Sensor network can detect exact location and size of ocean pollution

12.01.2016

In the future, when fossil fuels are no longer the leading source of energy around the world and oil platforms aren’t pumping oil from beneath the ocean floor, we won’t have to worry about oil spills, but unfortunately, ocean pollution from spills, leaks and other sources is still a reality.

There are many technologies that have been developed to clean up spills more effectively, but the first hurdle is quick and accurate detection of chemical pollutants in the ocean.

Researchers at the Polytechnic University of Valencia have come up with a way to keep tabs on ocean pollution and keep it from spreading.

They designed an intelligent sensor system that can detect very small quantities of chemical pollution that might come from oil leaks and other contaminants. It can detect the exact location of toxic waste, diesel and other hydrocarbons and how far they have spread through that part of the ocean.

The sensors are embedded in floating devices that can be deployed in any body of water and using clever algorithms move independently to find the perimeters of a pollution event like in an oil spill. The sensors communicate back to the researchers in real time so that a map can be created using their relative positions and what contaminants they’re detecting.

A system like this could make pollution clean up more effective because spills and other events could be detected much earlier before they spread.

“Different chemical pollutants require different techniques for their clean-up. But the single most important factor for minimising the impact and damages to the affected area is how quickly they is detected. This is particularly critical in the case of oil spills, where a full clean-up is virtually impossible if decontamination efforts don’t start immediately,” said Jaime Lloret from the UPV’s Research Institute for Integrated Management of Coastal Areas.

Quick identification and containing of ocean pollution is crucial for the health of ocean organisms and humans too.

Source: www.treehugger.com

Africa Renewable Energy Initiative to build 10,000 MW of renewables in Africa by 2020

12.01.2016

solar-panels- — Photo-ilustration: Pixabay

Solar for sunny Africa

The Africa Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI) aims at enabling the installation of large-scale renewable energy capacity on the African continent by 2020. The African-led plan has just received a big boost with over $10 billion worth of financial backing from various members of the international community at COP21 in Paris. Most of the $10 billion came from the European Union, Sweden and the G7 countries. In particular, Germany will contribute $3.25 billion, France $2.2 billion, Sweden $500 million and Canada $110 million. This will help provide clean power to millions across the continent.

This clean electricity is sorely needed: Approximately 600 million people have no access to electricity in Africa, with the figure expected to rise to 700 million by 2030 without further action, according to a 2015 UNEP report. As a result, many rely on wood or other biomass to cook and heat their homes, leading to hundreds of thousands of deaths each year from indoor air pollution.

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Achim Steiner said, “Africa’s renewable energy revolution will ensure access to clean, reliable and efficient energy, while ensuring we do not add to the greenhouse gas emissions we are gathered here in Paris to reduce. The Africa Renewable Energy Initiative aims to do just that. Such leadership from Africa, and the financial backing from the international community announced today, provides fresh hope that we can tackle the twin challenges of sustainable development and climate change.”

African Development Bank (AfDB) President Akinwumi Ayodeji Adesina said, “Africa is tired of being in the dark. The Lack of electricity has put the brakes on Africa’s industrialization. Through the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative, we can sustain fast economic growth in Africa and on a low carbon development pathway.”

Source: http://www.treehugger.com/

Britain abandons onshore wind just as new technology makes it cheap

11.01.2016

Vestas chief Runevad says UK rules shut out the latest hi-tech turbines, leaving Britain behind as the global wind boom spreads. The world’s biggest producer of wind turbines has accused Britain of obstructing use of new technology that can slash costs, preventing the wind industry from offering one of the cheapest forms of energy without subsidies. Anders Runevad, chief executive of Vestas Wind Systems, said his company’s wind turbines can compete onshore against any other source of energy in the UK without need for state support, but only if the Government sweeps away impediments to a free market. While he stopped short of rebuking the Conservatives for kowtowing to ‘Nimbyism’, the wind industry is angry that ministers are changing the rules in an erratic fashion and imposing guidelines that effectively freeze development of onshore wind. “We can compete in a market-based system in onshore wind and we are happy to take on the challenge, so long as we are able to use our latest technology,” he told the Daily Telegraph.

“The UK has a tip-height restriction of 125 meters and this is cumbersome. Our new generation is well above that,” he said. Vestas is the UK’s market leader in onshore wind. Its latest models top 140 meters, towering over St Paul’s Cathedral. They capture more of the wind current and have bigger rotors that radically change the economics of wind power. “Over the last twenty years costs have come down by 80pc. They have come down by 50pc in the US since 2009,” said Mr Runevad. Half of all new turbines in Sweden are between 170 and 200 meters, while the latest projects in Germany average 165 meters. “Such limits mean the UK is being left behind in international markets,” said a ‘taskforce report’ by Renewable UK. The new technology has complex electronics, feeding ‘smart data’ from sensors back to a central computer system. They have better gear boxes and hi-tech blades that raise yield and lower noise. The industry has learned the art of siting turbines, and controlling turbulence and sheer. Economies of scale have done the rest. This is why average purchase prices for wind power in the US have fallen to the once unthinkable level of 2.35 cents per kilowatt/hour (KWh), according to the US energy Department.

At this level wind competes toe-to-toe with coal or gas, even without a carbon tax, an increasingly likely prospect in the 2020s following the COP21 climate deal in Paris. American Electric Power in Oklahoma tripled its demand for local wind power last year simply because the bids came in so low. “We estimate that onshore wind is either the cheapest or close to being the cheapest source of energy in most regions globally,” said Bank of America in a report last month. A study by Bloomberg New Energy Finance concluded that the global average for the ‘leveled cost of electricity’ (LCOE) for onshore wind fell to $83 per megawatt/hour last year compared to $76-$82 for gas turbine plants in the US, or $85-$93 in Asia, or $103-$118 in Europe. Yet the size of the new wind turbines is precisely the problem in Britain, though the industry says they are less intrusive than more numerous smaller towers. Rural activists vehemently oppose further onshore expansion for a mix of reasons, often to protect the countryside and migrating birds. One application was turned down on fears that blade-noise would startle race-horses. It is understood that up 100 backbench Tory MPs wish to stop development of onshore wind altogether and that is effectively now happening. While there is no fixed height limit, the guidelines for local governments imply a 125 meter cap. This is often beaten down to nearer 100 meters, and the planning obstacles have become a nightmare for the industry.

Amber Rudd, Secretary of Energy and Climate Change, drastically revised policy last year, announcing that support for onshore wind would be cut from April 2016. She said 250 wind farms in the planning phase were unlikely to be built as a result but insisted that Britain was “reaching the limits of what is affordable, and what the public is prepared to accept”. Mr Runevad has other fish to fry in a booming global wind market. The Vestas share price has soared twentyfold since 2012, when the company flirted with bankruptcy after a debt-driven expansion, and faced cu At the time, critics said the wind bubble had played itself out, but the epitaphs were premature. The company’s plant in the Isle of Wight producing blades – shut in the crisis – has opened again. Vestas has raised its revenue guidance for this year to a record €8bn to €8.5bn, with a profit margin (EBITDA) of 9pc to 10pc. It has a mounting backlog of orders for South Korea, China, Brazil, India, Turkey, the US, Finland, and Greece. The world added a record 51 gigawatts (GW) of wind power capacity last year. Almost 40pc of this was in China, where the vast plains of the “three Norths’ have become the epicentre of the global industry – though the US midwest from the Dakotas to Iowa and Texas is no slouch either.

Global capacity is 370 GW, three and a half times Britain’s entire electricity market. A ‘roadmap’ study by the International Energy Agency suggested that China’s wind power capacity could reach 200 GW by 2020, 400 GW by 2030, and 1000 GW by 2050, a staggering sum. “As technology improves, there are no insurmountable barriers to realising these ambitious targets,” it said. t-throat competition from Britain has 8.5 GW of onshore wind capacity and 5 GW of offshore. Wind accounted for 11pc of the country’s electricity last year, reaching a record 17pc in December. The UK still makes up half the world’s offshore wind power, taking advantage of shallow banks that keep costs down. The Government is backing further expansion, expected to reach a total capacity of 11 GW by 2020. Yet this is far more expensive than onshore and requires the sorts of subsidies needed for the nuclear industry, though cost is not the only factor. Wind has merits for energy security and the balance of trade. What seems likely is that the era of onshore wind growth in Britain is coming to an end for political reasons just as the technology comes of age and finally makes sense on a commercial basis. It is a policy paradox.

Britain has 8.5 GW of onshore wind capacity and 5 GW of offshore. Wind accounted for 11pc of the country’s electricity last year, reaching a record 17pc in December. The UK still makes up half the world’s offshore wind power, taking advantage of shallow banks that keep costs down. The Government is backing further expansion, expected to reach a total capacity of 11 GW by 2020. Yet this is far more expensive than onshore and requires the sorts of subsidies needed for the nuclear industry, though cost is not the only factor. Wind has merits for energy security and the balance of trade. What seems likely is that the era of onshore wind growth in Britain is coming to an end for political reasons just as the technology comes of age and finally makes sense on a commercial basis. It is a policy paradox.

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

China to Halt New Coal Mine Approvals Amid Pollution Fight

05.01.2016

China will stop approving new coal mines for the next three years and continue to trim production capacity as the world’s biggest energy consumer tries to shift away from the fuel as it grapples with pollution. China will suspend the approval of new mines starting in 2016. and will cut coal’s share of its energy consumption to 62.6 percent next year, from 64.4 percent now, Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday, citing National Energy Administration head Nur Bekri. It’s the first time the government has suspended the approval of new coal mines, according to Deng Shun, an analyst with ICIS China.

The world’s biggest producer of carbon emissions is seeking to boost the use of renewable fuels as smog has blanketed cities from Shanghai to Beijing, forcing factories and schools to close and intensifying pressure on public officials to cut pollution. This month China suspended price adjustments for fuel as a way to curb automobile exhaust and it has pledged to peak carbon emissions around 2030, by which time it aims to derive 20 percent of the energy it uses from clean sources.“This new policy, along with efforts to eliminate inefficient mines, may help to ease the severe domestic oversupply” of coal, Deng said by phone from Guangzhou. “It will take several years to take effect.”

Renewable Boost

The country will also close more than 1,000 coal mines next year, taking out 60 million metric tons of unneeded capacity, according to the Xinhua report. China shuttered a similar number of mines this year, wiping out 70 million tons of production, according to a separate statement from the NEA dated Dec. 29. The country is on track to produce 3.58 billion tons of coal this year, down 0.5 percent from 2014, according to the NEA. China plans to increase wind and solar power capacity by more than 21 percent and have at least 20 gigawatts of new wind power installations and 15 gigawatts of additional photo voltaic capacity next year, according to the NEA statement.

Beijing officials on Friday raised the city’s air pollution alert to orange, the second-highest on the four-grade scale, warning children and the elderly to avoid outdoor activities as limited visibility from the thick smog forced the airport to cancel 227 departures. The chronic air pollution has renewed calls for the government to make better forecasts and act faster to help clear the skies over the city of 21.5 million. Coal demand in China has slid as its economy slows amid a shift toward consumption-led growth and while it intensifies efforts to rein in pollution. China plans to ask companies to replace electricity generated from their own coal-fired plants with renewable energy, the National Development and Reform Commission said last month. Thermal coal at the port of Newcastle in Australia, a global benchmark, dropped to $50.63 a ton in the week ended Dec. 25, the lowest since December 2006, according to data from Global coal. Prices have declined 18 percent this year.

China’s total coal production capacity including under mines construction is estimated at more than 5 billion tons while its coal output for next year will probably reach 3.7 billion tons, leaving more than 20 percent of its capacity idle, according to David Fang, a director with China Coal Transport and Distribution Association in Beijing. “We expect to see less downside pressure on coal prices in view of ongoing production cuts in 2016 and demand recovery, albeit at a slow pace,” said Helen Lau, an analyst with Argonaut Securities (Asia) Ltd. “China is still oversupplied.” The NEA estimates China next year will consume 3.96 billion tons of coal, 550 million tons of oil and 205 billion cubic meters of natural gas, according to the Xinhua report.

Source: www.bloomberg.com

Fresh Climate Data Confirms 2015 Is Unlike Any Other Year in Human History

29.12.2015

Over the past few days, a bevy of climate data has come together to tell a familiar yet shocking story: Humans have profoundly altered the planet’s life-support system, with 2015. increasingly likely to be an exclamation point on recent trends. On Monday, scientists at Britain’s national weather service, the Met Office, said our planet will finish this year more than one degree Celsius warmer than preindustrial levels for the first time. That figure is halfway to the line in the sand that scientists say represents “dangerous” climate change and global leaders have committed to avoid—an ominous milestone.

This year’s global heat wave—about two-tenths of a degree warmer than 2014., a massive leap when averaged over the entire planet—can be blamed most immediately on an exceptionally strong El Niño but wouldn’t exist without decades of heat-trapping emissions from fossil fuel burning. Separate data released on Monday by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed the current El Niño, a periodic warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean, has now tied 1997. for the strongest event ever measured, at least on a weekly basis.

“We’ve had similar natural events in the past, yet this is the first time we are set to reach the 1 degree marker and it’s clear that it is human influence driving our modern climate into uncharted territory,” said Stephen Belcher, director of the Met Office’s Hadley Centre in a statement. The Met Office data were quickly confirmed on Twitter by Gavin Schmidt, who leads the research center in charge of NASA’s global temperature dataset, which uses a slightly different methodology:

If that wasn’t enough, the World Meteorological Organization, a division of the United Nations, also confirmed on Monday that global carbon dioxide levels reached a new record high in 2014.—for the 30th consecutive year. The more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the more efficient the planet is at trapping the sun’s heat, and so global temperatures rise. Since our carbon dioxide emissions have a lifespan of a hundred years or so, there’s a significant lag in this process—temperatures will keep rising for decades even if all human emissions ceased today.

That means not only will 2015. end up as the planet’s warmest year in millennia—and probably since the invention of agriculture more than 10,000 years ago—but that there’s a lot more warming that’s already baked into the global climate system. All that extra heat is already changing the planet in complex ways. For example, as of last week, there’s fresh evidence that the Atlantic Ocean’s fundamental circulation system is slowing down. Over the past few years, a notoriously persistent cold patch of ocean has emerged just south of Greenland in the north Atlantic. There have been several theories as to why this is happening, but most involve a slowdown of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, part of the global oceanic “conveyor belt” system of eat and water that helps regulate the Earth’s climate by cooling off the tropics and gently warming polar regions. You wouldn’t necessarily expect persistent record-cold temperatures when the planet overall temperature is at record highs, but that’s exactly what’s happening:

The AMOC is so important that its slowdown has been linked to past episodes of abrupt climate change, like a three-degree Celsius drop in Northern Hemisphere temperatures in less than 20 years about 8,000 years ago, and formed the highly dramatized basis for the planetary chaos featured in The Day After Tomorrow.

Earlier this year, an important study provided further strong evidence that melting ice from Greenland has begun to disrupt and slow down the ocean’s circulation by changing the density of the north Atlantic, with profound consequences: In 2009, East Coast sea levels sharply—and temporarily—jumped by about four inches as water piled up. Stronger winter storms and an interruption of the Atlantic marine food chain also may already be happening. According to a new analysis released last week, scientists used data from a pair of NASA satellites to track climate-related changes in the north Atlantic—the first time ocean currents have been tracked from space.

Over the last decade, the satellites were able to take highly precise measurements of the literal weight of the ocean between Florida and Iceland that corroborated measurements from a network of ocean buoys over the same general place and time. From that information, they were able to calculate that the Atlantic’s circulation is indeed slowing down, a potential climate tipping point that’s been long predicted to occur at some point in the 21st century. Call it one more data point from a rapidly changing planet. Still, despite the blindingly clear data, there’s hope that the tide could—finally—be shifting on climate change. Later this month, world leaders were gathering in Paris and they made agreement to the first-ever global agreement to constrain future emissions trajectories in a meaningful way—possibly enough to avoid the worst-case climate scenario.

Vesna Vukajlović

Source: www.slate.com

Photo: www.slate.com

Serbia, Bosnia mining: Mineco base metals mining and trading in SEE and Russia

28.12.2015

The Balkans has a rich history of mining; mines opened by Romans in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD still operate in Artana and the Saxons mined extensively across the region (locally, Gross is known as ‘Sase’ in recognition of its origins as a 14th Century mine). Modern, industrialized mining was started by the Austrians and by the 20th Century the copper mines of Bor in Serbia and the Trepca lead complex in what is now Kosovo were among the largest operations of their kind in Europe. However this proud tradition of mining was dramatically interrupted by the breakup of Yugoslavia, the ensuing civil war and international economic sanctions, as Mineco’s Operations Director Dominic Roberts explains: “Unfortunately the ramifications of the civil war in the early 1990s are still felt today in many areas. All of our mines suffered to some extent in the war, particularly Gross and Veliki Majdan.

Gross, for example, stopped production in 1990., it did restart in 1998. but by the time we acquired it in 2005. it was in a terrible state of repair and was running at a fraction of its capacity.” Starting off as a commodity trading company in 2003., Mineco soon expanded its operation into base metal mining and the smelting and refining of metals. It currently has three lead and zinc mines in Bosnia and Serbia – Gross, Rudnik and Veliki Majdan – with a further two projects under development. In Russia, Mineco owns the largest lead refinery in the country. Roberts explains: “There is nothing we take more seriously than our commitment to our key stakeholders, the communities and environments which we serve.” Across its projects Mineco works hard to improve the environmental and social aspects of its operations. Gross mine has become a regional center of best environmental and waste management practice.

A recently completed $2 million investment programme has ensured the tailings dam not only meets local legislative requirements but those of the voluntary Equator Principles set by the IFC & World Bank. It’s worth noting that 99 percent of Mineco’s staff are locals, taking advantage of the region’s specialisms that existed before the war. Roberts says: “Yugoslavia had an enviable reputation for academic excellence. The education and university system produced some very, very good engineers. The issue is that, again due to the breakup and the civil war, a lot of that experience was lost in the consequent diaspora. The engineers that stayed unfortunately lost access to at least a decade of technological advances by the rest of the mining world.”

Mineco is working hard to modernise its operations wherever practical, ensuring they will comply with international best practice and educating its workforce on the technical advancements that have been made around the world. This goes hand in hand with the long-standing recognition within Mineco that its employees are, in fact, its most important natural resource, being ultimately responsible for the group’s growth and successes.

The new projects that Mineco is working on are also in the Balkans, and it’s a part of the world Roberts knows quite well, having worked there firstly in the army, and then using his geology degree and project management skills in the mining industry. And it’s an area that still has enormous potential when it comes to base metal mining. “We are Balkans specialists. It’s our part of the world. We know it and we understand it. There are still opportunities remaining in the Balkans as it is such a heavily mineralized area, however very few of the mineral deposits are of a scale or size that any of the major mining companies would consider. For us, it is the ideal market for a mid-cap, medium-sized company to operate and expand.”

Mineco’s next mine is Olovo in Bosnia, which is scheduled to open in July next year. “Olovo is a very interesting prospect. Unlike our other mines it is not a polymetallic sulphide deposit but rather a rare form of secondary mineralization called cerussite that contains only lead. Olovo is a relatively small mine but its reserves of 1.7 million tonnes are very high grade. Its full operating capacity, in 2017., will be 150,000 tonnes a year,” says Roberts. Olovo is another particular good example of a refurbishing a mine that was abandoned during the war, standing inactive since 1991. But while there is nothing left on the surface, the underground workings remain. “We’ve finished rehabilitating all the underground systems and we’re now in the final permitting stage for the surface infrastructure,” says Roberts. The mine will go on to employ around 200 people and bring substantial direct and indirect revenues to a community with extremely high unemployment.

Another development project is located in Bosilegrad, which is a lead and zinc ore body located in the south east of Serbia. “At Bosilegrad we have over four million tonnes of resources and we’re currently undertaking all of the test work to design the processing plant,” says Roberts. Having already invested in excess of $11 million, production is planned to start in 2017. following a pilot plant next summer, which will be used to confirm the technical specifications of the full project. At approximately 1,400m above sea level, this high altitude mine sits in a very remote community in the mountains between Bulgaria, Serbia and Macedonia. Unofficial unemployment is currently over 50 percent so, as with Olovo, the commissioning of this mine will make a substantial difference to the local community, where we intend to employ about 250 people,” Roberts adds. There are also two exploration projects underway, both in Bosnia.

Roberts says: “The first near Gorazde – an antimony exploration project – and the second in Celebici, near Foca. As mentioned already, from our perspective in the Balkans, we don’t need to commit to greenfield explorations, because there’s such a complex history of mining enabling us to focus on brownfield opportunities. The Gorazde project is an abandoned mine and Celebici is the potential extension of an existing mine.” Roberts adds: “We are continuously conducting due diligence on other potential projects. And to do this we operate an in-house team that we call the PDT – the Project Delivery Team. A handpicked team of geologists and mining engineers who review and develop new projects for Mineco.” The 15-member PDT operates from Belgrade and assists Roberts in evaluating potential new projects and developing those that get the green light. It is another element of Mineco that illustrates its specialism model. “The PDT is another internal center of excellence.

While the team are all locally recruited, in keeping with our employment philosophy, they have all worked internationally at some stage in their career and been exposed to best practice and different forms of mineralisation and mining across the world.” Away from the mining operations Mineco continues its global trading activity. From its London, Zug and Moscow offices, Mineco markets not only its own concentrates, but also the output of a number of other mines in the Balkan region and across Europe and the CIS countries. Through a strategic alliance with the international commodities house, Ocean Partners, Mineco maintains a global trading presence. Completing its vertical integration Mineco owns and operates the Fregat secondary lead smelter. Located in the Moscow region, it recently became the first Russian smelter to achieve registration of its products with the London Metal Exchange. “With the capacity to recycle 170,000 tons of batteries per year and currently producing some 35,000 tons of prime lead metal, it is the largest lead refinery in the whole of Russia – something everyone in Mineco is very proud of,” says Roberts. Summing up, Roberts says: “Mineco is privately owned, with no external debt, a robust balance sheet and we enjoy healthy margins at our producing mines. We are ideally placed to take advantage of the opportunities that will present themselves over the coming couple of years. Investors reinforce their successes, and I am very confident that we will increase annual production by at least 50 percent over the next three years”.

Vesna Vukajlović
Source: www.energy-serbia.eu

Costa Rica Powers 285 Days of 2015 With 100% Renewable Energy

28.12.2015

In March, EcoWatch reported that Costa Rica powered the first 82 days of the year solely with renewable energy. Now that we’re closing in on the end of the year, the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) announced that the country ran entirely on renewables for 285 days between Jan. 1 and Dec. 17.
“We are closing 2015. with renewable electricity milestones that have put us in the global spotlight,” ICE electricity division chief Luis Pacheco told to AFP. The majority of the country’s energy (75 percent) comes from hydropower, thanks to a vast river system and abundant rainfall, and the rest of its renewables come from geothermal, biomass, wind and solar.

Despite a very dry year, ICE said it was ahead of its renewable energy targets and Pacheco predicted that 2016. would be an even better year because a new $2.3 billion hydroelectric plant will be coming online. The country reportedly wants to move away from its dependency on hydropower, though, and harness more of its electricity needs from geothermal and wind. It plans to retire its heavy fuel oil-powered Moin plant in 2017. and wants to move its transportation sector away from fossil fuels.

The country has made all this progress, while reducing overall energy costs, which fell by 12 percent this year and the ICE expects costs to keep falling. “The government has pledged to build an electric train which will be integrated with public buses,” Gabriel Goldschmidt, regional head of infrastructure for Latin America and Caribbean at the International Finance Corporation, which is part of the World Bank, told the Huffington Post. “There is also a proposal to start replacing oil-powered cars with electric cars as part of a new bill in congress that aims to offer consumer incentives to lower the prices of these cars.

This would have multiple benefits including better air quality. ”Costa Rica’s heavy reliance on hydropower has been criticized by some. Gary Wockner of Save the Colorado argues that hydropower is actually “one of the biggest environmental problems our planet faces” and a “false solution” for addressing climate change. “Hydropower has been called a ‘methane factory’ and ‘methane bomb’ that is just beginning to rear its ugly head as a major source of greenhouse gas emissions that have so-far been unaccounted for in climate change discussions and analyses,” Wockner said last month.

Still, the country is among the vanguard of nations around the world moving towards a 100 percent renewable energy future. Several countries have hit impressive benchmarks for renewables in just a few short years. And many places have already made the transition to fossil-fuel-free electricity.
Samso in Denmark became the world’s first island to go all in on renewables several years ago. Most recently, Uruguay, three U.S. cities—Burlington, Vermont; Aspen, Colorado; and Greensburg, Kansas—along with Kodiak Island, Alaska, have all made the transition. San Diego, Vancouver, Las Vegas and other major cities around the world have pledged to go 100 percent renewable. Sweden made headlines earlier this year when it pledged to be among the first countries to go fossil free.

Hawaii pledged to do so by 2045—the most ambitious standard set by a U.S. state thus far. Several other islands, including Aruba, Belize, St. Lucia, Grenada, the British Virgin Islands, the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, and San Andres and Providence have pledged to go 100 percent renewable, through the Ten Island Challenge, created by Richard Branson’s climate group the Carbon War Room. Greenpeace and researchers at Stanford and UC Berkeley have laid out plans for every state in the U.S. to adopt 100 percent renewables and a Greenpeace report published in September posits the world can achieve 100 percent renewable energy by 2050. Mark Jacobson, one of the researchers from Stanford, said the barriers to 100 percent clean energy are social and political, not technical or economic.

Just last week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in an interview that “You could take a corner of Utah or Nevada and power the entire United States with solar power.” And, it looks as if the Paris climate conference earlier this month helped create market certainty in renewables, as fossil fuel stocks tumbled and renewable energy stocks soared. After the landmark Paris agreement was reached, the coal industry’s European lobbying association feared that the deal meant the sector “will be hated and vilified, in the same way that slave traders were once hated and vilified.”

Source: www.ecowatch.com

EBRD still can’t say no to destructive Macedonian dam

25.12.2015

Mala hidroelektrana — Foto-ilustracija: Wikimedia/Dr Richard Murray

The Bern Convention recommendation, warmly welcomed by Macedonian environmental organizations, was based on an independent expert study into the planned hydropower developments in Mavrovo, Europe’s oldest national park situated in the northwest of Macedonia and home to the endangered Balkan lynx.

The study authors found the hydropower development to be “not compatible with the status of protection of the park”, and concluded that the Boškov Most project “as currently designed must be abandoned until the conservation status of the Balkan lynx population is brought back to a safe level and until when the Mavrovo National Park is no longer the only known core area of reproduction of this species.”

The Committee’s decision also suggested international financial institutions revisit their involvement in hydropower projects in Mavrovo in anticipation of the conclusions of the upcoming SEA. In a statement on December 9, the EBRD quickly announced that it is “fully respecting” the Bern Convention recommendations. While stressing that no disbursements have yet been made on the EBRD board approved EUR 65 million financing for Boškov Most, the bank let it be known that it “will consider the results of the strategic environmental assessment of cumulative effects of all planned development activities on the territory of the Park when deciding on the financing of the hydropower projects in the Park.”

Responding to the Bern Convention’s recommendation, Ana Colović Lesoska, executive director of the Macedonian environmental group Eko-Svest, said: “The Committee has now sent an unequivocal message to the Macedonian government and everybody involved in this egregious project that protected areas are there for a reason. In light of today’s decision, the Macedonian government should seriously reconsider its plans for hydropower developments in the Mavrovo National Park.

Specifically, the government should engage the public and civil society in the decision-making process, and it should also acknowledge Macedonia’s international responsibility to protect wildlife and natural habitats in the park through allocating the necessary funds for the conservation of the Balkan Lynx population.” For five years now, Macedonian environmental organizations have raised their voices against planned hydropower plants in the Mavrovo National Park. They have repeatedly insisted that hydro dams in national parks result in the destruction of habitats and species, that they cannot contribute to nature conservation and, therefore, should be avoided.

However, the Macedonian government has been vigorous in its support of such energy developments and set out early to involve the EBRD in this roller coaster. In 2011, therefore, the EBRD approved a EUR 65 million loan for the Boškov Most.

The bank soon found out, if it had not known before, that the area of the planned dam is the core reproductive area of the fragile Balkan Lynx population. The EBRD doubtless gulped a bit more when the highly respected International Union for Conservation of Nature confirmed that the population of the Balkan Lynx is officially considered to be critically endangered – there are less than 40 individuals of this species left in the wild.

To date, fortunately, no project construction has started as the EBRD was knuckle rapped by its own complaints mechanism that it had failed to comply with its policies when deciding to finance a project in a critical habitat. As a result of the expert report from the EBRD complaints mechanism, more studies are in motion to assess whether Boškov Most is, yes, worth the sacrifice of the Mavrovo National Park. Last year, the project cost estimates jumped three times as the dam was estimated to cost around EUR 150 million and, if the EBRD is seriously considering further support, its Board of Directors would need to sign off on a new loan for the 68MW plant.

“The Boškov Most project has now become synonymous with endless trouble and it has already inflicted significant reputational damage on the EBRD,” says Fidanka Bacheva Mc Grath, EBRD campaign coordinator at Bank watch. “Surely the EBRD realizes it is only going to get worse as a new strategic impact assessment buys the project some more time, but is unlikely to contradict numerous assessments done to date. The recommendation to suspend the hydro power plans should give the EBRD enough reason to pull out of the project.” The SEA is expected to take another year, thus adding another two commitment fee tranches paid to the EBRD by Macedonian citizens, who neither want nature destruction nor getting poorer. In the four years since the signing of the Boškov Most project loan, ‘commitment fees’ paid to the EBRD by the Macedonian government has reached EUR 1,950,000.

Source: www. bankwatch.org

Enviromental Protection is Primary Program for Companies

24.12.2015

Sanja Ivanic, generalna direktorka Francusko-srpske privredne komore — ????????????????????????????????????

French-Serbian Chamber of Commerce has expended its number of members during 2015. and now it counts 130 companies. The chamber promotes arrival of French companies to Serbia form its foundation and it improves relations with other associations and chambers in Serbia. This institution strives to increase the presence of Serbian companies in French regions. France is the utmost investor in Europe, and it has invested around 500 million euros in Serbia.

These investments are not enough but they should be more significant bearing in mind that events, meetings, economic forms are held regularly. Sanja Ivanić is the executive manager of French-Serbian Chamber of Commerce and for Special COP 21, she talks about the importance of environmental protection of all companies operating in Serbia. She also highlights why it is important, to political and governmental will, to raise the awareness of climate changes to high level in private and economy sector.

EP: You are at the head of the Chamber of Commerce which improves business relations between France and Serbia. Many member companies belong to the energy sector; how do they prepare for the conference COP 21, and what is the best practice in France, which should be applied in Serbia?
Sanja Ivanić: As a network of successful companies, which take into account sustainable development in their business, we believe that the model of “green economy” enables economic growth, creates new workplaces and increases competitiveness. The fight against climate changes is also an opportunity for companies to introduce innovative solutions and to suggest new models of development. Several French companies, members of French-Serbian Chamber of Commerce have excellent examples of business practices that were recently presented at the Conference held at the Embassy of France. As companies that come from countries in which green economy is an issue of paramount importance and taking into account that French experience and achievements in this field, we have special responsibility to transfer this expertise to Serbian market.

EP: In your opinion, why is it important that companies take participation in the conference COP 21 in addition to numerous participants of the conference that come from governmental sector, NGO sector and international institutions?
Sanja Ivanić: It is necessary to establish a comprehensive public-private partnership for transition toward green economy by involving all relevant stakeholders and all castes. In addition to constant presence of our member companies at relevant conferences, fairs and public debates on the issue of green economy, French companies have an open cooperation with representatives of institutions and public sector on this issue. The economy is an indispensable stakeholder in environmental protection. Global companies have brought environmental protection into operation as one of the primary programmes as a part of business strategy of corporate social responsibility. We believe that the private sector plays an important role in this regard. After all, experience speaks about why it is necessary for the large private companies to be included in solving this important social issue.

EP: What would be your recommendation to the members of French-Serbian Chamber of Commerce for the future when it comes to the global warming, environmental protection and energy efficiency?
Sanja Ivanić: We pay special attention on raising awareness among young people, and we strive to motivate them as early as possible to make them think about the ways of implementing sustainable development in practice. The same year when the Chamber was created, we created the Student Award which is organised with the support of our companies that reward the best student’s papers and action plans on sustainable development. We have seen several really interesting student’s suggestions in the last five editions of the Prize, and that is the proof that our young generations are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of this issue for our economy and society in general.

Interviewed by Vesna Vukajlović

More breweries in USA going solar

23.12.2015

Six Western North Carolina breweries have installed solar panel systems, joining a fast-growing trend in business in general. North Carolina has been near the top of the solar pack and last year ranked second in the U.S. in the number of solar panel installations.

“Solar is hot,” said Tom Kimbis, president of the Solar Energy Industries Association, a trade group tracking solar use in the U.S. Kimbis recently honored WNC’s six solar breweries with his organization’s Solar Champion Award.

Solar is the fastest-growing energy source in the country, he said. Its use is being powered by how much sunshine an area receives, the cost of solar versus conventional energy, and government incentives to install systems. A 30 percent federal solar energy tax credit has given businesses a push to charge up with sunshine, Kimbis said.

In North Carolina, a state solar tax credit has not been extended into the new year, Kimbis said Even without the state credit extension, solar use is surging in the Tar Heel state, he said. Current numbers show 189 solar energy companies in North Carolina, employing 5,600 people, he said.

The price of solar systems is continuing to drop, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. The average cost of a residential installation in the third quarter of this year was $3.55 per watt – that’s 46 percent lower than in 2010.

Here is how the area’s breweries stack up on solar:

Highland Brewing, Asheville

Solar panels: 1,045.
Power produced: 324.25 kilowatts of DC power, total AC power 250 kilowatts
Percent of brewery energy produced by solar: 100 percent.
Why the company went solar: “It was the right thing to do,” said Highland president Leah Ashburn. “Tax credits made it possible to do it.”

Appalachian Mountain Brewery, Boone

Solar panels: 20
Power produced: About 6,700 kilowatts annually.
Percent of brewery energy produced by solar: Almost all the brewery’s needs.
Why the company went solar: “It offsets our carbon footprint.” said brewery CEO Sean Spiegelman. “Anything we can do” to protect the environment, “we make sure to do it.”

Innovation Brewing, Sylva
Solar panels: 100
Power produced: 28.5 kilowatts
Percent of brewery energy produced by solar: About 50 percent.
Why the company went solar: “I went to school to study environmental science,” said brewery co-founder Nicole Dexter. “We want to grow and we want to operate with sustainable” energy”.

Sierra Nevada Brewing, Mills River
Solar panels: 2,198
Power produced: 710 kilowatts or enough to switch on 11,860 light bulbs.
Percent of brewery energy produced by solar: Not yet measured.
Why the company went solar: “It’s been a big deal for us since the beginning of Sierra Nevada,” said company spokesman Bill Manley. “We have long had an eye on sustainable energy.”

Source: www.citizen-times.com

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