Michael Bloomberg pledges $4.5m to Paris climate deal

Yahoo – AFP,  23 April 2018

US businessman and former New York major Michael Bloomberg has led nearly
1,000 business and government officials in declaring they would honor the accord
despite Trumps move to pull out of the agreement

Former New York City mayor and billionaire philanthropist Michael Bloomberg on Sunday promised $4.5 million to fulfill the United States's commitment to the Paris climate agreement.

"America made a commitment and as an American if the government's not going to do it we all have responsibility," he told CBS's Face the Nation.

Last June, US President Donald Trump announced the US would withdraw from the pact, championed by his predecessor Barack Obama. The president, whose Republican party has strong ties to the fossil fuel industry, said that the agreement was unfair to the world's largest economy.

"I'm able to do it. So, yes, I'm going to send them a check for the monies that America had promised to the organization as though they got it from the federal government," Bloomberg said.

The landmark treaty was agreed by 197 nations in 2015 after intense negotiations in Paris, where all countries made voluntary carbon-cutting pledges running to 2030.

The pact saw countries agree to limit average global warming caused by greenhouse gases from fossil fuel burning to under two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels.

Days after the announcement the US was quitting the agreement, Bloomberg led nearly 1,000 business and government officials in declaring they would honor the accord.

The group, including the likes of Apple, Amazon, Google and known collectively as "We Are Still In," branded Trump's decision "a grave mistake that endangers the American public and hurts America's economic security and diplomatic reputation".

Meanwhile 76-year-old Bloomberg, who was mayor of New York from 2002 to 2013, also pledged to muster $15 million for the United Nations' climate body.

In January of this year, Trump said he would be willing to sign the US back up to the Paris climate accord, but only if the treaty undergoes major change.

Bloomberg said he hoped Trump would change his mind in time for next year's payment due from the US.

"He's been known to change his mind. That is true," Bloomberg said.

"But he should change his mind and say look there really is a problem here. America is part of the problem. America is a big part of the solution and we should go in and help the world stop a potential disaster."

Faced with global warming, aviation aims to turn green

Yahoo – AFP, Pierre-Henry DESHAYES, April 8, 2018

A computer generated image of the hybrid-electric regional aircraft being developed
by Zunum Aero, a start-up partly financed by US aeronautics group Boeing that could
enter service as soon as in 2022. (AFP Photo)

Oslo (AFP) - Will we someday be able to fly without the guilt of causing environmental damage? A handful of firms and regulators hope that the electric revolution in cars will also take to the skies, helping the industry cope with an expected boom in travel and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"Many people say that we must get rid of air transport because we will never be able to deal with emissions and noise, but this is an outdated approach," said Norwegian Transport Minister Ketil Solvik-Olsen, who recently hosted an aviation conference in Oslo.

Norway, the largest oil and gas producer in western Europe, is paradoxically a pioneer in the field of electric transport. The Nordic nation aims for all new vehicle registrations to be zero emission by 2025 and launched a first electric ferry in early 2015.

After land and water, the northern kingdom is now turning to the sky with the goal of electrifying all short haul flights in just over 20 years.

"In my mind, there is no doubt: by 2040 Norway will be operating totally electric," said Dag Falk-Petersen, head of the country's public airport operator, Avinor.

Tesla of the skies?

Air transportation's impact on global warming is estimated at around five percent through CO2 emissions and other substances, including nitrogen oxide and water vapour.

As the number of air passengers is expected to almost double by 2036 to 7.8 billion per year, according to the International Air Transport Association's (IATA) projections, aviation's impact is on a course to increase substantially if nothing is done.

Meanwhile, the airline industry aims to cut its CO2 emissions in half by 2050 from 2005 levels.

Zunum Aero hopes that cheaper operating costs will entice airlines to
go electric (AFP Photo)

While the international umbrella group Climate Action Network (CAN) says these goals are unrealistic, some airlines are beginning to look at electric-powered aircraft as an answer.

The small regional carrier Wideroe Airlines, operating in Norway's far north, plans to renew its fleet of twin-engine Bombardier Dash 8 planes with electric-powered aircraft by 2030.

"Aircraft producers see that they have to do it because otherwise there will be a new Tesla taking their positions," said Falk-Petersen, referring to how the upstart US electric car manufacturer has shaken up the traditional automobile industry.

Both of the major manufacturers of large passenger aircraft, Airbus and Boeing, are exploring the viability of electric planes.

Airbus aims to develop a hybrid model called E-Fan X, and has teamed up with British engine maker Rolls Royce and German industrial group Siemens. The first flight is planned for 2020.

"One of the biggest challenges is electricity storage," Glenn Llewellyn, general manager for electrification at Airbus, told AFP.

As with cars, the performance of batteries is a critical element, with the added problem that they are heavier than fuel and carrying them into the air is the most-energy intensive part of the flight.

"But at the same time battery technology is probably the technology in the world which has the most investment. So it will evolve," added Llewellyn.

'Any place in the world'

Zunum Aero, a start-up partly financed by US aeronautics group Boeing, meanwhile plans to bring a 12-seat hybrid plane to the market by 2022.

"The price that we're targeting is very much in line with the current aircraft but the operation cost is just a fraction, it's literally 60 to 70 percent lower than an equivalent aircraft in operation right now," said the startup's founder Matt Knapp.

The expected lower operating costs of electric planes, both due to cheap electricity and simpler motors, means that the highly competitive airline industry could end up adopting them quickly.

Airbus offered several years ago updated aircraft with 15 percent fuel savings, and as jet fuel is a major cost for airlines, they quickly placed orders for thousands as they tried to get ahead of rivals.

The transition to electric could also provide another advantage: they are much quieter, meaning they may win exceptions to restrictions imposed due to noise near residential areas.

Combined with the fact that electric planes don't need such long runways, they could be used at some smaller airports close to city centres.

Avinor said switching to electric would also help airlines avoid any climate change related penalties that regulators could impose, such as higher taxes and flying restrictions.

Norway sees itself as a good test bed for electric planes.

"There are a lot of issues to deal with, with icy conditions, with heavy winds," says Widero CEO Stein Nilsen.

"But if we can do that here in Norway, I'm certain that this air plane will cope with any conditions in any place in the world."

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Oil to solar: Saudis push to be renewable energy powerhouse

Yahoo – AFP, Anuj Chopra, 3 April 2018

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has unveiled plans to develop the globe's
biggest solar power project for $200 billion in partnership with Japan's SoftBank group

Saudi engineers whip up a simulated sandstorm to test a solar panel's durability at a research lab, the heart of the oil-rich kingdom's multibillion dollar quest to be a renewable energy powerhouse.

The world's top exporter of crude seems an unlikely champion of clean energy, but the government lab in Al Uyayna, a sun-drenched village near Riyadh, is leading the country's efforts for solar power as it seeks to diversify.

A dazzling spotlight was shone on those ambitions last week when Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman unveiled plans to develop the globe's biggest solar power project for $200 billion in partnership with Japan's SoftBank group.

The memorandum of understanding to produce up to 200 gigawatts of power by 2030 —- about 100 times the capacity of the current biggest projects —- was the latest jaw-dropping statement as the Saudis look to wean themselves off oil.

If built on one site, the solar farm would cover an area twice the size of Hong Kong, according to a Bloomberg News calculation.

While the scale of the plan has stirred some disbelief -- the agreement announced in the US was greeted with determination at the laboratory.

"We can do it," said Adel al-Sheheween, director of the solar laboratory under the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology.

"This may take time, but we have all the raw materials —- sunshine, land and most importantly, the will," he added, giving AFP a tour of the facility widely known as Solar Village.

Engineers were working away testing solar panels under harsh conditions.

A miniature sandstorm inside a cylindrical chamber battered one panel. A machine with what appeared to be a large boxing glove punched another.

Electricity from solar sources costs less than half that of nuclear power

'Exporter of gigawatts'

The site, which also includes a solar field that supplies electricity to neighbouring villages, was established some three decades ago.

But the push for renewables only now appears to be gaining momentum.

It is driven by a key incentive —- to free up more oil reserves for export, the kingdom's chief revenue earner.

Saudi Arabia currently draws on oil and natural gas to both meet its own fast-growing power demand and desalinate its water, consuming an estimated 3.4 million barrels of oil daily.

That number is expected to rise to 8.3 million barrels in 10 years, according to the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy, eating up the bulk of Saudi Arabia's crude production.

"Saudi Arabia has long had a vision for becoming... an exporter of oil and of gigawatts of power," Ellen Wald, a scholar at pro-Saudi think tank Arabia Foundation and author of the book "Saudi Inc", told AFP.

"That vision requires solar power installations of a massive scale. My understanding is the project will be rolled out in pieces and not as one giant plant."

But the sheer scope of the project, which aims to produce well above the kingdom's own projected requirement of 120 gigawatts by 2032, has prompted scepticism.

"Although Saudi Arabia has more than enough vacant, non-arable desert land... (it) really does not need so much solar power," said Bart Lucarelli, a managing director for power and utilities at advisory firm AWR Lloyd.

Saudi hopes to make Uyayna the centrepiece of a multibillion dollar push to

become a renewable energy powerhouse

"There has been speculation about whether this amount of new solar capacity can even be built in that time frame within a single country. The consensus view is that the 200 gigawatt figure is excessive."

Lucarelli said Saudi Arabia instead "needs a balance" between renewables and fossil fuels -- and pointed out that the solar memorandum is non-binding for now.

To handle the amount of power the project envisions, experts say the kingdom would require huge investments to upgrade its grid and set up large-scale battery storage facilities.

'Giga projects'

The solar push appears to be driven by geopolitics as much as economics.

"Saudia Arabia's problem is that (rivals) Iran and Qatar have the gas reserves it does not," said James Dorsey, a Middle East expert at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

"That is one reason why renewables figure prominently in Prince Mohammed's reform programme, not only to prepare Saudi Arabia economically for a post-oil future but also to secure its continued geopolitical significance."

Saudi Arabia also harbours atomic ambitions, with plans to build 16 reactors over the next two decades for $80 billion, despite concerns over nuclear proliferation in the Middle East.

Some US states press ahead on climate change goals, despite Trump

Yahoo – AFP, Ivan Couronne, April 1, 2018

The Brandon Shores Generating Station, a coal-fired power plant near Baltimore,
seen on March 9, 2018 (AFP Photo/MARK WILSON)

Washington (AFP) - US President Donald Trump has taken an axe to the environmental regulations he inherited from his predecessor Barack Obama, cutting dozens of rules ranging from fracking on public land to protections for endangered species.

Yet supporters of the Paris climate change accord believe state-level efforts could mean the US will meet greenhouse gas emissions targets envisaged under the landmark agreement, despite being the only country to announce its withdrawal.

Automobile fuel and emission standards are the latest regulations in the administration's crosshairs, according to a report by the New York Times.

The paper reported Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Scott Pruitt, a climate change skeptic with ties to the fossil fuel industry, has determined Obama-era controls placed too great a burden on manufacturers.

It comes on the heels of the EPA's announcement last fall it was seeking to repeal the Clean Power Plan, Obama's signature environmental policy that would have limited each state's greenhouse-gas emissions.

Already tied up by legal challenges, the Trump administration has vowed to bury it for good.

These and other regulations constituted the building blocks of Obama's plan to fulfill US commitments to the 2015 pact.

The targets, which were already modest compared to those of the European Union, are clearly in danger.

But the United States' federal system of government and polarized political climate offer hope: states like California and New York are governed by opposition Democrats horrified by their Republican president's stance on global climate change, and are taking steps to oppose it.

It was for these reasons that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was the most recent figure to suggest "there are expectations" the US will meet its erstwhile commitments, with or without Trump's blessing.

Hard to predict

Twenty of the 50 states, some hundred cities and a thousand companies have already set targets for reducing the greenhouse effect, according to America's Pledge, an initiative launched by former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and the California Governor Jerry Brown.

California on its own is responsible for about the same amount of greenhouse gases as France, and is gunning for a 40 percent reduction in its emissions by 2030 compared to 1990 levels, targets as ambitious as the EU's.

But the question remains: can action taken by certain jurisdictions and firms be a complete substitute for federal legislation at the center?

"It's not impossible, but it's improbable that the US can meet its objectives with no further federal action," Marc Hafstead, an economist at Resources for the Future, a non-profit research institute, told AFP.

According to America's Pledge, those states and cities which back the Paris agreement contribute only 35 percent of the country's overall greenhouse gas emissions.

Texas, the country's biggest polluter, is not a part of the movement.

The combined efforts of non-federal jurisdictions will reduce America's greenhouse gas footprint by only half of the original target, according to a report last September by the Germany-based NewClimate Institute.

A more precise figure is set to be published by America's Pledge in September during a global summit on climate change in San Francisco.

For now, warned Michelle Manion, the lead senior economist at the World Resources Institute leading analysis for this report: "if you just do a straight line from the states and cities that have committed to it, it doesn't look like we'll meet those numbers."

"It's heading in the right direction, I can't tell you what the number is going to be in 2025, nor can anybody else," she continued, adding that future technological innovations could prove to be game changers.

Ten years ago, no one foresaw the dramatic decline in natural gas prices, she recalled. Or predicted that the cost of solar panels would fall by 70 percent over the course of seven years.

It remains imperative, she argued, for states to continue to work towards a low-carbon economy, through measures like the installation of electric charging stations for cars or more environmentally friendly building regulations.

Vehicle emissions standards, which Trump is seeking to change, are a good example, she said.

If California and the ten states in the country's northeast that account for 40 percent of all domestic light duty vehicle sales continue to impose tighter controls, it's likely that automobile manufacturers will adhere to the stricter standards rather than create a two-tier market.