‘We need everyone,’ Ban says

18.11.2016

Ban_Ki-moon_February_2016 — Photo: en.wikipedia.org

Rallying stakeholders gathered in Marrakech, Morocco, for the United Nations Climate Conference, known as ‘COP 22,’ Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday urged everyone – “from the local to the global” – including the private sector, cities and civil society, to get involved in the implementation of the Paris Agreement.

“We need everyone. And we need action from the local to the global. Partnerships should focus on results today – and make progress for the long-term. We have no time to waste, and much to gain, by acting now,” Mr. Ban told a High-Level event on Accelerating Climate Action.

The President of COP 22, Salaheddine Mezouar, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Morocco, noted that “without minimizing the eminent responsibility of States,” the contribution of non-State actors serves as a “structuring supplement” to multilateral action against the impacts of climate change.

Last December at the previous Conference, known as COP 21, 196 Parties to the UNFCCC adopted the Paris Agreement, so-named after the French capital where it was approved. It aims to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping the global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The Agreement entered into force on 4 November 2016, in time for COP 22, which has been under way since 7 November.

The Global Climate Action Agenda, launched formally in 2014 at COP 20, in Lima, Peru, aims to mobilize non-State actors in addressing climate change.

In Paris the next year, two Climate Champions, Laurence Tubiana, French Ambassador for climate change negotiations, and Hakima El Haité, Moroccan Minister for the Environment, were appointed to accelerate joint action on the Agenda.

Source: un.org

UK Ratifies Paris Climate Agreement

18.11.2016

The UK has become the 111th country to ratify the Paris climate agreement, which aims to avoid the most devastating effects of climate change by cutting carbon emissions.

The foreign minister, Boris Johnson, who has flirted with climate scepticism, signed the pact in London on Thursday after a parliamentary deadline passed on Wednesday night, with no objections raised.

Speaking at the UN climate summit in Marrakech, Nick Hurd, the industry and climate minister, said: “The UK is ratifying the historic Paris agreement so that we can help to accelerate global action on climate change and deliver on our commitments to create a safer, more prosperous future for us all.

“I hope this will send a very strong message of continued international commitment to implement Paris because it is obviously very important to send that signal out.”

Salaheddine Mezouar, the Moroccan foreign minister and president of the COP22 summit, told the Guardian: “It is excellent news that the UK has ratified, and it comes at the right moment. It is a good response to all those people who are sceptical about climate change.”

The US election of Donald Trump, who has renounced climate science and promised to withdraw from the Paris agreement, has fed anxiety about future efforts to contain climate change.

But while the UK’s Brexit vote may be moving the country closer to the US geopolitically – and has literally shifted its climate summit pavilion from the EU to the US tent – its endorsement of the Paris deal was widely welcomed as a boost to the Paris treaty.

Greenpeace UK’s chief scientist, Doug Parr said that having set a target for curbing carbon emissions, the UK now needed to find the quickest and cheapest route to get there.

“A mix of renewables, battery storage and efficiency measures is the way to go,” he said. “If Theresa May wants to have an industrial strategy that can cut emissions, create jobs, and help keep down bills, she should put low-carbon infrastructure at its heart.”

The UK’s negotiating partners may also look to May to keep in check climate-sceptic impulses among some of her own ministers. Johnson has irreverently described the global leaders who drafted the Paris treaty as driven by “a primitive fear” that warmer weather was caused by humanity – a fear that he described as “without foundation”.

Hurd said such talk should be taken with a pinch of salt: “Words count for one thing. You look for proof points. I think the fact that within days of this administration taking over, one of its first acts was to put into law the fifth carbon budget is an important proof point.”

The shadow climate minister, Barry Gardiner, said: “The UK government must now show their commitment through climate action on the ground. We face a 47% shortfall to meet our 2030 climate target. Pursuing fracking and a six-fold tax hike on solar business rates only take us in the wrong direction.”

To meet its climate commitments, the UK will have to decarbonise the lion’s share of its electricity by 2030 according to the government’s official advisers, the committee on climate change (CCC).

The government’s strategy currently favours an expansion in nuclear power and fracking for shale gas, the latter of which could ramp up carbon emissions if it is not displacing coal. Controversially, it has also rowed back support for solar and onshore wind power.

Clean energy business groups, though, welcomed today’s announcement as a sign that the UK would continue to play a progressive role in the international climate process.

Stephanie Pfeifer, the CEO of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change, which represents investors with over €14tn (£12tn) of assets in clean energies, said: “This encouraging announcement can only help sustain the ‘spirit of Paris’ and the momentum behind the international consensus to drive substantial action on climate change.”

Jill Duggan, the director of The Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group(CLG), said: “The UK government’s ratification of the agreement today sends an important signal to international allies, businesses and investors about the inevitable transition towards a zero carbon economy.”

Sir Crispin Tickell, former British ambassador to the United Nations, said: “Britain’s ratification of the historic Paris agreement is an important moment, not least because our country has for a long time led global efforts to cope with the effects of climate change.”

Source: theguardian.com

Morocco Lights the Way for Africa on Renewable Energy

18.11.2016

As the host of this year’s COP22 climate change conference in Marrakech, Morocco has been keen to demonstrate its green credentials and make this COP the “African COP”.

In the past year, Morocco has banned the use of plastic bags, launched new plans for extending the urban tram networks in Casablanca and Rabat, started the process of replacing its dirty old fleet of buses and taxis, launched Africa’s first city bicycle hire scheme, and launched a new initiative – the “Adaptation of African Agriculture” – to help the continent’s farmers adjust to climate change.

But by far the most attention has been on the development of “mega” infrastructure projects in an ambitious plan to transform the country’s energy mix.

Morocco has no fossil fuel reserves so is almost entirely reliant on imports. In 2015 King Mohammed VI committed the country to increasing its share of renewable electricity generation to 52% by 2030, aiming for the installation of around 10 gigawatts (GW). Of that, 14% is expected to come from solar, with plans to install 2GW of new capacity by 2020, as well as increases in wind power and hydraulic dams. Morocco has even opened the door to exchanging electricity produced from renewable sources with Europe.

Morocco’s INDC (Intended Nationally Determined Contribution) plan submitted to the UNFCCC is equally ambitious and commits the country to cutting greenhouse gas emissions – particularly in agriculture – by 32% by 2030, compared to business as usual. Morocco has also committed to planting 200,000 hectares of forest (pdf) and greatly increasing in irrigation. The commitment is dependent on accessing climate financing, but translates to a cumulative reduction of 401 megatonnes of C02 over the period 2020-30. In 2015 Morocco completely removed subsidies on petroleum products.

The first phase of the giant Noor solar complex near Morocco’s southern desert town of Ouarzazate is the 160MW Noor One plant, which was opened by the king in February. Instead of PV (photovoltaic) solar panels, Noor uses CSP (concentrated solar power) technology – giant mirrors to reflect the sun’s rays on to tubes containing liquid which is super-heated to drive turbines. CSP offers storage of electricity for up to three hours after the sun has set, which covers peak demand times.

Close to the site of Noor One, Noor two, currently under construction, will use the same CSP technology, but on a bigger scale with the hope of storing electricity for seven hours. Noor Three however will use a new variant on CSP technology – the solar tower, where the mirrors are directed at a central point.

Between them they will add another 350MW to the national grid, and are expected to be completed by 2017/18. Noor Four will be constructed near the High Atlas town of Midelt and Morocco’s renewables agency, Masen, announced this week at COP22 that it would open the bidding for two 400MW combined PV and CSP plants in early 2017.

Morocco is also investing in wind. A consortium of Enel Green Power, Nareva (owned by King Mohammed VI’s investment company) and Siemens won a bid in March to build five new wind farms at different sites across Morocco – Midelt, Tangier, Jbel Lahdid, and Tiskrid and Boujdour in the disputed Western Sahara territory. Their combined capacity will be 850MW, a huge increase taking Morocco closer to its aim of producing 14% of electricity from wind by 2020. The unit cost in the tender documents was one of the lowest in the world, at just $0.03 per kWh.

But while developing renewable power sounds good on paper, cost will be a big factor. The launch of the Noor CSP project has helped the price of electricity produced by CSP to come down to around $0.16 per kWh, but that looks expensive compared to solar PV which has fallen as low as $0.03 per kWh.

It remains to be seen whether the costs of CSP will fall low enough to be globally commercially competitive, and deliver cost-effective renewable power for Moroccan consumers. CSP also uses large amounts of water to keep the mirrors clean – a real problem in water-stressed Morocco. At the same time, Morocco has not totally kicked the fossil fuel habit – coal still makes up the biggest part of energy production today (35%) and is set to be expanded over the next five years. The new energy mix will include at least 3,900MW of energy from natural gas, and the search for hydrocarbon deposits on Moroccan soil continues.

Source: theguardian.com

EU Set to Limit Priority for Future Renewable Energy Projects: Draft

17.11.2016

EU regulators plan to limit renewable energy producers’ right to be the first to sell their electricity into European power grids, but stopped short of scrapping such privileges for existing projects as some had feared.

The proposal, seen by Reuters, is expected to be published by the European Commission on Nov. 30. It keeps so-called “priority dispatch” for existing solar and wind farms, but new projects in EU nations where renewables account for more than 15 percent of energy production will no longer benefit.

Under a system of priority dispatch, electricity generated from renewable sources can be sold before that produced by coal, gas and nuclear plants, allowing for a more predictable market for renewable producers.

In addition, the Commission proposes limiting priority dispatch to installations smaller than 250 kilowatts from 2026. It proposes that member states could apply still to have a priority dispatch system if “substantial problems” for renewable energy installations would occur otherwise.

Renewable energy producers had worried that removing priority dispatch mechanisms completely would stifle future investments.

The draft law, part of a set of proposals to implement goals for 2030 on cutting emissions, sticks to an outline target to increase the share of renewables as part of energy consumption in the EU to at least 27 percent by 2030 – up from the 20 percent goal for green energy for 2020.

EU officials are pushing renewables as they seek to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and a dependency on expensive oil and gas imports from nations such as Russia.

The European Parliament and some environmental campaigners have said the Commission was in danger of complacency and that the 2030 renewable energy target was not ambitious enough.

“A low target and lenient rules will not give European households and companies the confidence to invest in the renewable future,” Jean-François Fauconnier of Climate Action Network said.

The Commission’s draft proposal says its 27 percent target is ambitious, as its current projections show the bloc is on course for a 24.3 percent share of renewable energy consumption by 2030 without additional measures.

Source: reuters.com

Renewable Energy Made Up Record 21.7% of National Electricity Market in October

17.11.2016

Australia’s renewable energy sector hit a record in October, with 21.7% of electricity in the national electricity market coming from renewables, according to the latest Cedex report.

That represents the biggest proportion of any month since the data was made available by the Australian Energy Market Operator in 2005, according to the report from the engineering consultants Pitt&Sherry and the Australia Institute.

The high proportion of renewables contributed to a drop in emissions from the national electricity market – 0.8% less than a year earlier, meaning they had returned to May 2014 levels.

In the full year to October, renewable energy accounted for 14.7% of supply to the national electricity market, which encompasses the eastern states and South Australia. The lead author of the report, Hugh Saddler from Pitt&Sherry, said that was the biggest share since 1982, when demand was much lower and was satisfied by a lot of hydro.

“It further demonstrates the potential of a combination of renewable sources to produce very large amounts of power, which will help put downward pressure on future price rises as replacement costs impact wholesale prices,” Saddler said.

The report also examined historical retail and wholesale prices, and found a surprising lack of correlation.

Wholesale prices in NSW and Victoria have remained roughly flat for 20 years in real terms, the report found.

Despite that, retail prices in those states have been rising sharply since 2007, nearly doubling over the 20 years.

“There has been much discussion about the effect of coal plant closures, such as Hazelwood, on electricity prices,” Saddler said. “But the data shows that wholesale electricity prices have been effectively flat in real dollars for going on 20 years now.”

That meant the prices rises were not being pushed up by wholesale prices but rather by the retailers and the distribution networks.

“Those concerned about electricity prices for households and business should logically be focused on the distribution and retail side of this issue but, for some reason, we usually hear about production and wholesale concerns from politicians,” Saddler said.

Source: theguardian.com

SUSI Energy Efficiency Fund enters the SEE region

17.11.2016

The SUSI Energy Efficiency Fund (SEEF) has acquired a portfolio of energy efficiency projects from GGE d.o.o. (GGE), one of the leading energy service companies (ESCO) in South-East Europe. The transaction is structured as a sale of receivables with a consideration of 7.5 million euro. The energy efficiency portfolio includes lighting, heating, cooling and filtration retrofit measures with industrial and public clients in Slovenia. The measures will allow for annual energy savings of 5,300 MWh, reducing CO2 emissions by over 1,130 tonnes every year.

Luka Komazec, CEO of GGE, commented this agreement: “GGE has always been at the forefront of the Slovenia’s energy efficiency sector, successfully opening up new markets in South-East Europe. Gaining access to financing for retrofits and energy efficiency projects is key to our growth strategy moving forward.” Please look here for information.

GE Enhances Digital Power Plant Software and Extends Reliability and Efficiency Apps to Hydropower and the Electricity Grid

17.11.2016

GE announced two days ago a significant expansion of its suite of Predix -based software for power producers, grid operators and energy managers.

GE’s latest release of Digital Power Plant software for gas, steam and nuclear plants features new tools to help customers reduce unplanned downtime by up to 5 percent, reduce false positive alerts by up to 75 percent and reduce operations and maintenance costs by up to 25 percent. It also includes software that provides power producers with accurate and timely plant operating capacity information which energy traders can use to generate incremental revenues.

Also unveiled today, the Digital Hydro Plant is GE’s fourth major Predix-based Digital Power Plant solution. The Digital Hydro Plant extends GE’s digital solutions to the hydropower vertical with possible benefits including up to 10 percent reduced maintenance costs, 1 percent increase in plant availability and up to 3 percent increased revenue.

Eight percent of all generated electricity never reaches its intended customer due to grid outages1. To address this challenge, GE has introduced a new set of Intelligent Digital Substation solutions for the electrical grid. These solutions include GE’s asset monitoring & diagnostics and automation applications, based on its DS Agile Digital Control System. GE’s Intelligent Digital Substations improve maintenance scheduling, optimize asset utilization, prevent failures and increase reliability of electrical grids by reducing power outage probability and duration.

Finally, a new intelligent energy management tool from Current, powered by GE, will help managers of commercial and industrial facilities use energy more efficiently.

“In just the past year, we’ve seen more than 30 international, state and private power producers and utilities begin their digital journeys with GE,” said Ganesh Bell, chief digital officer, GE Power. “Today’s announcements represent another major step forward in the digitalization of the industry. I believe we will look back on 2016 as a tipping point when digital transformation went mainstream.”

Source: genenewsroom.com

Climate change is changing nature so much it may need ‘human-assisted evolution’, scientists say

17.11.2016

Life on Earth has already been fundamentally altered by global warming, affecting the genes of plants and animals and altering every ecosystem on the planet, according to a major review of the scientific literature.

A paper in the leading journal Science warned the changes were so dramatic – and potentially dangerous – that scientists might be forced to intervene in some cases to create “human-assisted evolution”.

One of the main concerns about climate change is it will seriously damage food production, particularly in places prone to flooding and drought, leading to mass famines and the forced migration of climate refugees.

The researchers found that 82 per cent of the natural ecological processes that support healthy ecosystems on land and sea had been affected in a way that had not been expected “for decades”.

The average global temperature has risen by one degree Celsius since the 1880s, as humans have pumped greenhouse gases from fossil fuels into the atmosphere.

The researchers said this had “already had broad and worrying impacts on natural systems, with accumulating consequences for people”.

“Minimising the impacts of climate change on core ecological processes must now be a key policy priority for all nations,” they wrote in the paper.

“It is now up to national governments to make good on the promises they made in Paris [at last year’s climate summit] through regular tightening of emission targets, and also to recognise the importance of healthy ecosystems in times of unprecedented change.

“Time is running out for a globally synchronised response to climate change that integrates adequate protection of biodiversity and ecosystem services.”

Many species are shifting towards the poles as the world has warms, while others are seeking higher ground.

Marine species have expanded into areas that were usually too cold at a rate of 72km per decade, while land species have done so at 6km per decade, the paper said.

“Some fish species appear to be shrinking, but attributing this solely to ocean warming is difficult because size-dependent responses can be triggered by commercial fishing as well as long-term climate change,” the researchers wrote.

“However, long-term trend analyses show convincingly that eight commercial fish species in the North Sea underwent simultaneous reductions in body size over a 40-year period because of ocean warming, resulting in 23 per cent lower yields.”

Report: Boosting Energy Efficiency Investment Crucial for Hitting Climate Targets

17.11.2016

Energy efficiency is an area of climate action with “enormous untapped potential”, according to a new report released today by the Carbon Trust which underscores the urgent need for increased global investment in energy efficiency services.

The report, released today at COP22 in Marrakesh, concludes mobilising energy efficiency investment and reducing project risk in emerging economies will be crucial to hitting the world’s 2C warming target agreed at last year’s Paris Summit.

“The most cost effective way of tackling climate change is through energy efficiency,” Simon Retallack, report author and director at the Carbon Trust, said in a statement. “Yet too little is being invested in it and the programmes that are being funded are frequently not having the impact they should.”

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), in order to limit global warming to 2C this century energy efficiency must account for 38 per cent of cumulative emissions reductions through to 2050. In comparison, renewable energy, which enjoys significantly higher levels of policy support around the world, would account for 32 per cent of reductions under the IEA’s scenario.

Yet investment in energy efficiency remains far too low to deliver the levels of emissions savings the UEA envisages. Last year multi-lateral development banks committed $2.9bn to energy efficiency programmes – less than half that invested in renewables. In contrast, the IEA predicts that to deliver on the the 2C pathway, by 2030 energy efficiency spending must hit $550bn per year.

The Carbon Trust report suggests more proactive government policies are needed to stimulate investment in energy efficiency projects, alongside greater technical assistance in developing a pipeline of viable projects.

“To succeed with energy efficiency, more needs to be invested in getting the right policies in place to drive change and in providing the technical support companies and households need to deploy energy efficient technology at scale,” Retallack continued. “Making capital available for investment is not enough. Demand for it needs to be stimulated and a pipeline of projects created.”

Soorce: businessgreen.com

29% of Water Deemed Unsuitable for Human Consumption in China’s Top Coal Province

17.11.2016

We know that Trump digs coal, but of all the fossil fuels, coal is Earth’s biggest polluter. The environmental impact of the coal industry is vast and devastating. And now, production of this cheap energy source has rendered nearly a third of the surface water in China’s largest coal province unsuitable for human consumption.

The Shanxi Environmental Protection Bureau, a local environmental watchdog, announced that 29 out of 100 surface water sites tested in the first three quarters of 2016 were found to be “below grade five,” Reutersreported. At that pollution level, water has “lost functionality” and may only be suitable for industrial or agricultural use.

According to Reuters, the bureau said that while the water quality improved at 11 test sites compared to the year before, eight had deteriorated, including five sites in the major coal hub of Datong. Coal production in Shanxi decreased to 944 million tonnes in 2015 compared to 976 million tonnes in 2014.

Sure, China’s coal industry provides jobs and allows people to heat their homes but the smog-choked country has paid a price for it. As Dr. David Suzuki wrote, “Beijing’s 21-million residents live in a toxic fog of particulate matter, ozone, sulphur dioxide, mercury, cadmium, lead and other contaminants, mainly caused by factories and coal burning. Schools and workplaces regularly shut down when pollution exceeds hazardous levels. People have exchanged paper and cotton masks for more elaborate, filtered respirators. Cancer has become the leading cause of death in the city and throughout the country.”

That being said, China’s coal use is on the decline. After reaching peak coal in 2013, the country is rapidly shifting to renewables, according to the latest International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook Report.

“Coal generated 84 percent of all electricity in China in 2014, the IEA’s current policy scenario forecasts that market share is going to drop down to 54 per cent in 2040,” Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis director Tim Buckley told ABC.net.

In a new study published in the journal Earth System Science Data,researchers found that China’s decline in coal has led to a global slowdown in carbon dioxide emissions. “Emissions have leveled off at about 36 billion metric tonnes in the past three years even though the world economy has expanded,” the Independent reported from the study.

China’s shift from coal is actually part of a larger global trend. An Energydesk analysis revealed that coal use around the world is dropping at a record-breaking rate as commodity markets are tanking, renewable energy is rising and energy demand growth is slowing.

Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to bring back coal in the U.S. The climate-denier-in-chief has also promised to gut the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, pull out of the Paris climate treaty and undo President Obama’s signature Clean Power Plan aimed at reducing carbon pollution from power plants to tackle climate change.

Source: ecowatch.com

Policies are critical for the invisible fuel

16.11.2016

Though 2015 was a record year for renewables, there is another energy technology that is making steady – but quiet – progress in limiting greenhouse gas emissions: energy efficiency.

Managing how much energy we use is a vital tool in the fight against climate change. IEA analysis shows that on a 2 degree climate pathway, energy efficiency contributes nearly 40% of global emissions reductions through 2050, the largest share of any fuel. This is why governments need to pay serious attention to energy efficiency, encouraging policies that determine how well we use energy.

There have been improvements. According to the latest analysis by the IEA, global energy intensity – the amount of energy used compared to the health of the economy – improved by 1.8% in 2015. This is good news, surpassing the 1.5% gain seen in 2014, and tripling the annual rate seen in the previous decade. This is particularly noteworthy in the context of lower energy prices, with the headline price of crude oil falling by as much as 60% since 2014.

Yet while prices often determine energy choices between oil and other fuels, energy efficiency fundamentally relies on government policy for its success. For example, fuel economy standards on passenger vehicles around the world saved 2.3 million barrels per day in 2015. This was equivalent to almost 2.5% of global oil supply – approximately the oil production of Brazil.

Yet the majority of the world’s energy use takes place outside of any efficiency performance requirements. For example, two-thirds of energy consumption from buildings that are being built today has no efficiency codes or standards applied to it.

The past 15 years have seen some good progress, with a steady expansion of mandatory policies focused on improving energy efficiency. In 2015, 30% of final energy demand globally was covered by mandatory efficiency policies, up from 11% in 2000. The average performance levels mandated by policies have increased by 23% over the last decade, delivering greater savings.

Yet this is not enough. While renewable electricity, electric vehicles and biofuels will continue to get attention, if the world is to have any hope of meeting the Paris Agreement – not to mention getting on a 2 degree pathway – energy efficiency will have to lead the way.

Source: iea.org

Ford Achieves Zero Waste to Landfill at its Largest & Most Complex Center Yet

16.11.2016

Michigan based automaker, Ford, has achieved zero waste to landfill at its historic Rouge Center in Dearborn after two years of planning. Michigan based automaker, Ford, has achieved zero waste to landfill at its historic Rouge Center in Dearborn after two years of planning. The company said that the facility is its largest complex to send zero waste to landfill.

“With 16 million square feet of factory floor space and approximately 7,000 employees it was a challenge, but we’ve succeeded in finding solutions for our manufacturing waste streams,” said Gary Johnson, Ford North America manufacturing vice president. The company explained that when one of its facilities is given landfill-free status, it means that absolutely no manufacturing waste from the facility goes to any landfill.

The center is now said to be keeping more than 14 million pounds (6350 tonnes) of waste out of landfills – enough to fill the beds of more than 4,400 Ford F-150 trucks.

Sustainable Model

According to Johnson since 2004, the historical Ford Rouge Center has served as the company’s model of sustainable manufacturing. “Two years ago we instituted a closed-loop recycling system, where we recycle up to 20 million pounds (9007 tonnes) of aluminum stamping scrap each month, which is the equivalent to 30,000 F-150 bodies,” he said.

“In addition, the plant has one of the largest living roofs in the world, which helps us reduce energy usage by keeping the plant warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer,” continued Johnson. The company added that the six facilities at the Ford Rouge Center join 68 other Ford facilities around the world in going ‘true zero waste’ to landfill. However, t he process of diverting waste at the Rouge was said to have been a tough one because of the number of facilities there. Ford said that its environmental engineers had to look at all of the waste streams at each plant to determine what could be done with the waste.

Ford said that one particularly difficult question was how to handle the swarf – the metal shavings and chips that are created when metal is ground during the engine manufacturing process at Dearborn Engine Plant.

The team found a machine called a briquetter that could transform the metal back into a brick that can be recycled. Any coolant oil on the metal shavings is squeezed out during the process and is then reused.

In another case, long plastic rivet strips needed to be chopped into small pieces so they could be recycled.

Importantly, Ford said that its sustainability efforts are not only good for the environment – they make good business sense. “Our global waste strategy commits Ford to reducing waste to landfill, and we have made great progress in our facilities around the world,” said Andy Hobbs, Ford Motor Company director, Environmental Quality Office. “We are proud of the efforts of our employees worldwide in their commitment to helping Ford reduce its global environmental footprint, and especially pleased with this achievement at our iconic Ford Rouge Center.”

Source: waste-management-world.com

Jaguar I-Pace electric SUV concept breaks cover at LA Auto Show

16.11.2016

The latest to join the growing pool of pricey battery-electric sedans and crossover utilities is the Jaguar I-Pace, revealed tonight as a concept at a splashy event before the Los Angeles Auto Show. But the British maker has aggressive plans to put it into production, saying its all-electric SUV will go on sale in the second half of 2018.

That means it’ll appear within months of the Audi e-tron, the first Tesla competitor from an established European luxury brand. Expect the production version of Jaguar’s electric I-Pace to appear a year from now, and to look relatively similar to the concept car. A quick look at the specs reveals an estimated 220 miles of electric range on the U.S. test cycle, courtesy of a a 90-kilowatt-hour battery and a pair of 200-horsepower electric motors, one on each axle, that together provide 400 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque, as well as standard all-wheel drive.

It’s the shape that makes the I-Pace stand out. While it’s instantly identifiable as a Jaguar, the proportions don’t attempt to mimic those of a conventional vehicle. Instead, designer director Ian Callum took full advantage of the packaging freedom offered by an underfloor battery pack and a pair of electric motors with small dimensions.

The I-Pace has a cab-forward design that echoes, he says, the C-X75 supercar of 2010, a stunning vehicle that ultimately never made it into production. A longer wheelbase than usual for a mid-size luxury crossover combine with a low cowl and a sharply raked tailgate, resulting in a distinctive and sporty shape quite different from the conventional SUV profile of the Audi e-tron. The tailgate is topped with a long spoiler, to smooth airflow over the roof and direct some of it down along the rear window.

But it’s at the front that the I-Pace proves subtly daring. The mesh at the top of the traditionally shaped Jaguar rectangular grille leans back, opening a wide slot to let air flow directly up and over a depressed center portion of the hood. With prominent “haunch” or shoulder lines and the usual gigantic 23-inch wheels that concept cars sport, the effect is one of the racier electric-utility designs we’ve seen to date. Jaguar quotes a drag coefficient of just 0.29.

The liquid-cooled battery pack under the cabin uses LG Chem lithium-ion cells with a total capacity of 90 kilowatt-hours. Each of the electric motors is rated at 150 kilowatts (200 horsepower) of peak output and 258 lb-ft of torque, producing 0-to-60-mph acceleration of around 4 seconds, Jaguar says. Unlike some Tesla versions, Jaguar has chosen to use identical motors front and rear—to reduce design effort, among other things. While the front and rear independent suspension is adapted from that of the current F-Pace crossover utility vehicle, Jaguar calls the underpinnings of the I-Pace a “new architecture.”

That suggests it may spawn additional electric vehicles following the I-Pace; executives were coy when asked that question directly. The I-Pace will come with DC fast-charging as standard, using the CCS protocol. Jaguar quotes 90 minutes for an 80-percent recharge at 50 kw.

Source: greencarreports.com

Tehran Shuts Schools as Thick Smog is Linked to Hundreds of Deaths

16.11.2016

At this time of the year, citizens of Tehran are accustomed to a thick curtain of fog that falls across the city, veiling everything from the 435 metre-tall Milad tower to the nearby Alborz mountains.

This week, however, the blanket of smog smothering the Iranian capital has been blamed for a string of deaths and prompted unprecedented emergency measures by the city’s authorities.

Habib Kashani, a member of Tehran’s municipal council, said on Tuesday that pollution in Tehran had led to the death of 412 citizens in the past 23 days, according to the state news agency, Irna.

City authorities announced that all schools would be closed on Wednesday.

The concentration of ultra-fine airborne particles (known as PM2.5) reached more than 150 this week, setting a new record. These particles of less than 2.5 micrometres in diameter can penetrate the lungs and pass into the bloodstream and have been linked to increased rates of chronic bronchitis, lung cancer and heart disease.

Irna reported that on four of the past six days, air quality reached dangerous levels for people suffering from respiratory diseases, and on two days it was dangerous for everyone.

PM2.5 levels are seen as the best measure of the impact of air pollution on health. The new World Health Organisation database of worldwide air pollution measures, released in May, put the Iranian city of Zabol, on the eastern border with Afghanistan, as the world’s most polluted city, based on PM2.5.

Pollution is a perennial problem in Tehran, which is surrounded by mountains and has little wind to disperse the smog. Millions of cars throng the city’s congested streets, and locally refined petrol has also been blamed as a key polluting factor.

The issue dominated newspaper front pages in Tehran on Tuesday. Ebtekar daily published a large picture of a smog-cloaked Tehran, carrying the headline “My city has been lost”, and called for a reduction in the number of cars.

“Every day 3m inner city commutes by the metro and 4m such journeys by taxi have not resolved the capital’s air pollution crisis,” it said. According to Ebtekar, at least 1.25m obsolete cars were still in use in Tehran and 60% of cars in the city normally carry just one person.

The reformist daily Etemaad published a black column on its front page saying that “We are all to blame”. It said Tehran was suffocating because “we [the media] are not able to hold the authorities accountable”, “you are not switching off your cars” and “they [officials] are only capable of closing schools”.

The celebrated film-maker Dariush Mehrjui told Isna news agency that he had moved out of Tehran because of its pollution. “I can’t breathe in Tehran, simple as that. Everyone is fleeing Tehran … everyone is choking, look at cancer rates. Who can live [in Tehran] under these circumstances?”

Source: theguardian.com

COP22: Ban-Ki Moon Declares Climate Action ‘Unstoppable’ As World Leaders Gather In Marrakesh

16.11.2016

As world leaders were being escorted to the COP22 conference centre in Marrakesh for today’s high-level plenary session, outgoing UN Secretary-General declared climate action is now “unstoppable”, regardless of the actions of any one government.

Ban Ki-moon, who has attended 10 Conference of Parties (COP) in his role as Secretary-General, said during a press briefing that the swift ratification of the Paris Agreement and the increasingly ambitious emissions reduction efforts from companies, states and civil society provide a clear sign climate action is now embedded within the global economy.

Ban expressed hopes that President-elect Trump would tap into his experience as a businessman and recognise the strength of the market forces at play. “As a very successful business person, I believe that he understands there are market forces already at work on this issue, and that we need to harness these forces for the good of the planet,” he told reporters.

Trump has threatened to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement, the landmark climate treaty that commits the world to limiting warming to “well below” two degrees, and which came into force last month.

Ban was speaking to reporters ahead of the plenary, where world leaders gathered today to kick off the ‘high level segment’ of the COP22 discussions.

Speaking at the opening of the plenary, King Mohammed VI of Morocco said COP22 marks a “decisive turning point” in the implementation of the Paris Agreement. “The outcome of this conference will play a decisive role in determining the fate of the new generation of COPs, which should focus on initiative and action,” he told delegates.

“Indeed, the Paris Agreement is not an end in itself. Actually, the outcome of the Marrakesh conference will be a true test to gauge the efficiency of the commitments we have made, as well as the credibility of the parties that announced them.”

Meanwhile, French President Francois Hollande used the session to issue a strongly worded message for the incoming US administration.

“The United States, the largest economic power in the world, the second largest greenhouse gas emitter, must respect the commitments they have undertaken,” he said. “It’s not only their duty, it’s in their interests as well. It’s in the interests of the American people affected by climate change, because no country can be sheltered from climate change. It’s also in the interests of American companies, who have invested in the environmental transition. It’s also in the interests of cities and states, who have also mobilised in the Agreement.”

He confirmed other leading economies would take a tough line in negotiations with the US if the new government seeks to undermine the Paris Agreement. “France, I can assure you, will lead this dialogue with the United States and its new President,” he said. “In openness, with respect, but with demands and determination, on behalf of the 100 States who have already ratified the Paris Agreement.”

His comments follow proposals from former President Nicholas Sarkozy, who is also in the running to return to the Elysee next year, that the rest of the world could seek to impose carbon tariffs of US exports if the country exits the Paris Agreement.

“We cannot allow a situation where our companies have obligations but we continue to import products from countries that respect none of those obligations,” he said in a television interview.

German and EU officials today sought to downplay the chances of a carbon trade war with the US, but diplomats are exploring a host of measures that could minimise the impact of a US withdrawal from the international treaty and Sarkozy is unlikely to be the last political figure to back some form of carbon tariffs.

Source: businessgreen.com

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