'Very scary': European agriculture hit hard by climate change and drought

Melissa Rossi

·Contributor

Thu, August 11, 2022 

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BARCELONA — With Europe suffering through an extreme drought worsened by climate change that has dried up rivers and left millions sweltering in triple-digit heat this summer, farmers across the continent are sounding warnings about crop losses.

"Our vines are suffering," said vintner Xavier Collart Dutilleul, who, with his wife Pascale, runs Château Mazeris Bellevue near Saint-Emilion in southwestern France. Lacking rain, the organic vineyard’s parched clay-rich soil is "almost as hard as cement," he told Yahoo News, and he predicted that his harvest, which typically yields enough for 35,000 bottles, will be down by 30% this year.

In Northern Italy, there was little winter snow this year and even less springtime rain, and extreme summer temperatures have evaporated what little moisture remains. Just as rivers across Europe have all but dried up, the Po river, a major source of irrigation in the river’s fertile valley, is a trickle and the normally marshy rice paddies it irrigates are brown and cracked.

"We have no water," Fabrizio Rizzotti, a seventh-generation rice farmer, told Yahoo News. "The plants are curling up and dying in the fields." This year, he expects his harvest of carnaroli rice, favored for risotto, to be 30% of what it was last year.

This year, the grape crop at Château Mazeris Bellevue in Saint-Michel-de-Fronsac, France, is down by 30%. (Pascale Collart Dutilleul/Château Mazeris Bellevue)

In Spain, which provides nearly half the world’s olive oil, Agricultural Minister Luis Planas last week warned that "this year’s olive harvest could be notably lower than previous ones." Spain's Association of Young Farmers and Ranchers (Asaja) predicts that olive yields will drop by a third. "We are in a very bad situation, with a fundamental water deficit in our agriculture," José-Luis Miguel, technical coordinator for Spain's largest agricultural group COAG, told Yahoo News. He also said that restrictions on irrigation and scant rainfall have meant that "many crops have not been able to be planted or have had to be replaced by others with less water needs." Grain production, for one, is down by 25%, he said.

"What's happening this year is very scary," enologist Ton Mata, third-generation owner and CEO of the Recaredo vineyard in Spain’s cava region, Alt Penedès, told Yahoo News. "We have little rain and a very long, dry, hot period with three heat waves. We are seeing that the grapes are very small and weigh less." Although the harvest is just beginning, he's sure that the yield will be down by 20% to 40%.

This summer, Europe is breaking all kinds of records, from high temperatures to low precipitation amounts. Nearly two-thirds of the territory in the 27-country European Union is either dealing with drought or is poised to enter one. The European Drought Observatory this week said that 47% of the EU territory was in warning conditions while 17% was "under alert," meaning that vegetation is stressed due to lack of water. The countries most affected — France, Spain and Italy, as well as Germany — are those that produce the bulk of Europe’s food, a fact that means prices for European commodities are sure to soar this fall and winter.

Climate expert Jorge Olcina, professor of regional geographic analysis at Spain’s University of Alicante, told Yahoo News that what is happening across Europe is "further evidence of the process of global warming" — and he expects it to continue. "The trend is clear. We've failed to reduce the level of greenhouse gases we put into the Earth's atmosphere and the process of heating continues its unstoppable process."

One of the rice fields dried up and can no longer be cultivated in Vespolate, Italy. (Davide Bertuccio for the Washington Post via Getty Images)

Hydrologist Jesús Carrera foresees "a severe reduction in precipitation throughout the Mediterranean." But the main problem, he said, is not only "that there will be longer and more intense droughts, but there will be also very wet periods. So obviously, the way to manage this is to save water from the wet periods."

It's not just blistering summer heat and water shortages that are reducing food supplies — it's the strange weather in general that's been plaguing Europe for over two years that has farmers and climatologists concerned. "These last years have been crazy," said Spanish agricultural consultant Montse Boldú Giménez.

Seasons when rain usually comes are instead dry; when the skies open up, they dump torrents that wash away topsoil. A late spring frost destroyed many of Spain's fruit crops, and hailstorms, like the one a few weeks ago that wiped out a vineyard next to Château Mazeris Bellevue, are becoming more frequent. "The hailstones were as big as eggs," said vintner Collart Dutilleul.

Last year, a fluke blizzard hit central Spain, blanketing olive groves in Toledo in 5 inches of snow, and two weeks of below-freezing temperatures killed a quarter of the zone's oldest olive trees.

"We've been observing changes for many years — but now it's more obvious. You can see it everywhere," José Antonio Peche Marín-Lázaro, managing director of premium olive oil producer Casas de Hualdo, which lost 250 acres of olive trees in that storm, told Yahoo News.

He said that locals who are 80 or 90 years old and have worked in the fields their whole lives often tell him they don't remember anything like the weather of recent years. "And when you look at the olive trees here in this area, some of which are 200 years old, that have survived for such long periods, but now, this weather is threatening their survival, that definitely means that something has changed," he added.

The changing weather patterns are forcing many Europeans to rethink centuries-old farming practices.

"Some crops will have to alter their production cycles, and irrigation systems should be improved to increase their efficiency," said Olcina, who views climate change not only as "the most important issue we're facing," but also "as an opportunity to get things right."

A view shows Po's dry riverbed during the worst drought in the last 70 years, in Malcantone, near Ferrara, Italy. (Gabriele Pileri/Reuters)

Indeed, some food producers already are starting to change. Casas de Hualdo has put water monitors into its olive groves and has installed a more effective subterranean irrigation system and solar panels to power it. Mata's Recaredo vineyard is trying out different grapes that are better suited to unrelenting sun; it is also changing rootstocks to varieties "that need less water and that go deeper into the soil" to allow vines to get more water. Recaredo is also using biodynamic practices, with ground cover in its vineyard that encourages more worms to aerate the soil. At Château Mazeris Bellevue, they are also trying out different grapes that are more resistant to heat and drought.

Nancy Harmon Jenkins, author of "The New Mediterranean Diet Cookbook" and owner of an olive grove in Tuscany, isn't all that anxious about this summer's diminishing crops. Olives and grapes can survive droughts, she pointed out to Yahoo News, and vineyards have suffered disasters like the wave of phylloxera that wiped out many French vineyards in the 1800s. "I think there'll be plenty of olive oil and plenty of wine for my grandchildren," she told Yahoo News. What she is concerned about is how climate change will change their world. "They have to worry about keeping cool in the summer and rising sea levels" — along with droughts. "Those are much more critical issues to me than olive oil and wine."

Despite this tumultuous summer, hydrologist Carrera isn't sure the public or politicians are grasping the need to change. "Society only reacts when it's hurt," he observed. "It doesn't hurt enough yet."

Wildfires burn, farmers struggle as another heatwave bakes western Europe

Manuel Ausloos and Stephane Mahe
Thu, August 11, 2022 

* 'Monster' fire consumes nearly 7,000 hectares in France

* ESA chief urges action to fight climate change

* Swiss army airlifts water to cows in Alpine meadows

* Gig-economy workers decry labour rights as temperatures soar

By Manuel Ausloos and Stephane Mahe

HOSTENS, France, Aug 11 (Reuters) - European nations sent firefighting teams to help France tackle a "monster" wildfire on Thursday, while forest blazes also raged in Spain and Portugal and the head of the European Space Agency urged immediate action to combat climate change.

More than 1,000 firefighters, backed by water-bombing planes, battled for a third day a fire that has forced thousands from their homes and scorched thousands of hectares of forest in France's southwestern Gironde region.

With a dangerous cocktail of blistering temperatures, tinder-box conditions and wind fanning the flames, emergency services were struggling to bring the fire under control.

"It's an ogre, a monster," said Gregory Allione from the French firefighters body FNSPF said.

Heatwaves, floods and crumbling glaciers in recent weeks have heightened concerns over climate change and the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather across the globe.

The head of the European Space Agency, Josef Aschbacher, said rising land temperatures and shrinking rivers as measured from space left no doubt about the toll on agriculture and other industries from climate change.

ESA's Copernicus Sentinel-3 satellite series has measured "extreme" land surface temperatures of more than 45C (113F) in Britain, 50C in France and 60C in Spain in recent weeks.

"It's pretty bad. We have seen extremes that have not been observed before," Aschbacher told Reuters.

In Romania, where record temperatures and drought have drained rivers of water, Greenpeace activists protested on the parched banks of the Danube to draw attention to global warming and urge the government to lower emissions.

CLIMATE CHANGE RISKS

With successive heatwaves baking Europe this summer, searing temperatures and unprecedented droughts, renewed focus has been placed on climate change risks to farming, industry and livelihoods.

Severe drought is set to slash the European Union's maize harvest by 15%, dropping it to a 15-year a low, just as Europeans contend with higher food prices as a result of lower-than-normal grain exports from Russia and Ukraine.

Swiss army helicopters have been drafted in to airlift water to thirsty cows, pigs and goats sweltering under a fierce sun in the country's Alpine meadows.

In France, suffering its harshest drought on record, trucks are delivering water to dozens of villages where taps have run dry, nuclear power stations have received waivers to keep pumping hot discharge water into river, and farmers warn a fodder shortfall may lead to milk shortages.

In Germany, scant rainfall this summer has drained the water levels of the Rhine, the country's commercial artery, hampering shipping and pushing freight costs.

However, as Europe contends with another heatwave, one group of workers has little choice but to sweat it out: gig-economy food couriers who often fall between the cracks of labour regulations.

After the mayor of Palermo on the island of Sicily in July ordered horses carrying tourists be given at least 10 litres of water per day, bicycle courier Gaetano Russo filed a suit demanding similar treatment.

"Am I worth less than a horse," Russo was quoted as saying in a Nidil CDIL union statement.

"HEARTBROKEN"

Britain's Met Office on Thursday issued a four-day "extreme heat" warning for parts of England and Wales.

In Portugal, more than 1,500 firefighters spent a sixth day fighting a wildfire in the central Covilha region that has burned 10,500 hectares (40 square miles), including parts of the Serra da Estrela national park.

In Spain, electrical storms triggered new wildfires and hundreds of people were evacuated from the path of one blaze in the province of Caceres.

Macron's office said extra fire-fighting aircraft were arriving from Greece and Sweden, while Germany, Austria, Romania and Poland were all deploying firefighters to help tackle wildfires in France.

"European solidarity at work!" Macron tweeted.

Firefighters said they had managed to save the village of Belin-Beliet, which emptied after police told residents to evacuate as the flames approached. But the blaze reached the outskirts, leaving behind charred houses and ruined tractors.

"We've been lucky. Our houses were saved. But you see the catastrophe over there. Some houses could not be saved," said resident Gaetan, pointing to houses burnt to the ground.

The Gironde was hit by big wildfires in July.

"The area is totally disfigured. We're heartbroken, we're exhausted," Jean-Louis Dartiailh, a local mayor, told Radio Classique. "(This fire) is the final straw." (Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Alex Richardson)

LET THEM BE TOURISTS AND LEARN THE TRUTH 

Kuleba to Scholz: This isnt just Putins war Russians overwhelmingly support it



EUROPEAN PRAVDA – THURSDAY, 11 AUGUST 2022

European Pravda reports that Dmytro Kuleba, the Foreign Minister of Ukraine, has taken to Twitter to express his disagreement with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who has not supported the initiative to ban all Russian citizens from entering the EU.

"This is Russia’s war, not just Putin’s. Not Putin, but actual Russian soldiers come from Russia to kill, torture and destroy. Russians overwhelmingly support the war and cheer missile strikes on Ukrainian cities and the murder of Ukrainians. Let Russian tourists enjoy Russia then," Kuleba tweeted.

On Thursday, 11 August, Scholz rejected calls for an EU ban on tourist visas for Russian citizens, saying, "This war is Putin’s war."

Meanwhile, also on 11 August, the Estonian government announced that within a week it will block entry to Russians who had been granted EU visas, with only a handful of exceptions.

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas has called on EU member states to halt tourist visas for Russian citizens. She stressed that visits to Europe are a privilege, not a human right.

On Wednesday, 10 August, Jan Lipavský, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic (which is currently presiding over the EU Council), expressed his support for the EU visa ban for Russian citizens which had been proposed by several other EU member states.

MISOGYNY, MALE SUPREMACY, GERONTOCRACY  
Japan’s female gender equality minister replaced with man who simulated pregnancy with a false belly



Jane Nam
Thu, August 11, 2022

A former Bank of Japan official who once wore a “pregnancy belly” for two days was chosen to replace female minister Seiko Noda as the cabinet head in charge of tackling the country’s plummeting birth rate.

Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida reshuffled his cabinet on Wednesday in an effort to distance his administration from the conservative Unification Church and its ties to the assassination of former leader Shinzo Abe.

Masanobu Ogura, 41, was appointed to replace 61-year-old Noda, a ruling party veteran and mother of one, as minister for gender equality and children’s issues.

In an interview with the Associated Press last month, Noda blamed “indifference and ignorance” in the male-dominated Japanese parliament as the reason for the country’s declining population, an issue she described to be a national crisis.

She added, “The politics of Japan will not move unless [the problems of children and women] are made visible.”

Ogura posted onto Twitter on April 9, 2021, that his intentions with the “simulated pregnancy experience” were to better understand the challenges of carrying a baby while living out day to day routines.

He shared at the time that he would be wearing the 16-pound pregnancy belly to party meetings, parliamentary activities and to personal events.

More from NextShark: Elon Musk claims 'Japan will eventually cease to exist' because of its declining birth rate

Ogura acknowledged the shortcomings of his experiment, conceding that “There is no way you can understand a 10-month pregnancy period in just two days. Also, I hear that it starts with morning sickness, physical pain and mental anxiety as well as weight.”

After the first night, Ogura reported that he “couldn’t sleep well” because of the “pressure” on his stomach.

He also posted clips of him struggling to do normal household activities, such as cleaning the bathtub and cutting his toenails.

“For me, it’s only one night, but if you’re pregnant, I’m sure this will last for months.”

Japan’s birth rates hit a record low in 2021 for the sixth year in a row with 811,604 births.

The number of people aged 65 and above made up more than 29 percent of the population as of September, and the death rate reached a post-war high of 1.44 million.

While Japan appears to be directly attacking the issue, the trend of a growing senior population and a shrinking working-age population has expanded to many places around the world, with experts anxious about how a shortage of workers might affect the global economy.

Featured Image via Masanobu Ogura

The Inflation Reduction Act Includes a Bonanza for the Carbon Capture Industry

Alejandro de la Garza
Thu, August 11, 2022 

Operations Inside The NRG Energy Inc. Coal Power Plant
A pipe installed as part of the Petra Nova Carbon Capture Project carries carbon dioxide captured from the emissions of the NRG Energy Inc. WA Parish generating station in Thompsons, Texas, U.S., on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017.

Credit - Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg—Getty Images

Thanks to Senator Joe Manchin (D., W. Va.), there isn’t much in the way of consequences for big CO2 emitters in Democrats’ new climate bill. But there are huge new rewards for high-emitting companies to pump their greenhouse gasses underground, and for facilities that propose to remove emissions directly from the atmosphere. Those provisions have the startups, investors, and legacy oil companies proposing to provide that service over the moon. “We’re definitely going from a curiosity to a priority,” says Steve Lowenthal, chief commercial officer of Frontier Carbon Solutions, a carbon capture startup. “This changes the game.”

The Inflation Reduction Act, which passed the Senate on Monday and is poised to pass the House on Friday, includes a dramatic change in a crucial tax credit for the carbon capture industry—increasing the government subsidy for capturing CO2 from polluting sources from $50 to $85 per metric ton. Developers say that raising that incentive could tip many projects that once weren’t worth the investment over the financial finish line. The new bill also simplifies the process for receiving those tax credits, and opens the subsidy to smaller carbon capture projects, which together essentially fulfill a full industry wishlist for new carbon capture legislation.

“The fact that [the legislation] actually happened isn’t a big surprise,” says Adrian Corless, CEO of CarbonCapture, a direct air capture startup. “The fact that it actually came out in such a good form and actually came out [so soon] is much better than we expected.”

 HUBRIS: The Inflation Reduction Act Is About to Jumpstart U.S. Climate Policy and Change the World

Formerly, the tax incentive, known as 45Q, only paid enough to convince investors to fund the easiest carbon capture projects, like pipelines to capture CO2 from ethanol processing facilities, which emit almost pure CO2 from tanks where corn is fermented into vehicle fuel. Emissions from power plants and other industrial facilities contribute hugely to climate change, but the actual gas escaping from their smoke stacks contains a much lower percentage of CO2 (coal plant emissions, for example are about 13% CO2), and the fact that that CO2 has to be first separated out from the other gasses makes it much more expensive to capture it and store it underground.

But raising the incentive to $85 per ton means projects that capture carbon dioxide from industrial facilities with lower CO2 concentrations, like natural gas processing facilities and cement plants, could become financially viable. “It really can’t be [overstated] how meaningful 85 [dollars per ton] is to the industry at large,” says Lowenthal.

The package also gives a good deal of government support to a fledgling industry proposing to remove carbon dioxide directly from the air, increasing tax credits for removing CO2 from the atmosphere to $180 per ton. “It’s going to make it easy for us to raise the capital to build the project earlier and to build it faster,” says Corless

Massive Industry Boost

The new bill comes on top of last year’s infrastructure law, which doled out a huge helping of government support for the sector, including $100 million for the Department of Energy to design pipelines to transport compressed CO2 emissions to underground storage sites, $2.1 billion in loans and grants for the private sector to build the pipelines, and $3.5 billion to construct four “hub” facilities to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (although together those facilities will be able to sequester less than 0.1% of the CO2 the U.S. emits each year).

Taken together, the measures could help the fledgling industry grow 13-fold by 2035, according to the Carbon Capture Coalition, an industry group representing startups and oil majors like Shell. “Together with the historic investments made in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, this package would provide the most transformative and far-reaching policy support in the world for the economywide deployment of carbon management technologies,” wrote the coalition’s external affairs manager Madelyn Morrison in a July 28 press release.

Oil company Shell, which has eyed carbon capture as a potential growth avenue, lauded the changes as well. “We see the Inflation Reduction Act’s carbon capture-related provisions as key to developing projects that will help reduce emissions in critical industrial sectors,” the company’s media representatives said in a statement to TIME.

Read more: The Inflation Reduction Act’s Name Says A Lot About The Climate Fight

International players have also taken note. “It will establish the United States as the place to be to deploy such technologies,” says Christoph Gebald, co-founder of Swiss direct air carbon capture company Climeworks, which opened the first commercial CO2 removal plant in Iceland last year. “And I am very convinced that this will also kick off a spiral of action from investors.”

Environmentalists Remain Skeptical

Not everyone sees the industry’s likely expansion as a good thing. Until now, carbon capture technology has never really ramped up in a big way, despite years of talk by emitters. Many projects have ended in expensive failures, while others never were able to achieve the emissions cuts they promised when the energy costs of running the carbon capture equipment were factored in. Carbon capture funding is one of the few climate provisions that tends to get bipartisan support, but many environmentalists have long portrayed it as a costly distraction from urgently needed emissions cuts, as well as a handout to oil companies that tout the technology as a new revenue stream.

That’s especially true of a controversial provision in the tax code that gives incentives to companies that pump the captured carbon underground in order to extract more oil, rather than just to permanently store it. (The new climate bill raises the government’s reward for this so-called “enhanced oil recovery” to $60 per ton.)

Many in the environmental world, however, agree that we will need some carbon capture to decarbonize hard-to-abate industries like cement production, and that we will need to scale up atmospheric carbon removal technology in the decades ahead in order to have any hope of reaching net-zero targets. But those efforts also won’t do much if they’re not also accompanied by dramatic emissions cuts across society.

Jim Walsh, policy director at Food and Water Watch, says the new legislation relies too heavily on carbon capture. A popular emissions analysis of the legislation from Princeton University’s REPEAT Project counts on companies to quickly scale up carbon capture projects that promise to deliver a fifth of total U.S. emissions cuts by 2030, even though the technology hasn’t been able to achieve significant climate benefits in the past. “The Inflation Reduction Act does not deliver mandates to cut pollution. It creates incentives that may drive up private investment, and it delivers billions to fossil fuel corporations based on the notion that their climate pollution can be somehow captured,” he wrote in an Aug. 11 statement. “This is a dangerous bet.”

Fueling Local Battles

The incentives and proposed expansion to the industry are likely to also set off local controversies. In Iowa, plans to build massive new pipelines to transport carbon dioxide have become a political flashpoint over the past year. Activists and landowners are facing off against investors and a pro-carbon capture governorship over plans to build massive pipelines to transport carbon dioxide released from ethanol plants to underground storage sites in North Dakota and Illinois. Proponents of the pipelines say they will make a serious dent in Iowa’s greenhouse gas emissions and help benefit farmers who grow corn that serves as a feedstock in the state’s ethanol industry. But opponents, including local environmentalist groups, say the pipelines put Iowans at risk of dangerous CO2 leaks, and prop up an obsolete, high polluting ethanol industry while trampling on local farmers who will have to allow developers to build through their land.

Last week, this battle reached a new pitch, when one of the developers, Summit Carbon Solutions, notified state regulators that it would begin filing for eminent domain in order to take control of private land it needs to build the pipeline.

“Summit showed their true colors today,” wrote Food & Water Watch organizer Emma Schmit in an Aug. 5 press release. “Summit may seek eminent domain but [it] is our public institutions, accountable to the people, that will be responsible for the final decision.”

The genesis of Summit’s project goes back to a 2018 change in the 45Q tax credit, which raised the payment from about $24 per ton to $50, giving the developers an economic incentive to start building the pipeline. Speaking with TIME in February, Summit executives said another increase in 45Q, like the one the Senate just passed, might push them to look at building even more pipelines to capture emissions from farther-flung ethanol plants. That would seem likely to throw even more fuel on the fire in Iowa—potentially the first of many such clashes as federal funding helps the industry scale up in the years ahead.

 

Gulf Oil Producers Expand Carbon Capture And Hydrogen Capacity

Thu, August 11, 2022 

As hydrocarbons producers reap sustained revenue from high global prices, national oil companies (NOCs) in the Gulf are accelerating investment in carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS); hydrogen; and other green energies to make their activities less carbon-intensive and support the energy transition.

Last week Saudi Aramco reached a deal with China’s Sinopec to develop CCUS and hydrogen while building a manufacturing complex at the King Salman Energy Park in eastern Saudi Arabia.

In July Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) signed a deal with France’s TotalEnergies to collaborate on CCUS and hydrogen. The deal will help ADNOC meet its goal of capturing 5m tonnes per annum (tpa) of carbon by 2030, a six-fold increase from its current capacity of 800,000 tpa from its gas plants.

These deals are the latest of numerous others in recent months by Gulf NOCs, which could position them as global leaders in both CCUS and hydrogen.

Gulf NOCs’ low-cost production advantages and massive hydrocarbons resources mean that CCUS can reduce emissions for the coming decades as the world continues to rely on oil and gas amid the energy transition.

Aramco, ADNOC and the Kuwait National Petroleum Company produced 19.3% of global oil and held 28.7% of global proven oil reserves in 2021, while QatarEnergy produced 4.4% of the world’s gas and held 13.1% of global proven gas reserves.

Moreover, with the cheapest solar energy in the world, an abundance of wind energy and ample land on which to build green energy generation projects, Gulf NOCs could establish an early-mover advantage in green hydrogen production and export, potentially bringing in $200bn in revenue by 2050, according to a report published last year by consultancy Roland Berger and Dii Desert Energy, a public-private network focused on the energy transition.

Carbon capture

CCUS allows hydrocarbons companies to remove carbon from production processes, which can either be stored, redeployed in enhanced oil recovery techniques or transformed into other consumer goods.

Many companies have been slow to embrace CCUS due to its high upfront costs and the lack of a market for carbon offsets and credits. However, the sector is gaining momentum as user end-markets, particularly in Europe, demand cleaner energy sources and carbon-trading markets.

The number of new CCUS projects announced globally increased from 18 in 2019 to 38 in 2020 and 97 in 2021, according to the International Energy Agency. However, this pipeline of projects falls far short of meaningfully affecting global climate goals according to the agency, which says that 1.7bn tpa of CCUS capacity is needed by 2030 to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

Since many of these ventures are being undertaken by Gulf NOCs, they present a test case for the global uptake of CCUS technology. According to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which is involved in numerous power generation projects in the region, the Middle East could generate 50m tpa by 2030 – forecasts for the global total in 2030 vary from 80m to 89m tpa.

According to the Global CCS Institute, Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia captured 3.7m tpa of carbon in 2020, or 10% of the global total, but the think tank estimated that the GCC could reach 60m tpa by 2035.

While figures for Aramco’s deal with Sinopec are unknown, the investment will help Saudi Arabia meet its target of 11m tpa of CCUS capacity by 2035, part of its broader goal to achieve net-zero emissions by 2060. The Kingdom currently captures 800,000 tpa of carbon from its gas liquefaction plant in Hawiyah.

Meanwhile, QatarEnergy leads the region in capturing 2.1m tpa of carbon from its Ras Laffan gas liquefaction plant and plans to expand its North Field gas field, with production slated to start in 2025.

In a boost to the uptake of CCUS, last year Saudi Arabia launched a platform for MENA nations to trade carbon offsets and credits. Aramco is among the first members of the platform.

These ambitions aside, there is some concern from international stakeholders about the overreliance on CCUS to meet its net-zero plans due to the need for major technological advancements in this area and because CCUS potentially provides cover for the continued production of oil for decades to come rather than encouraging the shift to clean energy sources.

Hydrogen

Gulf NOCs are also making significant investment in hydrogen, a clean fuel and energy source that can be generated from hydrocarbons or green energy resources and used locally or exported.

Like CCUS, hydrogen has gained significant momentum in recent years. The number of countries to have developed hydrogen strategies increased from three – France, South Korea and Japan – to 17 in 2021, with another 20 countries reportedly in the process of developing their strategies.

Saudi Arabia already has functioning hydrogen projects as well as ambitious plans for expansion. In March it started construction on the $5bn wind- and solar-powered hydrogen plant at its NEOM mega-project, which will be the largest hydrogen plant in the world upon completion, producing 650 tonnes per day.

Last year Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud, minister of energy of Saudi Arabia, announced that the Kingdom aims to become the world’s largest hydrogen producer and is targeting 2.9m toa by 2030 and 4m tpa by 2035.

Other Gulf countries, such as the UAE, Kuwait and Oman, are developing national hydrogen strategies, though Qatar does not plan to produce hydrogen itself, as its gas will be used to power electrolysers abroad.

In May ADNOC announced a new energy partnership with BP to develop hydrogen hubs in both the UAE and the UK. ADNOC is set to acquire a stake in BP’s H2Teesside hydrogen project, while BP will invest in ADNOC’s green hydrogen plant at Abu Dhabi’s Masdar. ADNOC is also looking at developing a green hydrogen supply chain with Japan.
Smart energy nexus

By adopting CCUS and growing their hydrogen production and export capabilities, Gulf NOCs are also looking to tap into emerging digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) to diversify their economies and enable sustainable growth.

Both Aramco and ADNOC are already deploying AI to make their operations more efficient, monitor and reduce CO2 emissions, and integrate green energy resources.

Investment in digital technologies can also create synergies that can lead to the development of new manufacturing sectors.

For example, Aramco announced a deal in January with French carmaker Gaussin to explore the manufacturing of hydrogen-powered vehicles, which came on the heels of deals with France’s Air Liquide, Alteia and Axens to develop AI, carbon capture, low-carbon hydrogen, and ammonium and manufacturing.

By Oxford Business Group

Analysis-Florida governor's bid for conservative pension bloc faces hurdles

"It's a shrewd political move to appeal to people who don't like woke capitalism, but are they going to develop this huge voting bloc? No" 

Ron DeSantis Turning Point USA’s Student Action Summit in Tampa

Wed, August 10, 2022
By Ross Kerber

(Reuters) - Florida's governor wants pension plans in conservative U.S. states to band together to fight shareholder initiatives on issues like climate change and diversity, but the idea may prove hard to pull off.

The call by Ron DeSantis last month opened a new front in Republican efforts to push back against activist-led environmental, social and governance -- or ESG -- initiatives at corporate shareholder meetings.[L1N2Z927V]

With assets of over $5.7 trillion under management, U.S. state and local defined-benefit pension plans are a powerful shareholder force that can help activists pass or defeat ESG issues on corporate ballots by declaring how they will vote and giving momentum to reform efforts, or slowing them.

But getting them to vote together as a bloc -- as DeSantis wants -- will be tricky, given Republican-controlled state retirement systems have voted differently on the same issue and have oversight structures that complicate efforts to influence their voting. The public funds also are rarely the biggest investors in U.S. companies, limiting their influence.

"It's a shrewd political move to appeal to people who don't like woke capitalism, but are they going to develop this huge voting bloc? No," said Con Hitchcock, a Washington D.C. attorney who advises pension funds.

DeSantis, a Republican who has been courting conservatives as part of an expected presidential bid in 2024, suggested the pension system in his state of Florida work together with those in other Republican-controlled states like Texas.

"What we need to do is get other like-minded states to have all of our retirement systems' voting rights used as a bloc," DeSantis said at a July 27 news conference.

"We could be a real check against a lot of the excesses that we’ve seen and probably have enough resources to beat back a lot of this stuff."

His office has said he plans to introduce legislation to counter ESG factors in investing. But it has not offered details on how that might affect proxy votes, the process by which investors cast ballots on items like electing directors, executive compensation and shareholder proposals at annual meetings.

'HUGE SHIFT'

DeSantis's idea could make sense in theory, based on past voting patterns. Florida's pension investment manager, the State Board of Administration (SBA) and the Teacher Retirement System of Texas - two of the largest pension funds in Republican-controlled states with some $440 billion in combined assets - were less likely to support ESG shareholder resolutions compared with funds in some Democrat-led states, according to Insightia, a corporate governance research arm of software company Diligent.

(Graphic: Public pension support for ESG proposals slips: https://graphics.reuters.com/INVESTING-ESG/FLORIDA-POLITICS/zgpomxoxepd/chart.png)

But the two systems still backed a majority of ESG resolutions this year, Insightia's data shows.

While most shareholder ESG proposals are not binding, some have drawn much attention at corporate annual meetings.

For example, both the Florida and Texas pension funds sided with ESG activists in urging Costco Wholesale Corp to set emission-reduction targets and asking McDonald's Corp to review its impact on issues like racial inequality, disclosures show.

In other instances, the two pension fund systems voted differently on the same resolution. For example, SBA backed and Texas opposed a resolution asking Nextera Energy Inc to publish directors' gender and race or ethnicity. [L2N2XB1AO]

The SBA supported management only 42% of the time on "say-on-pay" questions related to executive compensation, versus 87% for the Texas system.

Such disparities show the funds would need major changes for DeSantis's idea to work, said Richard Fields, a corporate governance consultant for Russell Reynolds Associates.

"A 'red state' voting bloc wouldn't do much differently unless each state - including Florida - made huge changes to how they approach their use of proxy voting responsibilities," Fields said, referring to Republican-leaning states.

"This would be a huge shift."

'RIDICULOUS'

The way the pension funds are managed is another hurdle.

DeSantis himself is one of three trustees who oversee the SBA, but other governors in Republican-controlled states have less direct influence on their pension systems.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for instance directly appoints only three of nine trustees on the Texas Teachers' system.

It's an issue that blue states recognize as well as Democrats also consider coordinating pension fund efforts in recent weeks.

"Part of the challenge is pension funds are managed a little bit differently in different places," New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, a Democrat who oversees retirement money, said at an investor event this month.

At one high-profile ESG vote at Exxon Mobil Corp. last year the Florida and Texas pension funds actually voted in favour of changes that DeSantis later called "ridiculous".

In that vote, activist investor Engine No. 1 won three board seats at the oil and gas company after fielding candidates -- including a former oil refining executive -- on a platform to improve financial performance and focus more on clean energy. The move won early backing from public funds in New York and California.

"They elected people to Exxon’s board who opposed oil," DeSantis said last month, mocking the election.

Records show the SBA voted for all four dissident hedge fund nominees while the Texas Teachers' system supported three. A spokesman for the Texas system declined to comment.

The SBA has said the votes reflected factors like Exxon's underperformance and a lack of board members with energy industry experience. The votes were meant to create "returns for our plan participants," an SBA spokeswoman said.

(Editing by Deepa Babington)

After deluge, climate change fears make S.Korea prioritise Seoul flood defences

Aftermath of record level of torrential rain in Seoul

Thu, August 11, 2022 
By Heejung Jung and Soo-hyang Choi

SEOUL (Reuters) - The heaviest rain in Seoul in 115 years has spurred the South Korean capital to revive a $1.15 billion plan to improve drainage after floods exposed how even the affluent Gangnam district is vulnerable to climate change-driven extreme weather.

Experts say the city's capacity to drain water is far behind what's needed to handle a deluge like the one suffered this week. That has disasterous implications for low-lying areas like Gangnam, as these bouts of extreme weather are becoming increasingly common.

This week's torrential rain killed at least 11 people across the northern part of the country, as of Thursday morning. The downpour, which began on Monday and shifted southwards on Wednesday, knocked out power, caused landslides and flooded roads and subways.

Monetary estimates of the damage were still being compiled.

In the wake of the downpour, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon announced on Wednesday the city will spend 1.5 trillion won ($1.15 billion) in the next decade to build six massive underground tunnels to store and release rainwater to prevent flooding.

"The damage from this record rainfall shows that there are limits with short-term water control measures when unusual weather conditions due to global warming have become common," Mayor Oh said, vowing to establish a city-wide system capable of handling 100 mm (3.94 inches) rainfall an hour from the current 95 mm.

The city's development meant increased pavement and impermeable surfaces, leading to higher runoff and more flooding. More than 50% of Seoul's land areas are impermeable, with the figure much higher in the affluent Gangnam district with wide boulevards and office buildings, experts said.

"It's always a see-saw game between cost and safety," said Moon Young-il, a professor of civil engineering at University of Seoul. "We need to find a balance point and 100 mm seems reasonable enough."

Seoul had lacked any detailed plan for water control as it grew from a city of 2 to 3 million people in the 1960s to one with over 10 million by the 1990s, Moon said.

The underground tunnels were originally proposed in 2011 after heavy rains and landslides killed 16 people, many of them in Gangnam. But the plan was put on hold amid decreased precipitation and budget issues in the following years.

The Seoul city also plans to ban basement or lower ground apartments after three family members including a woman with developmental disabilities drowned in their home on Monday.

The calamitous wet weather prompted President Yoon Suk-yeol to hold a series of meetings with officials this week, to find fundamental ways to improve South Korea's preparedness against similar climate change-induced disasters.

Warmer weather increases moisture levels in the air, leading to more intense rainfall. So while there has been little change in the annual precipitation over the past four decades, the frequency of heavy rains in Seoul has increased by 27% since the 2000s, according to a 2021 report by the Seoul Institute.

"It was indeed an extreme weather. But we can no longer call this kind of weather event unusual," President Yoon told a meeting on Wednesday. "The largest, highest record can be broken at any time."

($1 = 1,302.2400 won)

(Reporting by Heejung Jung, Minwoo Park and Soo-hyang Choi; Editing by Josh Smith and Simon Cameron-Moore)

Seoul’s Worst Storm in a Century Kills Nine, Destroys Homes



\
Jeong-Ho Lee and Sangmi Cha
Wed, August 10, 2022 

(Bloomberg) -- South Korean repair crews took advantage of a lull in torrential rainfall to drain flooded train stations and fix damages after one of the worst storms in over a century hit Seoul, killing at least nine people including two Chinese nationals.

President Yoon Suk Yeol apologized to the nation Wednesday for “inconveniences” caused by rainfall that the weather agency said was some of the heaviest in at least 115 years. A day earlier, he asked authorities to recalibrate disaster management plans by taking into account the effects of global warming.

“We can’t just keep calling these extreme weather situations unusual,” he said in a meeting.
https://t.co/C8rufoeMsc pic.twitter.com/8lgh9luUOO
— Bloomberg Quicktake (@Quicktake) August 10, 2022

The storm that started Monday has dumped 525 millimeters (20.7 inches) of rain in parts of Seoul, the Meteorological Agency said. While there were clear skies in the capital Wednesday, it was forecasting up to another 80 millimeters of rainfall through Thursday.

The flooding, which turned Seoul streets into rivers and parking lots into ponds, has provided one of the biggest domestic challenges for Yoon since he took office in May. He has seen his support drop to some of the lowest levels of any of the country’s presidents at the same point of their term in office due to a series of policy stumbles.

It also exposed vulnerabilities in the South Korean capital to a severe precipitation events that data from climate scientists indicates have become more prevalent due to global warming.

At least 570 people lost their homes and 2,670 buildings were flooded, the interior ministry said. The storm also flooded train tracks and sent cascades of water into several subway stations, although transport authorities were able to restore rail services. Workers were also repairing severed power lines, which had caused blackouts.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed that two Chinese nationals were among the dead. One died in a landslide and another from electrocution due to the flood, according to China News Service.

Other victims included a family of three who drowned as their basement apartment filled with water. Yoon visited the apartment on Tuesday. Authorities were also searching for a 15-year-old girl who was swept away in raging waters while she made her way home Tuesday.

Yoon has been put on the defensive about his response so far to the flooding. An opposition lawmaker coined a term that soon made its way to social media: “phone-trol tower,” a play on words for Yoon issuing commands by phone from his home instead of relocating to a government control tower.

“Presidential office” and “natural disaster” were trending on Twitter in South Korea on Wednesday with many people criticizing Yoon’s decision to move the presidential office away from the long-used residence and administrative facility known as the Blue House, which has operational centers for crisis management.

The total cost of the storm is not yet known. Around 7,678 car owners claimed for damages due to flooded or damaged vehicles, with the total compensation estimated to be around 97.76 billion won ($74.6 million) according to General Insurance Association of Korea, an association of insurers including Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance and Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance.

(Updates with deaths of Chinese.)

Life gradually returns a year after fire chars Sierra Nevada






ne year after a wind-fed wildfire charged across a craggy mountainside above Lone Pine, Calif., flashes of new vegetation growth can be seen emerging in this still-charred corner of the Inyo National Forest, on Wednesday, July 27, 2022, a hiking, climbing and fishing playground about 350 miles (563 km) southeast of San Francisco. 

(AP Photo/Michael Blood)More

MICHAEL R. BLOOD
Wed, August 10, 2022

LONE PINE, Calif. (AP) — The flames fade away. Firefighters extinguish the last embers. A final curl of smoke uncoils in the wind.

A wildfire in the California wilderness has come to an end, and what’s left behind is a blackened landscape of skeletal pines and leafless oaks, scorched meadows and ashen stumps where saplings once stood.

Then, slowly, life returns.

One year after a wind-whipped wildfire charged across a craggy mountainside above Lone Pine, California, flashes of new growth are emerging in this still-charred corner of the Inyo National Forest, a hiking, camping and fishing playground about 350 miles (563 km) southeast of San Francisco.

Tiny clusters of white and purple wildflowers stand out against denuded pines, many stripped of bark in the fire. Green shoots of horsetail as thin as yarn strands break from the ground below a tree’s barren branches. A fistful of new leaves emerges like a fresh bouquet from within an incinerated stump.

It’s the start of a long recovery, and a cycle that’s being repeated more often across the West as climate change brings drier, hotter seasons and more wildland fires.

As it roars across the landscape, a fire burns at different intensities. Some of the towering trees on the hillside are dead, others only singed and can recover. The first plants to reappear after a burn typically have grown more resistant over time to the flames.

“Some of the shrub species and other grass species are more fire-adapted, and they can come back quicker,” said Todd Ellsworth, a post-fire restoration program manager with the U.S. Forest Service.

But it can be five years before the ground cover returns to what it was before the blaze. One stand of pinyon pines was heavily damaged – needles burned off the branches, their trunks torched black – and will not come back.

“The conifer trees don’t come back very quickly,” Ellsworth said, referring to certain pines and other trees that bear cones. Sometimes, it’s up to foresters to go in and replant them.

The tiny, fragile flowers and patches of fresh growth against a stark mountainside and slabs of gray rock were a reminder that wildfire is part of the ecosystem in California, including the eastern Sierra Nevada where the fire took place.

Firefighters said they used minimum-impact techniques to fight the blaze because “natural fire plays an important role in maintaining the landscape within these areas.”

Some species only flower after a wildfire.

The area of the blaze — not far from the trailhead to Mt. Whitney, at 14,505 feet (4,421 meters) the highest mountain the contiguous United States — is home to Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep, an endangered species, and to the whitebark pine, an endangered species candidate.

News reports and press releases from June and July 2021 attributed the wildfire to a lightning strike and said the nearly 600-acre (243-hectare) blaze fanned by winds forced evacuations and cut off access to nearby roads, hiking trails and campgrounds. Firefighters used helicopters to dump water on the fire, which burned across rugged terrain.

The effects of climate change can be significant on forest regeneration.

One 2018 study in the journal Ecology Letters that looked at nearly 1,500 wildfire sites found that because of hotter and drier climates, fewer forests are returning to their pre-burn tree mix, and in some cases trees did not return at all.

Camille Stevens-Rumann, an assistant professor at Colorado State University and co-author of the study, said wildfires have become larger and more intense, killing more trees, while also happening more frequently.

“We have a lot of places that are probably climatically different than when those (conifer) species were established," she said, which means they can struggle when trying to recover after a burn.

If a hotter, drier climate is unsuitable for those trees to come back, "they won't recover,” she added.

U.S. coal plants delay closures in hurdle for clean energy transition

Tue, August 9, 2022 
By Timothy Gardner

SHEBOYGAN, Wisc. (Reuters) - Travel brochures in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, tout the town’s beaches on Lake Michigan as the Malibu of the Midwest. But pages of glossy photos leave out a feature of the landscape: a coal-fired power plant on the shore that will remain open until mid 2025 instead of closing this year as planned.

Alliant Energy Corp's Edgewater coal-fired plant in Sheboygan is one of at least six across the country that this summer have announced delays or potential delays to their planned closures, citing concerns about energy shortages.

A key culprit: renewable energy deployment, which was meant to replace these coal plants, has taken a hit in recent months because of COVID-19-related supply chain hiccups. Utilities say import tariffs on solar panels imposed by U.S. Commerce Department make it hard to keep up with robust power demand.

In addition to the closure delay of its 400 megawatt (MW) Edgewater plant in Sheboygan, Alliant's 1.1 gigawatt Columbia Energy Center in Portage will close by June 2026, a delay of about 18 months.

WEC Energy Group Inc has delayed the closure of remaining units at its 1,135 MW Oak Creek power plant near Milwaukee for up to 18 months until May 2024 and late 2025.

Indiana's NiSource Inc blamed solar project delays of up to 18 months for its postponing the shutdown of the 877 MW Schahfer coal plant for two years until 2025.

In Nebraska, the board of the Omaha Public Power District will vote on Aug. 18 on whether to keep the 645 MW North Omaha plant open until 2026, a delay of up to three years, due to siting delays and backlogs in studies in switching to natural gas and solar.

And in New Mexico, PNM Resources Inc delayed the closure of a unit at the San Juan plant by three months until September, as drought threatened hydropower supplies and heat boosted power demand.

When burned, coal emits more of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide than any other fossil fuel. It also releases nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide, precursors to haze and smog that harm human lungs and hearts.

All of the companies said that despite the delays, and potential delays, they will meet their long-term voluntary goals on carbon emissions and that scrubbers and other pollution devices have removed most of the criteria pollutants of their emissions.

Holly Bender, a senior director of energy campaigns at the Sierra Club environmental group, said the delays do not portend a resurgence in coal use. Nearly 360 U.S. coal plants have shut or plan to shut in recent years, compared with about 170 plants that remain active, according to the organization.

Rather, Bender said, the delays serve a "warning sign of the failure to plan for the kind of clean energy growth that is needed."

President Joe Biden's goals of cutting U.S. carbon emissions 50% by 2030 from 2005 levels and decarbonizing the power sector by 2035 will likely depend on even more shutdowns of coal plants.

Biden's emissions plan will get a lift if the U.S. House, as expected, follows the Senate to pass the Inflation Reduction Act https://www.reuters.com/world/us/democrats-score-big-wins-climate-drugs-with-430-billion-us-senate-bill-2022-08-08/, which analysts say will cut emissions about 40% by 2030 by giving market certainty on hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy tax credits and incentives.

The U.S. coal industry has been slammed by a surge of cheap natural gas, declining prices for renewables, and regulations cracking down on pollution that causes direct health issues and threatened ones on carbon dioxide. Coal generated about 20% of U.S. electricity last year, down from about 50% in 2006.

But cutting emissions further will not be easy.

"It's imperative that we increase accountability on utilities, regulators, and planners to ensure ... the transformation of our power sector off coal," Bender said.

NOT HELPING THE PROBLEM

Estimating the health effects of coal plant emissions on people in exact areas is difficult as their high smokestacks disperse pollution into the wind. Pollution from vehicles and industry also harm air quality.

Still, like many densely-populated, industrial U.S. areas, parts of Sheboygan county have been out of compliance for revised U.S. ozone standards since 2018, while all of Milwaukee county has been out of compliance since then, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

And coal plants, even if they are in areas that are in compliance with federal standards, can contribute to health problems, said Tracey Hollaway, an air quality scientist at University of Wisconsin, Madison.

"It's still affecting the air of people far downwind," she said about the delays. "Keeping these facilities open is not helping the problem."

It is an open question whether the delays are a harbinger of more to come. But coal market players see at least temporary opportunities.

Joe Craft, the chief executive of Alliance Resource Partners, the third largest U.S. coal producer, told analysts this month that plants staying open is "going to bode well for us."

Strength in U.S. and European coal markets should drive Alliance's year-over year margin growth from now through 2024, Craft said.

Ted O'Brien, managing partner and chief commercial officer at Oluma Resources, a Pittsburgh-based marketer of the fuel, said nobody believes coal plants will stay open in perpetuity, but the delays could at least extend the life of mines.

"Maybe this does give coal staying power to maintain its corner in the broader U.S. energy mix," O'Brien said.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; editing by Richard Valdmanis and Marguerita Choy)

W. Virginia announces settlement with Rite Aid over opioid crisis allegations

Aug. 12 (UPI) -- West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has announced that they have reached a multi-million-dollar settlement with Rite Aid to resolve a lawsuit accusing the pharmacy chain of contributing to the state's opioid crisis.

The Republican attorney general said Thursday that the state and the drug company have agreed to a settlement that may total as much as $30 million. (PEANUTS)

"Money will not bring back the lives lost from this epidemic, but we are looking for accountability," Morrisey said in a statement.

"With this settlement and other settlements, we will provide significant help to those affected the most by the opioid crisis in our state."

RELATED Judge rules against Walgreens in San Francisco opioid lawsuit

The settlement resolves a lawsuit brought against Rite Aid by the Morrisey accusing it of contributing to the oversupply of opioids in the state by failing to maintain effective controls.

The lawsuit said the company's failure inflicted "significant losses" on its patients, including for their past and current medical costs. It also states its negligence resulted in loses to rehabilitation bills, drug overdose medication naloxone expenses and to cover medical examiners.

The lawsuit is one of thousands filed throughout the country seeking recompense for the lives and funds lost due to the ongoing opioid crisis.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at 81.4 overdose deaths per 100,000 people, West Virginia has by far highest drug overdose mortality rate in the country with Kentucky having the second highest at 49.2.

The lawsuit is also one of several the state has brought over the opioid crisis with many still being litigated.

Morrisey has largely opted out from participating in a coalition of state attorneys general working together to achieve mass settlements from drug companies, and has pursued litigation on his own.

The state has previously secured settlements, including a $99 million settlement with Johnson & Johnson in April and a $37 million deal with McKesson Corp in 2019, among others.

The money gained from settlements, including that announced Thursday, is distributed throughout the state based on a memorandum of understanding signed by cities and counties on how such dollars would be used to abate the opioid crisis.