Ramblings of a 70-year old: fossil fuel

Showing posts with label fossil fuel. Show all posts

Friday, November 4, 2022

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres wants COP27 to close the ambition gap, the credibility gap and the solidarity gap

Speaking ahead of the COP27 climate summit in Egypt, UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said the rich countries have a major responsibility. They must come forward and extend help to emerging economies to hasten their transition to renewable energy. UNSG goes on to say, unless the rich countries sign such a pact with poor countries on the climate, "we will be doomed." He adds - "COP27 must be the place to close the ambition gap, the credibility gap and the solidarity gap.” The points on the agenda should be to cut down on emissions, boost climate resilience and adaptation. They must also keep the promise on climate finance and address loss and damage from climate change. In fact, the former have emitted more than their share of heat-trapping carbon dioxide. They have done this by burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas. On the other hand, in poorer countries like Pakistan, recent floods affected 33 million people. They have suffered more damage than their share of carbon emissions. https://news.sky.com/story/un-secretary-general-calls-for-climate-deal-between-rich-and-poor-countries-12738657.

Following last year's COP26 in Glasgow, the UN Environment Programme estimated that developing countries needed $70bn a year for adaptation. This figure could double by 2030. At the summit, poorer nations again requested developed countries to extend financial help. They needed these as compensation against irreparable climate-related damage. However, COP26 ended without a resolution. The commitment of $356m fell far short of expectations. The wealthy nations rejected the fund. UNSG Mr. Guterres said that getting "concrete results" on loss and damage is the "litmus test of the commitment of the governments" involved in the summit. He went on to add - "Loss and damage have been the always-postponed issue. There is no more time to postpone it.”

Tuesday, October 25, 2022

Sun temple at Konark and the Konark town to be solar powered from next financial year

Odisha has taken a very appropriate decision to go in for solar power for its Sun temple and the city where this 13th-century Konarak temple is located. This is likely be in operation from next financial year. Grid Corporation of Odisha (GRIDCO) will undertake the work. It will be under a scheme of MNRE (ministry of new and renewable energy). GRIDCO said - “A power purchase agreement was signed between Gridco and M/S Konark Suryanagari Private Limited for procurement of 10mw solar power toward 100 per cent solarisation of Konark Sun temple and Konark town under MNRE (ministry of new and renewable energy) scheme.” Under the agreement, solar power will be available for 25 years from 2023-24 at a nominal tariff without having any central sector transmission charges and losses. Odisha: Solar power to illuminate Sun temple. Solar power falls in the category of renewable energy and missions to the Moon and Mars depend on power drawn from the Sun. There has to be more such projects to reduce extracting power from fossil fuels.

The government of Odisha has earmarked funds for the development of the area under the Konark Heritage Development Project. Under the project, different types of development work will be taken up. These would include the up-gradation of various aspects of the Sun Temple. The categories would be landscaping, the development of pedestrian areas, apart from parking, and revamping of the open-air theatre. Moreover, in order to prevent the effects of the saline wind on the Sun temple, the state government also plans to plant expand the green cover. They plan to do this by planting a large number of casuarina trees around the temple complex as well as along the coastline. An official added - “A permanent weather monitoring station may be installed at the site to capture the real-time data of salt-laden winds impacting the wind.”

Saturday, October 15, 2022

Greece depended entirely on renewable energy for five hours on a single day and used solar, wind and hydroelectric power

It was a fantastic achievement for Greece when it depended entirely on renewable energy like solar, wind and hydroelectric power for five hours on a single day. IPTO, the country's independent power transmission operator, confirmed production of adequate electricity for five hours beginning at 9am local time (7am UK time). It was a first in the history of the Greek electricity system when renewable energy sources covered 100 percent of the demand. The country has ambitious plans to more than double its green energy capacity and hopes renewables will account for at least 70 percent of its energy mix by 2030. Tilos, part of the Dodecanese group of islands, is also progressing on similar lines. It plans to run entirely on renewable energy under a project funded by the European Union and private investment. For five hours last week Greece ran entirely on electricity from solar, wind and water. Nikos Mantzaris is a partner at think tank the Green Tank. He says the performance was important. This was because "it shows that a 100% renewable electricity system is within reach in Greece, a concept that was considered impossible by most opinion and decision makers in Greece before."

Nikos Mantzaris goes on to add that the road for the deployment of renewables in Greece during the last decade has not been smooth. However, it is possible to have an electricity system with increasing shares of renewables. Only, it has to get the support of an infrastructure comprising energy storage technologies and adequate grids. Moreover, it is economically preferable when compared to electricity produced by lignite or gas, even if one includes the cost of storage. Incidentally, Greece is serious about reining in renewable energy in place of fossil fuels. According to electricity data from Ember, an independent think tank, Greece generated 39.4 percent of its electricity from renewables last year, including 19.8 percent from wind, 9.9 percent from hydro and 8.9 percent from solar. The Renewable Target for 2030 is 70 percent renewable electricity for the whole year. The aim of Portugal by 2030 is 100 percent, the Netherlands 97 percent and Germany 80 percent.

Tuesday, October 11, 2022

Egypt will host COP27, the annual United Nations climate talks

Glasgow held COP26 last year but the world has changed considerably over the past year. The full form of COP is Conference of the Parties. There is now an energy crisis, the war in Ukraine, tensions over Taiwan apart from situations like the floods in Pakistan. These have changed the geopolitical concept dramatically. All eyes are now on Egypt where COP27 will be held in Sharm El-Sheikh between 6-18 November. Developing nations will look forward to Egypt, a middle-income developing nation, to provide a stronger platform to their demands. This is an annual event where leaders from almost 200 countries assemble. They put their heads together to evolve methods to tackle the crisis of climate change and its impacts. Apart from leaders, thousands of observers, civil society groups and media attend too. Incidentally, France hosted the 2015 talks. It led to the historic Paris Agreement where countries agreed the need to limit global warming to below 2°C, and ideally to 1.5°C, of warming above pre-industrial levels. COP27: Everything you need to know about the United Nations climate talks in Egypt. One of the attendees would be US President Joe Biden. King Charles, known for his focus on the environment when he was Prince of Wales, would not attend. He pulled out after discussions with Britain’s Prime Minister Liz Truss. As to the presence of Britain, there is no confirmation on whether the Prime Minister will attend, or whether business secretary Jacob-Rees Mogg will come instead. He supports fossil fuel expansion.

COP might not be the ideal process, but right now, it is the single biggest geopolitical forum for countries to join hands and work together to tackle a threat that has an impact on all of humanity. The violent flooding that ravaged Pakistan is a recent example of how climate change can uproot people from their homes and heap miseries on the community. A relevant issue that might come up is on whether richer countries, responsible for the vast majority of emissions, should pay reparations to poor countries. The latter suffers the worst impacts of climate change. Another contentious issue could be the untapped gas fields of Africa. In the opinion of Nick Mabey, chief executive of think tank E3G, countries could be divided over whether to exploit untapped gas or go straight from fossil fuels to clean power.