IT WAS LOST TWO DECADES AGO

Alberta losing PR fight to anti-oil-sands groups, says head of inquiry

JAMES KELLER

GLOBE AND MAIL
CALGARY

An oil drilling rig operates near Cremona, Alta., on July 12. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has contended that the province has been the victim of a foreign-funded campaign to block fossil fuel projects.

JEFF MCINTOSH/THE CANADIAN PRESS

The commissioner of a widely criticized Alberta public inquiry into the funding of environmentalists says his report should be a wake-up call for the province’s government and oil sector that they are losing the public-relations fight over resource development.

In 2019, the Alberta government appointed Steve Allan, a forensic accountant, to investigate the role of foreign money in opposing the oil sector. His final report was released in October. The inquiry was a key election promise from United Conservative Premier Jason Kenney, who has contended that the province has been the victim of a foreign-funded campaign to block fossil fuel projects.

Mr. Allan said in an interview that the oil industry should take lessons from the environmental movement, which he noted has been effective at opposing development in Alberta’s oil sands.

“I think the industry and government have really failed,” Mr. Allan said.

“It was a brilliant campaign,” he continued, referring to activism opposing Alberta’s oil industry. “It was a brilliant strategy. It was well-executed and everybody can learn from it.”

He argued that the real issue is not necessarily environmental groups and their activism, but rather the fact that foreign money is being used to influence Canadian policy debates, with what he described as inadequate disclosure.

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Mr. Allan did not appear at a news conference accompanying the release of his final report and hasn’t commented publicly since, citing legal advice. He declined to discuss the specific findings of the report for the same reasons.

The report, published after a two-year process that was plagued by delays and complaints about secrecy and unfairness, identified $1.3-billion of foreign money directed at Canadian and U.S. environmental groups. However, much of that had little or nothing to do with anti-oil work. The report identified $54-million specifically earmarked for opposition to Alberta’s oil industry. Of that, only $17-million went to Canadian organizations, though Mr. Allan said the real number is likely higher.

Foreign funding represented about 11 per cent of the overall revenue for Canadian environmental charities, according to the report, and for some groups that proportion was much smaller.

In his report, Mr. Allan went out of his way to stress that he found nothing to suggest activists had done anything illegal or improper, and he acknowledged that they appeared to be motivated by genuine concern for the environment. He also said he couldn’t link activism to the cancellation of any specific oil project.


Mr. Allan told The Globe and Mail that he hadn’t set out to prove environmentalists had done anything illegal, despite rhetoric from Mr. Kenney and others to the contrary. Rather, he said, his report shows the need for financial transparency across the entire charitable sector, including not just environmental organizations but also conservative advocacy groups that support the oil sector.

“There was nothing stopping anyone and there’s nothing that should stop them, other than we should know what they’re doing,” he said.

Environmental groups have long argued that the inquiry was based on a conspiracy theory, noting publicly available tax records show that most of their funding comes from Canadian sources. They dismissed the inquiry even before Mr. Allan’s report as a biased process that was designed to malign activists and portray them as puppets of foreign interests.

Mr. Allan said he’s disappointed the media has focused so much on his numbers, including the total of $54-million, rather than the report’s recommendations.

Those recommendations include stricter transparency and governance rules for charities; new standards for the oil industry when it comes to disclosing data about greenhouse gas emissions; using economic development as a way to advance reconciliation with First Nations; and greater co-ordination between government and industry in developing emissions-reducing technology.

The report also calls for a national natural resource development strategy led by business groups, and for the resource industry to counteract messaging from environmentalists by rebranding Canadian oil and gas.

Now that his work as commissioner is over, Mr. Allan said, he’s concerned his report and its recommendations will not be acted upon.

Alberta energy inquiry says no wrongdoing by anti-oil-sands activists

Alberta’s report on anti-energy campaigns looks like a multimillion-dollar dud

THE REAL PURPOSE OF THE REPORT
Alberta’s Energy Minister, Sonya Savage, has said the government will act on the report’s findings, though she has yet to explain exactly how it will do that. She has used the report to warn that the province is under attack.

Ms. Savage told reporters she wants to be ready to confront criticism from environmentalists. “What we want to learn from that is how they did that and where they’re going next,” she said during a recent news conference.

Members of the Alberta government have at times distorted the report’s findings. For example, the United Conservative Party caucus’s Twitter account inaccurately claimed that the report says $1.3-billion of foreign money went to Canadian environmentalists to harm the Alberta energy sector.

Mr. Allan said industry groups should already be using the report’s findings to shift strategies.

“We have a great story to tell, but one of the things I’ve heard for years is we don’t tell our story,” he said. “People in Eastern Canada don’t understand the extent of innovation and technology that we have here.”

If Democrats return to centrism, they are doomed to lose against Trump

Biden was once touted as the ‘New FDR’. That ambition is fast dying – as are Democrats hopes of remaining in power

The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, at her weekly press conference on 4 November. Photograph: Michael Brochstein/Sopa Images/Rex/Shutterstock

THERE ARE THREE PARTIES IN THE US 

PROGRESSIVES, WALL ST DEMS AND GOP, TRUMP

Samuel Moyn
Mon 8 Nov 2021 

Congress’s passage on Friday of Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill would ordinarily have been a cause for celebration. But there is a good chance it was the beginning of the end of his presidency. After all, the bill’s final days marked a new consensus around a centrist set of economic remedies, chosen out of fears of what will supposedly happen when progressives with a transformative agenda exercise too much influence on the Democratic party agenda.

Only 10 months ago, Biden came into office with great expectations – but greater terrors. Even more apparent at the start than now, Biden’s presidency has been defined by fear rather than hope. With the assault on the Capitol earlier in the month, the culmination of a four-year deathwatch for American democracy, the emergency could hardly evaporate overnight. With Donald Trump temporarily ousted, his replacement also drew 1930s comparisons. The question “is he or isn’t he?” had been asked of Biden’s predecessor for four years. To redeem the country from the fascist, was Biden going to be Franklin Roosevelt?

Like FDR, Biden led Democrats who have rightly stressed economic transformation for the sake of the poor and vulnerable but also for the angry and disaffected voters of the stagnating middle. But unlike Roosevelt, Biden’s coalition is fragile and fissures emerged to threaten his success almost from the start – fissures that broke it apart definitively last week even in the midst of Biden’s infrastructure victory.

Other causes were forced to the margins along the way. Biden subordinated even critical fixes to American democracy, like reforms of courts and elections, to the economic agenda. As for his immigration policies, which mostly resembled the disgusting ones of prior presidents, they were treated with a partisan silence, provoking rage among the few principled enough to demand fewer cruelties and restrictions no matter who is imposing them. But Biden got a pass because enough agreed with the priority to address the economic reasons for Trump’s breakthrough, which are undeniable.

Yet in comparison to Roosevelt’s first “100 days” – which saw 15 major bills and gave the early phase of every presidency its name – Biden’s first 100 days were bogged down. A Covid-19 relief and stimulus bill was passed, adding $1.9tn in emergency spending to the $2.2tn of the first such bill signed by Trump in March 2020. But the real hopes fell on the big-ticket measures for “infrastructure” and welfare that Biden resolved to pursue separately. After all, the American Rescue Plan was only meant to be a temporary stopgap for an American society beset with deeper ills even beyond those that the virus laid bare.

The game was on. At first the debate seemed to be about how costly to make the bills and how to fund them. This was especially true for the American Families Plan, which was supposed to take steps towards an American welfare state – including by making relief measures for children in earlier bills permanent. Progressives in Congress, understanding the risks, were lauded for an early victory in August, refusing to back the first narrower infrastructure bill if Democrats abandoned the second more ambitious social spending bill. Centrists tried to tag progressives as the obstructionists. But the mainstream narrative remained that by holding infrastructure hostage, progressives were wisely keeping centrists from returning to form.

Even as it became clearer and clearer that the Democratic centrist senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, and like-minded Democratic colleagues in the House of Representatives, were doing damage to the ambition of the bills, a breakthrough after generations of Democratic austerity and neoliberalism still seemed possible. Then came the critical event that allowed for the centrist breakthrough last week: the election for Virginia governor last Tuesday.

In an electoral shock, Republican Glenn Youngkin won – and, more important, grizzled and uncharismatic Democratic party sage Terry McAuliffe, who had once held the governor’s office, lost. Even though McAuliffe’s reputation for decades has been one of a centrist on economics – he served as Bill Clinton’s campaign chair in the 1990s – centrists scored a narrative victory. Wasn’t it because of progressive excess that voters were turning on the party? “Wokeness derails the Democrats,” one headline ran. Lawmakers in Washington scurried to marginalize progressives by passing the infrastructure bill, with some progressives voting no, and others citing promises that Democrats will still continue on to the welfare measures.

The rush to judgment was peculiar. It is not until 2022 that the Democrats will need to show something for themselves, and there was no reason to abandon the social spending plan. Suddenly, however, progressives holding tough – since some Republicans supported the infrastructure plan – were dispensable.

The new narrative was that Youngkin won because of antiracist rhetoric many Democrats have adopted, along with elites branded as “out of touch” by other elite commentators. Centrists saw a golden opportunity to call for a return to their moderation, including in containing spending.

In an extraordinary op-ed, the New York Times called for an “honest conversation” about abandoning progressive goals across the board – including the economy, where Americans demand “bipartisan solutions” that respect inflationary risks and refuse to spend very much. The truth was that Americans had gotten bipartisan neoliberalism for decades, but no matter. One Twitter commentator snarkily noted that it was hardly surprising that “the lessons from Tuesday’s election” matched the “ideological goals” neoliberal elites “had before the election and decades before that. What are the odds!”

Democrats blew by the possibility that McAuliffe’s failures were mainly his fault, and due less to “critical race theory” that allegedly was already reshaping public education than to an abandonment of parents forced to endure school closures for years (itself an economic issue). Either way, the critical error is assuming that voters rejected progressive economic policies, which are popular across the board.

Even before the events the other day, Democrats defined what was in Build Back Better – their slogan and the name of the welfare bill – downwards. Free college was stripped out early, family and medical leave – standard across industrialized democracies for decades – were killed late, and Biden kowtowed to centrists who demanded a more marketized version not just of environmental concern but of funding government across the board, as taxes hikes were reversed. With its fate no longer hostage to infrastructure, in spite of written promises from some centrists that progressives reportedly exacted at the last minute, there is no reason to be optimistic about the final bill’s fate.

An infrastructure bill for a country in decay and decline was much needed and has itself eluded Democrats for decades. Though cut in half to win acceptance, its $1tn for a grab bag of spending – much focused on transport – is nothing to trivialize. But rarely in history has a greater looming defeat been snatched from the jaws of a political victory as the other day.

In the first year of Biden’s presidency, Democrats agreed that the only alternative to barbarism is, if not socialism, some modicum of economic change. Many agreed that opening acts of Barack Obama’s administration had been fatefully insufficient. Now, despite the lessons of the Obama presidency, Republicans are set to recapture one house of Congress after two years – or both. By contrast, FDR gained seats in both houses after delivering substantive change, and won the presidency three more times.

Of course, even if progressives were to secure a welfare package and retain influence in their party, Trump – or an even more popular Republican – could still win the presidency. But this outcome is a near certainty if the Democrats return to centrist form – as seems the likeliest outcome now.


Samuel Moyn is a professor of law and history at Yale and the author of Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World

Solar technology heralds greener future in Chile


The first solar thermal power plant in South America hopes to reduce reliance on fossil fuels while maintaining jobs for the coal industry’s workers.

At the heart of the expansive Atacama Desert in northern Chile, a new green technology capable of powering a medium-sized city can be found.

The region has the highest level of solar radiation on the planet, making it the perfect location for the Cerro Dominador project — the first solar thermal power plant in South America.

Instead of solar panels, the plant uses 10,000 mirrors, which reflect the abundant sunlight toward a 250-meter (820-foot) high tower. The heat generated there is used to create steam to drive a turbine generator, which in turn produces electricity. The energy can be stored for up to 17 hours a day.

While 40% of its electricity currently still comes from coal, Chile aims to be CO2 neutral by 2050 and plans to decarbonize at least a third of its 23 coal-fired power plants. For many people in the country’s northern cities, the existing fossil fuel industry is an important source of income and the move toward green energy presents an uncertain future.

However, the technology featured in the Cerro Dominador project is set to be used for converting coal-fired power plants into thermal storage facilities. Repurposing them would ensure they still have work, while at the same time improving the quality of the air and water. The first plant using the new technology is scheduled to begin operating in 2025.

Project name: Decarbonization of the Chilean Energy Sector

Project duration: June 2019 – November 2022

Project funding: €4 million through the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Environment Ministry. The financing will support not only the conversion of coal-fired power plants but also the promotion of renewables and the development of a green economy.

A film by Claudia Laszczak

Images reveal a slow-motion burial in Canary Islands volcano no-go zone
Posted Fri 5 Nov 2021

IT IS NOT A PAINTING IT IS A PHOTO OF ASH IN FRONT OF HOUSES



A child's swing. A fountain in a courtyard. A tray of glasses abandoned under the duress of escape.

All will disappear as a cloud of dark ash blows from a volcano on La Palma island — one of Spain's Canary Islands off the coast of Morocco — and drifts to the ground inch by inch.

Inside the exclusion zone, there is destruction by lava as well as burial.

A living room furnished with a hammock sits empty in the final hours before an implacable tongue of molten rock crushes an entire house.

The house was engulfed by lava just hours after this photo was taken.(AP: Emilio Morenatti)

Whether the end comes from lava or from ash, homes and fields located below the Cumbre Vieja volcano face annihilation in slow motion.

Since the eruption started on September 19, authorities have declared more than 8,200 hectares between the Cumbre Vieja volcano and the Atlantic Ocean off-limits.

Only police, soldiers, and scientists are allowed to move freely in the exclusion zone, which cuts La Palma's western shore in two.

A fountain is covered with ash spewed out by the volcano.(AP: Emilio Morenatti)

A swing is almost completely engulfed by the falling ash.(AP: Emilio Morenatti)

The lush land previously approximated an earthly paradise for both residents and visitors.

Spaniards and other Europeans spent holidays or retired there to be near the sea, while locals harvested banana trees in its semitropical warmth.

Now, evacuated residents line up in cars and trucks on the zone's edge, awaiting permission to make escorted trips home to rescue their dearest possessions, or at least see their endangered properties.

Pets have been left behind as people on La Palma flee their homes.(AP: Emilio Morenatti)

WHY

Human time and geological time were brought into sync by the volcano.

What once seemed a given — the land beneath people's feet — became as fluid and unpredictable as the lives the eruption threw into tumult.

The creep of the lava and the build-up of ash are matched by the growing anguish of the men and women whose way of life is being erased.

Jesus Perez holds a broom as he cleans the ash from a volcano at the roof of his house on La Palma.(AP: Emilio Morenatti)

Silence would reign in the exclusion zone if it were not for what residents have named "the beast".

The volcano's constant roar makes conversation almost impossible, nearly drowning out both the barking of abandoned dogs and the murmur of a flock of pigeons circling the sky in search of a coop that no longer exists.

Another sound: families weeping as they are accompanied by police to witness their homes as they succumb.

Lava flows have destroyed more than 1,000 houses in their paths.

The ash and lava are destroying neighbourhoods that no longer have residents. (AP: Emilio Morenatti)

Lava from the volcano advances and buries homes.(AP: Emilio Morenatti)

The ash is jettisoned thousands of metres into the sky, but the heaviest, thickest particles eventually give way to gravity.

They accumulate into banks that slowly cover doors, pour into windows and make rooftops sag.

Some particles are so big that when they pummel a car roof or the fronds of a banana tree, it sounds like hail.

An aerial shot of a forest region near the volcano covered in ash.(AP: Emilio Morenatti)

Entire houses have ash up the chimney — whole forests, right up to the canopy.

The ash has erased the distinguishing features of the landscape.

"I can't even recognise my home," Cristina Vera said while weeping.

"I can't recognise anything around it.

I don't recognise my neighbours' homes, not even the mountain.


"It has all changed so much that I don't know where I am."

Ash covers the graves at the La Palma cemetery.(AP: Emilio Morenatti)

The quick relocation of more than 7,000 people has prevented the loss of human life.

But at cemeteries, the occupants go through a second burial by ash that will wipe away the markers that note the place where they were put to rest.

Yet amid the apocalypse, there are moments for the sublime to emerge.

The colours that remain gain in their brilliance against the new ebony backdrop.

A small shrub, shaken clean, becomes a luminous green globe, a sponge pulled from a coral reef, an orb from an alien world.

Lava advances as the volcano continues to erupt and engulf the region.(AP: Emilio Morenatti)

A small green shrub emerges from the ash.(AP: Emilio Morenatti)

AP

 

How Emerging Markets Are Helping To Slash Methane Emissions

By Oxford Business Group - Nov 06, 2021, 2:00 PM CDT

• Joe Biden’s final speech at COP26 focused on methane emissions and the Global Methane Pledge, a pledge which was endorsed by multiple emerging economies
• There are multiple technologies and practices already available for these emergy economies to use, especially in the methane-heavy agriculture sector
• There are still multiple diplomatic barriers to achieving the ambitious methane emissions goals set out in the Global Methane Pledge, notably a lack of support from the Developing Countries Group

With world leaders meeting this week at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, a number of emerging markets have demonstrated their willingness to work with international partners on the matter of reducing methane emissions.

US President Joe Biden’s final speech in the context of the summit focused on methane emissions, and specifically the Global Methane Pledge.

Launched in September and led jointly by the US and the EU, the Global Methane Pledge represents the first coordinated international effort to address methane emissions. Its goal is to precipitate a 30% drop in global emissions – relative to 2020 baseline levels – before the end of the decade.

Methane emissions are the second-biggest cause of global warming after carbon dioxide.

According to the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, methane was responsible for approximately half of the 1°C net rise in global average temperatures since the pre-industrial era.

Action to reduce emissions is thus a key element of broader decarbonisation efforts. If the pledge’s targets are met, it could potentially result in a reduction of 0.2°C in global warming by 2050. While this may not sound like a huge difference, it would play a significant role in reducing the frequency and force of extreme weather events.

In light of this, signing up to the Global Methane Pledge has been called the most significant single action that world leaders can take in the context of COP26.

Alongside richer nations, the pledge has garnered the endorsement of a number of emerging economies, among them Argentina, Indonesia, Mexico and Nigeria. Brazil, which is one of the world’s top-five biggest emitters of methane, has also signed the pledge.

The complete list of supporting countries now totals more than 100, and together accounts for around half of global methane emissions, as well as 70% of the global economy.

Approaches to cutting emissions

The technology required to meet the pledge’s goals already exists. The UN Environmental Programme’s recently released Global Methane Assessment underlines that nearly half of the methane released through human activities could be cut by the end of this decade and that affordable tools to do so are already available.

In addition, advances in satellite technology have made it easier to detect and address methane leaks, providing what the European Space Agency has called “an important new tool to combat climate change”.

Alongside technological solutions, there is a range of practice-based solutions available to countries seeking to reduce their emissions.

Agriculture is a major contributor to global methane emissions, with rice cultivation representing 10% of total anthropogenic emissions and livestock farming 30%.

Given that agriculture remains the backbone of many emerging market economies, innovations on this front could significantly reduce global emissions without leading to the destruction of agricultural industries.

Thankfully, there are various tried-and-tested solutions. In the case of rice cultivation, alternating irrigation considerably reduces emissions, as well as increasing yields. This method has seen notable success in West Africa, Tamil Nadu in India, and southwest Asia.

Meanwhile, the “methanisation” – or transformation into biogas – of animal manure and other agricultural waste products can considerably reduce emissions.

In Thailand, for example, biogas is produced from the waste streams of its cassava starch sector and pig farms.

Diplomatic hurdles

While the Global Methane Pledge is indicative of a growing political will to leverage such technologies and practices in the fight against methane emissions, there is still some way to go in terms of global diplomacy.

Notable in their absence from the pledge’s list of supporters are China, India, and Russia, three countries that together account for around one-third of methane emissions. Australia has similarly refrained from signing up.

In an indication of some of the difficulties facing those who are working towards a multilateral consensus on emissions, a statement released in mid-October by the Like-Minded Developing Countries group – which includes China, India, Egypt, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and Vietnam – described the goal of net-zero emissions by 2020, which has been pushed by some developed nations, as being “anti-equity and against climate justice”.

The group accused richer nations of refusing to address their historical responsibility for initiating climate change, and of trying to shift responsibility onto developing nations.

Indeed, the absence of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin from the COP26 meeting was seen by many as an indication of how difficult it could be to achieve any global consensus.

By Oxford Business Group

Jeffrey F. Collins: Without plan for new submarines Canada faces defence gap in the Arctic

A plan for new submarines needed imminently

Author of the article: Jeffrey F. Collins, 

Special to National Post
Publishing date: Nov 07, 2021

PHOTO BY POSTMEDIA FILES

DON'T BUY USED

A Department of National Defence briefing note identifies the urgent need to “kick off without delay” a replacement project for the Royal Canadian Navy’s (RCN) four Victoria-class submarines. The British built vessels, acquired second hand in 1998 by the Chrétien government in a nearly $900 million lease-to-buy contract, are due to be retired or “paid off” 15 years from now, between 2036 and 2042 . At that point the submarines will be 50 years old.

Mirroring an assessment produced in a recent Macdonald-Laurier Institute report, the January 2021 note, obtained through an access-to-information request, makes clear that from start to finish it will take a “minimum” 15 years to deliver a new submarine. This estimate jumps to twenty-five years depending on which procurement model the DND adopts: 1) buy new from overseas; 2) build in Canada with a foreign design; 3) or build in Canada with a new design.

Should delays in deciding on a new submarine fleet emerge, both the note and the institute report state that Canada will encounter a capability gap. Simply put, with the vessels removed from service and the replacements not yet delivered, RCN crews would be without any operational submarines for a period of time.

Such a scenario is not mere conjecture. In 2015-16 , the RCN lost its two aging supply ships due to hull erosion and a fire, respectively, forcing Ottawa to rent sea days on Chilean and Spanish ships and lease a converted container ship as interim solutions given the delays in building new supply ships. Unfortunately, there are no surplus submarines available from any of Canada’s allies. Getting a new replacement, spending billions more on a total overhaul, or losing the RCN’s submarine force altogether are the only options.

Well publicized accidents and mishaps, like HMCS Corner Brook hitting the ocean floor in 2011 , have given Canada’s Victoria-class submarines a bad imagine (to say the least). Yet despite this narrative and the general secrecy surrounding undersea operations, submarines are a proven critical tool in Ottawa’s ability to monitor and patrol Canadian sovereignty.

Representing a quarter of the RCN’s advanced war-fighting fleet, Canada’s submarines are viewed as integral to deterring “potential adversaries or trespassers” in the country’s vast maritime domain — currently constituting the world’s longest coastline, second largest continental shelf and fifth largest exclusive economic zone. It is not for nothing that the RCN in its own 2016 strategy, Leadmark 2050 , regards submarines as its “ultimate warfighting capability.”

Given Canada’s continental defence alliance with the United States through NORAD, submarines are a “uniquely stealthy, persistent, and lethal capability set” that give Ottawa the ability to conduct surveillance and intelligence gathering operations at home and abroad. Although some parts of the note are “blacked out,” and no discernible references to China and Russia appear, it’s clear the Canadian military sees the prospects of more foreign submarines in the country’s maritime domain as a likely scenario. Submarines, the department advises, will probably “grow in significance.”

The purpose of the note — to formally establish a “Canadian patrol submarine project” office — corresponds with news reports this past summer of the DND examining its options on a submarine replacement. As the note admits, “significant analysis” is needed to determine the submarine design, fleet size, and procurement model.

Tellingly, the note does not exclude the option of nuclear power submarines, a subject last seriously considered in the Mulroney government’s 1987 defence white paper. Unlike Canada’s 2400 tonne diesel-electric Victoria class submarines, which need to periodically surface to recharge their batteries, nuclear-powered submarines like the 7400 tonne British Astute-class remain the only safe means to both travel under the Arctic ice and, given their larger displacement and hull designs, punch through it.

The RCN has been clear that it sees an Arctic ice capability as necessary for a future submarine replacement. But without significant advances in diesel-electric submarines or new air independent propulsion hybrids that can recharge batteries through fuel cells, nuclear remains the only game in town.

The previous attempt at nuclear partially failed over American reluctance to transfer nuclear submarine know-how to Canada. However, with the creation in September of the AUKUS defence pact, the US and UK are set to assist Australia in procuring nuclear-powered submarines. Of course, the cost of this acquisition will likely prove significant for Australia.

Irrespective, this deal indicates a willingness on Washington’s part to invest in partners that are willing to pull their weight in international affairs. The question for Ottawa is, are we?

National Post

Jeffrey F. Collins is author of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute paper “Deadline 2036,” and an assistant professor of political science at the University of Prince Edward Island.

EXPLAINED: WHAT IS A HYDROGEN INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE, AND CAN IT BE A REAL ALTERNATIVE TO BATTERY EVS?

Toyota is pushing the pace on the development of hydrogen internal combustion engines for mass production, but how does it work and is it a feasible concept?


AMAAN AHMED

NOV 07, 2021 04:23:19 IST

In a world faced with more uncertainty than ever, the only well-documented certainty is that fossil fuels will soon be ditched in favour of alternative energy sources for mobility applications worldwide. Most automakers have already climbed aboard the promising electric mobility vessel, and are working to transition from internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles to ones powered by lithium-ion batteries. However, not every player wants to head down that route, and some prominent names are evaluating other forms of power sources for future vehicles, including using hydrogen as a fuel in an ICE vehicle.
Haven’t hydrogen-powered vehicles been around for years?

Yes, the world has seen a variety of hydrogen-based fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEV) – both in concept and production forms – over the last few decades. However, despite several attempts, no carmaker has been able to push FCEVs into the mainstream spotlight, and as such, they continue to be a rarity. At this time, the only FCEVs in production are the Hyundai Nexo crossover and the Toyota Mirai, with Honda recently having pulled the plug on the Clarity FCEV. Both the Hyundai and the Toyota use hydrogen to power the fuel cell, which turns the energy into electricity via a chemical reaction and powers an electric motor to propel the vehicle.

The Toyota Mirai is one of just two hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles on sale at this time. Image: Toyota

But it’s a complex process, and the application is expensive. Now, Toyota is proposing a more direct (and nearly as clean) solution in the form of an internal combustion engine that runs on hydrogen.

What’s different about a hydrogen combustion engine? Does it bring any benefits?

With an FCEV, there’s a lot to account for – the vehicle carries hydrogen tanks, the fuel cell as well as the electric motor or motors (depending on the vehicle configuration), all married into one cohesive unit. It also uses platinum, a rare ingredient that’s also quite expensive, for the oxygen reduction reaction in the fuel cell.

A hydrogen internal combustion engine can be produced by simply making a set of modifications to existing petrol and diesel engines. 

A hydrogen ICE, like the name suggests, simplifies the hardware, as it is essentially the good old combustion engine converted to run on H2. Existing engines can be adapted by changing certain components – such as the fuel delivery system and spark plugs – to use hydrogen instead of petrol or diesel, which means carmakers have a proven, time-tested base to build on and refine to further suit hydrogen applications, without making heavy investments on electric powertrains.

The primary purpose of using hydrogen would be to turn a car into an ultra-low emissions vehicle. With the combustion of hydrogen, the vehicle would mostly emit water vapour only. The reason why it isn’t a zero-emissions application is because a minute amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) is also emitted because of the burning of engine oil, and the combustion process in a H2 ICE leads to the emission of nitrogen oxides (NOx). While these emissions are significantly lower than a petrol/diesel vehicle’s, FCEVs better H2 ICEs on this front, as they are true zero-emissions vehicles.
What has Toyota done to push development of the hydrogen combustion engine?

Earlier this year, Toyota converted the 1.6-litre, three-cylinder turbo-petrol engine from the Toyota GR Yaris hatchback to use compressed hydrogen, and plonked it into a Corolla hatchback racer.

Motorsport, said Toyota, would be the best place to give the hydrogen combustion engine a shot at life, as learnings from the track would expedite the development process and help realise mass adoption of the powertrain at a much quicker pace. The Japanese auto giant tossed the hydrogen-fuelled Corolla into its toughest test right away, entering it into the Super Tec 24-hour endurance race at the Fuji Speedway, in May.


Toyota plonked the GR Yaris' 1.6-litre, three-cylinder turbo-petrol modified to run on hydrogen, into the Corolla race car and entered it into the 24-hour endurance race at the Fuji Speedway. Image: Toyota

Admirably, the Corolla – driven by former F1 racer Kamui Kobayashi and Toyota Motor Corporation chief Akio Toyoda, among others – managed to finish the race in one piece. That said, it was off the pace – over 24 hours, the Corolla H2 could only log in 358 laps of the Fuji Speedway, which was almost half that of other conventionally-powered vehicles on the circuit. The Corolla – which logged a lowly average speed of 68 kph – also made more refuelling stops (35 in total) compared to the average of 20 for other participants, and each fuel stop also took longer (around six to seven minutes), meaning it had to stop for fuel roughly every 42 minutes, and of the 24 hours, spent close to four hours receiving refills.

In more promising showings, the Corolla H2 has since raced at the five-hour-long Super Taikyu endurance races at Autopolis and Suzuka, with Toyota claiming the hydrogen race car is now as powerful as the petrol-powered racer (which wasn’t the case previously), with acceleration boosted by 10 percent and fuel flow rate increased to slash the refuelling time to just two minutes. Performance is said to have improved in a big way, and enthusiasts will love the fact that it sounds more or less like a conventional race car, which is a refreshing change from the super-quick but dead-silent EVs. All this, while largely emitting water vapour.

Sounds great – but there has to be a catch, surely?

There isn’t just a catch – there are many of them, as things stand.

The reason why the Corolla H2 had to make as many refuelling stops as it did during the 24-hour endurance run was because of the reduced efficiency of hydrogen fuel as compared to petrol. Stored in high-pressure tanks in gaseous form, hydrogen – which isn’t as dense as petrol – suffers from volumetric inefficiency and requires higher amounts of storage and combustion capacity than conventional liquid fuels. The Corolla’s rear seats were thrown out to make space for the hydrogen tanks, which were stacked to the roof, completely blocking the view through the rear windscreen. With a road-going vehicle, the required storage for hydrogen tanks that would give a vehicle an acceptable travel range would eat into masses of interior space, rendering the vehicle largely impractical.

Rearward visibility in the Corolla race car was zero due to the rear seating area being occupied entirely by large hydrogen storage tanks, without which the car simply wouldn't have the required range. Image: Toyota

Compared to conventionally-powered ICEs, hydrogen ICEs only offer between 20–25 percent efficiency, power output varies basis the energy density of the hydrogen/air mixture and hydrogen ICEs are also prone to knocking, which can negatively impact engine durability as well as fuel efficiency. However, the last issue can be overcome with the help of an exhaust gas recirculation system.

Then there’s the cleanliness of hydrogen fuel itself. At present, the process of creating hydrogen mainly involves the use of fossil fuels, which contributes greatly to CO2 emissions. This is a counter-productive solution, and the ideal and cleanest alternative, green hydrogen (produced by harnessing renewable resources), is significantly more expensive, costing anywhere between $3.5 to $6 per kg. Any significant drop in the price of green hydrogen is unlikely to happen before the end of this decade. Until that happens, running a hydrogen vehicle – on any other form of hydrogen – may actually be worse for the environment than running a fossil fuel vehicle. 

The number of hydrogen refuelling stations in most countries is negligible compared to the number of EV charging stations. Image: Mercedes-Benz

And then there’s the hydrogen fuel infrastructure itself. While charging stations for battery electric vehicles are being set up almost every day across the world, there are only a handful of hydrogen fuel stations in major countries, meaning movement in a hydrogen vehicle is hugely restricted. The cost of setting up a hydrogen station – which is said to range between $2 million to $3.2 million depending on the type of station – is prohibitively high in most markets, and with hardly any hydrogen vehicles on sale, investing in one doesn’t make much business sense at this point.

To further complicate matters, while filling up a hydrogen vehicle only takes a few minutes, there would still be a wait involved at a station – a wait of as much as 20 minutes, as there needs to be sufficient pressure in the storage tank to be able to supply hydrogen to the car’s tank, which otherwise can’t be filled up fully. In case of mass adoption, queues at stations would be serpentine and not every driver would have the time to spare.


Even Hyundai's recently revealed Vision FK hydrogen FCEV prototype can only do 0-100 kph in less than four seconds, which is notably slower than most high-performance EVs today, and the company itself admits the packaging of this prototype is "extremely complicated". Image: Hyundai

Safety also remains an area of concern for hydrogen storage facilities. High-intensity explosions at hydrogen refuelling and storage facilities in Norway and South Korea in the past have raised questions about how safe hydrogen – which is highly flammable – would be for mass uptake, and also led to resident groups opposing the establishment of new hydrogen refuelling stations and production facilities in their vicinities.

Lastly, hydrogen vehicles have been left far, far behind by BEVs on almost every front. Range anxiety is fast becoming a term of the past thanks to BEVs with larger, more efficient battery packs, and electric vehicles will always pip hydrogen vehicles when it comes to performance. Charging times continue to drop every year, and quick and constant evolutions in battery technology will almost certainly lead to batteries only needing as much time to charge fully as needed to fill up an ICE vehicle’s fuel tank.
Is India making progress on the green hydrogen production front?

The pursuit of green hydrogen is gaining pace in India. State-owned GAIL India Ltd has recently announced it will set up a 10 MW green hydrogen facility – the country’s largest such plant – over the next 12-14 months. Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani has said the company, as part of its clean energy business, is striving to bring down the cost of green hydrogen down to as little as $1 per kg by the end of this decade.

The Indian government has already outlined safety standards for the production of green hydrogen, and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has, on multiple occasions, advocated the uses of hydrogen as an automotive and industrial fuel, the adoption of which would help cut the country’s fuel import bill substantially.

Will hydrogen engines find application anywhere – or even become a feasible concept?

There does exist a use case for hydrogen combustion engines – specifically on the commercial vehicle side. Vehicles that have significantly higher uptimes than private use vehicles – such as heavy-duty trucks, buses and heavy machinery – are a perfect fit for hydrogen ICEs, as they need to operate for a set number of hours (and cannot afford to stop for long durations to charge their batteries), have fixed journey points and would struggle with the added weight of extremely large battery packs. Within a controlled environment and with a small number of hydrogen refuelling stations, such vehicles can easily make the switch to H2, and a number of manufacturers – including heavy machinery specialist JCB – are on their way to adopting a hydrogen ICE for their commercial vehicles.

Hydrogen will be better suited to commercial vehicles and heavy machinery.

 Image: Mercedes-Benz

A case could also potentially be made for hydrogen in motorsport. Races are conducted within a controlled environment where hydrogen fuel could be made available as needed, costs wouldn’t be as big an issue and viewers would be excited to hear the sound of combustion engines again, unlike in the pure-electric Formula E race series, deemed dull because of a lack of sound from the race cars.

Toyota and Hyundai are the two main carmakers who continue to press forward with their idea of a hydrogen-powered society, but some fundamental, game-changing technological breakthroughs would be needed for the hydrogen combustion engine to hit the big time, and even if those do occur in the coming years, BEVs will likely already have moved the game beyond the reach of H2.

Firstpost is part of the Network18 group. Network18 is controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.

THE TRUE GREEN METAL

Visualizing copper demand for renewables

Visual Capitalist | November 3, 2021 |


Visualizing Copper Demand in a Renewables Powered Future

Renewable energy is considered one of the most effective tools to reduce global carbon emissions and fight climate change. However, building technologies like solar and wind power plants or electric vehicles (EVs) can be mineral-intensive.


Copper is considered an essential metal for renewables. The metal is highly conductive, can easily be shaped into pipes, wires, or sheets, and can remove heat far more rapidly than other metals. In fact, copper itself is a sustainable material. The metal is 100% recyclable and can be used repeatedly without any loss of performance.


The Wind and Solar Boom

Copper has long been a common component in most electrical wiring, power generation, transmission, distribution, and circuitry because of its high conductivity and durability.

New energy technologies, however, require even more copper. Photovoltaics (PV) solar power systems contain approximately 5 tonnes (t) per megawatt (MW) of copper, while grid energy storage installations rely on 2.7 to 3.6t per MW.

Solar isn’t the only renewable energy source that relies on copper, as a wind farm can contain between 4 million and 15 million pounds of copper.

Copper Drives EVs

The clean transport sector also consumes lots of copper. In fact, the metal is used in every major EV component, from the motor to the inverter and the electrical wiring.

While an average gasoline-powered car uses about 20 kg of copper, mainly as wiring, a fully electric car has roughly 80 kg of copper. Therefore, copper demand for EV batteries alone is expected to jump from 210K tonnes in 2020 to 1.8M tonnes in 2030.

[Click here for an interactive chart of copper prices]

But demand for the metal won’t just come from the cars themselves. Copper used for EV charging stations is also expected to rise more than 1,000% by 2030, compared to 2020.
Meeting the Copper Demand

As the world moves towards alternative energy sources, copper will remain in high demand.

Even though the metal is 100% recyclable, recycling alone will not be enough to meet demand and ensure a stable supply of copper. Continued mining for new copper will be needed.

(This article first appeared in the Visual Capitalist)

Why does copper turn green? A look at the patina process

https://crescentcitycopper.com/why-does-copper-turn-green

Over time copper will naturally change colors – transforming from a shiny brown color to darker browns, then blues and finally greens after a number of years. When exposed to the natural elements such as wind and rain, copper develops this “ patina ” which actually …

Singapore to Curb Greenwashing With Stress Tests, Technology

Chanyaporn Chanjaroen and Haslinda Amin
Sun, November 7, 2021, 

IF ANYONE CAN IT IS THE AUTONOMOUS CITY STATE

(Bloomberg) -- Singapore’s financial watchdog is turning to regulation and technology to tackle so-called “greenwashing,” which it considers the weakest link in the push to expanding sustainable finance.

Banks in Singapore will have to undergo stress tests from next year while making regulatory disclosures to ensure they’re managing risks related to climate change and other environmental issues, Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, said in an interview. Data verification using technology that can attest to the provenance of green products will also be required, he added.

Menon said the potential for greenwashing is on the rise as more funds are allocated for sustainability projects. Stocks and funds highly rated on environmental, social and governance metrics have attracted trillions of dollars of investments in recent years.

The introduction of stress tests means banks will have to get a better handle on the climate risks tied to their borrowers, their customers and supply chains, said Menon, who also heads the city-state’s central bank. “That will increasingly become a supervisory expectation,” he said.

Singapore launched a national program that will use artificial intelligence to help with risk analysis for the financial industry at its annual fintech festival Monday. Part of the program is a partnership between local lenders and fintech firms to assess companies’ environmental impact and identify emerging environmental risks, as well as check against greenwashing, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat said at the event.

Mandatory Disclosure

The MAS is joining other central banks in the U.K., Europe and Canada in putting their financial institutions through assessments that scrutinize the impact of climate change on everything from real estate to corporate loans.

Starting next year, all listed firms in Singapore, including banks, will need to publicize information in line with recommendations from the Group of 20’s task force on climate-related financial disclosures. Mandatory disclosure will also extend to ESG fund products sold to retail investors, Menon said.

In Europe, the flow of cash into ESG funds picked up last quarter following the introduction of new disclosure requirements to help restore confidence in a market hit by greenwashing accusations. The ESG market has been dogged by allegations of inflated and even false claims about the benefits that investments bring. The EU adopted in March what’s known as SFDR, for Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, an historic measure that’s setting the pace for global requirements.

In line with major global banks, lenders in Singapore have started to reduce their exposure to some of the industries linked to climate change, such as coal. DBS Group Holdings Ltd., Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. and United Overseas Bank Ltd., the three major Singapore banks that are also the largest in Southeast Asia by assets, pledged to stop financing new coal-fired power projects, honoring only previously committed ones.

Many emerging economies in the region such as Vietnam and Indonesia still rely on coal, considered the world’s dirtiest fuel. Palm oil is another major industry in Southeast Asia often linked to deforestation and haze.

Asked whether the MAS would ask local banks to curb their financing for palm oil-related activities, Menon said the regulator never makes pronouncements on any particular sector.

“These are issues we study closely,” Menon said. “You don’t want to rush to say ‘this activity is brown, and you should not invest in it, or you should not make loans to finance it’.”

People need to be given “greener alternatives” to whatever they’re doing that isn’t so environmentally friendly, Menon said. Banks can offer financing that helps the industry transition to a replacement of palm, if and when there is one, he said.

“So if in five or 10 years’ time, the way in which palm oil cultivation is done is reformed, then the lenders need to pay more attention to it,” he said, adding they can work with borrowers to improve the way it’s harvested to minimize deforestation.