Tuesday, November 09, 2021

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Climate change: Nine reasons why COP26 needs to work

We need to bolster our efforts to tackle climate change


Why COP26 needs to work

Climate change is the greatest threat facing the world today and the urgency for action has increased dramatically. The sixth assessment report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) delivered a stark message on the pace and extent of global warming and its effects. The analysis, which drew on the expertise of more than 200 authors, labelled humanity’s effect on climate change “unequivocal” and revealed that global warming is already greater than had been thought.

Its findings form the backdrop to this year’s COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow, where leaders from all over the world are convening to discuss how they can make good on the Paris Agreement goal to limit global warming to +2°C but ideally +1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

According to the IPCC this goal is still achievable, albeit only just. We need to bolster and accelerate our efforts to tackle climate change. We need to drastically cut our greenhouse gas emissions and move the global energy sector away from fossil-based fuels, towards greener, renewable alternatives. If we don’t, we risk the global economy and a prosperous future.

Here are nine reasons why COP26 needs to be a game-changer in the battle against climate change.

The vast majority of companies in the world are not yet aligned with the Paris Agreement.

To stand a chance of restricting the rise in global temperatures, investors need to mobilise finance to support the transition to net zero.

Investing in new technologies, in the transition leaders and engaging more forcefully with companies to meet climate objectives are all central to net zero carbon investing. There is a path open to a more prosperous and sustainable future but investors, alongside governments, need to be bolder today to ensure we are on that path.

The climate crisis is escalating

1. Despite global lockdowns, the concentration of carbon dioxide in 2020 was 149% above the pre-industrial level, whereafter the planet began its mass reliance on fossil fuels, according to a report from the World Meteorological Organization – the United Nation’s weather agency. It found that all major greenhouse gases – methane and nitrous oxide, alongside carbon dioxide - increased at a quicker pace in 2020 than the average for the previous decade, a pattern which has spilled over into 2021.



2. Earth Overshoot Day marks the day each year when humanity’s demand for ecological resources exceeds what the planet can regenerate in that 12-month period. 

Aside from 2020, as the climate crisis escalates, the date has been moving earlier – this year, it fell on Thursday 29 July. From this point, for the remainder of the year, the earth is essentially operating in a deficit, consuming more natural resources than it generates.


We’re not doing enough

3. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has called for faster progress in the energy transition as it predicted warming would hit 2.1°C by 2100 under the current scenario. According to its latest World Energy Outlook, current pledges would achieve just 20% of the emissions cuts needed by 2030, to keep the goal of net zero by 2050 a possibility.




  

4. A new study from the Systems Change Lab - of the World Resources Institute - highlighted that across 40 different sectors including energy, heavy industry, agriculture, transportation, finance and technology, not a single industry is moving at a sufficient speed to avoid 1.5 ̊C in global heating beyond pre-industrial times.






Global GDP will be hit by climate change

5. The Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS), a network of central banks and financial supervisors, estimates that if we achieve net zero, it will likely reduce global GDP by around 2% by 2050 through to 2100. However, it also expects that a ‘delayed transition’, which gets off to a later start, could be markedly higher - reducing GDP by around 5% by 2050, before losses are reduced to around 2.5% by 2100.


6. In the case of uninterrupted climate change, the NGFS forecasts that losses would exceed 6% of global GDP by 2050 while the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development anticipates that by 2100, total losses would total 10% - 12% of GDP. 

The International Monetary Fund’s current worst-case scenario forecasts an output loss of some 25%.






The world needs to spend and invest more

7. Only 2% of the $16trn of global government spending, used as economic support during the pandemic, has been allocated to the clean energy transition. 
According to the IEA this falls “well short of what is needed to reach international climate goals”. The IEA predicts that carbon dioxide emissions will reach record levels in 2023 and will continue to rise in the following years, under governments’ current recovery spending plans. It recommends $1trn of spending globally on clean energy measures. 

It said to reach the net-zero goal, up to $4trn in annual investment was needed over the next 10 years to close the gap.



8. Princeton University estimates the US would need to invest $2.5trn (11% of GDP) by 2030 to deliver its net-zero-by-2050 goal. 

The European Commission forecast an even larger €3.5trn over the coming decade (25% of GDP) while Tsinghua University predicts that China’s plan would cost RMB138trn (circa $21.6trn) and 122% of GDP over the coming four decades.



9. Researchers have suggested the true cost of the climate crisis may be far greater than thought. 

The work by experts at Cambridge University, University College London and Imperial College London puts the cost at $3,000 for each tonne of carbon emitted, roughly equivalent to a return flight to New York from London. 

The authors said their research reflects “mounting evidence” that the economic impacts of fires, floods, droughts and other effects of the climate crisis are not as transitory as had been thought. Current carbon pricing regimes in the US and Europe put the cost at less than $100 per tonne.




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UN says 16 local staff detained in Ethiopia amid push to end war

Issued on: 09/11/2021 
















Traffic police are seen on duty in the Lafto neighbourhood in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on November 5, 2021. © Tiksa Negeri, Reuters

Text by:NEWS WIRES

Sixteen Ethiopian staff working for the United Nations were in detention Tuesday after government raids targeting ethnic Tigrayans, the United Nations said, as foreign envoys scramble to end the country’s year-long war.

The detentions in Addis Ababa followed the declaration of a six-month nationwide state of emergency last week after Tigrayan and Oromo rebels claimed major advances on the ground, raising fears of a march on the capital.

Some UN staff members were taken from their homes, humanitarian sources said, shortly after a senior UN envoy visited Tigray to plead for more aid to civilians.

Sixteen UN staffers, all Ethiopian nationals, remained in detention while another six were freed, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters at the world body’s headquarters.

“We are of course actively working with the government of Ethiopia to secure their immediate release,” Dujarric said.

“There has been, as far as I know, no explanation given to us on why these staff members are detained,” he said.

Lawyers say arbitrary detentions of ethnic Tigrayans—commonplace during the war—have spiked in the last week, ensnaring thousands, with the new measures allowing the authorities to hold anyone suspected of supporting “terrorist groups” without a warrant.

Tensions between the Ethiopian government and the UN have been high throughout the war, which has killed thousands of people and, according to the UN, pushed hundreds of thousands into famine-like conditions due to a de facto humanitarian blockade on Tigray.

In September, Ethiopia’s foreign ministry announced it was expelling seven senior UN officials for “meddling” in the country’s affairs.

Foreign envoys and the UN are now hoping that a fresh push led by the African Union will lead to a ceasefire.

UN emergency relief coordinator Martin Griffiths on Tuesday called for peace following a weekend visit to Tigray’s regional capital Mekele where he met leaders from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) rebel group.

“I implore all parties to heed the UN Secretary-General’s appeal to immediately end hostilities without preconditions, and reiterate the (UN’s) full support” for the AU’s efforts, he said.

Jeffrey Feltman, US special envoy for the Horn of Africa, held late-night talks on Monday with his AU counterpart, former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, after meeting top Ethiopian officials last week, the State Department said.

“We believe there is a small window of opening to work with (Obasanjo),” spokesman Ned Price told reporters in Washington.

“We have engaged with the TPLF as well,” Price said.

‘Window of opportunity’

Briefing the AU’s 15-member security body on Monday, Obasanjo expressed optimism that progress was in the offing.

“All these leaders here in Addis Ababa and in the north agree individually that the differences opposing them are political and require political solution through dialogue,” he said in a copy of his statement seen by AFP.

“This, therefore, constitutes a window of opportunity that we can collectively tap.”

The TPLF and its allies, the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), have claimed several victories in recent weeks, taking towns about 400 kilometres (250 miles) from the capital, and they have not ruled out marching on Addis Ababa.

The government says the rebels are greatly exaggerating their gains but has ordered the capital to prepare to defend itself.

Much of the conflict-affected zone is under a communications blackout and access for journalists is restricted, making battlefield claims difficult to verify.

Nevertheless, a number of countries have urged their citizens to leave Ethiopia while commercial flights are still available.

The US embassy has also ordered non-essential staff to leave and the UN has suspended non-essential missions to Addis Ababa.

Britain on Tuesday advised nationals to leave Ethiopia, citing a deteriorating security situation.

“The conflict has potential to escalate and spread quickly and with little warning,” the advisory said.

Among African nations, Zambia repatriated 31 workers from its embassy in Addis Ababa, following an order by President Hakainde Hichilema to evacuate citizens.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops into Tigray in November 2020 to topple the TPLF, the former regional ruling party that dominated national politics before Abiy took over in 2018.

Winner of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, Abiy promised a swift victory, but by June the TPLF had retaken most of Tigray before expanding into the neighbouring regions of Amhara and Afar.

(AFP)
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UAE foreign minister meets Assad, most senior Emirati visit to Syria since war began

BEIRUT (Reuters) -The United Arab Emirates foreign minister met President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Tuesday, the Syrian presidency said, a sign of improving ties between Assad and a U.S.-allied Arab state that once supported rebels trying to overthrow him

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© Reuters/Syrian Presidency Syria's President Bashar al-Assad meets with United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, in Damascus

Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed is the most senior Emirati dignitary to visit Syria in the decade since the eruption of a civil war in which several Arab states backed mainly Sunni Muslim insurgents against Assad.

A presidency statement said Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed led a delegation of senior Emirati officials that discussed bilateral relations and cooperation in a meeting with Syrian counterparts.

The participants discussed exploring "new horizons for this cooperation, especially in vital sectors in order to strengthen investment partnerships in these sectors”, the statement said.

A correspondent for Lebanon's al-Manar TV, which is run by Lebanon's Hezbollah, an Assad ally, said heavy security had been observed on the road from Damascus airport to the city.

The UAE has been at the forefront of efforts by some Arab states to normalise ties with Damascus https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/arabs-ease-assads-isolation-us-looks-elsewhere-2021-10-10, and earlier this year called for Syria to be readmitted to the Arab League. It reopened its embassy in Damascus three years ago.
© Reuters/Syrian Presidency Syria's President Bashar al-Assad meets with United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, in Damascus

Jordan and Egypt, both U.S. allies, have also taken steps toward normalising relations since Assad, with Russian and Iranian help, defeated rebels across much of Syria, apart from some northern and eastern areas that remain outside his grasp.

The United States has said it does not support https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/blinken-says-us-does-not-intend-normalize-relations-with-syrias-assad-2021-10-13 efforts to normalise ties with Assad or rehabilitate him until progress is made towards a political solution to the conflict.

Washington has also said it will not lift sanctions, including measures that can freeze the assets of anyone dealing with Syria, regardless of nationality.

The UAE may have asked Damascus not to trumpet the visit due to sensitivities in its ties to the United States, said Joshua Landis, a Syria specialist at the University of Oklahoma. "No one wants to get their head too far over the parapet," he said.

Last month, King Abdullah of Jordan spoke to Assad for the first time in a decade, and the border between the countries was reopened for trade. The Egyptian foreign minister also met his Syrian counterpart in September, the highest level contact between the countries since the civil war began.

"Both the UAE and Egypt have long believed that the Damascus government serves as a break on the spread of Islamist groups in the region," Landis said. Investment is expected once Syria is readmitted to the Arab League, he added, though private firms would wait to see how the United States would respond first.

(Reporting by Yasmin Hussein, Kinda Makieh and Aziz El YaakoubiWriting by Maha El Dahan/Tom PerryEditing by Peter Graff and Mark Heinrich)
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Malala Yousafzai ties the knot with Asser in Britain



Malala and Aseer pose for a family photo.

Gulf Today Report

Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Prize laureate, announced on Tuesday that she has tied the knot with Asser in an intimate nikkah ceremony in Birmingham, United Kingdom.

Malala shared the good news on his official Twitter account.

“Today marks a precious day in my life. Asser and I tied the knot to be partners for life. We celebrated a small nikkah ceremony at home in Birmingham with our families. Please send us your prayers. We are excited to walk together for the journey ahead,” she tweeted.

PPP leader Aseefa Bhutto Zardari congratulated Malala on Twitter.

 

Malala and Asser pose for wedding photograph.

Aseefa wrote, “Congratulations! May you both find every joy together, and may your journey be blessed at every turn. Sending you love & duas…”

Jemima Goldsmith wrote on Twitter, “Congratulations and mashallah x”

Malala who was shot by the Pakistani Taliban as a schoolgirl, has urged Afghanistan's new rulers to let girls return to school.

It has been one month since the Taliban, which seized power in August, excluded girls from returning to secondary school while ordering boys back to class.

The Taliban have claimed they will allow girls to return once they have ensured security and stricter segregation under their interpretation of Islamic law — but many are sceptical.

 
Malala and Asser pose for a photograph at a garden.

"To the Taliban authorities...reverse the de facto ban on girls' education and re-open girls' secondary schools immediately," Yousafzai and a number of Afghan women's rights activists said in an open letter published on Sunday.

Yousafzai called on the leaders of Muslim nations to make it clear to the Taliban that "religion does not justify preventing girls from going to school."

"Afghanistan is now the only country in the world that forbids girls' education," said the writers, who included the head of the Afghan human rights commission under the last US-backed government Shaharzad Akbar.

The authors called on G20 world leaders to provide urgent funding for an education plan for Afghan children.

 
Asser signs the nikkah papers.

A petition alongside the letter had on Monday received more than 640,000 signatures.

Education activist Yousafzai was shot by militants from the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, an offshoot of the Afghan Taliban, in her home town in the Swat valley while on a school bus in 2012.

Now 24 years old, she advocates for girls' education, with her non-profit Malala Fund having invested $2 million in Afghanistan.

The Nikah ceremony is the Muslim marriage ceremony. In the Islamic tradition, the marriage contract is signed during the Nikah and it’s during this event that the bride and groom say, “I do.” Traditionally, the Nikah ceremony often takes place in a mosque and the leader or imam of the mosque officiates the Nikah.

Nikah Ceremony: Everything You Need to Know

www.brides.com/nikkah-ceremony-5079931
www.brides.com/nikkah-ceremony-5079931



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King of Jordan praises Abbas, stands alongside PA

The king emphasized the need to establish a just and comprehensive peace based on a two-state solution, which would ensure the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem its capital.

JORDAN IS WESTERN PALESTINE THE KING SHOULD GO

Arutz Sheva Staff , Nov 09 , 2021 

Jordan King Abdullah
Flash 90

The office of Jordan's King Abdullah this evening (Tuesday) issued an official announcement of the king's meeting at his palace in Amman with United Arab List (Ra'am) chairman Mansour Abbas.

"During the meeting, the two discussed developments in the Palestinian territories and ways to advance the peace process. The King of Jordan emphasized his standing alongside the Palestinian brothers in their efforts to achieve just and legitimate rights," the statement said.

It added that "the king emphasized the need to establish a just and comprehensive peace based on a two-state solution, which would ensure the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on lines 67 with its capital East Jerusalem. Jordan continues to make every effort to protect the holy places of Islam and Christianity in Jerusalem by virtue of Hashemite guardianship."

MK Mansour Abba, praised at the meeting the positions of the King of Jordan on the Palestinian issue and Jordan's efforts to maintain the status quo in Jerusalem. He expressed appreciation for the assistance Jordan is providing to Israeli Arabs.

The meeting between Abbas and the King of Jordan, according to political sources, took place with the knowledge of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
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White House awaits Enbridge Line 5 review before any decision

Only half of people in Ontario and Michigan say Enbridge Line 5 should stay open

Shachi Kurl, president of Angus Reid Institute, discusses a survey that polled residents of Michigan, Ontario, and Quebec on Enbridge's Line 5 pipeline. Only about half of the residents in Michigan and Ontario said the pipeline must remain in operation. The rest either wants it closed or say they don't know.

Robert Tuttle and Josh Wingrove, 
BNN Bloomberg News
11/09/2021

The White House said it’s waiting on a study by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before deciding whether to wade into a debate over the future of a controversial oil pipeline that carries Canadian oil across the Great Lakes into Michigan.

The idea that the Biden administration is considering shutting Enbridge Inc.’s Line 5 is “inaccurate,” White House Spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Monday, in response to news reports. Instead, the White House noted that the Army Corps of Engineers is reviewing a proposal by Enbridge to build a tunnel to house the pipeline under the waterway for safety reasons. That review will help inform any U.S. position on the pipeline, she said.

Speculation that President Joe Biden was considering killing Line 5, like he did with TC Energy Corp.’s Keystone XL project, prompted angry reactions among Republicans as the country grapples with surging prices for everything from propane to gasoline. Line 5 supplies crude and propane to Michigan homes, as well as refineries in the U.S. Midwest and Ontario

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Enbridge have been in a legal tussle for the past year over the fate of the pipeline. Whitmer has ordered the line shut down, arguing it’s a threat to the Great Lakes because it crosses the Straits of Mackinac.

Enbridge has defied the governor’s order and is instead seeking to build a tunnel to house the pipeline under the waterway, saying it will make the pipeline safer. Currently, the Army Corps is preparing an environmental impact statement on the tunnel project.


The Army Corps review “will help inform any additional action or position the U.S. will be taking,” Jean-Pierre said.

The fate of Line 5 has also turned into a source of contention between the U.S. and Canada, which has fiercely defended the line’s continued operation, recently invoking a dispute resolution provision of a 1977 treaty.

Pipeline pile-on: Biden faces heat from Canada, Republicans, Michigan’s governor and the price of propane

The president is caught between environmentalists and Indigenous groups on one side and Republicans blaming him for soaring energy prices on the other.





The Biden administration is studying what to do about a pipeline stretching across Michigan that activists — and the state's Democratic governor — contend poses a catastrophic pollution risk to the Great Lakes. | Scott Olson/Getty Images


By BEN LEFEBVRE and ZI-ANN LUM
POLITICO
11/07/2021 

President Joe Biden's plans to push the country away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy are facing an unexpected hurdle: the price of propane in Escanaba, Michigan.

Biden took the stage in Glasgow last week to promise world leaders the U.S. was ready to lead the charge against climate change. But the messy pipeline fights in the U.S. are putting his administration in the crossfire between environmentalists and Indigenous groups eager to block fossil fuel projects and Republicans who are ramping up attacks blaming the White House for soaring energy prices.

Biden was quick to win plaudits from greens for quashing the Keystone XL pipeline upon taking office, but he has drawn criticism from some of the same advocates for not stopping another pipeline project in Minnesota. Now, the administration is studying what to do about a pipeline stretching across Michigan that activists — and the state's Democratic governor — contend poses a catastrophic pollution risk to the Great Lakes. But the oil and gas industry, backed by the Canadian government, warns closing will drive fuel prices even higher.

Word that the Biden administration was quietly studying the potential market impact of killing the Line 5 pipeline, first reported by POLITICO, set off a firestorm of criticism from Republicans saying the move would worsen the spike that has already driven propane prices up 50 percent from a year ago just as Michigan residents — the nation's biggest consumers of the fuel — stock up for cold weather. Propane is stripped out of the line at the small port city of Escanaba to help feed supplies to communities in the state's Upper Peninsula.

“As we enter the winter months and temperatures drop across the Midwest, the termination of Line 5 will undoubtedly further exacerbate shortages and price increases in home heating fuels like natural gas and propane at a time when Americans are already facing rapidly rising energy prices, steep home heating costs, global supply shortages, and skyrocketing gas prices,” Rep. Bob Latta (R-Ohio) and a dozen other congressional lawmakers representing the region said in letter to Biden on Nov. 4.

But equal pressure is coming from from environmental groups and Native tribes to back Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in her fight to shut the pipeline down. The groups say a potential oil spill from the 70-year-old pipeline that crosses the Straits of Mackinac would devastate the Great Lakes and Michigan’s coastal economies — a concern that grew after the lines were damaged by an anchor strike in 2018.

“Given the strength and oscillation of the currents, over 700 miles of Lake Michigan and Huron shoreline would face serious contamination” in case of a spill, a group of 12 tribal nations wrote in their own Nov. 4 letter to Biden. “In contrast to Canada’s vocal support of [pipeline owner] Enbridge, and despite what we understand to be the Governor’s requests for help, your Administration has thus far been silent regarding Line 5.”

The Canadian government is also applying heat. Conservative Party members in the country's government, already irked by Biden pulling the crucial permit for the Keystone XL pipeline before it could even be built, have said shutting down the Line 5 pipeline would require 2,100 rail cars to deliver the oil from Superior, Wis., to the Imperial Oil refinery in Sarnia, Ontario, just across the U.S. border.



An aboveground section of Enbridge's Line 5 oil pipeline is pictured at the Mackinaw City, Mich., pump station in this October 2016 file photo. | AP Photo/John Flesher, File

Canada Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly discussed the pipeline with Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday, according to a readout of their call. The Canadian government recently invoked a 1977 treaty to bolster its position that the oil continue to flow.

Canada Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson told reporters Friday that he had called Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm that day to discuss the pipeline. Wilkinson told reporters the pipeline’s continued operation was “non-negotiable.” Canada hoped to have the issue “resolved in coming months” but was preparing contingency plans in case the line was shut down, Wilkinson added.

“Certainly it is prudent for governments at all levels to be thinking about what happens in the event that we are not able to resolve the issue with Michigan and we’re not successful in the court,” Wilkinson told reporters. “But I would say that, that is a contingency plan that we hope never to have to use.”

All this means that Biden, who promised at the COP26 climate talks that the United States would be “hopefully leading by the power of our example,” is facing the sort of cold, hard political decision that such grand climate ambitions can force on a country that is the world's top oil and gas producer, said Kevin Book, managing director at energy consulting firm ClearView Energy: Either keep the pipeline in place and disappoint progressives, or revoke its permit and hand Republicans fresh ammunition just after they shellacked Democrats in Virginia and other state elections.

“When fuel prices are high, it may not matter what project gets stopped so much as the White House is seen stopping it,” Book said. “Politically speaking, anything that could get in the way of the propane supply ahead of winter could play badly in Midwestern swing states.”

The administration hasn’t decided what to do yet, sources close to the White House have said. Market studies have concluded that gasoline prices in Michigan would rise a few cents a gallon if the pipeline was removed. But propane, currently nearly $2.50 a gallon, could increase between 5 and 25 cents before supplies could be redirected there from other sources, including other pipelines in the area. Advocates of shutting the pipeline down have suggested that closing it in phases might soften any price impact.

"With an orderly shut down — and this key: an orderly shutdown — there will be little noticeable impact," said Beth Wallace, manager of conservation partnerships at the National Wildlife Federation, an environmental group that commissioned a study on the effects of shutting the line down.

Still, any increase would become a Republican talking point and could make it harder for Democrats to make any more ambitious moves on energy policy. The GOP has already hammered Democrats for current fuel price increases that have had little to do with White House policy, and voters would certainly notice if anything coming directly from the administration increased prices more.

But Republicans are already tapping into voter frustrations over the surge at the pump that has pushed the average U.S. gasoline price up by a $1.30 from last year to $3.42 per gallon. They aggressively sought to tie that increase to Biden's move on the Keystone XL pipeline and his pause on new auctions of federal land to oil and gas drillers, though energy experts have said the rise is due largely to the tightness in the global energy supply after the industry troubles last year when prices plummeted during the worst of the pandemic.


Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, a state heavily dependent on oil and gas production, said voters are especially attuned to fuel costs and could turn on politicians they see as doing anything that would raise prices.

“Anytime you have people focused on something like the high price of gas at the pump, or if natural gas prices are high and they’re seeing higher utility bills, there’s a focus on that,” Murkowski said in an interview. “And I think it impacts how they view longer-term policies. I think we recognize that the price of oil may come and go, the price of natural gas is going to come and go, but I think it has significant bearing on how people are feeling about different legislative initiatives or policy initiatives.”

Anthony Adragna contributed to this report
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 Saskatchewan

Sask. carbon capture not meeting targets, prolonging reliance on fossil fuels: U of R professor

'Saskatchewan has the highest greenhouse gas emissions

 per capita in Canada,' says Emily Eaton

Colleen Silverthorn · CBC News · 
The carbon capture project at SaskPower's Boundary Dam isn't meeting targets of 90 per cent carbon capture, according to University of Regina professor Emily Eaton. (Michael Bell/Canadian Press)

A University of Regina professor is challenging Premier Scott Moe's claims that the province has the most sustainable energy sector in the world.

Emily Eaton, a professor of geography and environmental studies at the University of Regina, said that contrary to Moe's recent claims, Saskatchewan's fossil-fuel industry is a major polluter.

"Saskatchewan has the highest greenhouse gas emissions per capita in Canada and some of the highest across the whole world," Eaton told CBC's The Morning Edition.

"And it is largely a result of our oil and gas industry. Thirty per cent of Saskatchewan's greenhouse gases come from that single industry." 

Speaking to a crowd of supporters at a Sask Party convention this past weekend, Moe said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should be promoting Saskatchewan's sustainable energy to countries attending the COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

"If everyone else in the world produced their energy the same way we did here in Saskatchewan ...global emissions in oil production would drop by 25 per cent overnight."

A spokesperson for Moe said he was referring to a 2018 University of Calgary study that said adopting Canada's standards and regulations would cut emissions globally by one quarter.

According to the Government of Canada, Saskatchewan produced 74.8 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2019, up 10 per cent from 2005.

Carbon capture just prolongs reliance on oil: scientist

Eaton said that Saskatchewan is doing a poor job of transitioning away from fossil fuels.

She said the province has poured money into carbon capture projects that are providing less than optimum results.

In 2014, Unit 3 of SaskPower's Boundary Dam Power Station was retrofitted to capture carbon emissions, the first power station in the world to successfully capture and store carbon emissions.

SaskPower relies on coal, a large producer of greenhouse gas emissions, for 30 per cent of its power supply.

At the time, the carbon capture project aimed to capture about 90 per cent of emissions from the coal-fired plant.

Eaton said studies are showing that the carbon capture rate at Boundary Dam is closer to 45 per cent.

 "Carbon capture is a dangerous distraction that consumes a lot of public resources and prevents us … from not making the pollution in the first place," she said.

Eaton said that capturing emissions from fossil fuel production isn't enough to meet climate change targets.

"About 80 to 95 per cent of the emissions come from combusting that fossil fuel, whether that's in combustion engines or in gas fired coal plants. And so even if we could reduce the emissions from our oil and gas industry down to something close to net zero, we can't be producing fossil fuels in a zero carbon future."

Matthew Glover, a spokesperson for the province, said that Saskatchewan's Whitecap Enhanced Oil Recovery facility sequesters about half of Canada's carbon emissions annually and has 82 per cent fewer emissions compared with standard oil extraction.

"As the demand for oil is expected to grow over the next decade, our government will continue to poise Saskatchewan to be a leading supplier of energy that the world needs, while standing by our record on environmental stewardship and human rights compared to other jurisdictions." 

Eaton said focusing on carbon capture just prolongs Saskatchewan's reliance on fossil fuels when time and resources should be spent transitioning away from that industry.

"We're not talking about turning the tap off overnight. We're talking about today's oil production is the peak production."

She also said that the emissions captured at the Boundary Dam are sent by pipeline to the Weyburn oil fields, where they are being used for enhanced oil recovery.

"So we're actually producing more fossil fuels than we would otherwise be able to do through sequestration and utilization of that carbon."

SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-myth-of-carbon-capture-and-storage.html

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Little time, but ‘mountain to climb’ at UN climate talks
By SETH BORENSTEIN, ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL AND FRANK JORDANS

1 of 17
Activists protest for climate justice outside parliament in Cape Town, South Africa, Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2021. The protests coincides with the second week of as the COP26, UN Climate Summit in Glasgow. (AP Photo/Nardus Engelbrecht)


GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — The United Nations climate summit in Glasgow has made “some serious toddler steps” toward cutting emissions but far from the giant leaps needed to limit global warming to internationally accepted goals, two new analyses and top officials said Tuesday.

And time is running out on the two weeks of negotiations.

The president of the climate talks, Alok Sharma, told high-level government ministers at the U.N. conference to reach out to their capitals and bosses soon to see if they can get more ambitious pledges because “we have only a few days left.”



This month’s summit has seen such limited progress that a United Nations Environment Programme analysis of new pledges found they weren’t enough to improve future warming scenarios. All they did was trim the “emissions gap” — how much carbon pollution can be spewed without hitting dangerous warming levels— a few tenths of a percentage point, according to the review released Tuesday.

The analysis found that by 2030, the world will be emitting 51.5 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide each year, 1.5 billion tons less than before the latest pledges. To achieve the limit first set in the 2015 Paris climate accord, which came out of a similar summit, the world can only emit 12.5 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases in 2030.

A separate analysis by independent scientists found a slight decrease in future warming, but one still insufficient to limit the warming of the planet to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century. The planet has already warmed 1.1 degrees (2 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times.

“There’s some serious toddler steps,” United Nations Environment Programme Director Inger Andersen said in an interview with The Associated Press a few minutes after the U.N. analysis was finished. “But they are not the leaps we need to see, by any stretch of the imagination.”

In Glasgow, officials touted advances, but not necessarily success.

“We are making progress,” Sharma said, “but we still have a mountain to climb over the next few days, and what has been collectively committed to goes some way, but certainly not all the way, to keeping 1.5 within reach.”

Andersen acknowledged that none of the three main U.N. criteria for success for the two-week climate talks has been achieved so far. They are cutting greenhouse gas emissions by about half by 2030; securing $100 billion a year in aid from rich countries to poor nations; and having half of that money be for for developing nations to adapt to global warming’s worst harms.






The second analysis by Climate Action Tracker, which for years has monitored nations’ emission-cutting pledges, said based on those submitted targets the world is now on track to warm 2.4 degrees Celsius (4.3 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times by the end of this century. That’s a far cry from the 2015 Paris climate deal overarching limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees) and its fallback limit of 2 degrees Celsius. (shouldn’t we move this up above

Given what’s been pledged “we are likely to be in that area 2.4 degrees, which is still catastrophic climate change and far, far away from the goals of the Paris Agreement,” said climate scientist Niklas Hohne of the New Climate Institute and the Climate Action Tracker.

Hohne’s group, independent of the U.N., also looked at how much warming there would be if other less firm national promises were put into effect. If all the submitted national targets and other promises that have a bit of the force of law are included, future warming drops down to 2.1 degrees.

And in the “optimistic scenario” if all the net-zero pledges for mid-century are taken into account, warming would be 1.8 degrees, Hohne said. That’s the same figure as the International Energy Agency came up with for that optimistic scenario.

Andersen said success is about her great-grandchildren living in a world with warming kept to the level outlined in the Paris accord and that “the kids on the street” protesting in Glasgow help the United Nations in pushing negotiators to do more.

“Progress happens at meetings. Success is delivered into people’s lives when their livelihoods and their health and well-being is improved,” Andersen told the AP.

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who brought her climate-celebrity star power to the U.N. climate talks on Tuesday along with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, told reporters she had a message for those youth protesters: “Stay in the streets. Keep pushing.”

As “high level” ministers try to forge a deal by Friday, they have a big gap to bridge. Or more accurately, multiple gaps: there’s a trust gap, a wealth gap and a north-south gap based on money, history and future threats.

On one side of the gap are nations that developed and became rich from the Industrial Revolution fueled by coal, oil and gas that started in the U.K. On the other side are the nations that haven’t developed yet and haven’t gotten rich and are now being told those fuels are too dangerous for the planet.

The key financial issue is the $100 billion a year pledge first made in 2009. The developed nations still haven’t reached the $100 billion a year mark. This year, the rich nations increased their aid to just shy of $80 billion a year, still short of what was promised.

“Everybody here is livid,” said Saleemul Huq, a climate science and policy expert who is director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development in Bangladesh

Huq said it’s more than just the money, it’s important to bridge the gap in trust between rich nations and poor nations.

“They reneged on their promise. They failed to deliver it,” Huq said. “And they seem not to care about it. And, so why should we trust anything they say anymore?”

Andersen and Sharma still hold out hope.

“We’re not done yet. We still have a couple of days,” Andersen said. “And so we’re certainly from our side, from the United Nations side, we’re going to try to hold everyone’s feet to the fire.”

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Ellen Knickmeyer contributed to this report from Glasgow.

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Read stories on climate issues by The Associated Press at https://apnews.com/hub/climate.

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Follow Seth Borenstein and Aniruddha Ghosal on Twitter at @borenbears and @aniruddgh1

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.



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Shell to partner with renewables firm on solar farm near Edmonton

Solar farm will help power the Scotford refinery, expected to be operational by 2023


Amanda Stephenson · The Canadian Press · 
All of the power generated by the new solar farm will be dedicated to the Scotford refinery, for at least the next 25 years. The solar farm is expected to produce enough renewable electricity to provide 20 per cent of the refinery's energy needs. (Tom Steepe/CBC)

Shell Canada and its North American solar platform Silicon Ranch have announced plans to build a 58-megawatt solar farm adjacent to Shell's Scotford refinery and chemicals park near Edmonton.

The solar farm will be the first in Canada to be built, owned and operated by Tennessee-based Silicon Ranch, which is 47 per cent owned by Royal Dutch Shell plc and building solar projects for the global energy giant all over the U.S.

Shell Canada previously built a five-megawatt solar farm at Scotford that will start up this fall and offset emissions from the Shell-owned chemicals plant. But the project announced Tuesday — which Shell says will begin construction next year and be operational by the end of 2023 — will be much larger.

Solar power to feed refinery

In an interview, Shell senior vice-president Mark Pattenden said all of the power generated by the new solar farm will be dedicated to the Scotford refinery, for at least the next 25 years.

The solar farm is expected to produce enough renewable electricity to provide 20 per cent of the refinery's energy needs.

"This is really material decarbonization, of either the existing products we produce through the refinery ... or it creates the opportunity for future production of things like hydrogen or biofuels as well," Pattenden said.

Shell has said it wants to transform the Scotford Complex into one of five energy and chemicals parks owned by the company around the world.

Within this decade, the company wants to use carbon capture and storage (CCUS) and renewable power to process new feedstocks such as bio-oils or waste oils to reduce the C02 emitted in the production of fuel.

As part of its vision, Shell has proposed its Polaris CCUS project, that will capture carbon dioxide from the Scotford refinery and chemicals plant, with storage capacity of about 300 million tonnes of C02. Shell said it will make a final investment decision about the project in 2023

Shell also has plans to collaborate with Mitsubishi Corp. on the production of low-carbon hydrogen at Scotford.

Quest carbon capture and storage facility in Fort Saskatchewan Alta, on Friday November 6, 2015. Shell has said it wants to transform the Scotford Complex into one of five energy and chemicals parks owned by the company around the world. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press)

The proposed solar farm at Scotford won't require any government subsidies or funding.

Pattenden said as the company moves forward with its goal of reducing direct and indirect carbon emissions by 50 per cent by 2030 compared with 2016 levels, what it needs most is regulatory certainty around things like carbon pricing and renewable energy policy.

"We continue to look not so much for specific policy, but more certainty," Pattenden said.

Solar moves north

The construction of a solar farm near Scotford will mark the first large-scale solar installation in Alberta's industrial heartland, Pattenden said, noting solar farms are typically built in the southernmost portion of the province.

But he said there's no reason a solar farm can't produce effectively at Scotford, pointing out it will be designed with panels that can also capture sunlight reflected off snow.

"It's without a doubt that southern Alberta is one of the best places in the world [for solar power] but the Edmonton area is not far off," Pattenden said. "We do have shorter days in the winter, but longer days in the summer offsetting that, and just about as many sunshine hours as southern Alberta."

Silicon Ranch will provide all of the capital investment for the solar farm. A spokesperson for that company did not reply to an email inquiry about the total dollar value of the project in time for deadline.

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