WAGE SLAVERY

S.Korean labour minister defends longer work week as helpful for mothers


Women wearing masks talk at a railway station amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Seoul

Thu, March 9, 2023

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's labour minister said on Thursday that lifting the weekly work hour cap to 69 hours from 52 will give working mothers more choice and help them raise children amid growing concerns over the country’s falling birth rates.

The government says allowing workers to accrue more overtime hours in return for time off later will mean people who want to take longer breaks - such as parents or caregivers - will be able to do so.

“We’ll introduce bold measures to help cut working hours during pregnancy or while raising children,” the minister, Lee Jung-sik, told a media briefing when asked whether the labour reform proposal will help tackle South Korea's fertility crisis.

Critics of the measure, however, have said that the measures will hurt, not help, working mothers and other women.

"While men will work long hours and be exempt from care responsibilities and rights, women will have to do all the care work," the Korean Women's Associations United said in a recent statement.



South Korea has the lowest fertility rate in the world -- 0.78 in 2022. President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday ordered “bold measures” to tackle the country’s fertility rate.

The ministry said the labour reform proposal, first unveiled in December and officially announced on Monday, is part of efforts to bring more labour flexibility and improve work-life balance in a country where many women are forced to choose between their career and raising children.

It would supersede a 2018 law that limited the work week to 52 hours - 40 hours of regular work plus 12 hours of overtime. The Ministry of Employment and Labor said the law had made the labour market more rigid.

While the move has been welcomed by business interest groups, it has been criticized by the opposition and unions as neglecting workers’ rights.

"It will make it legal to work from 9 a.m. to midnight for five days in a row. There is no regard for workers' health and rest," the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions said in a statement.

Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party with a parliamentary majority, said on Wednesday that his party would block the bill.

(Reporting by Hyunsu Yim, Editing by William Maclean)

A VERY REAL CONSPIRACY
Denmark investigates yacht linked to Nord Stream blasts


Gas bubbles from the Nord Stream 2 leak reaching surface of the Baltic sea in the area shows disturbance of well over one kilometre diameter near Bornholm

Thu, March 9, 2023
By Nikolaj Skydsgaard

CHRISTIANSÖ in the Baltic Sea, Denmark (Reuters) - Danish police have searched for a yacht on a tiny Baltic Sea island near the Nord Stream pipeline blast sites, the local administrator said on Thursday.

German authorities confirmed on Wednesday they had raided a ship in January that may have been used to transport explosives used to blow up the pipelines.

"The police was searching for a specific boat that had moored here in September," Soren Thiim Andersen, the highest authority on the island of Christiansö, told Reuters.

The Sept. 26 explosions on the Nord Stream pipelines, constructed to supply Russian natural gas to Europe, have become a flashpoint between the West and Russia after last year's Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Authorities in Sweden, Germany and Denmark, who are currently investigating the blasts, say the explosions were deliberate but have not said who might be responsible.

However, this week media reports in the United States and Germany suggested a pro-Ukrainian group could be responsible.

Germany's ARD broadcaster and Zeit newspaper reported that German authorities were able to identify a boat used for the sabotage operation.

The operation to place explosives on the seabed was carried out by six people, who sailed from Rostock on Sept. 6 and was later located on the Danish island of Christiansö, according to the reports.

Danish police in January searched for information about boats that had docked on Christiansö on Sept. 16-18, interviewing local residents, collecting footage from the harbour, and collected information from the harbour ticket machine, Andersen said.

Danish police declined to comment.

Christiansö is part of a small archipelago about 18 km northeast of the Baltic Sea island of Bornholm. The archipelago with just 98 inhabitants is a former naval fortress but remains under administration of the Danish defence ministry.

(Additional reporting by Johannes Birkebaek; Editing by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen)

A global mystery: What's known about Nord Stream explosions


In this picture provided by Swedish Coast Guard, a leak from Nord Stream 2 is seen, on Sept. 28, 2022. Germany’s defense minister voiced caution Wednesday March 8, 2023 over media reports that a pro-Ukraine group was involved in blowing up the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea last year. 

(Swedish Coast Guard via AP, File)

MATTHEW LEE
Wed, March 8, 2023 

WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s a major international mystery with global consequences: Who was behind the explosions that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines last year in the Baltic Sea?

The answer has broad implications for European energy security but could also threaten Western unity over backing Ukraine in defending itself from Russia’s invasion. Or, it might shatter Russian and Chinese attempts to fix the blame on a hypocritical West.

Yet, nearly six months after the sabotage on the Russia-to-Germany pipelines, there is no accepted explanation. And a series of unconfirmed reports variously accusing Russia, the United States and Ukraine are filling an information vacuum as investigations into the blasts continue.

A look at the pipelines and what’s known about the explosions.

WHAT ARE THE NORD STREAM PIPELINES?

The pipelines, known as Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2, are majority-owned by Russia's state-run energy giant Gazprom and used to transport natural gas from Russia to Europe under the Baltic to their termini in Germany.

Nord Stream 1 was completed and came online in 2011. Nord Stream 2 was not finished until the fall of 2021 but never became operational due to the launch of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, 2022.

WHY ARE THEY CONTROVERSIAL?

Both pipelines bypass existing routes that go through Ukraine, meaning not only that Ukraine loses income from transit fees but is unable to directly use the gas they carry.

Of perhaps greater concern to the West, the pipelines were seen as a move by Russia to gain further, if not almost complete, control over Europe's energy supplies. Many in the West fear that Russia will use energy as a political weapon against European countries as it has done in the past with former Soviet states.

Despite those concerns and over the objections of the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations, the German government under former Chancellor Angela Merkel moved ahead with the construction of the Nord Stream 2 project. The Biden administration waived sanctions against German entities involved in Nord Stream 2 after securing a pledge from Germany that it would allow backflows of gas into Ukraine and would act to shut the pipeline down should Russia try to use it to force political concessions.

After Russia's Feb. 24, 2022, invasion of Ukraine, Germany withdrew permission for Nord Stream 2, which had not yet come online.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE PIPELINES?

First, Gazprom halted gas flows through Nord Stream 1 on Sept. 2, 2022, citing issues related to European sanctions imposed against Russia over the war in Ukraine.

Three weeks later, both Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 were hit by explosions that rendered them inoperable and caused significant leaks of gas that was idle in the pipelines. Some have said the blasts caused the worst release of methane in history, although the full extent of the environmental damage remains unclear.

The depth of the pipeline and the complexity of using underwater explosives lent credence to the idea that only a state actor with the expertise to handle such an operation could be responsible. But no one claimed responsibility.

In the immediate aftermath of the explosions, U.S. officials suggested Russia may have been to blame while Russia accused the United States and Britain of being behind them. Investigations by European nations, including Denmark, through whose waters the pipeline travels, and Germany have yet to yield conclusive results.

WHAT THEORIES HAVE BEEN REPORTED?

After months of few developments in the probes, American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, known for past exposes of U.S. government malfeasance, self-published a lengthy report in February alleging that President Joe Biden had ordered the sabotage, which Hersh said was carried out by the CIA with Norwegian assistance.

That report, based on a single, unidentified source, has been flatly denied by the White House, the CIA and the State Department, and no other news organization has been able to corroborate it. Russia, followed by China, however, leaped on Hersh's reporting, saying it was grounds for a new and impartial investigation conducted by the United Nations.

On Tuesday, though, The New York Times, The Washington Post and German media published stories citing U.S. and other officials as saying there was evidence Ukraine, or at least Ukrainians, may have been responsible. The Ukrainian government has denied involvement.

Germany's Die Zeit newspaper and German public broadcasters ARD and SWR reported that investigators believed that five men and a woman used a yacht hired by a Ukrainian-owned company in Poland to carry out the attack. German federal prosecutors confirmed that a boat was searched in January but have not confirmed the reported findings.

WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES FOR THOSE FOUND RESPONSIBLE?

The implications of a determination that Ukraine was behind the explosions are not entirely clear. It's unlikely it would result in an immediate loss of Western support for Ukraine in the war with Russia, but it might dampen enthusiasm for future assistance if it was found that Ukraine or its agents carried out such an operation in European waters.

A determination that the United States or a proxy was responsible would give Russia and China additional leverage to go after the U.S. and its allies as hypocrites in their demands for the rule of the law, sovereignty and territorial integrity to be respected.

A finding that Russia was behind the explosions would lend weight to Western claims that Moscow is in flagrant breach of international law and willing to use energy as a weapon against Europe.

There is no indication of when the European investigations will be complete — and it seems improbable, given the animosity and mistrust surrounding the Ukraine conflict, that its findings will be universally accepted.

___

Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed.

China condemns Japanese plan to release Fukushima water

This photo taken during a visit by Associated Press journalists shows some of about 1,000 huge tanks holding treated but still radioactive wastewater at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO), in Okuma town, northeastern Japan, on Feb. 22, 2023. Treated radioactive wastewater is set to be released into sea sometime from spring 2023 to summer after required testing and dilution with large amounts of seawater. 

(AP Photo/Mari Yamaguchi)

Fri, March 10, 2023 

BEIJING (AP) — China on Friday condemned a Japanese plan to release treated radioactive wastewater from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea, demanding that Tokyo first receive the approval of neighboring countries.

China has made similar complaints on a regular basis in the past, but has not said how it would respond if Japan goes ahead with the planned release.

China, which Japan invaded in the first half of the last century, has been a constant critic of Tokyo and its security alliance with the U.S., with the ruling Communist Party frequently invoking historical wrongs to rally domestic support and seek to undermine Japan’s global standing.

Japan’s behavior is “extremely irresponsible,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a daily briefing Friday.

"I would like to stress that Japan’s release of treated nuclear-contaminated water from the Fukushima plant concerns the global marine environment and public health, which is not a private matter for the Japanese side,” Mao said.

“Until full consultation and agreement is reached with neighboring countries and other stakeholders and relevant international institutions, the Japanese side shall not initiate the discharge of nuclear-contaminated water into the sea without authorization,” she said.

A magnitude 9.0 earthquake and massive tsunami slammed into the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant 12 years ago on March 11, 2011, destroying its power and cooling systems and triggering the meltdowns of three reactors. Massive amounts of radiation were released in the surrounding area.

South Korea, several Pacific Island nations and Japanese fishing communities have also objected to the planned release.

Japanese officials and the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, say the radioactive elements in the water can be reduced to safe levels.

Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Tetsuro Nomura has said he will work to counter any damage from the release to the reputation of the area's seafood industry.

“We will convey the safety of the fish caught in the Japanese sea with scientific evidence,” Japan's Kyodo News quoted Nomura as saying.

___

Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.

What’s happening at Fukushima plant 12 years after meltdown?


 

MARI YAMAGUCHI
Thu, March 9, 2023 

OKUMA, Japan (AP) — Twelve years after the triple reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Japan is preparing to release a massive amount of treated radioactive wastewater into the sea.

Japanese officials say the release is unavoidable and should start soon.

Dealing with the wastewater is less of a challenge than the daunting task of decommissioning the plant. That process has barely progressed, and the removal of melted nuclear fuel hasn’t even started.

The Associated Press recently visited the plant. Here’s an update on what’s happening.

___

HOW ARE WATER DISCHARGE PREPARATIONS PROCEEDING?


During their visit, AP journalists saw 30 giant tanks for sampling and analyzing the water for safety checks. A concrete facility for diluting the water after it is treated and tested is in the final stages of construction. From there, the water will be released via an undersea tunnel.

The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, aims to have the facilities ready by spring. TEPCO needs a safety approval from the Nuclear Regulation Authority. The International Atomic Energy Agency, collaborating with Japan to ensure the project meets international standards, will send a mission to Japan and issue a report before the discharge begins.

___ WHAT IS TREATED WATER?

A magnitude 9.0 quake on March 11, 2011, triggered a massive tsunami that destroyed the plant’s power supply and cooling systems, causing reactors No. 1, 2 and 3 to melt and spew large amounts of radiation. Water used to cool the reactors' cores leaked into the basements of the reactor buildings and mixed with rainwater and groundwater.

The 130 tons of contaminated water created daily is collected, treated and then stored in tanks, which now number about 1,000 and cover much of the plant’s grounds. About 70% of the “ALPS-treated water,” named after the machines used to filter it, still contains Cesium and other radionuclides that exceed releasable limits.

TEPCO says the radioactivity can be reduced to safe levels and it will ensure that insufficiently filtered water is treated until it meets the legal limit.

Tritium cannot be removed from the water but is unharmful in small amounts and is routinely released by any nuclear plant, officials say. It will be also diluted, along with other radioactive isotopes, they say. The water release will be gradual and tritium concentrations will not exceed the plant's pre-accident levels, TEPCO says.

___ WHY RELEASE THE WATER?

Fukushima Daiichi has struggled to handle the contaminated water since the 2011 disaster. The government and TEPCO say the tanks must make way for facilities to decommission the plant, such as storage space for melted fuel debris and other highly contaminated waste. The tanks are 96% full and expected to reach their capacity of 1.37 million tons in the fall.

They also want to release the water in a controlled, treated way to avoid the risk that contaminated water would leak in case of another major quake or tsunami. It will be sent through a pipe from the sampling tanks to a coastal pool to be diluted with seawater and released through an undersea tunnel to a point 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) offshore.

__ WHAT ARE THE SAFETY CONCERNS?

Local fishing communities say their businesses and livelihoods will suffer still more damage. Neighboring countries such as China and South Korea and Pacific Island nations have raised safety concerns.

“It would be best if the water isn't released, but it seems unavoidable,” said Katsumasa Okawa, owner of a seafood store in Iwaki, south of the plant, whose business is still recovering. Okawa said he hopes any further setbacks will be short-lived and that the releases might reassure people about eating fish from Fukushima.

“I find those massive tanks more disturbing," Okawa said. "The next time the water leaks out by accident, Fukushima’s fishing will be finished.”

The government has earmarked 80 billion yen ($580 million) to support Fukushima fisheries and to address “reputation damage” from the release.

TEPCO has sought to reassure people by keeping hundreds of flounder and abalone in two groups — one in regular seawater and another in the diluted treated water. The experiment is “for people to visually confirm the treated water we deem safe to release won't adversely affect creatures in reality," said Tomohiko Mayuzumi, TEPCO's risk communicator.

Radioactivity levels in the flounder and abalone rose while they were in the treated water but fell to normal levels within days after they were returned to regular seawater. That supports data showing a minimal effect on marine life from tritium, said Noboru Ishizawa, a TEPCO official overseeing the experiment.

Officials say the impact of the water on humans, the environment and marine life will be minimal and will be monitored before, during and after the releases which will continue through the 30-40 year decommissioning process. Simulations show no increase in radioactivity beyond 3 kilometers (1.8 mile) from the coast.

Scientists say health impacts from consuming tritium and other radioisotopes through the food chain may be worse than from drinking it in water and further studies are needed.

Cross-checks are another concern: TEPCO says water samples are shared with IAEA and the government-funded Japan Atomic Energy Agency, but experts would like to see independent cross-checks.

University of Tokyo radiologist Katsumi Shozugawa said his analysis of groundwater in multiple locations in no-go zones near the plant has shown that tritium and other radioactive elements have been leaking into groundwater.

If highly radioactive water escapes and is dispersed into the sea it becomes impossible to trace, a concern not only for Japan but also for countries in the Pacific, he said. “There should be a continuous, science-based effort to show other countries that it's thoroughly handled, which I think is lacking the most."

Environmental groups including Friends of the Earth oppose the release. They have proposed long-term storage of the water by solidification, as used at the Savannah River waste repository in the U.S.

___ ANY PROGRESS WITH THE MELTED REACTORS? 

Massive amounts of fatally radioactive melted nuclear fuel remain inside the reactors. Robotic probes have provided some information but the status of the melted debris is largely unknown.

Akira Ono, who heads the cleanup as president of TEPCO’s decommissioning unit, says the work is “unconceivably difficult.”

Earlier this year, a remote-controlled underwater vehicle successfully collected a tiny sample from inside Unit 1's reactor — only a spoonful of about 880 tons of melted fuel debris in the three reactors. That's 10 times the amount of damaged fuel removed at the Three Mile Island cleanup following its 1979 partial core melt.

Trial removal of melted debris will begin in Unit 2 later this year after a nearly two-year delay. Spent fuel removal from Unit 1 reactor’s cooling pool is to start in 2027 after a 10-year delay. Once all the spent fuel is removed the focus will turn in 2031 to taking melted debris out of the reactors.

___ IS A 2051 COMPLETION TARGET REALISTIC?

Ono says the goal is a good “guidepost” but too little is known. The government has stuck to its initial 30-40 year target for completing the decommissioning, without defining what that means.

An overly ambitious schedule could result in unnecessary radiation exposures for plant workers and excess environmental damage, said Ryo Omatsu, an expert on legal aspects of nuclear plant decommissioning.

Some experts say it would be impossible to remove all the melted fuel debris by 2051.

___

Follow AP’s Asia-Pacific coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific

University of Tokyo radiologist Katsumi Shozugawa speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at the university in Tokyo on Feb. 16, 2023. Shozugawa said his analysis of groundwater in multiple locations in no-go zones near the plant has shown that tritium and other radioactive elements have been leaking into groundwater. 

(AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)

EPA proposes stricter limits on coal plant water pollution

The Biden administration on Wednesday proposed strengthening a rule aimed at reducing polluted wastewater from coal-burning power plants that has contaminated streams, lakes and underground aquifers. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

SUMAN NAISHADHAM
Wed, March 8, 2023 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Wednesday proposed tighter limits on wastewater pollution from coal-burning power plants that has contaminated streams, lakes and underground aquifers across the nation.

Under the Clean Water Act, the Environmental Protection Agency sets pollution standards to limit wastewater discharge from the power industry and other businesses. The Trump administration rolled back pollution standards so utilities could use cheaper technologies and take longer to comply with guidelines for cleaning coal ash and toxic heavy metals such as mercury, arsenic and selenium from plant wastewater before dumping it into waterways.

The Biden administration's proposal for stricter standards at coal-burning plants also encourages the plants to retire or switch to other fuels such as natural gas by 2028.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan said the plan would particularly benefit low-income communities that have been disproportionately affected by pollution from coal-fired power plants. And it would provide “greater certainty for industry,” Regan said.

The National Mining Association criticized the plan, saying it would force utilities to make decisions ”solely based on EPA's environmental agenda," and called the approach “plainly irresponsible.”

In a call with reporters, Regan said the rule “is not aimed at driving outcomes regarding companies’ investment strategies," but rather “to protect public health.″

The plan would address three types of wastewater generated at coal-fired power plants: from scrubbers that remove pollutants from exhaust systems; water used to flush out boilers at the bottom of a plant; and coal ash ponds that often leach into nearby waterways.

The Biden administration's limits for these waste streams would return to standards set under the 2015 Obama-era rule or exceed them, EPA said.

Coal plants are responsible for as much as 30% of all toxic water pollution from all industries in the United States. The pollution affects aquatic ecosystems, drinking water and recreational waters.

Sierra Club attorney Joshua Smith said the changes were “a big step in the right direction” for forcing hundreds of coal-fired power plants across the country to take responsibility for the pollution that surrounding communities have long borne.

He added that the technologies used to eliminate the discharges highlighted by Biden administration officials have come a long way since a 2015 Obama-era rule that was rolled back under former President Donald Trump.

“At this point, it is cost-effective and technologically feasible for ... coal plants to eliminate those discharges,” Smith said.

Radhika Fox, assistant EPA administrator for water, said the rule would have almost no impact on electricity costs for households. “We estimate a 63 cents per year increase for a typical household,” Fox said.

The proposal includes a carve-out for coal-burning plants that plan to retire or stop burning coal by 2028 — and would allow such plants to continue meeting the 2015 and 2020 rules. The proposal also would extend a deadline for power plants to opt-in to the retirement or fuel-switch plan, "providing flexibility for some plants to cease burning coal earlier than they might otherwise do so,'' the EPA said.

Officials said the EPA plans to issue a final rule in 2024.

Edison Electric Institute, which represents investor-owned electric companies, said it was still reviewing EPA’s proposal but applauded the agency’s “coordinated and holistic” approach to regulating the power sector.

Administration officials said the new rule would likely force the closure of at least one coal-fired power plant in the country, but did not provide more details.

Coal power usage in the U.S. has dropped dramatically over the past decade thanks to competition from cheaper natural gas, declining prices for renewable energy and environmental regulations. Many plants have been shuttered, and a further 23% of the country's operating coal-powered fleet is scheduled to retire by 2029, according to the Energy Information Administration.

The U.S. generated nearly 20% of its electricity in 2022 from coal-fired power plants, according to the EIA.

Thomas Cmar, senior attorney with the environmental group Earthjustice, said the rule would “finally force the power industry to do what it should have done decades ago.”

“We urge EPA to finalize the strongest rule possible as quickly as possible, so that power companies will no longer be allowed to profit off of treating our waterways like an open sewer for toxic pollutants,” Cmar said.

___

Associated Press writer Matthew Daly contributed to this story.

___

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

Exclusive-Deutsche Bahn bets on Huawei for railway digitalisation despite security concerns



Fri, March 10, 2023 
By Sarah Marsh

BERLIN (Reuters) -German rail operator Deutsche Bahn, which is digitising its operations, last December awarded a 64 million euro ($67.79 million) contract to supply most of the components for its new IP network to a company using technology from China's Huawei.

The IP network will form the backbone of a new digital infrastructure that will enable the state-owned DB to remotely steer all operations in one of the largest rail networks in Europe.

The contract, which has not previously been reported, shows how German firms continue to use Huawei tech in what many consider to be critical infrastructure, despite growing security concerns at home and warnings from ally the United States over the use of Chinese technology.

It also exposes gaps in legislation on the protection of digital critical infrastructure more than a year after Russia's invasion of Ukraine prompted German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to declare a "Zeitenwende" or "turn of era" towards a greater focus on security, lawmakers from the ruling coalition told Reuters.

A DB spokesperson told Reuters it followed the reommendations of authorities, but under current IT security legislation it did not have to run network components by Germany's cybersecurity office, the BSI, unlike public telecoms network operators. It said it was up to the contractor - in this case, Deutsche Telekom Business Solutions, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom - to choose the components.

A BSI spokesperson said it was not aware of any law that determined the DB IT systems as "critical components".

No European country currently has legislation against the use of Huawei tech in private corporate networks although Sweden and Britain have legislated against its use in 5G telecoms networks and other countries have urged operators to avoid it.

Germany said this week it was conducting a full review of components deployed by telecoms firms, in a sign it could be taking a more assertive stance.

"If it's true that the company is betting more on Huawei technology, then that raises some serious questions," said Konstantin von Notz, chairman of the parliamentary committee that oversees the intelligence services.

The lawmaker from the Greens junior coalition partner said it was up to this government "to rectify as quickly as possible years of ignorance and massive shortcomings in security policy".

Critics of Huawei say its close links to China’s security services means that use of its technology could give Chinese spies and even saboteurs access to swathes of essential infrastructure.

There is no publicly available evidence Huawei and the Chinese government could actually disrupt networks and both reject claims they represented a security risk. A Huawei spokesperson said the firm would never harm any nation or individual. Operators say it provides top quality components for lower costs than competitors.

"Digital infrastructure is becoming an important battleground in the quest of domination," said Paolo Pescatore, an industry analyst with PP Foresight.

The December contract with Deutsche Telekom Business Solutions is for Huawei tech like switches and routers. These contain software that needs to be regularly updated remotely, potentially allowing for malicious updates, say cybersecurity experts.

DB granted it in an auction just two months after an attack that caused a halt in all train transport in northern Germany for several hours and raised awareness of vulnerabilities in German critical infrastructure.

Several lawmakers told Reuters they suspected a state actor given the sophistication of the attack. Investigators have not yet come to a final conclusion.

EXPANDING REGULATION OF DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE

The debate over the role of Huawei in Germany has heated up in recent months as the coalition government hammers out a new China strategy document, with the junior Greens and Free Democrats (FDP) coalition partners advocating for a tougher stance than Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD).

Germany, which saw China become its top trade partner under former conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel, did pass tighter legislation in 2021 for makers of telecoms equipment for 5G.

Critics say the law, which stopped short of banning Huawei, lacked teeth though and did not require the verification of critical components for digital infrastructure in other sectors.

"It's the task of the state to make the rules clear, it's not up to companies to willingly give up certain providers," said Manuel Hoeferlin, the FDP parliamentary group's spokesperson for internal affairs.

Germany actually became even more dependent on Huawei for its 5G radio access network equipment (RAN) than in its 4G network, according to excerpts of a report shared with Reuters.

The government admitted last month it did not actually have "any conclusive information on the percentual amount of components from Chinese and other producers in German mobile and fixed networks", but said that 40% of the components in one of DB's radio networks were from Huawei.

A government source said it had detected some operators had already built in Huawei critical components without waiting for a BSI green light and could be required to replace those.

Separately, an interior ministry spokesperson told Reuters it was planning on expanding current IT security legislation to cover more infrastructure and working on a law strengthening cybersecurity.

"We have a good legal instrument for 5G," said SPD parliamentary group foreign policy spokesperson Nils Schmid, "but we need to expand it to other critical infrastructure, for example hospitals, electricity providers or the railway."

($1 = 0.9441 euros)

(Additional Reporting by Andreas Rinke in Berlin and Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm; Reporting by Sarah Marsh; Editing by Sharon Singleton)

Ukrainian activist behind Russian oil embargo blocked from attending top energy conference



Saul Elbein
Fri, March 10, 2023

An award-winning Ukrainian climate activist was barred from a major energy conference the day before it began — after flying to Houston to attend.

Svitlana Romanko, an environmental lawyer, said she had planned to lobby delegates at CERAWeek, — a world-leading energy conference with deep roots in the fossil fuel oil and gas industry hosted by financial analytics firm S&P Global — against further investment in either Russian or U.S. expansions to their gas industries.

“On the false premise of energy security, these companies are trying to lock us into serious climate change,” she said. “But there is no energy security in stranded assets and overcapacity.”

In late February, she bought tickets to the event — which is taking place this week — after S&P Global had confirmed her registration. Then, the night before the conference, she received an email telling her that S&P had canceled her attendance and refunded her money.

“As organizers of this private event, we carefully assess security concerns and may deny entry to individuals or entities who have disrupted prior events,” a spokesperson from S&P Global wrote the Hill.

The Stand With Ukraine movement that Romanko helped launch succeeded in getting Western governments to agree to a Russian oil embargo, for which she won the Center for Biological Diversity’s Rose Braz award.

The activists failed, however, to secure a full ban on Russian gas — a source on which Europe still depends for about 10 percent of its gas and that U.S. officials and executives hope to supplant with “greener” natural gas.

In November, Romanko was also suspended from the U.N. climate conference in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, after calling the Russian government and oil executives at a Moscow-sponsored event promoting the country’s petroleum industry representatives of “a terrorist state.”

But her eviction from that conference came alongside rising tensions between activists and oil industry lobbyists, who have been an increasing presence in climate circles, Reuters reported. U.N. security also ejected BBC’s climate editor from the same event after he asked if Russia would “pay for the environmental damage you have caused in Ukraine?”

Despite this history, barring Romanko represented “cowardice” on S&P’s behalf, Simon Taylor, co-founder of the venerable human rights reporting group Global Witness, told The Hill.

“They should have let her in,” Taylor said. “They should have given her a hearing.”

Taylor — who wrote to S&P Global Vice Chairman Daniel Yergin, a Pultizer-Prize winning journalist covering oil, after Romanko was barred from the event —argued that her presence at the conference would have pushed fossil fuel executives to “get to grips with” two of its most important issues.

First was support for the Russian oil industry — into which U.S. financial institutions still have more than $23 billion invested, according to The Guardian. That funding — along with the continued sale of refined products made from Russian oil by countries like Turkey — “continues to bankroll Putin’s war of mass murder and destruction,” Taylor wrote.

He also pointed to “the elephant in the room, namely the climate crisis — a situation the fossil fuel industry has played such a profound role in creating,” he wrote.

These two issues weave together, however, as the Guardian reported that the $23 billion investment into Russian fossil fuels goes specifically to projects that would each release at least 1 billion metric tons of planet-warming carbon dioxide — three times the national emission rate from the United Kingdom.

Inside CERAWeek, U.S. presidential climate envoy John Kerry acknowledged that these emissions represented a problem.

“We can’t do it without the oil and gas industry,” he said, referring to U.S. climate goals.

He pointed in particular to the industry’s emissions of virulent climate-pollutant methane, comprising 15 percent of the earth’s emissions. “If they were a nation, they’d be the third-biggest emitter in the world.”

For Romanko, as for many scientists and activists, that huge footprint — coupled with the long lifespan of each new natural gas plant or LNG liquefaction terminal in an era when emissions should be declining — is a reason to avoid further investment in the sector.

Romanko pointed to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s September speech in which he said, “Ukraine can and, I am sure, will become a green energy hub for Europe.”

In that speech, Zelensky painted a vision of Ukraine as a major exporter of renewable electricity to Europe — a goal that the U.S. has been working on “non-stop,” according to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

As Granholm noted last summer, Ukraine had taken a big step down that path when it began sending electricity to the European power grid — even as its forces fought the invading Russian army in the east.

In last September’s speech, Zelensky linked clean electricity and military campaigns.

“It is a very important factor that [the beginning of electricity exports] happened during the war,” he said. “We export, but the scale of cooperation can be hundreds of times larger – imagine the profit for each participant in the energy business.”

The Ukrainian president doubled down on these remarks in January when he told E.U. vice president Frans Timmermans that his administration would focus on “green projects” in reconstructing the nation’s electric grid and cities.

Romanko fears a flood of U.S. natural gas could supplant clean energy progress. Despite harsh criticism from Republicans of Biden’s “war on oil and gas,” the administration is backing plans to build 16 new LNG export terminals on the Gulf and Atlantic coasts.

She also charged that the demand there for this fuel is exaggerated. A leaked internal analysis from the German government suggests that the country’s embrace of new LNG terminals following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine significantly overestimated the country’s need for the fuel — which is anticipated to fall by a third by decade’s end, Brussels-based news site Euractiv reported last month.

That’s a significant change from 2022, when oil and gas companies finalized 45 deals last year to sell LNG in Europe — three times as many as the previous year, according to a report published in February by Bailoutwatch and Public Citizen.

While “Europe needs alternate sources of gas,” the continent’s buyers were slow to agree to the long-term purchasing agreements that would make an LNG project worthwhile, Chevron CEO Mike Wirth said at CERAWeek.

To better promote gas in climate-conscious European markets, the Biden administration wants to certify as “green” gas companies that use lower-emission methods or purchase carbon offsets as lower carbon — easing sales to Europe, as Reuters reported last week.

And with gas demand declining in the U.S., Gov. John Bel Edwards (D-La.) visited Japan this week to promote LNG shipments to that country.

Like many European climate activists, Romanko argues that green gas is an oxymoron, and the increase in supply itself is unnecessary, because it will commit the world to decades of additional planetary heating.

That message increasingly resonates with local organizations fighting gas expansion on the Gulf Coast.

In Louisiana, for example, the state’s embrace of “petrochemicals, export gas terminals and heavy industry has left home values plunging and stores closing next to some of the biggest, richest companies in the world,” the Louisiana Bucket Brigade wrote after Gov. Edwards visited Japan.

In Calcasieu Parish, on the Louisiana coast, the Brigade charged that illegal releases of toxic chemicals were harming citizens and killing off fisheries, The Hill reported.

“What kind of economic development plan prioritizes polluters over families who have lived here for generations?” the group asked.

Representatives of a Texas anti-gas organization took Romanko to visit neighborhoods around the sprawling LNG plant in Freeport, Texas — a town whose population has fallen by 17 percent since 2002.

The plant partially reopened in February after a methane-fueled leak caused a 450-foot fireball in June, The Texas Observer reported.

The abandoned homes around the Freeport LNG plant, Romanko said, reminded her of the Ukrainian city of Mariinka — a town of 10,000 leveled almost entirely in the fighting.

“Only here, it is the own government, against its citizens,” she said. “It’s completely apocalyptic.”

The Hill.

Poland lawmakers back EU-sought liberalized wind energy law

Wind turbines stand on a field in Budy Mszczonowskie, Poland, Monday, Feb. 21, 2022. 

Poland’s lawmakers have approved a new law relaxing the rules for installation of onshore wind turbines, a move that has been expected by the European Union which is holding up recovery funds for the nation over a number of legislative issues.

 (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski, File) 

Fri, March 10, 2023 

WARSAW, Poland (AP) —

Poland’s lawmakers have approved a new law relaxing the rules for installation of onshore wind turbines, a move that was urged by the European Union, which is holding up recovery funds for the nation over a number of legislative issues.

The law approved by the lower house, the Sejm, late Thursday allows for turbines to be built no less than 700 meters (765 yards) from houses — less restrictive than the previous rule of 10 times the turbine’s height that was introduced by the current government in 2016.

That restriction practically stalled wind energy development in coal-reliant Poland as no suitable location could be found, and the 27-member EU has called on Poland to relax the rules.

The vote was 231-209 with two abstentions. Almost all of the supporting votes came from the ruling coalition.

Initially, the minimum new distance was planned at 500 meters, but was raised to 700 meters almost at the last moment, due to disputes inside the ruling coalition, which in general does not favor wind energy. The conservative government that took office in 2015 put a halt to wind farms arguing that was in the interest of local people, who were concerned that the turbines would bring noise, ground vibrations and other discomfort to them.

By contrast, the government has been supporting solar energy and subsidizing solar panels for households, as well as planning significant offshore wind farms in the Baltic Sea. It is also supporting Poland's coal mining, a major employer in the southern Silesia region.

Climate and Environment Minister Anna Moskwa said on Twitter the new law “strengthens Poland's energy security” as it “increases the power coming from renewable sources” while respecting the views of local communities.

The law, which still needs approval from the Senate and from President Andrzej Duda, gives local residents more say as to turbines' location and also gives them a share in the energy produced.

But critics say the liberalization is insufficient and is still limiting the number of potential locations and the amount of power that could be obtained from wind, thus failing to help bring soaring energy prices down. They argue that renewable energy should get all the backing it needs at the time when Russia's war on Ukraine has reduced energy deliveries from Russia.

Creating conditions for wind energy growth is among a number of milestones that Brussels is expecting Warsaw to meet before billions of euros of pandemic recovery funds can be disbursed to the country. Other key milestones include improving Poland's rule of law record and relaxing rules for disciplining judges.

Turkey's southeast exodus after earthquake puts manufacturing at risk

A destroyed car business in Antakya Kucuk Sanyi Sitesi Industrial Estate in the aftermath of the deadly earthquake in Antakya

Fri, March 10, 2023 
By Susana Vera and Ceyda Caglayan

ANTAKYA/ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Mehmet Alkan, a shoe-sole manufacturer in Turkey's earthquake-hit south, doesn't know what will become of his company after some of his 220 employees died and half fled, reflecting the difficult transformation ahead for industry in the region.

Forty of his workers and some families sheltered for a while in the undamaged Alkan Taban factory in Antakya after the massive quakes on Feb. 6.

"We only have 110 workers after some died and others left the city, so production capacity dropped," said Alkan, the manager.

Turkey's deadliest disaster in modern history struck a region rich in textile production and agriculture that accounts for 16% of total employment and around 11% of industrial production, a report by the Istanbul Chamber of Industry showed.

It forced millions to leave 11 southeastern provinces that were home to some 14 million people. Some say they may not return despite Ankara's plan to swiftly rebuild hundreds of thousands of damaged or collapsed buildings.

Hundreds of businesses that re-started operations a month after the quake face shortages of staff who moved to nearby villages, relatives in other cities or to government-sponsored accommodation of tents and container homes, interviews show.

"We turned our showroom into a dormitory" for employees, Alkan said. "Most of their families left the city or moved to safer village areas. They are afraid. We are waiting for others to come back."

He said the company's shuttle used to drive up to 50 km (30 miles) to collect workers from their homes, but it now drives double that distance to reach the villages.

The disaster, which killed more than 52,000 people in Turkey and Syria, is a challenge to President Tayyip Erdogan's plan to transform Turkey into a competitive manufacturing power. Business groups and economists estimate quake fallout costing some $100 billion and shaving one to two percentage points off the country's gross domestic product (GDP).

Some funding meant to boost production, employment and exports under Erdogan's economic plan will be directed towards aid and rebuilding efforts in the area, they say.

RESHUFFLING

To ease the fallout, the government has rolled out short-work allowances for workers and easier access to loans for affected companies.

In Antakya, the hardest-hit city where dozens of blocks were flattened, only around a third of production capacity is being used a month after the earthquake, sector officials and experts say. It could take years to return to normal, bringing about a shift in demography in the area.

"We need urgent government support to start reverse migration for businesses. We are losing qualified workforce. A safe environment with facilities like schools and social spaces needs to be set up," said Hikmet Cincin, the head of Antakya's Chamber of Trade and Industry.

More than 600,000 homes collapsed or were severely damaged across the region, official data shows, while the government promised to build at least 250,000 units of accommodation within one year.

"It is very difficult to predict when housing and businesses will return to normal in the region. Permanent accommodations and reopened schools will be crucial," said Serdar Sayan, director of the centre for social policy research (SPM) at Ankara-based TOBB University.

The region could also see industries reshuffled as construction sector workers arrive, Sayan said.

"People who started new, permanent lives in other cities are mainly from the middle- and upper-income classes," while those who stayed tend to earn lower incomes and need state aid, Sayan said.

Seher Icici, who handled logistics and accounting at a textile machinery company in Kahramanmaras, near the epicentre of the earthquake, moved some 250 km to the west with her two small children, to the city of Mersin.

"We are staying temporarily since we do not have a home to return to now. We had to leave the city as we could not find temporary accommodation," Icici said.

Families she knew had already left the area and enrolled their children in schools elsewhere, she said, and most won't return at least until the end of the academic year.

"I cannot work right now but I am lucky as my boss paid my salary and some support money," Icici said. "We are getting by with it for now."

(Additional reporting by Ezgi Erkoyun; Editing by Jonathan Spicer, Daren Butler and Nick Macfie)

After Kansas oil spill, Keystone oil pipeline operator faces tighter regulations

Natalie Wallington
Fri, March 10, 2023 

A large segment of the Keystone Pipeline, including the site of December’s massive oil spill in rural northern Kansas, will face increased regulations following an order from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Regulators have ordered Keystone Pipeline operator TC Energy to reduce pressure and conduct safety testing on an over-1,000 mile long segment of the pipeline stretching from the Canadian border down to Oklahoma.

The segment includes the site of a failure three months ago near Washington, Kansas, which spilled more oil than all of the pipeline’s previous ruptures combined.

Continuing to operate the segment “is or would be hazardous to life, property, or the environment” unless changes are made, Tuesday’s order states.


Regulators with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) laid out ten requirements for TC Energy to follow under threat of “civil penalties” or legal action. The requirements include:

Reducing the pipeline’s operating pressure temporarily


Mechanical testing of the failed pipeline section and of welds similar to the one that failed in December’s spill


Analyze whether land movement played a role in December’s rupture


Present a plan on how the company will update its safety protocols to prevent future spills

“I would suggest that PHMSA has Keystone’s attention,” said Richard Kuprewicz, an independent pipeline advisor who has testified before Congress on pipeline safety and has over 20 years of experience advising on pipeline operation and regulation.

He added that the order’s restrictions may help prevent future ruptures.

“The independent forensic report would likely indicate a possible systemic issue that needs to be addressed,” he said.

You can view the full text of the order below. If you can’t see the embed, click here to view the document.

Department of Transportation order on Kansas pipeline spill by The Kansas City Star on Scribd

What caused December’s Keystone Pipeline spill?

TC Energy released a report in February, just over two months after the initial spill, ascribing the rupture to “bending stress on the pipe” and “a weld flaw.”

The Department of Transportation’s order Tuesday offered more insight into the potential causes of these issues. Specifically, the order seemed to single out land movement as a potential cause of bending stress on the pipe.

“Onsite personnel observed the failed segment move vertically as overburden was removed, indicating the pipeline was under improper loading and stress,” the order read. “It is not clear whether the pipe segment has been under stress since construction or if land movement in the area may have more recently induced or increased stress.”

While regulators note that TC Energy was monitoring the area for “geohazards and land movement” prior to the failure, they ordered the company to get its monitoring program reviewed by a third-party evaluator in the next 60 days.

“The evaluation must determine if land movement may have contributed to the loading and stresses on the pipeline at the failure location,” regulators added.

“Land movement” can be caused by extreme weather, erosion, geological shifts due to climate change or earthquakes. It is one of many factors that can put stress on oil pipelines, especially those located on slopes, according to PHMSA.

The agency released updated guidance last June advising pipeline operators to take special precautions against the impacts of land movement. It listed recommendations, but did not require new safety measures of pipeline operators.
What does the federal order mean for future Keystone spills?

Regulators noted that the Keystone Pipeline has been spilling more oil more often in recent years, a trend it hopes new regulations will reverse.

“The spills… show a tendency or pattern in recent years of increasingly frequent incidents resulting in larger releases,” the order states.

An EPA spokesperson declined to comment on the recent order.

The pipeline segment covered by the order, which extends from the U.S.-Canada border in the north to Cushing, Oklahoma in the south, must remain at a lower operating pressure until TC Energy meets its other requirements.

The company has around 90 days to meet most of the requirements in the order, although it can request time extensions if it has a “good cause,” the order says.

CERAWEEK-Keystone pipeline oil flows won't change after US order to cut pressure, CEO says


 A supply depot servicing the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline lies idle in Oyen

Thu, March 9, 2023 
By Stephanie Kelly and Simon Webb

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Oil flows on TC Energy's Keystone pipeline will not change after the U.S. pipeline regulator said it would require the company to reduce pressure following a 13,000-barrel oil spill in Kansas in December, Chief Executive François Poirier told Reuters on Thursday.

Keystone has already been operating within the requirements of the new order from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), Poirier said in an interview. The Canadian pipeline operator completed a controlled restart of the 622,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) pipeline to Cushing, Oklahoma, on Dec. 29 last year, returning it to service after a 21-day outage following the biggest U.S oil spill in nine years.

Before the order, "we had the ability to meet the entirety of our contractual commitments of 594,000 bpd and so obviously that remains the same," Poirier told Reuters on the sidelines of the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston.

The PHMSA said on Tuesday it would require TC Energy to reduce operating pressure on more than 1,000 additional miles (1,609 kms) of Keystone.

Though an analysis has not been completed, Poirier said the company recently has indicated in disclosures that the spill was caused by issues around the girth weld on the pipeline combined with stress on the line.

Poirier said the Canadian company has not changed its estimate of $480 million in costs related to the incident.

PERMITS AND RENEWABLES

TC Energy has a $34 billion backlog of projects for the next few years, Poirier said, adding most of those projects are natural gas.

The company is not concerned that permitting challenges will impede those projects, he added. Challenges of getting permits for energy infrastructure have been a big theme for oil and gas executives at the conference.

"In 2022, we put $6 billion of infrastructure into service," Poirier said. "In 2023, it's nearly the same amount, so that is the best proof that you can actually sanction and build infrastructure in North America."

The permitting process to develop so-called greenfield projects, or projects on undeveloped land, typically takes an additional year than projects on already developed land, Poirier said.

TC Energy has also had issues with labor availability. Canada's construction labor market typically is between 8,000 to 10,000 workers, but right now there are almost 20,000 workers in Canada to help build out various energy projects, Poirier said.

"That has resulted in significant inflation, as well as lower productivity because you're bringing more inexperienced workers into the market," he said.

TC Energy is involved with a push from Canada's main oil-producing province Alberta to develop the country's first carbon storage hubs. A TC Energy joint-venture project with Pembina Pipeline Corp was one of six proposals selected by Alberta to move forward in the development.

Poirier estimates TC Energy will start burying carbon dioxide in Alberta in the second half of the decade, with aims to put infrastructure into service around 2027 or 2028, Poirier told Reuters.

Previously, TC Energy announced plans to lower its emissions by switching to renewable energy to run its huge network of U.S. and Canadian oil and gas pipelines.

Poirier said the company was on course to deliver on its target to divest C$5 billion of assets by the end of the year.

Poirier added that the company saw plenty of opportunity for growth both in fossil fuels and in new energy projects.

"Our challenge is what not to do. We have to learn how to evolve our portfolio over the course of the next decade," he said.

(Reporting by Stephanie Kelly and Simon Webb; Editing by David Gregorio)

How to Make Carbon Capture Way More Efficient

Molly Taft
Wed, March 8, 2023

A CO2 collector on display at a museum in Germany.

Scientists agree that we’re going to need to build machines to suck carbon from the sky to stave off the worst impacts of climate change—but there are a lot of challenges for this new industry in the coming decades, including figuring out how to make the technology more effective. A discovery from a team of researchers at Lehigh University, published in Science Advances on Wednesday, could make this process three times more productive.

The process of sucking carbon dioxide from the sky—known as direct air capture, or DAC—may sound like science fiction, but it’s actually a pretty simple proposition. Machines capture air from the atmosphere, which is then run through filters and sorbents to separate out the CO2; those filters are heated to release the CO2, and that concentrated CO2 is then either stored underground or can be used in products.

Capturing and separating out CO2 is a lot easier when the pollutant is concentrated at a particular source, as is the case with carbon capture and sequestration, which involves installing filters at factories, power plants, and other infrastructure that spews out CO2. Filtering out CO2 from everyday, regular air, on the other hand, where the CO2 is more diluted, requires a lot of energy and a lot of money.

That’s a big obstacle for an industry that scientists say will be necessary to stave off the worst impacts of global warming and is only just beginning to get off the ground. There are fewer than two dozen direct air capture plants currently operating in the world, pulling just thousands of tons of CO2 each year at a steep cost. Despite enormous financial and cultural investment in the technology, there are real questions about how scalable and efficient DAC will ever be.

This new research could help change some of that productivity measure for existing and new plants, just by switching up what’s inside the machines. Most direct air capture processes currently use amine-based materials—made from ammonia—in their filtering processes. What the researchers did was add copper to an amine-based sorbent, a pairing that is pretty well-known in chemistry.

“Amine means they have nitrogen atoms,” said Arup Sengupta, a professor of engineering at Lehigh University and a co-author of the paper. “Nitrogen and copper, they love each other.” Adding copper into the mix meant that the new hybrid sorbent can filter out CO2 three times as well as existing sorbents on the market, a potentially game-changing performance improvement that could significantly lower costs and improve the efficiency of DAC plants.

“An ultra-low concentration [of CO2] is no longer an obstacle to this process,” Sengupta said.

The addition of copper gave this sorbent another advantage: the possibility of storing CO2 in the ocean in addition to underground. When the CO2-saturated copper-amine material was brought in contact to seawater in the lab, it converted the captured CO2 into what is essentially baking soda. This harmless alkaline material could theoretically be stored in the ocean, opening up a possible new storage mechanism for captured CO2. The world’s existing carbon capture plants, like the Climeworks plant in Iceland, are right now restricted to being located in places where there’s significant underground storage available; opening up the potential for DAC plants to be built anywhere close to a coast significantly expands the possibilities for the technology.

Obviously, there are a lot of questions raised by some of this research. The world’s oceans are under enough stress as it is, and there’s a big difference between testing out small samples of the hybrid material in seawater versus suddenly dumping tons of baking soda into the ocean each year. And even if the resin created by Sengupta and his team significantly improves the productivity of the world’s DAC systems, there are still a lot of big hurdles facing the technology—and it doesn’t get rid of the issue of oil and gas propping up DAC as the end-all solution in lieu of actually cutting emissions now and weaning off their products.

Still, it’s exciting to see potential new leaps and bounds for DAC technology and to see how research like this could potentially change conditions on the ground. Sengupta said his team will be looking for support in testing out their new material on a larger scale.

“Everything works in the lab,” Sengupta laughed. “When you take it out, it’s a different story.”

Gizmodo