas Picard, writing for IFRI, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Carbon Capture, Energy, Environment Tagged With: agriculture, auditing, beef, certification, cocoa, coffee, deforestation, EC, forests, France, GATT, imports, Indonesia, LULUCF, PalmOil, soy, Switzerland, tariffs, tropical, WTO

Methane Removal: an overlooked climate solution that could cut temperatures by 1°C?

October 13, 2021 by Rob Jordan

If you think CO2 removal isn’t getting enough attention, methane removal is getting virtually none. There are attempts to reduce methane emissions directly from fossil fuel production. But Rob Jordan at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment describes studies and models that conclude we should be looking at large and wide scale reduction and capture of methane. A 40% reduction in global methane emissions by 2050 could reduce peak … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Carbon Capture, Energy, Innovations Tagged With: agriculture, CCS, CCUS, CDR, CO2, gas, methane, microbes, permafrost, temperature, waste

Only Carbon Removal can make Germany’s new climate goal a reality

September 6, 2021 by Simon Göss and Hendrik Schuldt

Germany can’t hit its emissions targets without significant carbon dioxide removal (CRD), explain Simon Göss and Hendrik Schuldt at cr.hub. Clean energy and energy efficiency won’t do it alone. Policymakers have grasped that hard-to-abate sectors (industry, agriculture, buildings, transport) will struggle to deliver the reductions needed. Meanwhile, the climate disasters (floods, wildfires, etc.) that have cost lives this year are piling on … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Carbon Capture, Energy Tagged With: agriculture, buildings, carbon, CCS, CDR, emissions, floods, Germany, industry, LULUCF, policies, transport, wildfires

‘Fit for 55’ should prioritise decarbonisation of laggards: buildings, transport, industry, agriculture

July 14, 2021 by Nicolas Berghmans

Today’s long-awaited "Fit for 55" legislative package from the European Commission will trigger intense and difficult negotiations that will last two years, says Nicolas Berghmans at IDDRI. Its scope is wide and inevitably interconnected. The twelve legislative proposals include adjustments to existing measures (renewable energy, energy efficiency, carbon market/EU ETS, energy taxation, climate effort sharing between Member States/ESR, land use … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Policies Tagged With: agriculture, buildings, CBAM, EC, efficiency, emissions, EU, EUETS, FitFor55, industry, innovation, JustTransition, LULUCF, renewables, taxation, transport

Land Use and Forestry: existing LULUCF rules allow EU’s carbon sink to decrease. Change them

June 28, 2021 by Ulriikka Aarnio

The EU’s current Regulations for Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) allow the region’s carbon sink to decrease, explains Ulriikka Aarnio at CAN Europe. It’s due to exclusions and a lack of transparency and proper accounting for emissions. As a result, the EU’s carbon sink has already decreased significantly in the last few years, extracting only 265 Mt of CO2 in 2019. Different activities both emit and absorb carbon. 2019 saw 135 Mt … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Environment Tagged With: agriculture, biodiversity, bioenergy, circulareconomy;, EC, ESR, ETS, EU, forestry, LULUCF, regulations

Does new German target mean Coal gone by 2029, Renewables 65% by 2030?

May 25, 2021 by Michael Claußner, Carlos Perez Linkenheil and Simon Göss

The stiffer emissions targets introduced this month to Germany’s Climate Protection Law - CO2 emissions from the energy industry must fall to 108 Mt by 2030 instead of 175 – point to an even earlier coal phase-out date of 2029, with renewables generating 65% of electricity by 2030. The existing plan had meant coal must be gone by 2038. Michael Claußner, Carlos Perez-Linkenheil and Simon Göss at Energy Brainpool explain why, using their modelling … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Oil, Gas & Coal, Renewables Tagged With: agriculture, buildings, coal, DSM, electricity, emissions, gas, Germany, industry, lignite, renewables, SectorCoupling, solar, storage, transport, wind

Carbon Border Adjustments: can the EU create a mechanism that is fair?

February 22, 2021 by Michel Colombier

The proposed EU carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) is meant to control imports of high-carbon goods from places that are not bound by Europe’s rising de-carbonisation rules. The obvious targets are commodities like steel, aluminium and cement. But it could be extended to all EU imports, including agricultural products. Michel Colombier at IDDRI warns that the EU is in danger of not listening nearly enough to its trading partners. He … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Policies Tagged With: agriculture, aluminium, carbon, CarbonBorderAdjustment, CBAM, cement, EU, GreenDeal, industry, steel

Rural America needs investment, jobs. $82bn/yr of Wind and Solar can deliver it

November 10, 2020 by Kevin Brehm

The build out of wind and solar in the U.S. – to rise from 165GW today to over 500GW in 2035 – will overwhelmingly happen in the open spaces of rural America, explains Kevin Brehm at RMI. It should result in a major boost to stagnating communities. The $82bn/year of clean energy investment will take second spot to the current three big rural spends: highways ($90bn), water utilities ($57bn) and mass transit ($45bn). By 2030 rural clean energy … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Renewables Tagged With: agriculture, election2020, investment, jobs, JustTransition, solar, US, wind

France’s recovery plan: will support for emissions-high sectors compromise a new Green economy?

September 3, 2020 by Sébastien Treyer

The French recovery plan, formally presented today, combines emergency rescue measures, economic stimulus and longer-term investments. A substantial €32bn out of the €100bn budgeted is earmarked for the green economy. But SĂ©bastien Treyer at IDDRI asks whether rescue measures for traditionally emissions-high sectors - tourism, aviation, automotive, buildings, agri-food – will collide with climate targets. He references studies that should be used … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Policies Tagged With: agriculture, automotive, aviation, buildings, Covid, EU, France, Germany, GreenDeal, hydrogen, lockdown, pandemic, recovery, tourism

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        Recent Posts

        Wind and Solar generated record 20% of EU electricity in 2022. More than gas, nuclear, hydro, coal

        Steel decarbonisation: Australia must stop making excuses and follow Europe’s lead

        Can new cheap, frequent “laser” monitoring of critical components extend Nuclear plant lifetimes by decades?

        Wind (and Solar) need their own Financial Transmission Rights to hedge their unique congestion risks

        The U.S. should support the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)

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