World Energy Outlook 2021 Shows a New Energy Economy is Emerging – But not yet Quickly Enough to Reach Net Zero by 2050

14.10.2021

solar-solarna-elektrana — Photo-illustration: Unsplash (Andreas Gucklhorn)

Photo-illustration: Unsplash (Alex Eckermann)

A new energy economy is emerging around the world as solar, wind, electric vehicles and other low-carbon technologies flourish. But as the pivotal moment of COP26 approaches, the IEA’s new World Energy Outlook makes it clear that this clean energy progress is still far too slow to put global emissions into sustained decline towards net zero, highlighting the need for an unmistakeable signal of ambition and action from governments in Glasgow.

At a time when policy makers are contending with the impacts of both climate change and volatile energy markets, the World Energy Outlook 2021 (WEO-2021) is designed as a handbook for the COP26 Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, which offers a critical opportunity to accelerate climate action and the clean energy transition. The new analysis – which the IEA is making available for free online – delivers stark warnings about the direction in which today’s policy settings are taking the world. But it also provides clear-headed analysis of how to move in a well-managed way towards a pathway that would have a good chance of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C and avoiding the worst effects of climate change.

The WEO-2021, the IEA’s annual flagship publication, shows that even as deployments of solar and wind go from strength to strength, the world’s consumption of coal is growing strongly this year, pushing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions towards their second largest annual increase in history.

“The world’s hugely encouraging clean energy momentum is running up against the stubborn incumbency of fossil fuels in our energy systems,” said Fatih Birol, the IEA Executive Director. “Governments need to resolve this at COP26 by giving a clear and unmistakeable signal that they are committed to rapidly scaling up the clean and resilient technologies of the future. The social and economic benefits of accelerating clean energy transitions are huge, and the costs of inaction are immense.”

The WEO-2021 spells out clearly what is at stake: what the pledges to reduce emissions made by governments so far mean for the energy sector and the climate. And it sets out what needs to be done to move beyond these announced pledges towards a trajectory that would reach net zero emissions globally by mid-century – the Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario from the landmark IEA report published in May, which is consistent with limiting global warming to 1.5 °C.

As well as the Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario, the WEO-2021 explores two other scenarios to gain insights into how the global energy sector may develop over the next three decades – and what the implications would be. The Stated Policies Scenario represents a path based on the energy and climate measures governments have actually put in place to date, as well as specific policy initiatives that are under development. In this scenario, almost all of the net growth in energy demand through 2050 is met by low emissions sources, but that leaves annual emissions still around today’s levels. As a result, global average temperatures are still rising when they hit 2.6 °C above pre-industrial levels in 2100.

The Announced Pledges Scenario maps out a path in which the net zero emissions pledges announced by governments so far are implemented in time and in full. In this scenario, demand for fossil fuels peaks by 2025, and global CO2 emissions fall by 40 percent by 2050. All sectors see a decline, with the electricity sector delivering by far the largest. The global average temperature rise in 2100 is held to around 2.1 °C.

For the first time in a WEO, oil demand goes into eventual decline in all the scenarios examined, although the timing and speed of the drop vary widely. If all today’s announced climate pledges are met, the world would still be consuming 75 million oil barrels per day by 2050 – down from around 100 million today – but that plummets to 25 million in the Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario. Natural gas demand increases in all scenarios over the next five years, but there are sharp divergences after this.

After decades of growth, the prospects for coal power go downhill in the Announced Pledges Scenario – a decline that could be accelerated further by China’s recent announcement of an end to its support for building coal plants abroad. That move may result in the cancellation of planned projects that would save some 20 billion tonnes in cumulative CO2 emissions through 2050 – an amount similar to the total emissions savings from the European Union reaching net zero by 2050.

The differences between the outcomes in the Announced Pledges Scenario and the Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario are stark, highlighting the need for more ambitious commitments if the world is to reach net zero by mid-century.

“Today’s climate pledges would result in only 20 percent of the emissions reductions by 2030 that are necessary to put the world on a path towards net zero by 2050,” Dr Birol said. “Reaching that path requires investment in clean energy projects and infrastructure to more than triple over the next decade. Some 70 percent of that additional spending needs to happen in emerging and developing economies, where financing is scarce and capital remains up to seven times more expensive than in advanced economies.”

Insufficient investment is contributing to uncertainty over the future. Spending on oil and natural gas has been depressed by price collapses in 2014-15 and again in 2020. As a result, it is geared towards a world of stagnant or even falling demand. At the same time, spending on clean energy transitions is far below what would be required to meet future needs in a sustainable way.

“There is a looming risk of more turbulence for global energy markets,” Dr Birol said. “We are not investing enough to meet future energy needs, and the uncertainties are setting the stage for a volatile period ahead. The way to address this mismatch is clear – a major boost in clean energy investment, across all technologies and all markets. But this needs to happen quickly.”

The report stresses that the extra investment to reach net zero by 2050 is less burdensome than it might appear. More than 40 percent of the required emissions reductions would come from measures that pay for themselves, such as improving efficiency, limiting gas leakage, or installing wind or solar in places where they are now the most competitive electricity generation technologies.

These investments also create huge economic opportunities. Successfully pursuing net zero would create a market for wind turbines, solar panels, lithium-ion batteries, electrolysers and fuel cells of well over USD 1 trillion a year by 2050, comparable in size to the current oil market. Even in a much more electrified energy system, major opportunities remain for fuel suppliers to produce and deliver low-carbon gases. Just in the Announced Pledges Scenario, an additional 13 million workers would be employed in clean energy and related sectors by 2030, while that number doubles in the Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario.

Source: IEA

Between the Myth and Responsibility

13.10.2021

čokolada-Nestle — Foto-ilustracija: Unsplash (Thibault Penin)

Is it all that it takes for one product to have labels such as eco, 100 percent natural, or 100 percent bio so that we are assured that buying it would do us and the planet good? How conscientious are we as consumers, and do we need to think thoroughly about what we buy? Although big corporations that control the market are turning to green economy apace, environmental activists make known that not everything is as it seems and that each one of us has rights, opportunities, and obligations to act upon the market and to control big players.

We are all familiar with Nestlé products. There is hardly a consumer who hasn’t tasted their coffee, chocolate, muesli, or ice cream, and to some consumers, the Nestlé products are their cup of tea. Nestlé has been building up its reputation for 150 years, ever since the Swiss entrepreneur, Heinrich Nestlé has made a successful baby milk formula for the first time in the middle of the 19 century. Soon after that, also the first milk chocolate. Today, Nestlé is the biggest food company globally, the multinational corporation that runs the business in 189 countries, owns 447 factories, and employs 339,000 people. At the same time, it is one of the biggest stock owners of L’Oreal, the largest cosmetics company in the world. No, we are not advertising this famous brand. Instead, this serves as a mere illustration of how much Nestlé products took over

the market and to what extent companies with mass production affect our lives and the planet’s health. Yet, has this enormous impact one company has, being followed by proportionally large social and environmental responsibility in the way they run business and production?

The people from the Nestlé company will tell you that environmental protection is crucial to them. As a signatory of the Charter of the United Nations, Nestlé has committed to introducing particular measures to fight climate change, aiming that by 2030 it cuts its emissions of greenhouse gases by half. In contrast, by 2020, it should reach zero impact on the environment.

“The largest potential of the Nestlé company for that lies in agriculture. We are focused on preserving and restoring the forests, agroforestry, regenerating agricultural practices, and soil protection. Just the last sector, we can make an impact on up to 70 percent of emissions“, says Ivanka Stojnić, the manager for sustainable development at the Nestlé company for the Southeast European market.

In focus:

A green business strategy, such as this one, is something that almost all big companies today take as indispensable. Environmental activists generally accept big companies with a grain of salt, while the ones more radical take them a priori as bad guys. Milja Vuković, the founder of Facebook group Zero&Low Waste Serbia, has critical approaches to big corporations. She tries to put them in perspective, being aware that the companies have an immense responsibility in this historical moment and that it is of great importance they start to change their approaches. As a committed environmental activist with strong beliefs in civil actions, she notes that it is up to us, namely citizens, and up to legislation to make demands, support, and monitor. According to her, the main problem is that, despite all green strategies, we are still stuck in consumerism which has brought us to the global collapse in the first place.

“Consumer capitalism concept, embodied in the big corporation, is based on the ideology of constant growth. That approach is utterly unsustainable. It isn’t a solution to transition to a green economy or regenerative agriculture if we still remain affixed to constant growth ideology. For, what is the thing that actually grows? Does social justice grow, or the investments in education and art? Do we have a healthier environment, or are the people healthier and happier? What is the thing that grows in our modern societies? The amount of waste grows, which at rapid speed destroys the planet. The profit grows since the full human potential is reduced to become consumer”, says Milja Vuković.

She gives one very illustrative example: At the moment, we globally produce 120 percent of food necessary to feed the entire world population. At the same time, we throw away an unprecedented quantity of food that amounts to 30-40 percent. In other words, we produce so that companies make their projected profits, not to feed the people.

Undoubtedly, a green strategy is essential to make production more environmentally friendly, preserve the environment, take care of waste, use more clean energy, and produce packaging safer for the environment. Many big corporations already adopted these targets, including Nestlé, which in 2018 used for its production of 34.5 percent of electricity from renewable energy sources.

“As for Serbia, at the beginning of 2019, we signed the agreement with EPS for purchase of 100 percent green energy generated in hydropower plants. This way, we have already reached the specific goal locally”, says Ivanka Stojnić, offering further details on their factory in Surčin, which has become in 2019 the first facility reaching the Zero Waste to Landfill goal. That means that not even a single gram of waste from the factory goes to a landfill. Still, it is recycled and used for other purposes, while the food residues are used for organic fertilizer production. “And that’s not the end. We keep on reducing the energy consumption in the factory and replacing our packaging by introducing recyclable materials. The question of plastic waste, which can’t be recycled but ends up in our environment, also is one of the critical challenges the world is facing. Therefore, Nestlé has committed to making 10 percent of packaging produced in factory recyclable by 2025 and reducing virgin plastic usage by a third in the same period. With all investments so far, we have made recyclable 87 percent of our total packaging and 66 percent of plastic packaging.

Taking that green path, we continue investing in new technologies and substantial changes of our products and business around the globe”, says Ivanka. Although this corporative policy is something Milja Vuković advocates for, she mentions that consumers and citizens must follow these processes and buy, if we are environmentally aware, exercise self-control.

“Being informed buyers, we can support the product with environmentally friendly packaging, namely the naked ones. That means they have no packaging, or they were made of recyclable materials or materials from renewable sources. We need to know and control the percentage of collection and recycling of that specific material in our country. Otherwise, it ends up on landfill again, despite the theoretical possibility for its recycling”, she says and adds that the same goes for green energy use and that we should demand the transparency of production process and sale of this kind of energy.

Prepared by: Jovana Canić

Read the story in the new issue of the Energy portal Magazine WATER RESOURCES.

Launch of the Western Balkans Coal Regions in Transition Public Perception Survey

13.10.2021

termolektrana — Photo-illustration: Unsplash (Hassan Afridhi)

Photo-illustration: Unsplash (Ivo Lukacovic)

The World Bank’s Energy & Extractives Global Practice, together with the Energy Community Secretariat, launched on 11 October the Western Balkans Coal Regions in Transition Public Perception Survey, to be conducted across the coal regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. The objective of the survey is to understand awareness, perspectives and expectations of citizens living in these coal regions related to the concept of Just Transition.

The survey was designed taking into account inputs from CSOs active in the region. The methodology will include both qualitative and quantitative data collection via a questionnaire administered in local languages. The questions mostly focus on determining participants’ knowledge, perceptions, understandings and expectations of the concept of the Just Transition. The questionnaire respondents will be selected on a randomized basis based on the sample frame.

A final report will present the survey’s key findings and identify the key issues facing coal regions, the key institutions involved in coal regions and the priorities and likely development strategies.

Results will play an integral role in informing stakeholder engagement and citizen engagement strategies with respect to a Just Transition in these coal regions, in the World Bank’s technical assistance and Energy Community’s work on the energy transition going forward.

The survey is being conducted under the umbrella of the initiative for Coal Regions in Transition in the Western Balkans and Ukraine, managed by the European Commission and launched in December 2020 to help countries and regions to move away from coal towards a carbon-neutral economy, while ensuring that this transition is just.

* This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.

Source: Energy community

Antarctica Shows Everything Is Possible When We Work Together – Now We Need Leaders To Make History Again

12.10.2021

lednik_voda_Antarktik — Foto-ilustracija: Unsplash (Long Ma)

30 years ago, something remarkable happened. Governments around the world agreed to make the Antarctic off limits to oil drilling and mining.

In the 1980s the debate of the fate of the Antarctic got intense, as interest in the continent’s oil and mineral reserves surged. Together with other organisations, Greenpeace was adamant on protecting one of the world’s last wildernesses.

We knew that governments could only lay claim to Antarctica if they built a base there. So to gain a place at the negotiating table, Greenpeace set about doing the same.

In 1987, we set sail. After years of campaigning, we went from being laughed at, to becoming a respected player in negotiations for the future of the continent. And gradually, more and more nations signed up to the ban on mining and drilling for fossil fuels.

The visionary agreement made on October 4. 1991. is known as The Protocol on Environment Protection to the Antarctic Treaty, or The Madrid Protocol. It has two important lessons: 1) We need to respect the planetary boundaries and learn to live within them, rather than racing to the ends of the world to exploit; 2) Everything is possible when we work together.

30 years later, those learnings are timely. These same lessons are what we need to tackle the climate and nature emergency facing our planet today. Not even the Antarctic is remote enough to be safe from climate breakdown, pollution and destructive fishing. In recent years, we have witnessed the Antarctic glaciers retreating, plastic pollution spreading, and penguin populations crashing.

The Antarctic Ocean Commission is made up of 25 governments and the European Union. Their job is to protect Antarctic marine life. But despite their commitment to create a network of Antarctic ocean sanctuaries, this group of decision-makers has let exploitation drive its agenda for far too long, and protecting the oceans has been left behind. But it is not too late.

True leaders would cut emissions back in their home countries, whilst working together to create vast ocean sanctuaries, off-limits to destructive industries, to give nature a chance to heal. And they would act right now: the world is expecting concrete action to give Antarctic waters a way back from the brink. We must protect at least 30 percent of the global oceans by 2030. When the Antarctic Ocean Commission will start their annual meeting in two weeks’ time, the leaders’ words will be tested.

Leaders of today have their chance to shape the fate of the oceans all around the planet, for generations to come, by creating a strong Global Ocean Treaty at the UN next year. Our global oceans belong to us all and we need to make sure everyone can benefit from the food, oxygen and scientific advances they provide. We need to cha

nge the way we take care of our oceans, business as usual has been driving them to the brink of collapse. A Global Ocean Treaty is about putting justice and protection at the core of how we manage our oceans.

By opening the door to a network of fully protected ocean sanctuaries, in areas beyond national boundaries, the Global Ocean Treaty under negotiation at the United Nations could improve the capacity of the global oceans to respond to the worst impacts of climate change, stop biodiversity loss and bring enormous benefits for coastal communities, whose food security and livelihoods are threatened by climate change, unsustainable industrial fishing practices, and pollution.

Source: Greenpeace

IEA works with Italy and UNEP in push for projects that use digital technologies to support flexible and resilient energy systems

11.10.2021

renewable-energy — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

The International Energy Agency is teaming up with the Italian Ministry of Ecological Transition (IMET) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to call for pilot projects on how digitalisation can contribute to flexible and resilient energy systems.

The initiative, a follow-up to the 2019 Climate Action Summit, aims to accelerate global climate action and encourage the uptake of clean energy models. The pilot projects are intended to produce on-the-ground insights, test new approaches and disseminate findings that will feed into the IEA’s Digital Demand-Driven Electricity Networks (3DEN) Initiative.

The 3DEN Initiative focuses on the policies, regulatory environment, technology and investments needed to accelerate power system modernisation as well as the effective utilisation of demand-side resources, such as electric vehicles and behind-the-meter batteries.

The open competitive call for proposals intends to support the implementation of pilot projects across the prioritised countries, namely Brazil, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Morocco, South Africa and Tunisia for a maximum of EUR 1.8 million per project (excluding co-financing). The projects are expected to develop and showcase innovative business and regulatory models for the adoption of smarter digital power infrastructures.

You can find more details and the application form here.

Source: IEA

EBRD to Acquire Stake in Bulgaria’s Euroins Insurance Group

09.10.2021

architecture-zgrada — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) signed an agreement to acquire a minority stake in Bulgaria’s Euroins Insurance Group (EIG), one of the largest independent non-life insurance groups in central, eastern and south-eastern Europe.

The EBRD is investing EUR 30 million through a capital increase, while Еurohold, the insurance group’s parent company, is providing a further equity injection of up to EUR 12 million.

Anca Ioana Ionescu, EBRD Director for Bulgaria, said: “This EBRD investment will play a key role in stabilising the insurance sector, while providing comfort to customers, regulators and suppliers.”

The funds will be used for the development and growth of the largest insurance entity within the group, Euroins Romania Asigurare Reasigurare. The financing will also support the group’s operations and growth in Georgia, Greece, North Macedonia, Poland and Ukraine.

Mark Davis, EBRD Regional Director for Romania and Bulgaria, added: “We are so pleased to be partnering with Euroins to expand high-quality, advanced and dependable insurance in Romania and across the region. We are also pleased to be engaging in parallel with Romania’s Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF) on a direct settlement process for the benefit of consumers and the insurance sector overall in Romania.”

The EBRD is working with ASF to develop new regulations for managing motor claims. Its goal is to help create a fairer system for all parties involved, including customers, workshops and insurance companies, while fostering the interest of larger global insurers and attracting capital to the sector.

Kiril Boshov, EIG Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Еurohold’s Management Board, stated: “We are glad to welcome the EBRD, one of the major international financial institutions, as a shareholder in EIG. The participation of the Bank will further strengthen EIG’s solvency position and support its growth in markets where both EIG and the EBRD have been focusing. The investment comes at an important moment for EIG’s largest company, Euroins Romania. It marks a strategic milestone in the capitalisation our Romanian subsidiary, in which EIG has invested more than RON 300 million (EUR 60 million equivalent) in the past 12 months. Euroins Romania will therefore be able to look ahead as a well-capitalised, innovative, client-oriented and diversified insurer on the challenging local market.”

The EBRD’s investment will also help Euroins create value through enhanced corporate governance, digitalisation and diversifying products from mandatory motor insurance to those covering health, accidents, fire and property.

The EBRD is a major investor in Bulgaria, where it focuses on making local firms more competitive at home and abroad, financing modern, sustainable infrastructure and developing financial products and capital markets, given the country’s plans to adopt the euro. To date, the EBRD has invested more than EUR 4 billion in Bulgaria’s economy through almost 270 projects.

Source: EBRD

Climate Scientists win Nobel Prize for Physics

08.10.2021

earth-zemlja-planeta — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

Photo-illustration: Unsplash (Markus Spiske)

The World Meteorological Community and the international science community have welcomed the awarding of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics to pioneering climate scientists who laid the foundations for our understanding of the role of human activities and greenhouse gases in climate change. The award is especially timely as it comes on the eve of decisive UN Climate Change negotiations, COP26.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences cited American-Japanese Prof. Syukuro Manabe (Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA) and the German Prof. Klaus Hasselmann (Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany), “for the physical modelling of Earth’s climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming.”

They share the prize with the Italian theorist Prof. Giorgio Parisi (Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy) “for the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales.”

WMO Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas said the award is “great news.”

“This demonstrates that climate science is highly valued and the climate science message has been heard,” said Prof. Taalas.

He stressed the urgency of translating the scientific knowledge into policy-making.

“The concrete action hasn’t been ambitious enough so far. … There’s clearly a need to raise the ambition level. We cannot wait for decades to start acting,” he added.

“As public awareness of climate change grows, it is encouraging to see the Nobel Physics Prize recognizing the work of scientists who have contributed so much to our understanding of climate change, including two IPCC authors – Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann,” said Dr Hoesung Lee, Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The WMO co-sponsored IPCC shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

Prof. Manabe was born in Japan in 1931 and studied at the University of Tokyo, where he received his PhD in 1958. He then moved to the United States to work on climate prediction using numerical simulations at the General Circulation Research Section of the National Weather Bureau. He has continued to work on global warming research at the Frontier Research System for Global Change in Japan and at Princeton University, where he has contributed to climate change prediction.

The numerical simulation techniques developed by Prof. Manabe, which take into account the interaction between the atmosphere and the oceans, are the basis of the Earth system modelling and predictions used today for long-term prediction and climate prediction, and are indispensable not only for global warming prediction but also for daily to seasonal forecasting.

Prof. Hasselmann was born in Germany in 1931 and earned his PhD at the University of the University of Göttingen and Max Planck Institute of Fluid Dynamics in 1957. He has conducted research in the 1970s on the relationship between weather and climate. He also contributed to a better understanding of global warming and the responsibility of human activities. The methods he developed made it possible to prove this.

Source: World Meteorological Organization

Fast-Growing EBRD Green Cities Signs up 50th member, Medias

07.10.2021

sibiu-romania — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

The EBRD’s fast-expanding EUR 3 billion urban sustainability programme, EBRD Green Cities, has reached a new growth milestone, with Medias in Romania becoming the 50th city to sign up to improve the environment in which its citizens live and plan a more sustainable future. The EBRD will lend Medias RON 38 million (EUR 7.7 million) to part-fund a bigger EU project to improve its infrastructure.

“We are delighted that Medias is becoming EBRD Green Cities’ 50th member,” said Nandita Parshad, Managing Director, EBRD Sustainable Infrastructure Group.

“When it comes to addressing the climate emergency, cities must be front and centre given the need for clean air, decarbonised urban transportation and green and reliable energy access for all. This is why we established our flagship EBRD Green Cities Programme – to introduce bottom up planning for green priority investments for cities.”

Medias, located in Sibiu County in the central Romanian region of Transylvania, is an existing EBRD client. The city is looking to revitalise its public infrastructure as prerequisite for business and economic development in the region. The city, with a population of approximately 56,400 inhabitants, suffers from legacy infrastructure issues across its transport network, public buildings and road systems. Medias plans to address these issues through a broad programme of investments, focused on accelerating the City’s sustainable development and transition to a low-carbon future.

Cities, which account for 70 percent of energy use and 80 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the world, represent a big opportunity to tackle climate change and environmental degradation. This is particularly true of cities in the EBRD regions, where obsolete urban infrastructure diminishes the quality of life of citizens, increasing greenhouse gas emissions, and preventing communities from adapting to climate change.

EBRD Green Cities was launched in 2016 with just EUR 250 million of funding, which was expected to last five years. The programme proved so popular that its funding was quickly increased. EBRD Green Cities has won support from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and attracted significant levels of co-finance, expanding the number of cities that can be supported and further raising the level of ambition.

EBRD Green Cities offers tangible support to help cities address their environmental issues and improve the quality of life of their residents. All participating cities embark on a trigger project to improve their local environment then, with EBRD help, work on a Green City Action Plan (GCAP) to create a tailor-made list of further environmental investments and policy changes most suitable to address their environmental challenges.

In the case of Medias, the trigger project will be work on rehabilitating, modernising and improving energy efficiency in public buildings, as well as public transport investments supporting e-mobility. Both will bring significant greenhouse gas emissions savings. The EBRD loan will represent the city’s co-financing of a larger investment for a total value of RON 138.4 million (EUR 28.1 million), approved under the relevant EU Regional Operational Programme in Romania.

Medias is the 3rd green city in Romania, after Craiova and Iasi, while Timisoara and Constanta are expected to join the programme soon. To date, EBRD has signed 8.8 billion in over 460 projects in Romania.

Source: EBRD

Digital Partner in the Fields of Sustainability and Efficiency

06.10.2021

Plovdiv_pametna fabrika_ — Foto: Schneider Electric, via Represent

The coronavirus has brought numerous changes in everyday life. It also contributed to the increasing demand for sustainable energy and sustainability in all areas of work.

The innovations are introduced, and new technologies are adopted apace. The measures that were globally adopted to protect people’s health and lives, such as lockdowns and movement restrictions, appeared to be also an impetus for changes speeding up the adoption of digital technologies.

“I am sure that the high level of their use will persevere in the future,” said Dr. Petr Hermann, the cluster president for Southeast Europe at Schneider Electric, in the interview he gave to our Magazine.

“The Schneider Electric company recognizes increasing demands for sustainable energy and also that sustainability is one of the key drivers of efficiency and innovations. We believe that this concept is a powerful source of motivation for people looking for sustainable workplaces. The solutions based upon sustainability are also a great response to greater clients’ demands”, says Hermann.

He points out that more than 80 percent of CO2 emissions come from energy production and consumption. In addition, throughout the previous five decades, the global population has doubled.

“With the expansion of the global economy and the growth of the global population, our energy needs will rise more than 40 percent until 2040, to be able to supply with electricity our facilities, houses, factories satisfying our need for cooling, transport, and connections.”

Therefore, it is necessary to generate electricity from renewable energy sources and increase the share of electric energy significantly in total energy usage, aiming to reduce CO2 emissions and slow down global warming. According to Hermann’s prognosis, in the next 20 years, the share of electricity in all our activities will double.

In focus:

“A lot has been said about electricity, but today it makes only 20 percent of all energy we use. In the next two decades, that share will amount to at least 40 percent. And finally, electricity will be substantially different, because today only 6 percent of energy is generated from renewable sources. Expectations are that during that period, up to 40 percent will come from renewable sources. In addition to that, all that we install today and build will also be here in the next 20 years. So, if we want to tackle the climate issue, we have to introduce all those changes now.”

Petr Hermann reflected that the Schneider Electric company was ranked the world’s most sustainable corporation at the beginning of 2021, in a prestigious annual list compiled by Corporate Knights, a media and research company focused on corporate sustainability performance.

Also, the same year the company entered Fortune’s 2021 World’s Most Admired Companies list for the fourth year in a row, as the third company on the electronics sector list. At the Schneider Electric company, they make sustainable development a focal point. Over the last three years, they have saved more than 130 million tonnes of CO2 emissions for their clients in the sectors of construction, industry, infrastructure, and data centers.

“Our mission is clear and unwavering. We want to encourage all to make better progress and use fewer resources. We hope our motto Life is on takes root everywhere, and goes for everyone, at every moment”, notes Hermann.

He says that new trends, which they recognize and work on, concern four types of integrations:

Integration of supply management and electricity usage with automation aiming for better efficiency both in terms of energy usage and remaining business operations
Integration of smart devices with control systems, but also with cloud, to collect data from all company sectors and find the best way to use energy and other available resources
Integrated architecture; from the project design to construction and from operation to maintenance, accomplished through special software, which provides for integrated design, construction, operation, management, and installation maintenance, and the technology implementation such as digital twin for the industry sector, or artificial intelligence

The transition from the maintenance of each installation separately (from location to location) to comprehensive company management Speaking of the local market, Hermann says that Serbia has a very competent team and an excellent network of partners.

“We have ambitious plans for Serbia. But, first, let me remind you that our company has a high-tech Center for the research and development of software for management of the electric power distribution systems located in Novi Sad. There we have more than 1,000 engineers employed”, underlines Hermann adding that the Schneider Electric company’s priority is attracting and training of skillful personnel along with the people development.”

Text published in the Energy portal Magazine WATER RESOURCES.

Amazon Expedition: The harsh reality of those living near the fires

05.10.2021

šumski_požar — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

The fires and deforestation in the Amazon have a devastating impact on the forest, biodiversity, and the global climate. We have seen news, articles, and documentaries about it.

But little is told about the impact the destruction has on the lives of those living in the region. For me, there is no richer experience than being on the field, talking to those people, and hearing about their – sometimes very harsh – reality.

For a week I traveled with a team from Greenpeace Brazil to a few municipalities in the Amazon to document the devastation, enabled by Bolsonaro’s government, in the region.

We started our trip in Porto Velho. The day we arrived, the city had just gotten the first substantial rain in several weeks. “ Last week we couldn’t even see the sky, now we can just because it rained last week”, the people who live there said. The smoke, which prevents the city’s residents from seeing the sky and breathing good quality air, is one of the reasons why we went there.

During our visit to Porto Velho, we wanted to understand how the fires affect people’s health and well-being. We interviewed researchers from Public Health Research Institute Fiocruz, the state’s Health Surveillance Agency Agevisa, and a doctor from the local Children’s Hospital.

All of them emphasized that fires affect the health of the population, especially children and the elderly, who are more vulnerable. But they also highlighted that the smoke doesn’t impact only the ones living near the fires but also people far away, as the pollution travels with the wind.

Every resident from Porto Velho talks about the smoke, which covers the city every year. In the few days we were there, even with the rain, we saw fires very close to the city and the air was still very dry. I couldn’t stop thinking how inconceivable that was: such low humidity in a city right next to the rainforest.

This is the first of a series of stories I am going to tell you about my visit to the Amazon. From deforestation to logging and land grabbing, the forest is being devastated, threatening the health and livelihood of those in the region. Stay tuned, share this story and join the movement to Stand with the Guardians of the Amazon.

Author: Diego Gonzaga

Source: Greenpeace

How Eco-Labelling Can Drive Consumer Decision-Making

05.10.2021

kupovina_prodavnica_rafovi_žena — Foto-ilustracija: Unsplash (Martijn Baudoin)

Photo-illustracion: Unsplash (Mehrad Vosoughi)

“What exactly happens between the farm and the table?”

Each year, 17 percent of total global food available at retail may be wasted, including 11 percent at the household level, says the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP’s) Food Waste Index Report 2021.

Finding out how our food is distributed and reaches our plates could help reduce food loss and waste and accelerate the transition to sustainable food systems.

At the first-ever UN Food Systems Summit last month, UNEP jointly developed a pair of coalitions –‘Food is Never Waste’ and ‘Healthy Diets from Sustainable Food Systems’ – to help cut food loss and ensure access to healthy diets.

The Summit also saw nearly 300 commitments from hundreds of thousands of people worldwide to accelerate action and transform food systems.

Experts say successful policymaking will rely on improving consumer knowledge.

“Our understanding of food systems is incomplete,” says UNEP Programme Manager James Lomax. “Most existing data focus on agriculture – where the food chain begins. At the other end of that chain, individual choices and consumption patterns are fragmented.”

The “middle part” of the food chain is less visible, notes Lomax. “Consumers may not know how food reaches their plates or be aware of the health and environmental consequences of their dietary choices.”

Information enables better decision-making

Consumers play an essential role in shaping the global food system through the decisions they make in grocery stores, restaurants and in their homes. To improve consumer decisions and positively impact human and planetary health, consumers need access to more information about their food and a deeper understanding of the “middle part.”

Eco-labelling is one solution. This system identifies products that meet low environmental impact criteria and provides insight into the process to facilitate consumer decision-making. It provides an incentive for producers to review their own performance and communicate product sustainability credentials. In Latin America, UNEP’s Sustainable Public Procurement and Ecolabelling project is helping consumers to learn more about the production and management of the products they purchase.

Costa Rica developed the first product category rule to measure the environmental impact of coffee production against international standards – for planting, packaging, harvesting, grinding, packaging and distribution – and is now developing a new eco-labelling norm for its domestic sale. It is also working on new category rules to measure the environmental footprint of bottled water, malt-based drinks and bakery products.

Eco-labelling is part of a global transition towards sustainable development, and its importance is widely recognized. Building on the principles adopted at the UN Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation Articulates the need to “develop and adopt, where appropriate, on a voluntary basis, effective, transparent, verifiable, non-misleading and non-discriminatory consumer information tools to provide information relating to sustainable consumption and production”.

Source:UNEP

WMO Commits to a Greener Future

04.10.2021

environmental-protection-priroda — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

Photo-illustration: Unsplash (Aaron Burden)

The World Meteorological Organization has signed a long-term agreement with Services Industriels de Genève (SIG) to connect the WMO building to a new environmentally friendly initiative called GENILAC.

The agreement was signed by WMO Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas and senior SIG executives at a ceremony on 28 September and represents a major step in the commitment to green the WMO.

GENILAC is a 100 percent renewable thermal solution which uses lake water to both cool and heat buildings in the centre of Geneva.

Using water from deep in Lac Leman and the magic of thermal dynamics, Genilac will allow WMO to heat and cool its headquarters. This will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 80 percent, as well as electricity (80 percent less) and water (10 percent) used for cooling systems.

WMO is excited to be a founding partner in such an important and innovative project. This project along with the installation of photovoltaic panels on the roof, and the replacement of the building management and automation systems will allow us to drastically reduce WMO’s carbon footprint and maintain the highest environmental standards.

Source: WMO

Europe’s Nature Under Pressure — Challenges and Solutions

04.10.2021

The European Environment Agency’s (EEA) work and other assessments have shown that European ecosystems are under serious threat. Centuries of exploitation have left their mark on Europe’s natural world and most protected habitats and species are not in good conservation status. The EEA Signals 2021, published today, presents an overview of the problems Europe’s nature is facing and points to strategies to reverse the situation.

“EEA Signals 2021 — Europe’s nature” provides a snapshot of the state of European nature — its habitats and species — and a window to the world of conservation, data collection and strategies to restore biodiversity and ecosystems. The ‘EEA Signals’ is a series of short articles based on previously published EEA data, information, and expert interviews.

This year’s ‘EEA Signals’ focuses on the value of nature and why strong ecosystems are important for people’s well-being. An article on the state of nature outlines the challenges Europe’s nature is currently facing while other pieces look at the main causes behind the worrying situation and the most promising ways to allow nature to recover and flourish.

James Vause, lead economist at the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), and contributor to the Dasgupta review on the economics of biodiversity, gives an interview about how accounting can help halt biodiversity loss.

Dr Beate Jessel, President of the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, offers insights about the links between biodiversity and climate change, and what could be done to boost nature’s resilience in a changing climate.

Petr Voříšek from the Czech Society for Ornithology, and member of the coordination team of the European Breeding Bird Atlas 2, explains how data on bird populations are put together and what particular challenges Europe’s bird populations face today.

The EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 is Europe’s long-term plan to protect nature and reverse the degradation of ecosystems. Together with other initiatives, it is a core part of the European Green Deal, which outlines the EU’s long-term ambition of becoming the first climate-neutral continent with a sustainable economy by 2050.

The ‘EEA Signals’ is an annual, easy-to-read publication, that looks at key issues related to the environment and climate. Recent EEA Signals reports have looked at pollution (2020), soil (2019), water (2018), and energy (2017).

Source: EEA

Three Ways You Can Protect Rivers

03.10.2021

river-reka-crna-gora — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

Rivers provide immense benefits and services to people, communities, and the planet—from drinking water to crop irrigation. Unfortunately, invaluable river systems all over the world are under increased stress from damming of free-flowing waters, an uptick in pollutants, overfishing, and more.

WWF partners with governments, businesses, international financial institutions, and communities to ensure healthy rivers exist to conserve wildlife and provide a sustainable future for all. We’ve mapped the world’s free-flowing rivers and help manage freshwater resources in a warming climate.

Rivers enrich our lives and need protection. Here are three ways to support river conservation so we can keep rivers healthy, sustainable, and flowing for generations to come.

Understand the deep connection between rivers and food

When we imagine feeding 7.6 billion people on the planet, we often conjure images of crops or cattle farms. But we should also consider rivers. A new WWF report shows that one-third of global food production and 40 percent of global fish consumption depends on rivers.

And while the contributions of rivers to our food system are now clearer than ever, we are at risk of damaging one of our greatest tools in feeding the planet. Over the past 50 years, we have lost 84 percent of our freshwater species populations, and food systems are responsible for 50 percent of biodiversity loss in freshwater. We are pumping out too much water, catching too many fish, damming free-flowing rivers for hydropower, and flooding rivers with pollutants. If we’re to feed 10 billion by 2050 within our planet’s limits, we have to better protect rivers as one of our greatest resources.

Advocate for low-impact renewable energy

To meet renewable energy targets, hydropower is projected to double by 2050. With that level of development, we would lose most of the world’s remaining long free-flowing rivers and many of the benefits they provide to people and nature. Therefore we must invest in the right renewables in the right places to prevent greater nature loss and harm to communities.

Over 160,000 miles of free-flowing rivers are at risk from planned hydropower dams, including the Okavango, Amazon, and Irrawaddy. These proposed dams would collectively generate less than 2 percent of the renewable energy needed to meet climate targets—a relatively small contribution to tackling the climate crisis that would have devastating consequences for our remaining free-flowing rivers, and the people and wildlife that depend on them.

Engage with local rivers

Many local organizations host clean-up initiatives for local streams and rivers. Volunteering for these initiatives is a great way to familiarize yourself with local waterways and be hands-on in their conservation. Studies also show that spending time outdoors for at least two hours per week has long-term health benefits. So while you’re improving the health of your river, you can improve your own health as well.

If volunteer opportunities are limited, explore fishing, rent a kayak, or just take a stroll along a local waterway. Any time spent connecting with the rivers that sustain us is well-spent.

Source: WWF

Why The Global Fight to Tackle Food Waste Has Only Just Begun

02.10.2021

povrće_hrana — Foto-ilustracija: Unsplash (Iñigo De la Maza)

Our global food systems are having a profound impact on human and planetary health. They are responsible for 70 percent of the water extracted from nature, account for up to one-third of human-linked greenhouse gas emissions, and agriculture has been identified as the threat to 24,000 of the 28,000 species (over 86 percent) at risk of extinction.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP’s) Food Waste Index Report 2021, people globally waste 1 billion tonnes of food each year. A staggering one-third of all food produced globally is lost or wasted. The evidence is becoming too hard to ignore. Food systems reform is critical to tackling the planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss and pollution and waste.

UNEP is playing a crucial role in the transition towards sustainable food systems. It serves as custodian of the food waste element of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.3, which aims to halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains.

In a historic first this week, the UN held the inaugural Food Systems Summit, uniting global leaders in a drive to find novel ways to produce healthy fare for the world’s growing population without harming the planet.

UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen led the system-wide UN Taskforce, established to ensure the Summit built on the unique capabilities of the UN to deliver on its agenda. In her remarks, Ms. Andersen underlined UNEP’s commitment to joining up with other UN agencies to support countries as they arrive at and implement ambitious commitments to transform our relationship with food – for people and the planet.

UNEP was also instrumental in developing several solution clusters emerging from the Summit Process, including the coalitions on ‘Food is Never Waste’ and ‘Healthy Diets from Sustainable Food Systems’.

Ahead of the second International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste on 29 September, we sat down with UNEP’s food systems expert Clementine O’Connor to discuss the issues – and opportunities – brought on by food waste.

UNEP: It seems that food waste as a global problem appears to be a fairly recent phenomenon. Is it now only now getting the attention it deserves?

Clementine O’Connor (CO): I co-authored a study called the Preparatory Study on Food Waste Across EU 27 for the European Union (EU) in 2010, when the topic was not high on political agendas or very salient in many households. Few countries had measured food waste. There were some emerging actions, policies and awareness campaigns, but these were at quite a small scale – with notable exceptions in the UK and the Netherlands. However, the estimate in the study of 89 million tonnes of food waste in the EU each year generated much attention. The EU designated 2014 the European Year Against Food Waste. With a growing body of research and through international and cross supply chain partnerships, momentum has built unrelentingly. Today, we have food waste embedded in the SDGs, with Target 12.3, which seeks to halve food waste globally by 2030 and tracks progress through a global index.

UNEP: How is UNEP helping to tackle the food waste crisis?

CO: UNEP launched the Think Eat Save global public awareness campaign in 2013, with a dinner at UNEP’s headquarters in Nairobi for hundreds of ministers and high-level officials made with perfectly good food grown by Kenyan farmers but rejected by UK supermarkets due to cosmetic imperfections. UNEP contributed to the creation of Champions 12.3, a coalition of executives committed to halving food waste by 2030, and developing the Food Loss and Waste Accounting and Reporting Standard. UNEP’s Food Waste Index Report published this year provides a common methodology for measuring food waste and tracking progress on SDG 12.3 and provides new estimates of global food waste based on the most comprehensive food waste data collection to date. Countries and companies are adopting a Target – Measure – Act approach, with a few countries already nearing a 25 percent reduction in household food waste

The Food Waste Index Report has shown that household food waste is a global challenge and supports action in areas that are just getting started. UNEP is now launching Regional Food Waste Working Groups in Africa, Asia Pacific, Latin American, the Caribbean, and West Asia as part of the GO4SDGs Initiative. These working groups will provide technical support and peer-to-peer learning at the regional level, helping 25 countries measure baselines and develop national food waste prevention strategies.

Photo-illustration: Unsplash (Pattie Mitchell)

UNEP also helped develop the ‘Food is Never Waste’ Coalition emerging from the UN Food Systems Summit process and launched last week. With commitments from 12 countries and counting, the C40 Cities Group and a diverse group of stakeholders, UNEP, together with this coalition of leaders, is helping connect the dots between global hunger and the three planetary crises of climate, nature and pollution, and scaling up action in the eight years to come.

UNEP: How important is it to quantify the issue of food waste?

CO: Data creates a case for action. Previously there was an assumption that consumer food waste was a high-income country problem – the UNEP Food Waste Index Report demonstrates that it is significant in almost every country that has measured it. Data makes the problem visible. It helps countries identify hotspots, measure the impact of interventions, and track progress on SDG 12.3, with all of the benefits this entails, from food security to climate change mitigation.

UNEP: How much of a behavioural change shift is required to reach some of these targets?

CO: Nobody wants to waste food. It is morally objectionable in every culture. Behavioural insights are helping us identify the reasons food goes to waste in our homes and point to the interventions that have the highest impact in turning this around. We are wasting on average 74 kilograms of food at home per person per year. This is greater than the average person’s weight. While halving this is a major challenge, research shows us ways to make this easy – by adopting high impact behaviours that are easy to incorporate into existing routines. For example, research by Australian NGO OzHarvest points to two such measures. Scheduling a “Use It Up” meal once a week, using up leftover ingredients with adaptable recipes (such as samosas, stir-fries or soup), and creating an “Eat Me First” shelf in your fridge, drawing attention to perishables that need to be eaten quickly. Unilever’s research in Canada had strikingly similar findings, with recommendations for a “Use-Up Day” and “Flexipes”.

UNEP: Many of these recommendations are relatively small steps. But if all these actions were taken – what sort of impact could it have on greenhouse gas emissions or achieving targets?

CO: Food loss and waste are responsible for 8 to 10 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, and thus reducing food waste is one of the most important ways any of us can reduce our emission of greenhouse emissions and contribution to climate change. With collaborative action across supply chains, reducing food waste at home, a few key behaviour changes by consumers, and policies that keep food out of the landfill, we can have a huge impact on the triple planetary crisis, with benefits across the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

UNEP: Do you see enough signs pointing in the right direction that you are hopeful we can achieve success?

CO: Yes. This has been a momentous year – 148 countries have held food systems dialogues and are now developing national food systems pathways under the auspices of the UN Food Systems Summit. The ‘Food is Never Waste’ Coalition is helping us pull in the same direction globally. UNEP’s Regional Working Groups will be helping 25 countries measure baselines and develop national food waste prevention strategies. We will host a webinar on 7 October with international banks, foundations and climate finance facilities to demonstrate how countries can fund and deliver these strategies. There is certainly a long way to 2030 – but we can do it together.

One Planet Network

UNEP works in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Programme (FAO) under the One Planet Network on Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production (10YFP) – a global commitment to accelerate the shift towards sustainable consumption and production in both developed and developing countries. Sustainable consumption and production is a stand-alone goal (SDG 12) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and Target 12.1 calls for the implementation of the 10YFP. UNEP’s Executive Director is a member of Champions 12.3, a high-level coalition dedicated to delivering SDG 12.3.

Source: UNEP

An Important Step Towards the Conservation of Endangered Migratory Birds

01.10.2021

quail-prepelica-ptica — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

Photo: The Bird Protection and Study Society of Serbia

The Bird Protection and Study Society of Serbia (BPSSS) welcomes the recent amendments to The Rulebook on Declaring a Closed Hunting Season for the Protected Wild Game Species, which established changes in the hunting season of three endangered wild bird species in Serbia.

At the end of August, the amendments to the Rulebook were agreed by the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management and the Minister of Environmental Protection.

The mentioned document introduces a temporary ban on Turtle Dove hunting, which lasts until August 14, 2024, and includes two hunting seasons. A temporary ban on hunting is also introduced for Grey Partridges and it will last until October 14, 2024, or three hunting seasons. From next year, the hunting season for Common Quails will be shortened and will last from August 15 until September 30.

“We see changes in the hunting season for Turtle Dove, Grey Partridge and Common Quail as a way to a permanent ban on hunting these migratory bird species. All three have the status of vulnerable species (VU) on the Red List of Birds of Serbia. Ornithologists in Serbia have been fighting since 2001 to end hunting on endangered migratory birds, especially Turtle Doves and Common Quails since their populations are decimated, habitats degraded or lost, and hunting in Serbia is extremely poorly regulated and controlled”, said Milan Ružić, Executive Director of the Bird Protection and Study Society of Serbia.

Ornithologists from BPSSS state that it is necessary to make additional efforts to permanently protect a larger number of bird species that are now considered game species, and whose populations in Serbia are endangered.

Among them is the Bean Goose, whose global population has experienced a dramatic decline of almost 80 percent, while in Serbia it is recorded irregularly and in extremely small numbers, plus marked as a critically endangered species (CR) on the national Red List. Permanent protection is also needed for the Common Pochard and Garganey, whose numbers are declining globally and regionally, while in Serbia they have the status of endangered species (EN).

Source: The Bird Protection and Study Society of Serbia

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