2050

A First In The Climate Change Fight | Earth Wise

March 6, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Under a new initiative, builders in New Jersey will have to take climate change into account in order to win government approval for projects. New Jersey is the first state in the United States to enact such a requirement, which will leverage land-use rules to control what and where developers can build, and limit the volume of pollution.

Through executive order, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy will require the state Department of Environmental Protection to draft new building regulations. The changes, to be adopted by January 2022, do not require legislative approval, but could face political and legal challenges.

Climate change is expected to have a significant impact on New Jersey and its 130 miles of coastline. According to a recent study from Rutgers University, the sea level along the New Jersey coast rose 1.5 feet since 1911, which was more than twice as much as the global average. The sea level is expected to rise by as much as another foot by 2030. At the same time, some coastal areas of New Jersey are gradually sinking.

The initiative by New Jersey comes on the heels of a Trump administration proposal which would allow federal agencies to not take climate change into account when evaluating infrastructure projects. The federal changes are geared towards speeding up approvals for highway construction, pipelines, oil and gas leases, and other major infrastructure projects.

In the absence of anything resembling leadership on climate change from the federal government, it remains for states like New Jersey to continue to press ahead. In addition to the new building initiative, New Jersey also plans to produce 100% clean energy by 2050.

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Excluding Climate Change From Infrastructure Planning | Earth Wise

With 130-Mile Coast, New Jersey Marks a First in Climate Change Fight

Photo, posted August 27, 2016, courtesy of Rashaad Jorden via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Lots Of Wind Power In Denmark | Earth Wise

February 11, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Many states and countries have established goals to generate at least half of their electricity from renewable sources by some future date, typically 2030. A number of countries have already been able to achieve 50% or greater renewable generation for brief periods measured in days. Australia did it this past November. Germany has seen it on occasion as well.

Denmark has managed to complete an entire year with half of its energy coming from renewable generation. Almost all of it – 47% of the country’s power – came from wind turbines.

Denmark has been generating much of its energy from wind power for quite a while and actually produced about 46% of its electricity from renewable sources in 2017. Denmark was a pioneer in developing commercial wind power during the 1970s, is a major manufacturer of wind turbines, and the small country has installed over 6,000 of them. The gains this past year mostly came from the Horns Rev 3 offshore wind farm that went online in the fall. The 407 MW wind farm has the capacity to cover the annual electricity consumption of about 425,000 households, which is about 20% of the country.

The growth of wind power in Denmark is still ramping up. A 600 MW wind farm in the Baltic Sea will be connected to the Danish and German electricity grid by 2021, and a wind farm of at least 800 MW capacity in the North Sea is scheduled to come online in 2025.

The Danish Parliament has passed an ambitious climate law with the goal of reducing CO2 emissions by 70% in 2030 compared with 1990. The country’s overall goal of being carbon-neutral by 2050 does not seem like a pipe dream.

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