July-August, 2020 | @green
foreign news
07
‘Surprisingly
rapid’ rebound
in carbon
emissions
post-lockdown
Carbon dioxide emissions have rebounded
around the world as lockdown conditions
have eased, raising fears that annual emissions
of greenhouse gases could surge to
higher than ever levels after the coronavirus
pandemic unless governments take swift
action.
Emissions fell by a quarter when the lockdowns
were at their peak, and in early April
global daily carbon dioxide emissions were
still down by 17 per cent compared with the
average figure for 2019, research published
last month in the journal Nature Climate
Change found.
Now daily carbon emissions are still down
on 2019 levels, but by only 5 per cent on average
globally, according to an updated study.
“Things have happened very fast,” said
Corinne Le Quéré, a professor of climate
change at the University of East Anglia and
the lead author of the studies. “Very few
countries still have stringent confinement.
We expected emissions to come back, but
that they have done so rapidly is the biggest
surprise.”
Emissions from Jan 1 to June 11, were
8.6 per cent lower than in the same period
for 2019. Emissions for this year are likely
to be between 4-7 per cent lower than for
last year. That is not enough to make a
significant contribution to the cuts in emissions
needed to fulfil the Paris agreement
on climate change, which will require
structural changes to transport systems
and how energy is generated.
While emissions overall are still down
on last year, there are fears that as lockdowns
around the world ease further in
the coming months, carbon from cars
could surge to levels higher than before the
pandemic as people avoid public transport.
– The Guardian
Markets not paying
attention to climate crisis,
IMF says
Equity markets have generally ignored
the increasing number of natural disasters
over the past 50 years, and stricter rules are
needed to make investors aware of the dangers
posed by the climate crisis, the International
Monetary Fund has said.
Companies should be forced to disclose
their exposure to climate risk because a
voluntary approach does not go far enough,
the IMF said in a chapter from its latest global
financial stability report (GFsr).
The imF, however, said in a GFsr
published recently that climate risk should
ultimately be made part of international
reporting standards.
“An increasing number of firms have
begun to voluntarily disclose climate
change risk information, in line with the
recommendations set out by the task force on
climate-related financial disclosures,” it said.
“However, going further by developing
mandatory global disclosures on material
climate change risks would be an important
step to sustain financial stability. In the
short term, mandatory climate change risk
disclosure could be based on globally agreed
principles. In the longer term, climate-change
risk disclosure standards could be incorporated
into financial statements compliant with
international financial reporting standards.”
The IMF functions as the global lender of
last resort, bailing out countries in financial
difficulty and issuing policy advice alongside
its interventions. Its latest statement on the
climate crisis expressed concerns that stock
markets were ignoring the rise in global
temperatures and its consequences. – The
Guardian
Climate emission killer:
Construction begins on world’s
biggest liquid air battery
Construction is beginning on the world’s most massive
liquid air battery, which will store renewable electricity
and reduce carbon emissions from fossil-fuel power plants.
The Guardian reported the project near Manchester,
UK, would use extra green energy to compress air into a
liquid and store it. When demand is higher, the liquid air is
released back into a gas, powering a turbine that puts the
green energy back into the grid.
A significant expansion of wind and solar energy is vital
to tackle the climate emergency, but they are not always
available. Storage is, therefore, essential, and the new
project will be the largest in the world outside of pumped
hydro schemes, which require a mountain reservoir to
store water.
The new liquid air battery, being developed by Highview
Power, is due to be operational in 2022 and will be able to
power up to 200,000 homes for five hours, and store power
for many weeks. Chemical batteries are also needed for
the transition to a zero-carbon world and are plummeting
in price, but can only store relatively small amounts of
electricity for short periods.
Standing tall: How green buildings
are adapting to post-Covid era
Wastewater flushes
away a river of wealth
Think of green buildings as giant
N95 facemasks, protecting you from
harmful toxins the moment you step
inside, said Dr Ho Nyok Yong, president
of the Singapore Green Building
Council (SGBC), in a webinar in May.
“Building-based prevention and
control measures have become one of
the most important methods of fighting
against the effects of the Covid-19
pandemic,” Dr Ho told his audience
of 600 building and construction
industry stakeholders.
Cities have reopened their economies,
and people are returning to
work. Installing green building
technologies in shopping centres,
offices, factories and other shared
spaces can limit the spread of the
coronavirus within them and stand
them in good stead against future
disease outbreaks, experts have told
Eco-Business.
Retrofits such as adding ultraviolet
lights to air-handling units, and
switching to demand-controlled
ventilation can reduce the transmission
of airborne viruses and bacteria.
Increasing the buildings’ energy
efficiency, said experts such as Mark
Yeo, CBre’s chief operating officer of
property management in Singapore
and Southeast Asia.
In the longer term, new buildings
can further shrink their carbon footprint
and aid in disease prevention
by maximising natural ventilation or
making use of innovative ventilation
systems in cities such as Singapore,
the experts added.
The wastewater that flows
through the world’s sewers has
value to be recovered.
Canadian scientists have
identified a new source of energy,
wealth and nourishment being
lost every day in every city, town
and municipality on the planet:
a great river of wastewater,
according to Eco Business.
What swirls down the kitchen
and bathroom plugholes in
every home, cascades into the
town drains and flushes the city
sewers contains enough latent
energy to power almost 160
million households.
The flow of wastewater is
big enough to water up to an
area equal to one-fifth of all the
farmland in the European Union.
And the nitrogen, phosphorus
and potassium that sluices down
the world’s drains would be
enough to meet almost oneeighth
of the world’s fertiliser
demand, and notionally generate
a revenue stream of more than
$13 billion a year.
In effect, the researchers
argue, humans are every day
flushing good money down the
toilet. And this stream of lost
income could only keep growing.
Right now, according to a new
study in the UN journal Natural
Resources Forum, the world’s
wastewater discharges add up
to 380 billion cubic metres a
year.