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Carbon Capture: Solution Or Band-Aid? | Earth Wise

July 13, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The idea of capturing the CO2 emissions from industry and locking them up is nothing new. It’s been going on for decades in some places. Norway’s state-owned oil company Equinor has been holing away a million tons of CO2 a year for a long time. But overall, CCS – carbon capture and storage – has had very limited use. As of last year, there were only about 30 large-scale projects in operation around the world, capturing only 0.1% of global emissions.

There is now growing interest in CCS and many new projects are underway. A combination of rising carbon prices in Europe, tax breaks for CCS in the US, national net-zero targets, and the increasing need to ramp down global emissions are all driving rising CCS activities.

While recent reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change still claim that it is possible to remain below 2 degrees Celsius of warming without using carbon capture, there is growing belief that it may be necessary given the present pace of the transition away from fossil fuels.

Two industries that together produce about 14% of global CO2 emissions are cement and steel. These are both industries for which it is difficult to eliminate emissions regardless of the energy sources used. CCS may be the best approach to reducing their emissions.

But there is considerable pushback against CCS. The concern is that CCS is primarily a way to delay decarbonization. It encourages various industries to continue to use fossil fuels instead of shifting away from them. Nonetheless, CCS no doubt has its place as part of the solution to climate change.

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Solution or Band-Aid? Carbon Capture Projects Are Moving Ahead

Photo, posted June 5, 2022, courtesy of Mark Dixon via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Floating Homes In The Netherlands | Earth Wise

January 24, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The Netherlands is a country that is largely built on reclaimed land and a third of it remains below sea level. The Dutch have long experience with dealing with rising waters. The city of Amsterdam has almost 3,000 houseboats in its canals.

As sea levels continue to rise across the globe, it is no surprise that the Dutch have taken the lead in creating communities composed of floating houses and buildings.

A floating house is a structure fixed to the shore, often resting on steel poles, and usually connected to the local sewer system and power grid. They are much like ordinary houses except that instead of a basement, they have a concrete hull that acts as a counterweight, allowing them to remain stable in the water.

The ones in the Netherlands are often prefabricated, square-shaped, three-story townhouses. Rotterdam, which is 90% below sea level, is home to the world’s largest floating office building as well as a floating farm.

Floating buildings have their challenges, not the least of which are the effects of severe wind and rainstorms, or even the passing of large ships which can make the buildings rock. Infrastructure like electricity and sewer service is not that simple to implement for the buildings. But the benefits of floating buildings may outweigh the costs.

For cities facing worsening floods and a shortage of buildable land, floating homes are a potential solution for expanding urban housing in the age of climate change. Dutch engineers are spearheading floating building projects in Britain, France, and Norway, as well as in threatened island locations like French Polynesia and the Maldives.

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Embracing a Wetter Future, the Dutch Turn to Floating Homes

Photo, posted May 23, 2007, courtesy of Jeff Hutchison via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Batteries On Wheels | Earth Wise

December 24, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Transportation accounts for nearly a quarter of the direct carbon dioxide emissions coming from burning fuel. As a result, electrification of transport is one of the major ways we can reduce emissions. Increasing the number of electric vehicles over time is essential for meeting emissions targets.

But electric vehicles have the potential to do more than deliver emissions reduction; they can also provide other energy services.

More and more electric cars provide over 200 miles of driving range, but most cars are actually driven no more than 30 miles a day. As a result, the fleet of electric cars represents a huge bank of energy stored in battery packs and mostly sitting around unused. This presents an opportunity to leverage this resource.

Car battery packs could be used to absorb excess renewable energy generated in the middle of the day (for example from solar installations) or at night (from wind farms) and potentially then to export stored energy to power homes and support the grid. This energy system is known as V2G, or vehicle-to-grid technology.

The University of Queensland in Australia has launched a unique international trial to see if the spare battery capacity in vehicles could be used for these purposes. The university has partnered with Teslascope, which is an online analytics platform used by Tesla owners to track the performance of their cars. Tesla owners wishing to be part of the study authorize the collection of their data and, in turn, receive a free 12-month subscription to the Teslascope service. The study will collect data from Tesla owners in Australia, the US, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Germany, and the UK.

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Can EV spare battery capacity support the grid?

Photo, posted February 8, 2009, courtesy of City of St Pete via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Electric Cars Are Coming Sooner Than Expected | Earth Wise

September 30, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

It is widely believed that electrification is the future for vehicles. The only question is how long the transition will take. Predictions are all over the map, but the recent trend is to revise those predictions to say it will happen sooner than previously thought.

A recent report from the international accounting firm Ernst & Young predicts that EV sales in the US, China, and Europe will surpass those of fossil-fuel-powered vehicles five years sooner than previously expected. The report forecasts that fossil-fueled vehicles will represent less than 1% of global sales by 2045, taking their place among other historical but essentially abandoned technologies.

Europe is expected to be the leader in EV adoption. The forecast is that EVs will surpass legacy vehicles by 2028. China is expected to follow by 2033. The US is lagging behind, but even here, electrics are expected to achieve a majority of car sales by 2036.

Plug-in vehicle sales have surpassed a 10% market share in California and Tesla now has a 1.7% share of the total US car market. Norway is the global EV leader with 3 out of 4 car buyers choosing electrics. In that country, Tesla’s Model 3 is the top-selling vehicle of any kind. In Switzerland, 40% of car sales are EVs or hybrids.

There are many variables that will affect the timetable for the EV transition. Among them are the timetable for widespread use of autonomous vehicle technology, the effects of policy initiatives by governments around the world, the development of charging infrastructure, and the evolution of electricity generation and energy storage.

In any case, looking at the product roadmap for virtually every automobile manufacturer makes it clear that electric cars are the future.

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Ernst & Young: Electric Cars Are Coming Sooner Than Expected

Photo, posted April 25, 2021, courtesy of Rutger van der Maar via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Not Such Climate Champions | Earth Wise

April 5, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The goal of the Paris Climate Accord is to limit warming to below 2 degrees Celsius and if possible to stay as close as close to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. Nations around the world have made commitments to drastically reduce their carbon dioxide emissions from the use of fossil fuels that are in large part responsible for the rising temperatures.

There are a number of countries that proudly claim to be leading the world in the fight against climate change but who are actually still a major part of the problem. Among these are Norway, the UK, and Canada.

Norway powers its streetlamps with renewables, runs its public transportation system entirely by renewable energy, and leads the world in the adoption of electric cars. Both the UK and Canada have set ambitious targets for emissions reductions leading to zero net emissions by 2050.

The problem is that under the Paris Agreement, each country is only responsible for the greenhouse gas emissions produced within its territory. That means that the UK, Canada, and Norway (like many other countries) don’t need to worry about the emissions caused by the burning of their oil, gas, and coal in other places around the world.

Norway’s annual domestic emissions reached about 53 million tons in 2017 according to its government. The emissions from the oil and gas Norway sold abroad reached roughly 470 million tons in 2017. Canada has huge proven oil reserves it is exploiting.

Canada, Norway, and the UK all plan to keep producing fossil fuels, investing in new fossil fuel projects, and explorations. As long as this continues, these countries are not really climate champions; they are climate hypocrites.

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Norway, the UK and Canada are not climate champions. They are climate hypocrites

Photo, posted September 4, 2008, courtesy of Statkraft via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Positive Tipping Points And Climate | Earth Wise

February 15, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

A tipping point is a moment when a small change triggers a large and possibly irreversible response.

There has been much discussion of various tipping points that could accelerate climate change in catastrophic ways. A recent paper from researchers at the University of Exeter in the UK discusses a couple of tipping points that could accelerate positive progress on mitigating climate change.

Electric vehicles account for only 2-3% of new car sales globally. In Norway, this figure is more than 50%, mostly thanks to policies that make electric cars the same price to buy as conventional cars. According to the Exeter study, when EVs cost the same to manufacture as conventional cars, it will be a global tipping point. China, the EU, and California together are responsible for half of the world’s car sales and each of these has targets to rapidly decarbonize their economies and policies in place to speed the transition to electric vehicles.

Decarbonizing electric power is the other potential positive tipping point. In Europe, carbon taxes on top of increasing renewable energy generation have tipped coal into unprofitability as they have led to the irreversible destruction of coal plants. Globally, renewables are already generating electricity cheaper than fossil fuels in many countries. Decarbonizing global power generation would in turn help accelerate decarbonization of large parts of transportation, heating and cooling, and industry.

These potential positive tipping points are by no means inevitable. Appropriate policies are needed to overcome various barriers to the clean energy transition. But major changes in transportation and electric power would have a tremendous impact on the global effort to combat climate change.

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Positive ‘tipping points’ offer hope for climate

Photo, posted July 14, 2020, courtesy of Jim Champion via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Arctic Northeast Passage May Open | Earth Wise

November 12, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The Northwest Passage is the sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean. It goes along the northern coast of North America, traveling though the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. In the past, it was the domain of intrepid explorers like Roald Amundsen. Because of the receding ice in the Arctic, in recent years it has become possible to travel the Northwest Passage by cruise ship.

The Northeast Passage connects the same two oceans along the Arctic coasts of Norway and Siberia. The sustained loss of sea ice is now leading to accessibility of Arctic sea passages through this route.

Compared with the customary route through the Strait of Malacca in Malaysia and the Suez Canal, using the Northeast Passage could reduce the travel distance between Europe and northwest Asia by one-third. This would reduce the expense of transportation and lower environmental pollution. Many Asian countries have a strong strategic and economic interest in Arctic shipping. Russia would gain strong competitive advantages for its liquified natural gas industry.

According to a recent study at the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the continuing warming of the Arctic seas is likely to result in the Northeast Passage being navigable for open water ships by next year and will continue to be increasingly hospitable to marine traffic.

The economic and strategic benefits to the opening of the Northeast Passage are quite clear. What is also clear is that the underlying cause of the opening of the passage – the dramatic loss of Arctic sea ice – is not beneficial to the world at all and is a harbinger of troubling things in our future.

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Arctic Northeast Passage may be Navigable in Near Future

Photo, posted September 24, 2005, courtesy of Paul Downey via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Boutique Hotels For Birds | Earth Wise

April 28, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The changing Arctic climate has had a drastic effect on its seabirds. In fact, seabirds worldwide are in crisis, with global populations plummeting nearly 70% over the past 70 years as a result of climate change, over-fishing, habitat loss, and other human impacts on their environment.

Above the Arctic circle in Norway, seabird behavior has changed dramatically. Black-legged kittiwakes – which are the most seafaring member of the gull family – used to nest in cliffs over the ocean and seldom ventured inland. But in recent years, that has changed. Because of a warming ocean, increased storminess and other changes that are decimating chick populations in their normal habitat, the birds have been setting up housekeeping in places like shopping centers and office buildings in Tromsø and other towns along Norway’s north coast.

Tromsø, Hammerfest and other towns at the very north end of Norway have become very popular with tourists seeking the Northern Lights and wanting to see glaciers before they disappear. The booming tourism has been put on hold for the moment as it has elsewhere, but when it returns, the regions growing hotels and shopping areas are facing a problem.

The birds taking up residence on these buildings are unpleasant neighbors. They are especially noisy during the breeding season and people are having to put up nets or spikes on buildings to discourage the kittiwakes from settling there.

Local ecologists are now building boutique hotels just for kittiwakes. Using abandoned buildings on piers, they are adding ledges for nesting, materials for nest-building, and electronic speakers that croon kittiwake songs. The hope is that the birds will stay in their own hotels and leave the other ones for the human tourists.

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Norwegians are building boutique hotels for threatened Arctic birds

Photo, posted April 14, 2018, courtesy of Charlie Jackson via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Coronavirus And European Energy | Earth Wise

April 23, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

As people all over the world shelter in place and much ordinary commerce and other activities have ground to a halt, there have been big changes in energy usage. With production halted, offices shut down, schools closed, and public transport operated on reduced timetables, the demand for energy has decreased dramatically.

In Europe, as a result of all this, during the first quarter of this year, renewables’ share of total energy production was greater than 60%. Wind farms provided more than 40% of the renewables’ share of total electricity generation. During February, Denmark, Germany and Ireland saw nearly 50% of their electricity demand met with wind power. Hydroelectric power was the second largest source of renewable energy during the first quarter, with Norway providing the largest share of this. In contrast, generation from nuclear plants was at its lowest first quarter figure for the past five years.

The large shift to renewable generation was in great part due to the overall reduction in demand. This impacts nuclear and fossil-fuel generation much more than renewables because those plants can be throttled back or shut down entirely so as not to needlessly consume costly fuels. Generation that runs on sunlight, wind, or flowing water does not require fuel expenses, so it makes sense to prefer them when demand is reduced.

The reduction in demand has in turn had a major effect on fuel costs as oil reached low prices that haven’t been seen in years.

The decline in demand and fuel prices and the enhanced role of renewables are expected to continue in the current quarter as the timetable for renewed economic activity remains unknown.

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Renewables achieve clean energy record as COVID-19 hits demand

Photo, posted June 25, 2010, courtesy of Martin Abegglen via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Scandinavian Wine

December 20, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The warming climate is creating some unexpected entrepreneurial opportunities. Many places that have traditionally dominated the wine industry are starting to be worried that the local climates that made them ideal for vineyards are changing and becoming much less ideal. On the other hand, places where wine-making was regarded as a losing proposition are becoming much more hospitable. A prime example is Scandinavia.

Nordic vintners are increasingly convinced that they can develop thriving commercial operations in what used to be places that are too cold for successful wine-making.

Denmark now has 90 commercial vineyards, up from just two 15 years ago. Forty vineyards have sprung up in Sweden. About a dozen vineyards are now operating as far north as Norway.

Many of these Nordic vineyards are in the startup stage and are tiny compared with the established wineries of Europe. Europe has 10 million acres of vineyards, which is enough to cover almost the entire country of Denmark. At the moment, there are only about 1,000 acres of vineyards in Denmark and Sweden.

But, looking forward, Scandinavia’s climate is forecast to be more like northern France, as regional temperatures climb as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit. Over the past decade, warming has produced milder winters, a longer growing season, and even a small but rising number of award-winning Scandinavian wines.

Meanwhile, traditional wine-growing regions are also dealing with climate change. Winemakers in France, for example, are experimenting with grapes from warmer countries like Tunisia to see if they can retain the tastes and yields that are the basis of a multibillion-dollar wine industry. Spanish and Italian winemakers are planting grapes higher up on mountainsides or on shaded north-facing slopes to preserve the quality of their wine.

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Scandinavian Wine? A Warming Climate Tempts Entrepreneurs

Photo, posted August 24, 2019, courtesy of Ron Reiring via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Booming Electric Car Sales

September 12, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Electric cars are becoming more and more commonplace over time. There is no place in the world where this is more evident than in Norway. This year, about half the new cars sold in Norway have been electric. This compares to only 25% just last year. In March alone, nearly 60% of vehicle purchases in Norway were plug-in cars, outselling gas and diesel cars for the first time ever.

Norway has encouraged the switch to electric transportation by making battery-powered cars tax exempt as well as offering various other incentives. This is all part of the country’s plan to end the sale of fossil fuel cars entirely by 2025.

Although Norway leads the world in electric car sales on a per capita basis, there are many other places seeing rapid growth. In Maryland, for example, so many electric cars were sold in the past year that the state’s tax credit program, which has a $3 million annual budget, ran out of money seven months before the end of the fiscal year. Between 2017 and 2018, the number of EVs registered in Maryland doubled to over 18,000.

New York has also seen robust growth in electric vehicles. There are now more than 40,000 plug-in cars registered in New York State. About a third of those are Tesla models, with the increasingly popular Tesla Model 3 rapidly becoming the dominant plug-in car in the state. In fact, this year the Tesla Model 3 has accounted for about 60% of all plug-in car sales in the United States.

Not only are electric car sales going up, so are the options for car buyers. Within the next year or two, there will be numerous new electric car choices available from multiple manufacturers appealing to the tastes of a growing range of car buyers.

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EVs Make Up Half of New Car Sales in Norway So Far This Year

Photo, posted May 16, 2019, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Climate Change And Economic Inequality

June 3, 2019 By EarthWise 1 Comment

A new study by Stanford University looked at the effects of climate change on global economic inequality. The study found that the gap between the economic output of the world’s richest and poorest countries is larger today than it would have been without global warming.

The warming climate has enriched cooler countries like Norway and Sweden while dragging down economic growth in warm countries such as India and Nigeria. The results of the study showed that most of the poorest countries on Earth are considerably poorer than they would have been in the absence of rising temperatures. At the same time, the majority of rich countries are richer than they would have otherwise been.

Detailed analysis of 50 years of annual temperature and GDP measurements for 165 countries demonstrated that growth during warmer than average years has accelerated in cool nations and slowed in warm nations. Historical data clearly show that crops are more productive, people are healthier, and they are more productive at work when temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold. That means that in cold countries, a little bit of warming can help but the opposite is true in places that are already hot.

For most counties, whether global warming has helped or hurt economic growth is pretty certain. Tropical countries in particular tend to have temperatures far outside the ideal for economic growth and they are already among the poorest countries. It is less clear how warming has influenced growth in countries in the middle latitudes, such as here in the United States. Some of the largest economies are near the perfect temperature for economic output but continued warming in the future is likely to push them away from the temperature optimum.

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Climate change has worsened global economic inequality

Photo, posted November 1, 2011, courtesy of CIAT via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Electric Cars In Norway

February 18, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Norway has long been a world leader in sales of electric vehicles. The country only has 5.3 million people, so the absolute numbers cannot compete with those of large countries. Despite that, it wasn’t until the first quarter of last year that Germany became the leader in number of electric cars sold in Europe and Germany has 15 times the population of Norway.

In percentage terms, almost one-third of all new cars sold in Norway last year ran on batteries. The country offers generous subsidies for buyers who opt to go electric. The government has set a goal of having all new cars be emission-free by 2025. Last year, three of the top five most popular new car models were electric: the Nissan Leaf, the BMW i3, and the Tesla Model X.

Tesla’s Model 3, which has shattered all records for electric car sales in the United States, has yet to go on sale in Norway. When the car becomes available there in the next few months, it is expected to generate very high sales figures.

The 31% market share for electric cars in Norway far exceeds that of most other countries. In the United States, for example, plug-in cars account for only about 2% of new car sales. Only Hong Kong and Iceland are also currently above 5% electric.

Norway’s role in all of this is rather convoluted. The country has copious hydroelectric power resources that provide virtually all of its electricity. Thus, electric cars in Norway are truly clean, green vehicles. On the other hand, Norway is the 15th largest producer of oil in the world and gets about 17% of its GDP from oil exports. Tackling climate change must ultimately deal with the emissions Norway continues to export.

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Photo, posted October 3, 2018, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Japan And Whaling

January 10, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The commercial hunting of whales nearly drove the giant mammals to extinction. By the 1960s, as hunting technologies improved and ships began to resemble floating factories, it became clear that whaling could not continue unchecked.

But despite all this, commercial whaling was never actually banned. Instead, in 1986, members of the International Whaling Committee (IWC) agreed to a whaling moratorium in order to allow whale stocks to recover. Pro-whaling nations like Japan, Iceland, and Norway expected the moratorium to be temporary until the whales stocks recovered, and a consensus on catch quotas could be established. But the temporary moratorium became a quasi-permanent ban, much to the delight of conservationists and to the dismay of whaling nations.

As a result, Japan recently announced it is leaving the international agreement and plans to resume commercial whaling. The agreement though never really stopped Japanese whaling in the first place, because it allowed the country to kill whales for scientific research. Japan has had an annual Antarctic catch quota of 333 minke whales, producing notoriously little in terms of whale science while producing lots of whale meat. As part of its withdrawal from the IWC, Japan will cease its Antarctic hunts and limit whalers to its own waters. Commercial Japanese whaling will resume in July.

Once popular in Japan, whale meat consumption has plummeted, falling 98% between 1962 and 2016. The industry employs fewer than 1,000 people and is dependent on government subsidies.

Many governments and conservationist groups condemned Japan’s withdrawal, declaring the move out of step with the international community. They argue that, rather than hunting whales, urgent action is needed to conserve marine ecosystems.

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