Donald Trump and Joe Biden arrive onstage for the final presidential debate at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, on Oct. 22, 2020. JIM WATSON / AFP via Getty Images
Towards the end of the final presidential debate of the 2020 election season, the moderator asked both candidates how they would address both the climate crisis and job growth, leading to a nearly 12-minute discussion where Donald Trump did not acknowledge that the climate is changing and Joe Biden called the climate crisis an existential threat.
<p>In response to the question from moderator Kristen Welker, "How would you both combat climate change and support job growth?" Trump insisted that he loves the environment and wants clean air and water. He said that his administration has started to plant trees and there have been record drops in carbon emissions during his administration. </p><p>Trump then made a rambling remark about air pollution in India, China and Russia, before touting that he took the U.S. out of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/paris-agreement">Paris agreement</a>, giving a false version of what the Paris agreement requires of the U.S. and insisting that it would have sacrificed "tens of millions of jobs."</p>
<p><br></p><p>By contrast, Biden noted that the climate crisis and a warming planet are "an existential threat to humanity."</p><p>"We have a moral obligation to deal with it and we're told by all the leading scientists in the world we don't have much time," he said and then pointed out that scientists say we have 8 to 10 years to tackle the crisis before we pass the point of no return, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/10/22/climate-change-biden-trump-debate/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> reported.</p><p>He then went on to list infrastructure investments in charging stations to promote the use of electric cars, and retrofitting older buildings so they do not leak their heating and cooling. Biden said those upgrades will save millions of barrels of oil, help clean the environment and create more than 18 million jobs.</p>
<p><br></p><p>Trump, in his response, insisted that Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and three other female Democratic lawmakers "know nothing about the climate." Trump then claimed the plan would cost $100 trillion, even though Biden's website says his plan will cost $2 trillion.</p>
<p>Biden turned his attention to the support he has received from both environmental groups and labor unions.</p><p>The moderator then asked Trump why people of color, who are disproportionately affected by pollution since their communities are often up against oil refineries and chemical plants, should give him four more years in office.</p><p>"The families that we're talking about are employed heavily and they're making more money than they've ever made," Trump replied. He then went on to claim that he saved the oil industry.</p><p>Biden replied by talking about the effect of living next to a fence line and how important it is to keep people safe by imposing restrictions on pollution.</p><p>Trump then stopped Welker from asking her final question and asked Biden if he would close down the oil industry. Biden insisted he would stop federal subsidies of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels">fossil fuels</a> and usher in a transition to <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/renewable-energy/">renewable energy</a>.</p><p>"We have to move towards a net zero emissions," Biden said.</p>
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World's Largest Solar Farm in Australia Will Also Supply 20% of Singapore's Electricity
21 October
Renewable Energy
Sun Cable hopes to start construction of the world's largest solar farm in 2023. Sun Cable
A large expanse of Australia's deserted Outback will house the world's largest solar farm and generate enough energy to export power to Singapore, as The Guardian reported.
<p><br/></p>
<p>The massive solar farm, which will be visible from space after it's constructed, will lie halfway between Alice Springs and Darwin, two cities in Australia's Northern Territory. The solar farm will occupy more than 46 square miles and cost $20 billion to build, according to <a href="https://www.unilad.co.uk/technology/worlds-largest-solar-farm-to-power-singapore/" target="_blank">Unilad</a>.</p><p>The remote area of the Outback where the solar panels will work is currently a massive cattle ranch, but the owner of the project, Sun Cable, hopes to start construction in 2023 with the aim of exporting energy by 2027. According to Unilad, the solar farm is expected to generate so much energy that not only will it power all of the Northern Territory, but two-thirds of the electricity will be exported via underwater cables that run 2,800 miles to Singapore, a city-state on the tip of the Malay peninsula.</p>
<p>Sun Cable has initiated the project by evaluating its environmental impact and making sure its project complies with regulation from the Northern Territory's Environment Protection Authority, as the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2020-10-20/newcastle-waters-station-nt-set-for-worlds-biggest-solar-farm/12785256" target="_blank">Australian Broadcasting Corporation</a> (ABC) reported.</p><p>"We'll be using thousands of hectares of land, and we need to closely examine the impact on the ground at the solar farm end," Sun Cable CEO David Griffin said, as ABC reported. "There's a lot of black soil in that country, but that's a bit problematic for us, so we're [planning to build] on a substantial area of soil that's a bit different and a bit friendlier for us to construct on."</p><p>Despite those challenges, Griffin believes the massive cattle farm called Newcastle Waters is an ideal location for the solar farm because it meets several critical requirements.</p><p>"It's on the Adelaide to Darwin rail corridor, which is brilliant for our logistics given the enormous amount of material we'll have to transport to the site," he said to The Guardian. The location is also just 18 miles off the main highway that runs the length of the sparsely populated Northern Territory.</p>
<p>The weather also provides ideal conditions for producing energy.<br></p><p>"It's a bit of a balancing act too, because it's far south enough to get away from the main patch affected by the wet season, so it's a steady solar resource throughout the year," Griffin told The Guardian. "There's plenty of sun and not many clouds."</p><p>The massive project is expected to supply 10 gigawatts of electricity. The sustainable energy will help the remote areas of the Northern Territory, which usually have to use energy from diesel-powered generators. The exported energy will supply 20 percent of Singapore's energy needs, according to Unilad.</p><p>The solar farm, which is three times larger than the world's current largest solar farm in northern China, is also expected to provide thousands of jobs related to construction and hundreds of jobs once construction is done. Griffin told The Guardian that many of the jobs will go to local <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/indigenous-peoples">Indigenous</a> communities.</p>
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Construction on the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric station in 2015. Government of Newfoundland and Labrador / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
By Tara Lohan
In 1999 a cheering crowd watched as a backhoe breached a hydroelectric dam on Maine's Kennebec River. The effort to help restore native fish populations and the river's health was hailed as a success and ignited a nationwide movement that spurred 1,200 dam removals in two decades.
<p>The era of building large dams in the United States, which defined so much of the 20th century, is over. The prime spots for development were cemented decades ago, and the ensuing harm to fish and other wildlife has been well documented. Attention is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/13/climate/environmentalists-hydropower-dams.html" target="_blank">now focused</a> on removing obsolete dams and retrofitting existing hydroelectric dams to reduce ecological harm and increase energy efficiency.</p><p>Many other countries are in the same boat. Across Europe and North America "big dams stopped being built in developed nations because the best sites for dams were already developed, and environmental and social concerns made the costs unacceptable," found a <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/115/47/11891" target="_blank">2018 study</a> in the <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em>.</p>
<p>Canada appears to be the exception to that.</p><p>Large dams are still being built across Canada, from Muskrat Falls in Labrador to the generically titled "Site C" in British Columbia, despite <a href="https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/inquiry-slams-nalcor-s-c-12-7b-muskrat-falls-hydro-project-as-misguided-57533638" target="_blank">cost overruns</a>, outcry from some <a href="https://thenarwhal.ca/i-dont-see-why-anything-should-be-secret-first-nation-rejected-28-million-in-site-c-dam-deal-court-docs-reveal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">First Nations</a> and even <a href="https://thetyee.ca/News/2017/03/13/UN-Calls-for-Site-C-Review/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">environmental concerns</a> from the United Nations.</p><p>Hydroelectric power already supplies 60% of the country's energy. But the dam building isn't just to feed Canada's power needs. It's also become a hot export commodity.</p><p>As U.S. states look to meet new clean energy targets, imported low-carbon hydropower from across the northern border has become a larger part of the conversation — and the grid. New England already gets 17% of its energy from Canadian hydropower, Midwest states around 12% and New York 5%.</p><p>That number is likely to jump.</p><p>A new transmission project to bring 250 megawatts of Canadian hydropower to the United States <a href="https://renewablesnow.com/news/minnesota-power-brings-online-250-mw-hydro-wind-transmission-line-702303/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">just came online in Minnesota</a>. Two more are in the works for Massachusetts and New York.</p>
<p>Proponents say we need large-scale hydro to grease the wheels of the clean energy transition. Others caution that it comes with a larger environmental cost compared to wind and solar and could open the floodgates for more dam building.</p><p>There's one shared bit of common ground, though: We need to act quickly and wisely to tackle the climate crisis.</p><p>"This is the decade for getting 50% of the way there on renewables, but also proving out the pathway to get to net-zero by mid-century, if not before," says Peter Rothstein, president of the <a href="https://www.necec.org/" target="_blank">Northeast Clean Energy Council</a>.</p><p>How hydro figures into that process is still a complicated issue.</p>
<h3>Clean Energy Demand Surges</h3><p>The Northeast is one place where the energy transition is off and running.</p><p>All six New England states have pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions 80% over 1990 levels by 2050, and some are aiming higher.</p><p>Neighboring New York is also keeping pace. Last year the Empire State committed to achieving an 85% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and 70% renewable electricity by 2030.</p><p>How will those goals be achieved?</p><p>For some, imported Canadian hydropower looks poised to play a big role, and two new projects appear close to breaking ground.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDU1MjYxMi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNjUyNDkzNH0.WEBhGwZFIFhubp42RzciMPmzWdfDC9o24akvVcl1a40/img.jpg?width=980" id="56920" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c79b6e5712b1b6f73a4d875536a2a4e3" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Transmission lines from the Churchill Falls generating station in Labrador. Douglas Spott / CC BY-NC 2.0
<p><a href="https://chpexpress.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Champlain Hudson Power Express</a>, a 330-mile-long transmission line, would deliver 1,000 megawatts of hydropower from Quebec to the New York metro area and could supply about a million homes — helping to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.</p><p>The project — a joint venture of the province-run Hydro-Québec and Transmission Developers Inc., a subsidiary of the private equity firm Blackstone Group — has already received the necessary permits for construction, but no contracts for the power have been signed.</p><p>Construction, however, could still start next year, with the project scheduled to come online in 2025.</p><p>Massachusetts has an even bigger project in the works. <a href="https://www.necleanenergyconnect.org/project-overview" target="_blank">New England Clean Energy Connect</a> would bring 1,500 megawatts of capacity through a 145-mile-long transmission line running through Maine from Canada to Massachusetts. It too would come from Hydro-Québec, this time working in conjunction with Central Maine Power.</p><p>The project, which is projected to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 3 million tons a year in New England, has received its necessary permits from the state of Maine but still awaits federal permits from the Department of Energy and the Army Corps of Engineers.</p><p>Opposition groups, including some environmental organizations, are also <a href="https://www.nrcm.org/programs/climate/proposed-cmp-transmission-line-bad-deal-maine/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">challenging various aspects of the project</a> in court. And a coalition of First Nations communities that have seen dams built on their ancestral lands have voiced their opposition. (You can read more about that transmission line in <a href="https://therevelator.org/hydropower-necec/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Part I of this series</a>.)</p><p>More could be on the way. Nalcor Energy — the province-run hydro company of Newfoundland and Labrador — is nearing completion on its 824-megawatt <a href="https://muskratfalls.nalcorenergy.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Muskrat Falls hydro project</a> on the Churchill (or Grand) River. Costs have just <a href="https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/business/regional-business/muskrat-falls-costs-top-131-billion-503057/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">surpassed $13 billion</a> — twice what was first estimated.</p><p>Some of the energy is already slated to be sent to other parts of Canada and then — hopefully, <a href="https://muskratfalls.nalcorenergy.com/project-overview/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">according to Nalcor</a> — to New England.</p>
<h3>Environmental Considerations</h3><p>What's the net impact of these planned projects? That's hard to say. Tallying the environmental benefit or harm from large-scale hydro is complicated.</p><p>One of the biggest metrics of assessing environmental impact is greenhouse gas emissions.</p><p>The first phase of emissions comes just from building its infrastructure. Large-scale hydropower involves the construction of generating stations, and often accompanying dams and reservoirs. And then there are hundreds of miles of transmission lines that need to be constructed to move that power.</p><p>What comes next, once a project comes online, depends on multiple factors. Research has shown that hydropower emissions vary widely based on the location, climate and area of land flooded. Hydro emissions are also highest when a reservoir is first flooded and then decrease in the following years.</p><p>All told, over the life cycle of a project, most hydropower is cleaner than fossil fuels, although not always as clean as wind and solar. A <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-017-0032-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">study</a> in <em>Nature Energy</em> on the projected life-cycle emissions of energy sources put solar at 6 grams of CO2 equivalent per kilowatt hour and wind at 4. The researchers estimated typical hydro at 97, but there's great variation between sites.</p><p>A 2014 <a href="https://www.hydroquebec.com/data/developpement-durable/pdf/comparing-power-generation-options-and-electricity-mixes.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">report</a> prepared by the research group CIRAIG on behalf of Hydro-Québec found the average life-cycle emissions of the company's fleet of 62 generation stations was between 6 and 17 grams of CO2 equivalent per kilowatt hour.</p><p>Alain Tremblay, Hydro-Québec's lead scientist on greenhouse gas emissions, says tracking from their most recent complex of dams on the Romaine River shows emissions between 5 and 10 grams of CO2 equivalent per kilowatt hour.</p>
<p>There are other environmental considerations beyond greenhouse gas emissions.</p><p>The nonprofit Natural Resources Council of Maine opposes the New England Clean Energy Connect, in part out of concern about fragmented habitat and critical wildlife populations, including brook trout. The transmission line would require clearing a 53-mile stretch of forest through the North Maine Woods.</p><p>In New York the nonprofit <a href="https://www.riverkeeper.org/" target="_blank">Riverkeeper</a> reversed its earlier support for the Champlain Hudson Power Express and has now <a href="https://www.riverkeeper.org/news-events/news/energy/riverkeeper-statement-regarding-the-champlain-hudson-power-express/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">come out against that project</a>, which would send its electrical cable down the length of the Hudson River.</p><p>"This sets a precedent that the Hudson is a conduit for extension cords from Canada or from anywhere," says John Lipscomb, Riverkeeper's vice president of advocacy. "It should be off limits to that kind of thing."</p><p>The Hudson contains legacy pollution from polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) dumped decades ago and other contaminants that could be turned up as the cable is dug in the riverbed. Over the years some of that pollution has been remediated, but not all. And plans to avoid putting cable in the areas of the worst-known contamination aren't sufficient to protect the ecosystem, he says.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDU1MjYzNS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNzAyMzAzNX0.8in_ymMRAcp03rlSx96nunmf8TUnwEfoKFPpn1Fhmqc/img.png?width=980" id="926a2" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3e71d0055729b3ec7582ade7e2129da6" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Atlantic sturgeon were brought to the brink of extension in the 20th century and are now are listed as an endangered species. NOAA
<p>There's also concern that imperiled fish species, like endangered shortnose sturgeon and Atlantic sturgeon, could be harmed by the electrical cable. The river was designated as critical habitat for Atlantic sturgeon, but no <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/regulators-warned-of-champlain-hudson-power-express-projects-environmental-impact-2020-10-08/" target="_blank">Endangered Species Act review</a> has been initiated to assess if the cable could threaten fish populations.</p><p>"Both of these fishes have nervous systems similar to that of sharks, which are incredibly sensitive to electric signals," says Roger Downs, conservation director of the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter. "It's a huge experiment to suddenly put an electrical signal down the backbone of this river."</p><p>Lipscomb shares this concern. After all the work that's been done in recent years to help restore the Hudson and its estuary, he says "it's heartbreaking that we still think of this river as a resource."</p><p>Hydropower may be renewable, he says, but from an environmental perspective it isn't sustainable. "Unless a river's value is zero," he says. "If a river has any value as an ecosystem, as a host for life, then hydropower isn't even a consideration."</p>
<h3>Upstream Justice Concerns</h3><p>In 1990 a group of Cree and Inuit protestors paddled the Hudson River to Manhattan to ask New Yorkers to <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-wednesday-edition-1.3044034/commemorating-25th-anniversary-of-historic-odeyak-voyage-1.3044498" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">oppose a power purchase</a> agreement between the state and Quebec and the construction of a second dam in the James Bay hydroelectric project in northern Quebec.</p><p>They were successful. Now, 30 years later, a different group of First Nations is making a similar plea.</p><p>On October 7 the First Nations of Pessamit, Wemotaci, Pikogan, Lac Simon and Kitcisakik sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Energy stating their opposition to the Massachusetts transmission line. The groups wrote that one-third of Hydro-Québec's installed power is "produced in our respective ancestral territories from reservoirs, dams, power plants and various other installations, without prior consultation, without our consent and without compensation."</p><p>Over the decades of hydropower buildout in Canada many First Nations communities — but not all — have been consulted on projects and struck agreements with power companies.</p><p>Major hydroelectric projects have altered the flow of rivers and in some cases, the food and cultural resources used by Indigenous communities.</p><p>There are also health concerns.</p><p>A 2016 <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.est.6b04447" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">study</a> by Harvard University researchers, published in <em>Environmental Science and Technology,</em> found that flooding reservoirs for hydroelectric projects in Canada would increase the risk of mercury poisoning in Indigenous communities at 90% of the dam sites.</p><p>When land is flooded for a reservoir, the microbes in the soil convert naturally occurring mercury into more dangerous methylmercury, which then works its way up the food chain. That puts anyone who relies on local wildlife such as fish, birds and seals at risk. In the northern reaches of Canada, that's largely Indigenous people.</p><p>The researchers looked at how three Inuit communities downstream of Nalcor's Muskrat Falls project would fare. And they found that, on average, risk of exposure for community members would double after the area was flooded. That could translate to higher risks for cardiovascular disease and neurodevelopmental delays for children.</p><p>The more people rely on local food sources, the more harm they're exposed to. And in this remote region where store-bought food is very expensive, that's a serious concern.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDU1MjYzOC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyOTA1Mzc0MH0.QuQG5HVESeGCC-l0a561BfaZMDy-FUWAql5aCjCkhOc/img.jpg?width=980" id="c5668" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="055402f58261cdd4c3addaa56347c8f9" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Near Happy Valley-Goose Bay on the Churchill (Grand) River downstream from Muskrat Falls. Douglas Sprott / CC BY-NC 2.0
<p>"People have a very high prevalence of economic insecurity and that translates into insecure access to Western foods at the grocery store," says Ryan Calder, a co-author of the study and now an assistant professor of environmental health and policy at Virginia Tech. "Traditional food systems account for a smaller and smaller fraction of overall calories, but a wildly disproportionate fraction of nutrient intake."</p><p>Despite this, he doesn't think their research should be taken as a commentary on whether hydroelectric power itself is good or bad. "We really just criticized [the company's] risk assessment," he says.</p><p>Earlier studies by Nalcor claimed the effect on the Inuit would be negligible as the mercury would quickly dilute in downstream waters.</p><p>"They had no basis for saying there was going to be no impact," says Calder. "It was clear that they were trying to ignore their obligations — if not legal, then certainly moral — to Indigenous people."</p><p>The researchers also found that about half of the other sites they studied would have equal or greater concentrations of methylmercury than Muskrat Falls.</p><p>Roberta Frampton Benefiel of <a href="http://www.grandriverkeeperlabrador.ca/" target="_blank">Grand Riverkeeper Labrador</a>, who lives near the Muskrat Falls project, says she wasn't surprised by Nalcor's position. "Aboriginal people don't count to this government and so we have to make the Aboriginal people count," she says.</p><p>She has spoken to environmental organizations in the United States to help raise awareness about some of the local effects of dam development in Canada.</p><p>"I want people in the United States to understand that when they flip their light switch, if they accept these power lines from Canada, they're poisoning northern communities," she says.</p>
<h3>More Dams?</h3><p>New York and Massachusetts have been eager for hydropower from Canada as long as it doesn't mean the construction of new dams for the transmission projects.</p><p>Hydro-Québec says it has enough reserves for export to New York and Massachusetts without redirecting power from its existing United States or Canadian customers.</p><p>It's nearly finished with the last dam in the complex of four generating stations on the Romaine River, which along with other projects, has added 5,000 megawatts of capacity over the last decade. Although it does has the <a href="https://www.nerc.com/pa/RAPA/ra/Reliability%20Assessments%20DL/NERC_LTRA_2019.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">lowest reserve margin</a> of utilities in the region, according to the North American Electric Reliability Corporation's 2019 assessment.</p><p>In previous years Hydro-Québec did preliminary work to explore the possibility of new dams on the Little Mécatina River, but company spokesperson Lynn St-Laurent says they currently have no plans for new dams and that project is no longer in their strategic plan.</p><p>Gary Sutherland, director of strategic affairs for northeast markets at Hydro-Québec, says that additional energy demand for export could be met with increased energy efficiency in Quebec and more wind projects. Quebec Premier François Legault <a href="https://twitter.com/francoislegault/status/1316155854610001920" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">tweeted last week</a> that the province's next addition of capacity, if needed, would be the 200-megawatt <a href="https://energycentral.com/news/quebec-interest-wind-power-projects-back-horizon" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Apuiat wind farm</a>.</p><p>Elsewhere in Canada, however, dam building continues.</p><p>Manitoba Hydro and four First Nations are in the process of building the <a href="https://www.enr.com/articles/45695-mega-canadian-hydro-project-moves-forward-despite-surprises-bitter-cold" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Keeyask project</a>, a 695-megawatt hydroelectric generating station on the Nelson River.</p><p>British Columbia also continues to muddle along on development at Site C, a 1,100-megawatt dam on the Peace River that has faced mounting problems and protests.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDU1MjY0MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNzkxNTIzN30.qQ8Ig5mi290gQcTE_vwWxHVQE2VEHK_kU4C07jHBS0U/img.jpg?width=980" id="f4830" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="60e9b436682d334050473e4f446c730c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Construction of the Site C dam in British Columbia in 2017. Jason Woodhead / CC BY 2.0
<p>This includes, according to a report in <em><a href="https://thenarwhal.ca/topics/site-c-dam-bc/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Narwhal</a></em>, legal challenges from "landowners and First Nations who oppose flooding 128 kilometers of the Peace River and its tributaries, putting Indigenous burial grounds, traditional hunting and fishing areas, habitat for more than 100 species vulnerable to extinction and some of Canada's richest farmland under up to 50 meters of water."</p><p>Construction has also <a href="https://vancouversun.com/business/site-c-still-scaling-up-construction-to-meet-important-milestone-while-remains-up-in-the-air" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">uncovered geological issues</a> that could make parts of the foundation unstable, prompting <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/site-c-letter-1.5741443" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">numerous calls</a> to stop development.</p><p><a href="https://1694d3a6-ec13-42ea-a8f0-a29cda354660.usrfiles.com/ugd/1694d3_b5baab11560f4bf4a3910e992c608509.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">New research</a> by energy analyst Robert McCullough, who runs a Portland, <a href="https://www.mresearch.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Oregon-based consulting firm</a>, found that if the project continues its likely to have surplus energy that will need to be sold outside the province at a loss to ratepayers.</p><p>But a poor financial outlook doesn't always mean the end of dam projects in Canada.</p><p>In Labrador Nalcor also has another large project planned — the 2,250-megawatt Gull Island dam, farther upstream from Muskrat Falls, which could be built if there's a buyer for the power.</p><p>It's a prospect Benefiel finds shocking, considering the company's most recent project was so over budget that it prompted a provincial <a href="https://www.muskratfallsinquiry.ca/" target="_blank">Commission of Inquiry</a>, which found that Muskrat Falls put the financial health of the entire province at risk.</p>
<h3>Is Hydro Needed?</h3><p>Considering all the complexities of hydro projects and the related transmission infrastructure, is it necessary to move U.S. states off fossil fuels and toward clean energy goals?</p><p>That depends on who you talk to.</p><p>Despite investment in wind and solar, "hydro has a couple of things going for it," says Rothstein of the Northeast Clean Energy Council. The first is that it's able to compete on costs, and second is the "dispatchability."</p><p>Thanks to decades of dam building, Canadian hydropower is ready to go — pending transmission capacity. It's also seen as less variable than wind and solar, although hydropower does fluctuate by season and by year, depending on precipitation.</p><p>"I think hydro will play a role, but it's not going to be the only resource," says Rothstein. Offshore wind holds the biggest potential for large-scale projects in the region, he says.</p><p>New York has already awarded contracts to procure <a href="https://www.utilitydive.com/news/new-york-awards-record-1700-mw-offshore-wind-contracts/559091/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">1,700 megawatts of offshore wind</a> and in July <a href="https://renewablesnow.com/news/new-york-opens-procurement-round-for-4-gw-of-renewables-707197/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">put out a call</a> to solicit another 2,500 megawatts of offshore wind and 1,500 megawatts of land-based, large-scale renewables.</p><p>Massachusetts is making strides toward wind energy, too. In 2016 Gov. Charlie Baker signed an energy bill requiring the state's utilities to<a href="https://www.wbur.org/earthwhile/2019/05/31/more-offshore-wind-power-massachusetts" target="_blank"> procure 1,600 megawatts of offshore wind</a> and could soon double that.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDU1MjY2NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NzE5MTUwNX0.qJN9i3xJcDJ9GrKI8cM8v0WIFkWcMGzNFzvn5yz0p54/img.jpg?width=980" id="cc8a4" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c558d5f64337d0e12e7603c52be882b2" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
The Block Island Wind Farm off the coast of Rhode Island is the first U.S. offshore wind farm. Dennis Schroeder / NREL / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
<p>All told around a half a dozen major projects now await a green light, pending permitting decisions by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.</p><p>All down the East Coast, "there's a whole constellation of projects close to breaking water," says Rothstein.</p><p>In the past offshore wind has been stymied by NIMBYism, but he says both the public perception of wind has changed and so have costs. New projects being proposed are farther offshore and out of view. And more established, global wind developers are competing for projects, helping to bring down prices.</p><p>Sierra Club's Downs thinks northeast states could meet their goals without imported hydro. Instead he'd like to see more focus on large-scale solar installations in upstate New York on brownfields or fallow farmland, and more offshore wind.</p><p>"And then we need to be doing more and more programs for smaller, community-based wind and solar," he says.</p><p>Whatever mix of low-carbon power is secured, Downs hopes it doesn't turn rivers into transmission corridors and does account for the full environmental and social costs of power generation.</p><p>"We have an obligation to protect cultural rights, Indigenous rights and also the vast Canadian wilderness," says Downs. "We shouldn't be exporting our environmental problems."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/hydro-dams-transmission/" target="_blank">The Revelator</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Indigenous Women to Financial CEOs: Stop Abetting 'Climate-Wrecking' Tar Sands Industry
20 October
Business
Demonstrators hold signs at an anti-tar sands march in St. Paul, Minnesota in 2015. Fibonacci Blue / CC BY 2.0
By Andrea Germanos
A group of Indigenous women and their allies on Monday urged the heads of major global financial institutions to stop propping up the tar sands industry and sever all ties with the sector's "climate-wrecking pipelines, as well as the massively destructive extraction projects that feed them."
<p>The demand to the CEOs comes in an <a href="https://d99d2e8d-06c9-433b-915d-f6e381b1acd4.usrfiles.com/ugd/d99d2e_d74cf8f06b194a8cb1c96b6c07ee7713.pdf" target="_blank">open letter</a> signed by more than 40 Indigenous leaders including Rebecca Adamson, Cherokee and founder of First Nations and First Peoples Worldwide; Tara Houska, Couchiching First Nation and founder of the Giniw Collective; and Winona LaDuke, White Earth Nation and executive director of Honor the Earth.</p><p>Supporting the call is a diverse group of over 150 organizations such as Another Gulf Is Possible Collaborative, Global Exchange, and Indigenous Environmental Network.</p><p>"It's time to move on. The most destructive and expensive oil in the world needs to stay in the ground," LaDuke said in a statement.</p><p>Beyond the tar sands sector's "grave threats to Indigenous rights, cultural survival, local waterways and environments, the global climate, and public health," the open letter says continued financing and insuring of tar sands projects just makes bad economic sense, noting that "no subsector has had a worse financial prognosis than tar sands oil."</p>
<p>"The current economic crisis has sent oil and gas prices, and particularly tar sands oil, plunging," the letter notes.</p><p>"Tar sands is one of the most carbon-intensive, expensive extraction processes in the industry, and these pipelines are likely to be stranded assets soon after they are built," the women wrote, referring to a scenario in which fossil fuels will have to stay in the ground.</p><p>The letter zeroes in on three specific pipelines as pivotal to future tar sands extraction — TC Energy's <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/14/we-will-never-back-down-landowners-and-green-groups-file-new-lawsuit-against" target="_blank">Keystone XL pipeline</a>, Enbridge's <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/06/03/activists-stage-blockade-block-work-line-3-court-tosses-out-proposed-pipelines" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Line 3 pipeline</a>, and the Canadian government-owned <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/05/we-will-continue-fight-protesters-vow-after-canadian-court-dismisses-indigenous" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Trans Mountain pipeline</a> — each of which has faced sustained <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/02/solidarity-frontline-communities-day-action-demands-end-funding-tar-sands" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">opposition</a>. The economic impact of such opposition can't be denied, with the letter pointing to the "$25 billion in mining assets lost due to operations being tied up or shut down by community protests" in 2018.</p>
<p>What's more, the Indigenous leaders wrote, the "risk portfolio for extractive and land-based companies show[s] that 73% of company risk and delays are non-technical. Non-technical means community protests and boycotts that result in operational delays or shutdowns."</p><p>Should the CEOs fail to heed the demands laid out in the letter, further delays ought to be expected. "We will continue to resist the remaining proposed projects and hold the financial backers of these companies accountable," the letter states.</p><p>While the ecological harm of tar sands extraction and infrastructure has been repeatedly noted by <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels">fossil fuel</a> critics, the letter points to new threats brought by the coronavirus crisis. The signatories point to the multiple work sites in Alberta that have seen outbreaks of COVID-19 as extremely bad news for Indigenous communities who "are uniquely vulnerable to the virus' spread due to historically underfunded healthcare programs and significant health disparities."</p>
<p>In addition, an influx of project workers and so-called "man camps" brings particularly acute harm to Indigenous women:</p><blockquote>Indigenous women in these rural areas are in peril. There is growing evidence that the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW) is directly linked to fossil fuel production. Workers relocate to construction sites to build pipelines, creating temporary housing communities known as "man camps" near the pipeline route, which is oftentimes on or next to tribal nation lands. Studies, reports, and Congressional hearings have found that man camps lead to increased rates of sexual violence and sexual trafficking.</blockquote><p>"We need a just transition to <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/renewable-energy/">renewable</a>, sustainable energy, not expansion of fossil fuel extraction," the signatories declare. "We demand respect for our rights and sovereignty as Indigenous Peoples so that we can control our own lands, futures, and job opportunities."</p>
<p>The letter lays out a way forward for the financial institutions.</p><p>"Rather than exploit the tar sands sector for its last drops of profit in the face of climate crisis and disregard the health and safety of communities along pipeline routes, your company can accelerate a just transition for Indigenous nations, communities, and workers that depend on the industry for their livelihoods by publicly ruling out involvement in these tar sands projects and redirecting your insurance underwriting to communities and renewable, clean energy," the women wrote.</p><p>According to Joye Braun, Cheyenne River Sioux, organizer with Indigenous Environmental Network, the tar sands industry has been "nothing more than evil incarnate."</p><p>"We must put a stop to them," said Braun. "We must stand and say enough is enough. Join us in saving our future. Join us putting the proverbial nail in the coffin of these dying, unneeded industries."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/19/indigenous-women-financial-ceos-stop-abetting-climate-wrecking-tar-sands-sector-or" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em><br/></p>From Your Site Articles
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The Drax coal-fired power station near Selby, North Yorkshire, England. Warwick Sweeney / Photographer's Choice / Getty Images Plus
Thirty of the world's largest investors, who together control $5 trillion in assets, have pledged to cut the greenhouse gas emissions of their portfolios by as much as 29 percent in five years.
<p>The investors, who include Allianz, the Church of England and the California Public Employees' Retirement System, are all part of the UN convened <a href="https://www.unepfi.org/net-zero-alliance/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance</a>. The group formed in 2019 with the goal of reducing the emissions of their investment portfolios to net zero by 2050 and limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. On the road to that goal, the group announced their <a href="https://www.unepfi.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Alliance-Target-Setting-Protocol_Final-Consultation-Draft.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2025 Target Setting Protocol</a> Tuesday, which includes the goal to reduce emissions across members' portfolios by 16 to 29 percent of 2019 levels by 2025.</p>
<p>"According to the UNEP Emissions Gap Report, every year of postponed emissions peak means that deeper and faster cuts will be required," UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative leader Eric Usher said in a <a href="https://www.unepfi.org/news/industries/investment/net-zero-asset-owner-alliance-sets-unprecedented-5-year-portfolio-decarbonization-targets/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">press release</a>. "The Target-Setting Protocol represents world-leading progress on the required emissions reductions from some of the biggest investors in the world."</p><p>To reach their goal, the investors will pinpoint the 20 companies most responsible for their portfolios' emissions, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/13/top-asset-managers-commit-to-big-carbon-emissions-cuts?CMP=twt_a-environment_b-gdneco&fbclid=IwAR0KiEWbHZMlu9oKxXTOJ7tmvDOGZZmHOwX7Wp_ZN4ja8yxfOJJXmOJA6P8" target="_blank">The Guardian explained</a>. They will also set specific targets for highly emitting sectors like <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oil-and-gas" target="_self">oil and gas</a>, transport and utilities.</p>
<p>Some financial institutions have acted on the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a> by divesting entirely from certain companies or refusing to fund certain ventures. For example, Norway's largest private asset manager <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/norway-asset-fund-divest-exxon-chevron-2647116709.html" target="_self">divested</a> in August from companies that lobby against climate action or make more than five percent of their revenue from <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coal" target="_self">coal</a> or <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oil-sands" target="_self">oil sands</a>. The Net-Zero Asset Owners Alliance, however, takes a different approach, seeking instead to engage with the companies it invests in in order to push the overall economy towards a just transition to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/renewable-energy/" target="_self">renewable energy</a>.</p><p>"Although decarbonization of portfolios could be easily achieved by selling carbon intensive investments, it is highly questionable if such actions alone would have a positive impact on the real economy," the group explained in the press release. "Additionally, it might undermine Alliance members ability to engage with these [companies] to effect reductions in the real economy."</p><p>Part of that engagement means encouraging companies to share regular reports on their climate actions and to craft plans to green their business, according to The Guardian. The alliance itself will also release yearly reports, and plans to grow its membership to 200 or the assets under its control to $25 trillion.</p>
<p>"Alliance members start out by changing themselves and then reach out to various companies to work on the change of their businesses," Alliance Chair Günther Thallinger, who serves on the board of management for Allianz SE, said in the press release. "Reaching net-zero is not simply reducing emissions and carrying on with the business models of today. There are profound changes and opportunities that will come from the net-zero economy, we see new business opportunities and strong wins for those who are ready to lead."</p><p>The alliance is part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change's (UNFCCC's) broader Race to Zero campaign, in which cities, companies and investors work to increase the number of entities that have committed to net-zero emissions by 2050 or earlier, <a href="https://www.businessgreen.com/news/4021571/institutional-investors-managing-usd5tr-pledge-2025-portfolio-co2-goals" target="_blank">Business Green reported</a>. The plan is to have as many as possible commit before the next major UN climate summit, the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/cop26-postponed-coronavirus-2645616746.html" target="_self">delayed COP26</a>.</p>
<p><em>Correction: An earlier version of this article said that Norway's largest hedge fund divested from companies that lobby against climate action. The article has been updated to identify the fund as Norway's largest private asset manager.</em><br/></p>From Your Site Articles
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U.S. President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden participate in the first presidential debate moderated by Fox News anchor Chris Wallace at the Health Education Campus of Case Western Reserve University on Sept. 29, 2020 in Cleveland, Ohio. Scott Olson / Getty Images
The first presidential debate seemed like it would end without a mention of the climate crisis when moderator Chris Wallace brought it up at the end of the night for a segment that lasted roughly 10 minutes.
<p>The raucous event in Cleveland, Ohio was notable for President Donald's Trump's constant interruptions and bullying behavior as he spoke over the Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, and Wallace. "Mr. Trump purposefully and repeatedly heckled and blurted over his rival and the moderator alike in a 90-minute melee that showcased the president's sense of urgency to upend a race," is how Shane Goldmacher of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/30/us/politics/presidential-debate-recap.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> summarized the night.</p><p>It was with that backdrop that Wallace said toward the end of the evening, "I'd like to talk about climate change." He then spoke about the forest fires in the West, turned toward Trump and noted that Trump said he doesn't believe that science knows if the climate crisis is triggering record-setting wildfires.</p>
<p>"Over your four years, you have pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord," Wallace said. "You have rolled back a number of Obama environmental records. What do you believe about the science of climate change, and what will you do over the next four years to confront it?"</p><p>"I want crystal clean water and air, we now have the lowest carbon … if you look at our numbers now we are doing phenomenally," Trump said in response. He then insisted that people are people are very happy he has started to withdraw the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord before turning the discussion to how states in the West need to improve their forest management.</p><p>That distraction from the question pushed Wallace to interrupt Trump. "What do you believe about the science of climate change, sir?" And then later in the segment, he asked, "Do you believe that human pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, contribute to the global warming of the planet?"</p><p>Trump said he did, to an extent, and then pivoted again to forest management.</p>
<p>As Trump spoke of the need to better manage the forests, Biden looked bemused, often laughing at the president's answers and shaking his head.</p><p>"But sir, if you believe in the science of climate change, why have you rolled back the Obama Clean Power Plan, which limited carbon emissions in power plants? Why have you relaxed fuel economy standards that are going to create more pollution from cars and trucks?" Wallace asked.</p><p>Trump dismissed that idea, insisting that more new cars will be bought which will make them safer.</p><p>When Biden had a chance to speak about his $2 trillion green energy plan, the former vice president spoke about his track record in bringing down the cost of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/renewable-energy/" target="_self">renewable energy</a> and said that coal-fired and oil-fired power plants were going extinct in America.</p>
<p>He also spoke of replacing the federal automotive fleet of vehicles with electrical vehicles. He mentioned a plan to weatherize millions of buildings and homes to reduce the need for both heating and air conditioning. He then insisted the country could reach net-zero emissions in 15 years while creating millions of jobs to overhaul the country's energy infrastructure.</p><p>When Trump tried to tie Biden to the yoke of the Green New Deal and erroneously labeled the price tag at $100 trillion, Biden insisted that his plan was not the Green New Deal, but his own.</p><p>Discussing the costs, Biden pointed to the steep price tag of ecological disaster.</p><p>"We spend billions of dollars now, billions of dollars, on floods, hurricanes, rising seas," he said. "We're in real trouble."</p>
<p>The pivot toward the climate crisis was a surprise. Before the debate, Wallace, a Fox News host, had said the debate would focus on a handful of topics: the Supreme Court, the coronavirus pandemic, the economy, election integrity and "race and violence in our cities," according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/09/29/energy-202-climate-change-left-off-debate-list-even-though-polls-show-it-growing-concern-among-voters/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a>.</p><p>The omission of the climate crisis was striking, as activists worried that debate moderators would ignore the number one issue today to young people, just as it was in the 2016 debates, according to The Washington Post.</p><p>The omission also raised the ire of Democratic lawmakers. Prior to the debate, 40 Democratic senators sent a letter to the debate commission insisting upon questions that address the climate crisis.</p><p>"Without these topics, any discussion on the economy, racial justice, public health, national security, democracy, or infrastructure would be incomplete," said the letter, as The Washington Post reported.</p>
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An electric car at an eVgo charging station in a parking lot in Dublin, California on June 20, 2018. Smith Collection / Gado / Getty Images
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order Wednesday that would ban the sale of new cars in California that run only on gasoline by the year 2035. The bid to reduce emissions and combat the climate crisis would make California the first state to ban the sale of new cars with internal combustion engines, according to POLITICO.
<p>"This is the most impactful step our state can take to fight climate change," said Newsom in a <a href="https://www.gov.ca.gov/2020/09/23/governor-newsom-announces-california-will-phase-out-gasoline-powered-cars-drastically-reduce-demand-for-fossil-fuel-in-californias-fight-against-climate-change/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">statement</a> that accompanied the signing of the executive order. "For too many decades, we have allowed cars to pollute the air that our children and families breathe. Californians shouldn't have to worry if our cars are giving our kids asthma. Our cars shouldn't make wildfires worse – and create more days filled with smoky air. Cars shouldn't melt glaciers or raise sea levels threatening our cherished beaches and coastlines."</p>
<p>The threats posed by the climate crisis are playing out in dramatic fashion in California. This summer, the state has seen record-setting wildfires, heat waves and drought. Those mounting climate crisis-related challenges have spurred the move away from the state's leading source of greenhouse gas emissions, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/09/23/california-electric-cars/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> reported.</p><p>"We can't continue down this path," Newsom said at a briefing, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/23/california-cars-electric-vehicles-gavin-newsom-climate-change" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported. "If you care about your kids and your grandkids, if you care about disadvantaged communities, if you care about seniors, if you care about rural communities, if you care about inner city communities that have been underserved by our fossil fuel economy, then you care about the core construct that we are advancing here in this executive order."</p><p>Newsom added that the order will create "green collar jobs" that Californians are well-positioned to capitalize on since 34 <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/electric-vehicles">electric car</a> manufacturers are already in the state.</p>
<p>"Our second largest export in the state of California are electric vehicles," he said, according to The Guardian. "Those 34 manufacturers, those public trading manufacturers, represent close to half a trillion dollars of market capitalization, some $500bn … this is an economic opportunity."</p><p>For the order to be successful, the technology, scalability, and affordability of electric cars would have to improve dramatically in the next decade. Also, the state will need to make sure charging stations are readily available. California currently has the largest market for electric and hybrid vehicles, with roughly 257,000 new registrations for electric vehicles in 2018, according to The Washington Post. Yet, that number was not even 10 percent of the state's new car market.</p><p>While the order is sure to meet legal challenges, it may set the trend that carmakers need to increase their investment in fossil-fuel-free vehicles.</p>
<p>"The automotive industry was already on the road toward electrification as a long term goal, but many automakers have been guilty of setting short term targets for their electrification strategy that never came to fruition," said Jessica Caldwell, director of insights at Edmunds, an online resource for car data, in an emailed comment to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/23/cars/california-zero-emissions-passenger-vehicles/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CNN</a>. "This rule, if implemented, establishes a specific timeline that they'll collectively need to adhere to. California is a major market that automakers desperately need to maintain sales within to ensure their own viability."</p><p>The announcement also earned the praise of environmental groups.</p><p>"The Governor's Executive Order is a meaningful step in addressing the climate crisis and protecting the health of Californians," said Coalition for Clean Air in an email to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/09/23/916209659/california-governor-signs-order-banning-sales-of-new-gasoline-cars-by-2035" target="_blank">NPR</a>. "Electrifying transportation will also create jobs and help California move forward in its economic recovery."</p>
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An Extinction Rebellion protester outside the Bank of England on Oct. 14, 2019 in London, England. John Keeble / Getty Images
By Jessica Corbett
In another win for climate campaigners, leaders of 12 major cities around the world — collectively home to about 36 million people — committed Tuesday to divesting from fossil fuel companies and investing in a green, just recovery from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
<p>The announcement from C40 Cities — a global network of communities dedicated to tackling the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis">climate emergency</a> — came on day two of <a href="https://www.climateweeknyc.org/climate-week-nyc-2020" target="_blank">Climate Week NYC</a>, some of which is being held online because of the COVID-19 crisis.</p><p>"Now is the time to divest from fossil fuel companies and undertake investment and policy change that prioritizes public and planetary health, building back a more equal society and addressing this climate emergency," <a href="https://www.c40.org/press_releases/cities-commit-divest-invest" target="_blank">declared</a> New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.</p><p>"In New York City, we know that taking action on climate change is not optional," added de Blasio, whose community has been hit hard by the pandemic. "As we recover from COVID-19, we must make our cities even stronger."</p>
<p>In 2018, de Blasio and London Mayor Sadiq Khan established the first-of-its-kind Divest/Invest Forum to help city leaders shift money away from fossil fuels and toward the creation of low-carbon jobs. Khan said Tuesday that his city has "demonstrated that divestment is possible and indeed essential for our future."</p><p>"Through our work with New York and C40, I'm delighted to bring together 10 more cities to join us in taking Divest/Invest action," he added. "As the world recovers from COVID-19, we need to work together to ensure a fairer, fossil-fuel-free green recovery."</p><p>Berlin, Bristol, Cape Town, Durban, Los Angeles, Milan, New Orleans, Oslo, Pittsburgh and Vancouver have all signed on to C40's declaration, "<a href="https://www.c40.org/divest-invest" target="_blank">Divesting from Fossil Fuels, Investing in a Sustainable Future</a>."</p>
<div id="401b5" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f557fec553a3680fde961b824afb0188"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1308441659798171649" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">We are proud to be one of 12 cities around the world committing to
@c40cities' declaration “Divesting From Fossil… https://t.co/qelg6N2x7o</div> — LDNMayor Environment (@LDNMayor Environment)<a href="https://twitter.com/LDN_environment/statuses/1308441659798171649">1600791776.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>"We're in a make-or-break decade for the preservation of our planet and our livelihoods," said C40 chair and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. "Our declaration makes a clear statement: If we're serious about a sustainable, just, and prosperous future, we have to put our money where our mouth is, remove public dollars from companies harming the Earth, and power our cities with bold investments in low-carbon industries."</p><p>Specifically, the mayors are committing to taking all possible steps to divest city assets from fossil fuel companies and increase investments in climate solutions; calling on pension funds to follow suit; and advocating for fossil-free and sustainable finance by other investors and all levels of government. A C40 statement called the declaration "a critical next step towards realizing the vision for a Global Green New Deal, announced last October at the C40 World Mayors Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark."</p>
<p>The mayors' latest move comes as western U.S. states including California battle <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/16/us/west-coast-wildfires-wednesday/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">unprecedented wildfires</a> while the Gulf Coast recovers from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/17/bolstering-calls-climate-action-mutant-sloth-hurricane-sally-leaves-major-mess-gulf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Hurricane Sally</a> and prepares for the possibility of more storms. Scientists have emphasized that both the intense blazes and slow-moving, destructive hurricanes are connected to global heating that results from human activity, especially the burning of fossil fuels.</p><p>"The declaration sends a loud clear message to the fossil fuel industry," <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2020/09/22/may-boeve-joins-mayors-12-major-cities-committed-divest-fossil-fuel-companies" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said</a> 350.org executive director May Boeve, whose advocacy group has spearheaded <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/30/ahead-may-day-500-groups-worldwide-demand-just-and-visionary-recovery-covid-19" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">demands</a> for a green, just recovery. "As we watch wildfires burn in the U.S. and devastating floods in parts of Africa, we know that fossil fuels are not a safe investment: the sector is too volatile to be <a href="https://350communications.cmail19.com/t/t-l-xbdyky-autddlkti-y/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">deeply vulnerable</a>, it is time to divest from fossil fuels and invest in the green and just recovery of the future."</p><p>Globally, over $200 billion in COVID-19 recovery funding <a href="https://www.energypolicytracker.org/" target="_blank">has been</a> pledged to fossil fuels. Boeve argued that "it is essential to ensure that today's investments do not lock-in polluting technologies and carbon-intensive industries. Investments should instead support the solutions we need to avert climate breakdown, create good jobs, advance environmental justice, and support livable communities."</p>
<p>Signatories to the C40 declaration agree. "Pulling out of climate-damaging and ethically problematic investment strategies is a key step in the transition to a sustainable economy," said Michael Müller, governing mayor of Berlin. "The fact that C40 cities are taking this ambitious step and actively promoting divestment sends an important political signal."</p><p>Last year, the Vancouver City Council took action to divest city and staff pensions from fossil fuels. By signing the declaration, said Mayor Kennedy Stewart, "we are furthering this work, which aligns with City Council's 2019 vote to unanimously recognize a global climate emergency and local climate crisis."</p><p>Former Vancouver City Councillor Andrea Reimer participated Tuesday in an NYC Climate Week event, hosted by <a title="Original URL: https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fStand.earth&c=E,1,2oxw9peuNmXdM3-IVcc3MU11FD_LpPqn-0YYMY8KmkFp8NKhgi2ZwWQXVWeT5o0wya6eaAe1o1OsEUOQmuOPrNUC_6Kg7lbHWBzKsIBd9VP2wi5M&typo=1. Click or tap if you trust this link." href="https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flinkprotect.cudasvc.com%2Furl%3Fa%3Dhttps%253a%252f%252fStand.earth%26c%3DE%2C1%2C2oxw9peuNmXdM3-IVcc3MU11FD_LpPqn-0YYMY8KmkFp8NKhgi2ZwWQXVWeT5o0wya6eaAe1o1OsEUOQmuOPrNUC_6Kg7lbHWBzKsIBd9VP2wi5M%26typo%3D1&data=01%7C01%7Cepollak%40theclimategroup.org%7C9395c5b8b70e4330779508d83fbec0e6%7Cdc6bc025abec4b55b2a05a63afca742b%7C0&sdata=NRWAlXdDOHBf97iPAqWNbffp1%2B%2F943LF%2B%2BxIqi%2BAKPU%3D&reserved=0" target="_blank">Stand.earth</a>, about local efforts to facilitate "a just transition to <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/renewable-energy/">renewable energy</a>, a green recovery, and a livable climate."</p>
<div id="4ec15" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="75b9da530a37a63517787159519175e3"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1308466188532346880" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">We’re live at #ClimateWeekNYC! Our “Cities Lead: Phasing Out Fossil Fuels” event is happening 2-3:30pm ET today. Fo… https://t.co/c4cpi7KlQU</div> — Stand.earth (@Stand.earth)<a href="https://twitter.com/standearth/statuses/1308466188532346880">1600797624.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The event — which also featured speakers from Stand.earth, Baltimore, Berkeley, and King County, Washington — included sample policies, success stories and resources for grassroots organizers and local government leaders.<br></p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/22/mayors-12-major-global-cities-home-36-million-people-make-unified-fossil-fuel" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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New Zealand’s Ardern Pledges 100% Renewable Energy by 2030 if Her Labour Party Wins Next Month’s Election
14 September
Politics
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern prepares to speak at a Business NZ Election Conference on Sept. 11, 2020. Hannah Peters / Getty Images
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has promised to achieve 100 percent renewable energy by 2030 if her party wins re-election in October.
<p>In announcing the new pledge Thursday, Ardern tied the goal to a green recovery from the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coronavirus" target="_self">coronavirus</a>, <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/jacinda-ardern-pledges-to-end-non-renewable-energy-generation-by-2030-if-she-s-re-elected?fbclid=IwAR3mHKgNevjrgvI86bFFCtcEQwgO61svpkLr33eP2CqokGOqfPYQQT1Gg-o" target="_blank">SBS News reported</a>.</p><p>"The COVID-19 economic recovery represents a once in a generation opportunity to reshape New Zealand's energy system to be more renewable, faster, affordable and secure," she said.</p>
<div id="5ea56" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d3959186ce8c9cef202e8b35f654c91e"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1303865299951779841" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">#BREAKING: We’ve just released our clean energy policy, which outlines that if re-elected we will bring forward our… https://t.co/xgc78zxlHb</div> — New Zealand Labour (@New Zealand Labour)<a href="https://twitter.com/nzlabour/statuses/1303865299951779841">1599700686.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Ardern's pledge ups her Labour Party's previous goal of phasing out non-renewable energy by 2035. New Zealand currently produces 84 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, according to the government. However, these only account for 40 percent of the energy actually used in the country, since it still imports <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coal" target="_self">coal</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oil" target="_self">oil</a> from outside.</p><p>The promise is part of Labour's broader clean energy policy, <a href="https://www.labour.org.nz/release-renewable-electricity-generation-2030" target="_blank">unveiled Thursday</a>. The plan also includes electrifying transportation and industry, investing in new technologies like green hydrogen, working to make energy more affordable and spending an additional $70 million on a pumped hydro storage solution for dry years.</p>
<div id="d95b4" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="cbbf9c0e9f36a745d129ad5ba04ef870"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1303865428200968192" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">...and accelerating the electrification of transport and industrial sectors to position New Zealand as a world lead… https://t.co/zeEpDqeYyw</div> — New Zealand Labour (@New Zealand Labour)<a href="https://twitter.com/nzlabour/statuses/1303865428200968192">1599700717.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>"We are setting ourselves the new goal of 2030, five years earlier than our previous goal, for us to become one of the few nations in the world with 100 percent renewable electricity," Labour energy spokesperson Megan Woods said in the announcement.</p><p>As of 2018, Iceland and Paraguay received 100 percent of their energy from renewable sources, while Costa Rica got 99 percent, <a href="https://archive.thinkprogress.org/a-100-percent-renewable-grid-isnt-just-feasible-its-already-happening-28ed233c76e5/" target="_blank">Think Progress reported</a>. At the time, New Zealand's South Island was also entirely powered by renewable energy.</p>
<p>Ardern has emerged as a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate</a> leader since taking office in 2017. She vowed to focus on addressing the climate crisis <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/new-zealand-trees-2500765147.html" target="_self">during her first campaign</a>, and announced a plan to plant 100 million trees a year upon taking power. During her tenure, she oversaw the passage of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/new-zealand-zero-emissions-2641247378.html" target="_self">New Zealand's Zero Carbon Bill</a>, which set the country a 2050 deadline for carbon neutrality and committed it to the goals of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/paris-agreement" target="_self">Paris agreement</a>.</p><p>However, New Zealand's Green Party said that Labour's clean energy plan did not go far enough. While the Green Party plan also set a 2030 deadline for 100 percent renewable energy, it included further measures such as making it cheaper for people to switch to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/solar" target="_self">solar</a> and ending permits for <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuel</a> extraction.</p>
<div id="02383" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6fa8679dfe5aa9767e7b3f714c2764a6"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1303876360578822144" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Read our bold energy plan here: https://t.co/eCJXAbl4FZ
#nzpol</div> — Green Party NZ (@Green Party NZ)<a href="https://twitter.com/NZGreens/statuses/1303876360578822144">1599703323.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The National Party, <a href="https://www.parliament.nz/en/mps-and-electorates/political-parties/" target="_blank">Labour's current opposition</a>, said the party's energy plan would lose jobs and raise electricity costs by as much as 40 percent.</p><p>"This is a policy that will cost thousands of jobs and put even more people on to the unemployment benefit," National Party leader Judith Collins <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/425709/labour-promises-100-percent-renewable-electricity-generation-by-2030" target="_blank">told RNZ</a>. However, the party still said it wanted more renewable energy.</p><p>Ardern, meanwhile, touted the new renewable energy goal as a job creator.</p><p>"Investment in renewable energy is also jobs rich. Our plan will creating new jobs and develop the high skill workforce our future economy needs to thrive," she said in the plan announcement. "Labour's Clean Energy Plan is a critical element of Labour's wider COVID-19 recovery plan that will both prepare New Zealand for the future while boosting jobs and the economy now."</p><p>The election, which was delayed because of the coronavirus, is slated to take place Oct. 17, according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/09/jacinda-ardern-begins-new-zealand-election-tour-at-parents-house-so-they-can-babysit" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>. Labour is currently favored to win, and may even gain enough seats that it can govern on its own without having to form a coalition. During Ardern's current tenure, Labour governed with <a href="https://www.parliament.nz/en/mps-and-electorates/political-parties/new-zealand-first-party/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">New Zealand First</a>, with the Green Party <a href="https://www.parliament.nz/en/mps-and-electorates/political-parties/green-party/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">offering support</a> through a Confidence and Supply Agreement.</p>
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A British Petroleum petrol station on March 10, 2017, in Ciudad Satelite, Naucalpan de Juarez municipality, Mexico State. The company will reportedly start to offer electric vehicle recharging stations at its retail gasoline stations. RONALDO SCHEMIDT / AFP via Getty Images
BP, the energy giant that grew from oil and gas production, is taking its business in a new direction, announcing Tuesday that it will slash its oil and gas production by 40 percent and increase its annual investment in low-carbon technology to $5 billion, a ten-fold increase over its current level, according to CNN.
<p>Despite losing $16.8 billion in the second quarter of 2020, the ambitious plan to become a leading purveyor of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/renewable-energy/" target="_self">clean energy</a> sent the company's share price soaring 7 percent Tuesday, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/04/business/energy-environment/bp-renewable-investment.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported.</p><p>"This coming decade is critical for the world in the fight against climate change, and to drive the necessary change in global energy systems will require action from everyone," BP said in a statement, as CNN reported.</p><p>As part of its plan, the company will stop its oil and gas exploration in new countries and reduce its current production and carbon emissions by one-third, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/08/04/bp-built-its-business-oil-gas-now-climate-change-is-taking-it-apart/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> reported.</p>
<p>In a discussion with analysts on Tuesday, BP's Chief Executive Bernard Looney set his company apart from its European counterparts, which have made vague commitments to address the climate crisis. Looney's pledge to invest around $5 billion a year in renewable energy like wind, solar and hydrogen, a clean-burning gas, made it the first oil and gas giant to specify its investment goal, according to The New York Times.</p><p>"This makes the BP the first supermajor to spell out, in detail, what the energy transition will actually entail, in practical terms," said Pavel Molchanov, senior energy analyst for the investment firm Raymond James, to The Washington Post.</p>
<p>"BP today introduces a new strategy that will reshape its business as it pivots from being an international oil company focused on producing resources to an integrated energy company focused on delivering solutions for customers," the company said, as <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bp-outlook/bp-to-cut-fossil-fuels-output-by-40-by-2030-idUSKCN2500NH" target="_blank">Reuters</a> reported.</p><p>The company expects demand for <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuels</a> to fall by 75 percent by 2050, if the increase in global temperatures is limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius, or by 50 percent if warming is less than 2 degrees, BP head of strategy Giulia Chierchia told investors, as CNN reported.</p><p>BP said its will cut its oil and gas production by at least one million barrels a day by 2030, a 40 percent reduction from 2019 levels, as CNN reported.</p><p>While the company will dramatically expand its portfolio of clean energy technologies, the next five years will see BP continue to invest most of its money in oil and gas production, according to CNN.</p>
<p>"We believe our new strategy provides a comprehensive and coherent approach to turn our net zero ambition into action," Looney said in a statement Tuesday, as The Washington Post reported.</p><p>The investment in low-carbon initiatives is set to jump to more than $3 billion by 2025 and $5 billion by 2030, "en route to 50 gigawatts of renewable generation capacity by 2030 alongside scale-up of other clean tech businesses," Molchanov said, as The Washington Post reported.</p><p>The company sees a profitable future in providing clean energy to cities. According to The Washington Post, BP plans to advise cities on "power packages" with renewables, back-up batteries and financing. It also will also start to offer <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/electric-vehicles">electric vehicle</a> recharging stations at its retail gasoline stations.</p><p>Oswald Clint, an analyst at Bernstein, a market research firm, told The New York Times that BP's plans were "peer-leading" and that its potential to smoothly manage large projects in the renewables area was "underappreciated."</p><p>Environmental activists were lukewarm about the plans. Greenpeace UK described the announcement as a "necessary and encouraging start," but said BP must go further. "BP has woken up [to] the immediate need to cut carbon emissions this decade," senior climate campaigner Mel Evans said in a statement, as CNN reported.</p>
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As Biden Embraces More Ambitious Climate Plan, Fossil Fuel Execs Donate to Trump 'With Greater Zeal' Than in 2016
04 August
Politics
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a White House Clean Energy Investment Summit on June 16, 2015 in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC. Alex Wong / Getty Images
By Jake Johnson
With presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden's climate platform becoming increasingly ambitious thanks to nonstop grassroots pressure, fossil fuel executives and lobbyists are pouring money into the coffers of President Donald Trump's reelection campaign in the hopes of keeping an outspoken and dedicated ally of dirty energy in the White House.
<p><br/></p>
<p>The Houston Chronicle <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Oil-donors-flock-to-Trump-as-Biden-hardens-15453270.php" target="_blank">reported</a> Monday that oil and gas executives "are writing checks to President Donald Trump with greater zeal than they did four years ago, as Biden campaigns on a climate plan that seeks to eliminate carbon emissions by mid-century."</p><p><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/recips.php?ind=E01&cycle=2020&recipdetail=P&mem=N&sortorder=U" target="_blank">According to</a> the Center for Responsive Politics, Trump's reelection campaign has thus far raised over $936,000 from the oil and gas industry — more than three times the $265,000 the industry has donated to Biden as of July 21. By contrast, the Chronicle noted, Trump only narrowly led Hillary Clinton in <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuel</a> industry donations during the 2016 campaign cycle.</p>
<p>"As the incumbent, Trump might seem a surer bet for companies than he was as a political outsider four years ago," the Chronicle reported. "At the same time, Biden's recent climate stance is very different from Clinton's, who as secretary of state had promoted the U.S. fracking industry overseas — Biden has sworn off donations from the oil and gas sector, though through loopholes executives are still giving."</p><p>Trump, for his part, is openly courting the oil and gas industry by warning that a Biden presidency would spell disaster for the fossil fuel sector, which has been <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/09/game-report-says-asset-sales-and-debt-driven-dividends-show-fossil-fuel-industry" target="_blank">hammered</a> by the coronavirus pandemic.</p><p>"If these far-left politicians ever get into power, they will demolish not only your industry but the entire U.S. economy," Trump <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-restoring-energy-dominance-permian-basin-midland-tx/" target="_blank">said</a> at the site of an active oil rig in Midland, Texas last week. The president went on to falsely claim that Biden supports a total ban on fracking. (Biden <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2020/07/31/us/ap-us-trump-biden-fact-check.html" target="_blank">only supports</a> banning fracking on public lands.)</p><p>"No fracking, no drilling, no oil," Trump said of the former vice president's position.</p><p>While Biden's refusal to commit to the Green New Deal and a complete fracking ban has drawn the ire of environmentalists and advocacy groups, the former vice president's release last month of a <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/14/more-work-do-major-step-forward-progressives-welcome-bidens-2-trillion-green-energy" target="_blank">$2 trillion green energy plan</a> was celebrated as an encouraging step in the right direction.</p>
<p>Biden's plan, as Common Dreams <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/14/more-work-do-major-step-forward-progressives-welcome-bidens-2-trillion-green-energy" target="_blank">reported</a>, calls for 100% clean electricity by 2035 and sweeping infrastructure upgrades that would create millions of new jobs.</p><p>"We've seen a pretty huge transformation in Biden's climate plan," Varshini Prakash, co-founder and executive director of the Sunrise Movement, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/how-joe-bidens-surprisingly-ambitious-climate-plan-came-together/2020/07/31/b73e78d0-cd11-11ea-91f1-28aca4d833a0_story.html" target="_blank">told</a> The Washington Post on Sunday. "What I've seen in the last six to eight weeks is a pretty big transition in upping his ambition and centering environmental justice."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/03/biden-embraces-more-ambitious-climate-plan-fossil-fuel-execs-donating-trump-greater" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Apple and 10 of its suppliers in China are investing nearly $300 million to develop projects totaling 1 gigawatt of renewable energy. Photo courtesy of Apple
The computer and phone giant Apple pledged to be carbon neutral by 2030, following the lead of other tech companies dedicated to mitigating their impact on the climate crisis. Apple's commitment extends to its massive supply chain, which supplies computers, tablets and iPhones to customers around the world.
<p>Apple, which has already achieved carbon neutrality for its corporate operations, said the new commitment means that every iPhone, MacBook and iPad sold will have no climate impact, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/07/21/apple-pledges-be-carbon-neutral-by-2030/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> reported.</p><p>The company has several strategies for achieving its goal to wipe out its carbon footprint in the next decade. It will shift towards a low-carbon product design and use recycled materials as much as possible. It will develop new techniques in manufacturing, like a carbon-free aluminum smelting process, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jul/21/apple-promises-to-become-fully-carbon-neutral-by-2030" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported.</p><p>Apple will also ramp up its use of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/renewable-energy/">renewable energy</a> for projects funded by and built for Apple. The company will also remove carbon from the atmosphere through reforestation projects in Colombia, China, Kenya and the U.S., according to The Guardian.</p><p>That means Apple plans to reduce emissions by 75 percent by 2030 while developing innovative carbon removal solutions for the remaining 25 percent of its comprehensive footprint, according to a <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2020/07/apple-commits-to-be-100-percent-carbon-neutral-for-its-supply-chain-and-products-by-2030/" target="_blank">press release</a>.</p>
<p>"Businesses have a profound opportunity to help build a more sustainable future, one born of our common concern for the planet we share," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, in a <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2020/07/apple-commits-to-be-100-percent-carbon-neutral-for-its-supply-chain-and-products-by-2030/" target="_blank">press release</a>. "The innovations powering our environmental journey are not only good for the planet — they've helped us make our products more energy efficient and bring new sources of clean energy online around the world. Climate action can be the foundation for a new era of innovative potential, job creation, and durable economic growth. With our commitment to carbon neutrality, we hope to be a ripple in the pond that creates a much larger change."</p>
<p>In addition to the announcement about its plan to be carbon neutral in a decade, the company released its 2020 Environmental Progress Report on Tuesday. Apple said it slashed its carbon dioxide emissions by 4.3 million metric tons in 2019. That represents a 35 percent drop in absolute carbon dioxide emissions since the company's peak in 2015. It has achieved the reduction while still selling more products, as <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/21/21332461/apple-carbon-neutral-2030-climate-change" target="_blank">The Verge</a> reported. Apple has been able to cut back on its greenhouse gas emissions by using recycled materials and improving the energy efficiency of its products. Its products use 73 percent less energy on average now than they did 11 years ago.</p><p>"This is a moment not to move away from the great challenge of climate change," Lisa Jackson, Apple vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives, told <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/21/tech/apple-climate-change/index.html" target="_blank">CNN Business</a>. "We wanted to step up and show we should all move even faster if we can because the situation is urgent and continuing to be more urgent."</p><p>However, as CNN noted, the company has not actually shared that data with scientists for independent verification. And, as The Verge pointed out, Apple is still an energy behemoth. It did emit 25.1 million metric tons of carbon in 2019, the equivalent to running six coal-fired power for the entire year.</p>
<p>The commitment did win praise from environmentalists. It marks a "significant step up from what we've seen from Apple in the past," said Elizabeth Jardim, senior corporate campaigner for Greenpeace USA, as The Washington Post reported. Cutting carbon emissions will "help prevent further catastrophic climate change — the impacts of which will fall most on Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities," she said.</p><p>"The world's largest and most profitable companies must act swiftly to minimize their reliance on <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels">fossil fuels</a> throughout their operations by 2030 at the latest," Jardim said.</p>
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Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden speaks at a "Build Back Better" Clean Energy event on July 14, 2020 at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware. Joe Biden / Facebook
Presidential hopeful Joe Biden announced a $2 trillion plan Tuesday to boost American investment in clean energy and infrastructure.
<p>His plan would spend the money over the next four years to boost the transportation, electricity and building sectors' clean energy profiles. It is also part of a plan to create new economic opportunities, improve the nation's aging infrastructure, and to combat the climate crisis, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/us/politics/biden-climate-plan.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported.</p><p>Biden's sweeping proposals would put an end to all greenhouse gas emissions spewed by U.S. power plants by 2035, arguing that large-scale dramatic moves are necessary to tackle the impending threat of the climate crisis and to revive the economy after the coronavirus pandemic, as <a href="https://apnews.com/7cdf40d9bd40c75861fc0053212d034a" target="_blank">The Associated Press</a> reported. It would also ban fracking on public lands.</p>
<p>Speaking near his home in Wilmington, Delaware, Biden also sought to reframe the discussion around the climate crisis, moving it away from a moral imperative and toward an economic one, dismissing <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/" target="_self">Trump</a>'s and the Republicans' arguments that investments in green energy would cost jobs. Biden looked to play up how many jobs clean energy creates.</p><p>"When Donald Trump thinks about climate change, the only word he can muster is 'hoax,'" Biden told reporters, <a href="https://apnews.com/7cdf40d9bd40c75861fc0053212d034a" target="_blank">The Associated Press</a> reported. "When I think about climate change, what I think of is jobs."</p><p>Biden's <a href="https://joebiden.com/clean-energy/" target="_blank">climate initiative</a> calls to chart the U.S. on "an irreversible path" to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. In addition to achieving a carbon-free power grid by 2035, Biden's plan calls for upgrades to 4 million buildings and to weatherize 2 million homes over four years to increase energy efficiency, as <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/07/14/890814007/biden-outlines-2-trillion-climate-plan" target="_blank">NPR</a> reported. Homeowners would be given cash rebates to upgrade home appliances and install more efficient windows. Car owners would receive rebates to swap their old, less efficient cars for newer ones that release fewer pollutants, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-set-to-offer-newly-ambitious-climate-goals/2020/07/14/39ced8b8-c578-11ea-b037-f9711f89ee46_story.html" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a>.</p>
<p>The proposal, Biden's campaign said, would aim to shift major cities towards increased use of public transportation and "create millions of good, union jobs rebuilding America's crumbling infrastructure," according to NPR.</p><p>"We're not just going to tinker around the edges," Biden said his speech. "We're going to make historic investments and seize the opportunity and meet this moment in history."</p><p>Environmentalists and liberals quickly praised the climate initiative as a step forward in the climate effort. Predictably, Republicans quickly denounced it as an unwieldy plan that would raise energy costs, as The Washington Post reported.</p>
<p>The new goals align Biden more closely with three primary opponents: Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and Washington Governor Jay Inslee. They follow the recommendations of a unity task force of Sanders and Biden supporters that was co-chaired by New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who co-sponsored the Green New Deal, according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/14/joe-biden-climate-jobs-plan" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>.</p><p>"This is not a status quo plan," said Inslee, as The New York Times reported. "It is comprehensive. This is not some sort of, 'Let me just throw a bone to those who care about climate change.'"</p><p>Inslee called the proposal "visionary."</p><p>Gina McCarthy, the former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator who is now president of the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund, told The Guardian that the plan was "by a long shot – the most ambitious we have ever seen from any president in our nation's history."</p>
<p>In the proposal, Biden also linked environmental advocacy with racial justice, noting that pollution and other toxins disproportionately affect communities of color. His plan calls for establishing an office of environmental and climate justice within the Justice Department and developing a broad set of tools to address how "environmental policy decisions of the past have failed communities of color," according to The New York Times.</p><p>Varshini Prakash, co-founder of the youth-led Sunrise Movement, said, as The Guardian reported, that Biden's plan responds to many of the group's previous criticisms by "dramatically increasing the scale and urgency of investments, filling in details on how he'd achieve environmental justice and create good union jobs, and promising immediate action — on day 1, in his first 100 days, in his first term, in the next decade — not just some far off goals."</p>
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