Friday, January 10, 2020
Recycling, Renewables and Sustainable Business 17
1 Supply chain concern over anti-plastic drive
https://www.packagingnews.co.uk/news/supply-chain-concern-anti-plastic-drive-09-01-2020
Research produced by Green Alliance for the Circular Economy Task Force has claimed that some moves away from plastic packaging have confused consumers while also risking increasing carbon emissions. The report, ‘Plastic promises: what the grocery sector is really doing about packaging’, spoke anonymously to representatives from retailers and brands.
2 Water wars: early warning tool uses climate data to predict conflict hotspots
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/jan/08/water-wars-early-warning-tool-uses-climate-data-to-predict-conflict-hotspots
Researchers from six organisations have developed an early warning system to help predict potential water conflicts as violence associated with water surges globally.
3 What 50 Years Of Global Hurricane Landfall Data Can Teach Us About Climate Change
https://www.forbes.com/sites/rogerpielke/2020/01/09/tropical-cyclone-landfalls-around-the-world-over-the-past-50-years/
In 2019 the three most costly catastrophes were the consequence of tropical cyclones, according to the reinsurance company Munich Re. Typhoons Hagibis and Faxai struck Japan, together causing more than $26 billion in losses and Typhoon Lekima caused more than $8 billion in losses across Asia.
4 White House unveils plan for major projects to bypass environmental review
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/09/white-house-projects-permits-climate-impact-plan
The Trump administration on Thursday unveiled a plan to speed permitting for major infrastructure projects such as oil pipelines, including dropping consideration of their potential impact on the climate crisis.
5 EV Charging Infrastructure Has a Soft Costs Problem
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/ev-charging-infrastructure-has-a-soft-costs-problem
The U.S. solar industry has spent a decade working to streamline and reduce the so-called soft costs of projects — or less-visible expenses in areas like customer acquisition, permitting, financing and installation. Now it’s time for the growing EV charging industry to do the same.
6 Tesla’s market value zooms past that of GM and Ford – combined
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks-tesla-idUSKBN1Z72MU
The Silicon Valley electric car maker’s stock jumped nearly 5% on Wednesday, closing at a record $492.14 per share and elevating its market capitalization to almost $89 billion, or $2 billion larger than the sum of General Motors’ and Ford’s respective market caps of $50 billion and $37 billion.
7 AI Could Supercharge Corporate Sustainability with New Applications
https://about.bnef.com/blog/ai-could-supercharge-corporate-sustainability-with-new-applications/
Two of the biggest challenges in improving a carbon footprint are determining its size in the first place – and analyzing the actions that might significantly impact it. The more data available, the more an individual or a corporation can make a plan and quantify the likely impact.
8 BlackRock joins investor group seeking emission curbs
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-blackrock-environment-idUSKBN1Z81X5
Top asset manager BlackRock Inc (BLK.N) said on Thursday it has joined the Climate Action 100+ investor group seeking emission curbs. A spokesman for New York-based BlackRock said via e-mail that “evidence of the impact of climate risk on investment portfolios is building rapidly” and reiterated past comments the company will accelerate its talks with corporate executives on climate risk.
9 US Electricity: Solar Up 15%, Wind Up 9%
https://cleantechnica.com/2020/01/09/us-electricity-solar-up-15-wind-up-9/
We’ve been writing for a while that solar and wind power are the cheapest options on the market for new power capacity in many if not most places. That is also shown by the power plants that companies across the United States choose to install. While natural gas is still seen as cheaper in certain regions, it is being pushed out as time goes on and as renewable energy costs continue to drop.
10 JetBlue to become carbon neutral in 2020
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jetblue-environment-idUSKBN1Z5237
etBlue Airways Corp on Monday said it plans to become carbon neutral on all domestic flights by July 2020 and would use an alternative fuel source for flights leaving from San Francisco amid rising pressure to cut greenhouse emissions.
11 Cenovus aims for ‘net zero’ GHG emissions by 2050
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/cenovus-oilsands-sustainability-strategy-1.5420652
Oilsands producer Cenovus Energy says it’s aiming to achieve “net zero” greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 — and reclaim hundreds of decommissioned wells sites — as part of new sustainability targets announced Thursday.
12 Report: Recycled plastic could supply 71% of UK demand
https://www.packagingnews.co.uk/news/environment/recycling/report-recycled-plastic-supply-71-uk-demand-09-01-2020
This could provide 71% of the raw material needed by UK manufacturers of plastic packaging and products. The UK currently exports two thirds of plastic collected for recycling and only recycles 9% of all plastics domestically.
13 Chemical recycling of plastics gets a catalytic boost in Australia, China
https://www.plasticstoday.com/packaging/chemical-recycling-plastics-gets-catalytic-boost-australia-china/95167332062187
News and interest in chemical recycling is spreading globally. That includes Australia, a country that consumes 3.4 million tonnes of plastic each year, of which only 9% is recycled. Licella Holdings Ltd. (Sydney, Australia) announced January 8 a partnership with bioplastic innovator BioLogiQ, Inc. (Idaho Falls, ID) to accelerate the move towards a circular economy for plastics by the commercialization of Licella’s breakthrough Catalytic Hydrothermal Reactor (Cat-HTR) chemical recycling solution.
14 Climate watchdog warns US fracking boom leading to 30% rise in greenhouse gas emissions by 2025
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/01/climate-watchdog-warns-us-fracking-boom-leading-to-30-rise-in-greenhouse-gas-emissions-by-2025/
Planet-heating pollution from the U.S. oil, gas, and petrochemical industries could rise about 30% by 2025 compared with 2018 because of additional drilling and 157 new or expanded projects “fueled by the fracking boom,” an environmental watchdog group warned Wednesday.
15 Solar Installations to Grow by Additional 142 GW in 2020 – Seven Times the World’s Total Solar Installations a Decade Ago
https://www.altenergymag.com/story/2020/01/solar-installations-to-grow-by-additional-142-gw-in-2020-%E2%80%93-seven-times-the-worlds-total-solar-installations-a-decade-ago/32473/
Global solar installations will continue double-digit growth rates into the new decade, according to the new 2020 Global Photovoltaic (PV) Demand Forecast by IHS Markit (NYSE: INFO), a world leader in critical information, analytics and solutions. New annual installations in 2020 will reach 142 gigawatts (GW), a 14 % rise over the previous year.
16 New York Planning 1GW-Plus Offshore Wind Solicitation in 2020
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/new-york-planning-1gw-plus-offshore-wind-solicitation-in-2020
New York confirmed plans to issue its second solicitation for offshore wind farms this year, expected to add at least 1 gigawatt to the state’s pipeline.
17 Saudis to free up more crude for export by building solar power plants
https://www.worldoil.com/news/2020/1/9/saudis-to-free-up-more-crude-for-export-by-building-solar-power-plants
Saudi Arabia is seeking companies to build four solar power plants as the Persian Gulf oil giant resumes its renewable energy push.
The energy ministry is seeking bidders for the projects to build plants capable of generating a total of 1,200 megawatts of solar power, according to a statement from its Renewable Energy Project Development Office.
