COMMODITY FETISH

Sotheby’s hopes for record sale of ancient Hebrew Bible

By ILAN BEN ZION

today

A member of staff shows the Hebrew Bible "Codex Sassoon", that dates back more than 1,000 years, on display during a media preview of Sotheby's auction, in London, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023. The piece has an estimated price of US$30-50 million and will go on auction on May in New York. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
THE HAIRSTYLISTS BIBLE


JERUSALEM (AP) — One of the oldest surviving biblical manuscripts, a nearly complete 1,100-year-old Hebrew Bible, could soon be yours — for a cool $30 million.

The Codex Sassoon, a leather-bound, handwritten parchment tome containing almost the entirety of the Hebrew Bible, is set to go on the block at Sotheby’s in New York in May. Its anticipated sale speaks to the still bullish market for art, antiquities and ancient manuscripts even in a worldwide bear economy.

Sotheby’s is drumming up interest in hopes of enticing institutions and collectors to bite. It has put the price tag at an eye-watering $30 million to $50 million.

On Wednesday, Tel Aviv’s ANU Museum of the Jewish People opened a week-long exhibition of the manuscript, part of a whirlwind worldwide tour of the artifact in the United Kingdom, Israel and the United States before its expected sale, on Wednesday.

“There are three ancient Hebrew Bibles from this period,” said Yosef Ofer, a professor of Bible studies at Israel’s Bar Ilan University: the Codex Sassoon and Aleppo Codex from the 10th century, and the Leningrad Codex, from the early 11th century.

Only the Dead Sea Scrolls and a handful of fragmentary early medieval texts are older, and “an entire Hebrew Bible is relatively rare,” he said.

Starting a few centuries before the Codex Sassoon’s creation, Jewish scholars known as Masoretes started codifying oral traditions of how to properly spell, pronounce, punctuate and chant the words of Judaism’s holiest book. Unlike Torah scrolls, where the Hebrew letters are devoid of vowels and punctuation, these manuscripts contained extensive annotation instructing readers how to recite the words correctly.

Precisely where and when the Codex Sassoon was made remains uncertain. Sharon Liberman Mintz, a senior Judaica specialist at Sotheby’s, said that radiocarbon dating of the parchment gave an estimated date of 880 to 960. The codex’s writing style suggests its creator was an unspecified early 10th-century scribe in Egypt or the Levant.

“It’s like the emergence of the biblical text as we know it today,” Mintz said. “It’s so foundational not only for Judaism, but also for world culture.”

Though it’s certainly ancient and rare, scholars say the Codex Sassoon doesn’t match the pedigree and quality of its contemporary — the Aleppo Codex.

“Any Masoretic scholar in their right mind would take the Aleppo Codex over the Sassoon Codex, without any regret or hesitation,” said Kim Phillips, a Bible expert at the Cambridge University Library. He said the scribal quality was “surprisingly sloppy” compared to its counterpart.

The Aleppo Codex, dated to around 930, has been considered the gold standard of the Masoretic Bibles for around 1,000 years. The Codex Sassoon’s margins contain an annotation from a later scholar who says he checked its text against the Aleppo Codex — referring to the manuscript by the Arabic title a-Taj, “the Crown.”

“The Aleppo Codex is more precise than the Sassoon Codex, there’s no doubt,” Ofer said. “But because it’s missing (a third of its pages), in those parts that are absent, there is great significance to this manuscript.” The Codex Sassoon’s 792 pages make up around 92% of the Hebrew Bible.

These venerable manuscripts were protected and treasured by Syrian Jewish communities for centuries until the 20th century. How the Sassoon Codex survived the ages is an epic in its own right.

A note on the manuscript attest to its owners in centuries past: A man named Khalaf ben Abraham gave it to Isaac ben Ezekiel al-Attar, who gave it to his sons Ezekiel and Maimon.

It later migrated east to the town of Makisin in what’s today northeast Syria, where it was dedicated to a synagogue in the 13th century. Sometime in the following decades, the synagogue was destroyed and the codex entrusted to Salama ibn Abi al-Fakhr until the synagogue was rebuilt.

It never was rebuilt, but the book survived.

Its whereabouts for the next 500 years remain uncertain until it resurfaced in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1929, and was bought by a legendary collector of Jewish manuscripts whose name it still bears.

David Solomon Sassoon was a Bombay-born son of an Iraqi Jewish business magnate who filled his London home with a massive collection of Jewish manuscripts.

“His capacity was astounding, both in terms of number but also in terms of what he was able to find,” said Raquel Ukeles, head of collections at Israel’s National Library.

Sassoon roved across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa buying up old books, and by his death in 1942, he had amassed over 1,200 manuscripts.

Sassoon’s estate was broken up after he died and the codex was sold by Sotheby’s in Zurich in 1978 to the British Rail Pension Fund, which had started investing in art several years earlier, for around $320,000.

The pension fund flipped the Codex Sassoon 11 years later for 10 times its hammer price. Jacqui Safra, a banker and art collector, bought it in 1989 for $3.19 million and is now putting it up for auction.

If the target price is realized, the Codex Sassoon could not only eclipse the most expensive Jewish document ever sold — the 2021 sale of the Luzzatto Machzor, a 14th-century prayerbook, for $8.3 million. It also could break the record for the priciest historical document ever sold at public auction. That honor is currently held by a 1787 copy of the U.S. Constitution sold in 2021 for $43 million.

Yoel Finkelman, a former curator of Judaica at Israel’s National Library, said that prices for Judaica manuscripts have skyrocketed in recent years, but Sotheby’s proposed range is “a different league.”

Few institutions, and only a small handful of ultrawealthy collectors, could afford such a price tag. There is precedent, however, of museums joining forces to buy prized manuscripts or philanthropists donating their purchases to libraries and other bodies.

Ukeles said that the National Library managed to purchase seven of Sassoon’s manuscripts when his collection was auctioned off in the 1970s, “but this one got away. And so for us, this is an opportunity to bring this great treasure home.”

WHERE ARE YOUR WHITE GLOVES

TO PROTECT THE PAGES?!!!!

Sotheby's is auctioning off what it describes as "the earliest, most 

complete Hebrew Bible," in May.

At auction, the Codex is expected to fetch between $30 and $40 million. 

Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

In 1929, the Codex was acquired by collector David Solomon Sassoon, 

for which it is named. 

The Codex Sassoon will be on display at the ANU Museum

 of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv from March 22-29.
Photo by Debbie Hill/UPI | License Photo

Superbug Candida auris now reported in more than half of states

By MIKE STOBBE

yesterday

This undated photo made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a strain of Candida auris cultured in a petri dish at a CDC laboratory. In a CDC paper published by the Annals of Internal Medicine on Monday, March 20, 2023, U.S. cases of the dangerous fungus tripled over just three years, and more than half of states have now reported it. 

(Shawn Lockhart/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention via AP, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. cases of a dangerous fungus tripled over just three years, and more than half of states have now reported it, according to a new study.

The COVID-19 pandemic likely drove part of the increase, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wrote in the paper published Monday by Annals of Internal Medicine. Hospital workers were strained by coronavirus patients, and that likely shifted their focus away from disinfecting some other kinds of germs, they said.

The fungus, Candida auris, is a form of yeast that is usually not harmful to healthy people but can be a deadly risk to fragile hospital and nursing home patients. It spreads easily and can infect wounds, ears and the bloodstream. Some strains are so-called superbugs that are resistant to all three classes of antibiotic drugs used to treat fungal infections.

It was first identified in Japan in 2009 and has been seen in more and more countries. The first U.S. case occurred in 2013, but it was not reported until 2016. That year, U.S. health officials reported 53 cases.

The new study found cases have continued to shoot up, rising to 476 in 2019, to 756 in 2020, and then to 1,471 in 2021. Doctors have also detected the fungus on the skin of thousands of other patients, making them a transmission risk to others.

Many of the first U.S. cases were infections that had been imported from abroad, but now most infections are spread within the U.S., the authors noted.

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

Nevada to add gas plant as drought threatens power grids

By RIO YAMAT

yesterday

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Utility regulators in Nevada gave the state’s largest power provider clearance to start work on a $333 million project to build a natural gas plant in the state for the first time in nearly 15 years, signaling yet another consequence of the extreme drought conditions in the southwestern U.S.

The two gas-fired turbines to be erected north of Las Vegas by NV Energy are expected to come online by July 2024 amid hotter summers and longer wildfire seasons in a state that aims to have a carbon-free power grid by 2050.

Nevada’s Public Utilities Commission approved the plans last week. It said the turbines are needed to address peak electricity demand in the summer months, as ever-drying conditions in the West continue to stress the region’s power grids and slash hydroelectric output, including the behemoth power producers on the Colorado River — the Hoover Dam and Glen Canyon Dam.

But environmental advocates have argued that the turbines mark a major step backwards for Nevada’s climate goals.

“Both the state and the utility have set strong goals to transition to renewable energy,” said Angelyn Tabalba, a spokesperson for the Nevada Conservation League. “Instead of doubling down on fossil fuels, they should be leaning into a clean energy future.”

Mike O’Boyle, senior director of electricity policy at the Bay Area-based Energy Innovation firm, said the commission’s decision underscores a growing tension across the American Southwest.

“We’ve always dealt with annual variability when it comes to hydroelectric power in the West. How much of it we have really depends on the snowpack and what happened in the winter and spring,” O’Boyle said. “It’s not a new issue, but it’s been exacerbated by the drought. Unfortunately it’s a new major contingency that utility providers have to plan for.”

At least 21 other states, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, have goals to reach 100% clean energy between 2040 and 2050, according to the Clean Energy States Alliance.

But as those deadlines approach, scientists say the megadrought gripping the southwest is the worst in 1,200 years, putting a deep strain on the Colorado River. If states don’t begin taking less out of the river, major reservoirs threaten to fall so low they can’t produce hydropower or supply any water to farms that grow crops for the rest of the nation and cities like Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Phoenix.

Last March, for example, Lake Powell in Utah and Arizona dipped below a critical threshold, raising new concerns about the Glen Canyon Dam, a source of power that millions of people in the West rely on for electricity. If power production ceases at the dam, rural electric cooperatives, cities and tribal utilities would be forced to seek more expensive options that could include fossil fuels.

Already, Nevada has retired its largest coal plant, while the North Valmy coal plant is scheduled to shut down its remaining units by 2025.

Another coal plant was expected to be converted by early this year for natural gas output. Representatives for the TS Power Plant, which runs the facility, did not respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking an update on the project.

About 60% of Nevada is now powered by natural gas and 30% by renewable energy resources. Natural gas is composed primarily of methane, a greenhouse gas about 25 times more powerful than carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the atmosphere, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

But NV Energy said the turbines will have minimal carbon dioxide emissions because they will only operate in the summer months — or for about 700 hours annually — and therefore won’t hinder the state’s carbon-free goals.

“Along with our commitment to reduce emissions, NV Energy is committed to providing reliable and affordable energy for our customers,” Katie Nannini, a spokesperson for the power company, said in a statement. “This decision ensures that NV Energy can reliably provide energy for Nevadans, especially during the State’s hottest months from June to September.”

Ratepayers will foot the project’s bill once the plant is operational, according to NV Energy’s plans submitted to the Public Utilities Commission.

The turbines will be built at NV Energy’s existing Silverhawk Generating Station gas plant in Moapa, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of Las Vegas. The Harry Allen Generating Station, also in Moapa, was the last gas-powered plant constructed by the energy provider in 2011.

US regulators delay decision on nuclear fuel storage license

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN

yesterday

 A sign on a fence warns of radioactive materials at a containment building housing a nuclear reactor at the Indian Point nuclear power plant in Buchanan, N.Y., on April 26, 2021. U.S. regulators say they need more time to wrap up a final safety report and make a decision on whether to license a multibillion-dollar project meant to temporarily store tons of spent fuel from commercial nuclear power plants around the nation. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a new schedule Monday, March 20, 2023, citing unforeseen staffing constraints. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — U.S. regulators say they need more time to wrap up a final safety report and make a decision on whether to license a multibillion-dollar complex meant to temporarily store tons of spent fuel from commercial nuclear power plants around the nation.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a new schedule Monday, citing unforeseen staffing constraints. The agency was initially expected to issue a decision by the end of March. It will now be the end of May.

The announcement comes just days after New Mexico approved legislation aimed at stopping the project. It’s expected that supporters of the storage facility will take the fight to court, but New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Tuesday asked the NRC to suspend its consideration of the license application.

New Jersey-based Holtec International already has spent an estimated $80 million in its pursuit of a 40-year license to build and operate the complex in southeastern New Mexico. Company officials said Tuesday that the delay in licensing would have only a minimal impact on the original timeline.

“With a project of this complexity, we understand the need for the regulating and licensing authority to have all the time and resources necessary to issue a licensing decision,” Holtec spokesman Patrick O’Brien said in an email.

Holtec, elected officials from southeastern New Mexico and other supporters have been pushing hard to offer what they call a temporary solution to the nation’s problem of spent nuclear fuel, which has been piling up at commercial reactors for years.

Since the federal government has failed to build a permanent repository, it reimburses utilities to house the fuel in either steel-lined concrete pools of water or in steel and concrete containers known as casks at sites in nearly three dozen states. That cost is expected to stretch into the tens of billions of dollars over the next decade.

The legislation signed by Lujan Grisham last week requires that the state provide consent for bringing in such radioactive material. Consent from the Democratic governor would be unlikely, as she has argued that without a permanent repository, New Mexico stands to be the nation’s de facto dumping ground.

She reiterated her opposition in the letter to NRC Chairman Christopher Hanson.

“Thank you for respecting the state of New Mexico’s laws and the voices of our citizens, tribes and pueblos who overwhelming(ly) supported this legislation,” she wrote.

Similar battles have been waged in Nevada, Utah and Texas over the decades as the U.S. has struggled to find a home for spent fuel and other radioactive waste. The proposed Yucca Mountain project in Nevada was mothballed and a temporary storage site planned on a Native American reservation in Utah was sidelined despite being licensed by the NRC in 2006.

That project would have been located on land belonging to the Skull Valley Band of Goshute. Utah’s governor at the time — Republican Mike Leavitt — was among those fighting the effort. He and others were successful in getting Congress to amend a defense spending bill, essentially landlocking the site by creating the Cedar Mountain Wilderness and blocking a rail spur that would have delivered casks.

But it was only six weeks later that the NRC issued a license for the project.

Don Hancock with the nuclear watchdog group Southwest Research and Information Center pointed to the Utah case.

“If congressional action doesn’t affect NRC decision making, there’s no reason to think that New Mexico action has an effect,” he said in an email Tuesday.

Elected leaders in Texas also were unsuccessful in keeping a similar project from being licensed by the NRC in 2021. Integrated Storage Partners LLC’s initial plans call for storing up to 5,000 metric tons (5,512 tons) of spent fuel and about 230 metric tons (254 tons) of low-level radioactive waste for 40 years. Future phases could boost that capacity to 40,000 metric tons (44,092 tons) of fuel.

Holtec officials are disappointed in the New Mexico legislation and argue that their project is safe, would be an economic boon for the region and would not affect ongoing operations in the Permian Basin, which is one of the world’s most productive oil and gas plays.

“Passing a bill that is pre-empted by federal law and will be adjudicated accordingly in the courts is a counterproductive action that inhibits the state’s growth in the area of clean energy,” O’Brien said, adding that local support has solidified the company’s belief that the project is still viable.

President Joe Biden has received dueling letters from supporters of the project and from Lujan Grisham and others in opposition. The administration has acknowledged the role nuclear power will have to play in reaching its carbon emission goals and earlier this year put up $26 million in grants for communities interested in studying potential interim storage sites.

Officials: 8 dolphins dead after stranding in New Jersey
today

SEA ISLE CITY, N.J. (AP) — Eight dolphins have died after they became stranded on a beach in New Jersey, marine animal welfare officials said.

The Marine Mammal Stranding Center said on Facebook on Tuesday morning that a pod of eight dolphins known as “common dolphins” had become stranded in Sea Isle City and that staff and a veterinarian had responded with help from local officials. Officials said at the time that two of the dolphins had died.

On Tuesday afternoon, officials said the remaining six dolphins were assessed by the veterinarian and the decision was made to euthanize them to prevent further suffering. Their conditions were rapidly deteriorating and returning them to the ocean would have prolonged their inevitable death, officials said.

The dolphins have been taken to the New Jersey State Lab for necropsies.

“We share in the public’s sorrow for these beautiful animals, and hope that the necropsies will help us understand the reason for their stranding,” the post on Facebook said.

Residents sue Louisiana parish to halt polluting plants

By DREW COSTLEY

today

- Myrtle Felton, from left, Sharon Lavigne, Gail LeBoeuf and Rita Cooper conduct a live stream video on property owned by Formosa on March 11, 2020, in St. James Parish, La. Residents of a Louisiana parish located in the heart of a cluster of polluting petrochemical factories filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday, March 21, 2023, raising allegations of civil rights, environmental justice and religious liberty violations. LeBoeuf, a co-founder of Inclusive Louisiana, has liver cancer, which she acknowledged can't be traced back to petrochemical plant pollution with certainty, but said it can't be ruled out either. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

Residents of a Louisiana parish located in the heart of a cluster of polluting petrochemical factories filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday raising allegations of civil rights, environmental justice and religious liberty violations.

The lawsuit names St. James Parish as the defendant and says the parish council approved the construction of several factories in two Black districts of the parish that emit harmful amounts of toxic chemicals. It said the pollution negatively affected the health of the area’s Black residents.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit are calling for a moratorium on petrochemical plants like one being built by Formosa Plastics that was approved by the council in 2019. The Associated Press reached out to the council for comment but did not receive an immediate response.

For several years, Black residents of St. James Parish have lobbied the parish council and state government to do something about petrochemical plants emitting toxic chemicals into the air they breathe. But they’ve been ignored, according to Shamyra Lavigne of Rise St. James, a local climate justice organization.

“We stand here today to say we will not be ignored. You will not sacrifice our lives. And we will not take any more industry in the fourth or fifth district of St. James. Enough is enough,” Lavigne said at a news conference announcing the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court Eastern District of Louisiana.

Lavigne was one of St. James residents at the briefing who shared about their frustration from living near polluting factories and how they believe the parish council is responsible for creating environmental injustice.

“Every one of us has been touched by the parish’s repeated decisions to pack Black neighborhoods with toxic chemical plants,” said Barbara Washington, co-founder of the environmental justice organization Inclusive Louisiana. “Every one of us has had stories about our own health and the health of our relatives and friends, who have had .... cancer and COPD.”

EPA DIRECTOR MIKE REAGAN 

The plaintiffs live along Cancer Alley, an 85-mile (135-kilometer) corridor that runs along the Mississippi River between New Orleans to Baton Rouge and is filled with industrial plants that emit toxic chemicals, some of which are known carcinogens. In 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency said it has evidence that Black residents in the region have an increased risk of cancer from at least one nearby plant, which they sued last month in a separate case.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday also claims that some of the factories were built on and destroyed the burial grounds of deceased slaves, which made it impossible for their descendants visit their dead ancestors. Some of these descendants, plaintiffs claim, are among those affected by the toxic chemical releases.

“For some of us, St. James Parish is .... the home of our ancestors, who were slaves, who worked the land for generations and never got paid,” said Gail LeBoeuf, another co-founder of Inclusive Louisiana. LeBoeuf has liver cancer, which she acknowledged can’t be traced back to petrochemical plant pollution with certainty, but said it can’t be ruled out either.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs said they are seeking remedies for the environmental injustices sustained by the residents, which they seek to halt by invalidating permits for factories underway and land use regulations that allow for the placement of factories in black districts. They are also seeking independent environmental monitoring of air, water and soil. The case will be assigned and the parish will be served, then will have an opportunity to respond in the coming weeks.

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Follow Drew Costley on Twitter: @drewcostley.

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

ST JAMES INFIRMARY 

Insider Q&A: From oil to offshore wind, Ørsted transformed

By JENNIFER McDERMOTT

March 20, 2023

Mads Nipper, CEO of Orsted, left, speaks with David Hardy, CEO of the Orsted Americas region, while in New York on Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023. Orsted, the former Danish Oil and Natural Gas company, ramped up construction of offshore wind farms beginning in 2008 and sold off the oil and gas side of the business in 2017. Now Orsted is a global leader in renewable energy. 

(AP Photo/Jennifer McDermott)

NEW YORK (AP) — One of Europe’s most fossil fuel-intensive energy companies transformed completely in little more than a decade by doubling down on offshore wind.

Ørsted, formerly DONG Energy, for Danish Oil and Natural Gas, started aggressively building wind farms off the coast of Denmark, the U.K. and Germany in 2008 — a time when offshore wind was a curiosity.

The company sold off the North Sea oil and gas assets on which it had built its identity to focus on clean energy, becoming Ørsted.

Fast forward 15 years and China, the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands, Taiwan and Denmark have some 62 nuclear plants’ worth of wind power spinning or under construction offshore. Ørsted is one of the biggest developers.

CEO Mads Nipper called Ørsted the “Tesla of offshore wind” because it didn’t invent wind turbines or copper cable or substations, just like the electric car company didn’t invent batteries or electric motors. But they both proved something was scalable when few believed it.

Currently Ørsted is building offshore wind farms along the East Coast of the U.S., in Europe and Taiwan. It’s trying to create a market globally for green hydrogen and hydrogen-based fuels. And it aims to build 50 gigawatts of clean energy generation by 2030.

Nipper spoke with The Associated Press about the industry. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Q: They say soon we’ll have clean energy supermajors, the way we’ve had oil majors. Do you consider Ørsted to be a clean energy supermajor?

A: Not yet. But we will be. There are no clean energy supermajors. If there was one, it’s us. But there aren’t any yet. It would be arrogant to say that we are a supermajor yet... We invest, depending on the year, $6, $7 billion a year purely into renewable energy, which makes us comfortably one of the top players.

The five turbines of America's first offshore wind farm, owned by the Danish company, Orsted, are seen from a tour boat off the coast of Block Island, R.I., Oct. 17, 2022. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Q: How has the war in Ukraine affected Ørsted’s business and the offshore wind sector in general?

A: It has not affected our offshore business, I would say. If indirectly, then tragically or ironically, actually positively, because it’s dawning very clearly to Europe that energy independence, and therefore energy security, and not being dependent on Russia for energy supplies, is not just a matter of climate policy — it’s very much security policy as well. So if anything, especially European governments are extremely determined to make renewable energy ambitions come through... We are looking at Ukraine. We are actually in dialog with the Danish foreign ministry to see what can we do to help Ukraine establish a reliable power supply.

Q: Is Ørsted best positioned to help the U.S. transition to green energy?

A: On offshore, I have no doubt. And onshore, given the traction we have and given also what we are seeing of opportunities, I think, we would be amongst the best positioned. I think it would be leaning out to say that in onshore specifically we would be best positioned. But with already 5 gigawatts of awarded capacity in offshore, we are not done. The U.S. is a major growth priority market for us globally. Our preparedness to invest significant capital in the U.S. market to help that transformation is intact.


Q: How can you use the incentives offered for green energy in the U.S. through the Inflation Reduction Act?

A: Given some of the headwinds of the industry recently and especially higher cost of capital through interest rates and significant capital expenditure inflation due to both materials but also supply chain bottlenecks, the Inflation Reduction Act is a vital part of addressing that challenge. And quite honestly, also in a world where there is going to be competition to attract capital both for offshore and renewable energy, but also for the manufacturing jobs that follow that, that is where the U.S. has clearly set a benchmark globally for what I call a wholehearted push to really advance clean energy. That’s both for offshore but also for onshore, and maybe most revolutionary also with the up to $3 tax credit for green hydrogen. Overnight, that very likely made the U.S. the cheapest market to produce green hydrogen, which as opposed to electricity can travel well if you make liquid fuels from green hydrogen.


Q: You have said that green hydrogen is a key component of the green transition and a major growth area for Ørsted. Can you talk about that?

A: We’ve built up a strong portfolio of tangible opportunities, most in Europe, but also in the U.S., where we have a MOU with Maersk, the world’s largest container shipper who is very committed to decarbonizing ocean transport, for up to 300,000 tons of e-methanol a year, which would be purely based on renewable hydrogen and biogenic CO2. We took final investment decision on our first utility-scale green hydrogen project in Sweden, which is where we would also make methanol from biogenic CO2 and sell that to the maritime sector. That’s 50,000 tons a year. So not huge, but big enough to matter. It will fuel a couple of ships. And by doing that, we don’t think we will be necessarily the biggest producer of green hydrogen. We hope and believe that also the big oil majors will have this as a strategic bet. But we want to be a catalyst for change, that we prove that it is possible... We know that all the hard-to-abate sectors of the world, be it heavy transport, maritime, refineries, cement, everyone needs green molecules. So we know the market will be there and we are trying to help create that.


Q: Where do you see us on the trajectory of offshore wind?

A: We are at the end of the beginning... We are ready for a totally different level of scaling. The industry has scaled, but we need to accelerate that scaling, including the supply chain, with even more sustainable approaches but also significant support and investment. And I don’t necessarily mean sort of subsidy, but significant capital availability to scale an industry that needs to go much faster. So we are at the end of the beginning and also now in a reality where, especially over the last 12 months, it just became harder. But instead of saying, ‘oh, then we need to slow down,’ we would ask ourselves as an industry and we will definitely as a company, ‘how do we leverage a difficult situation?’

Q: You said a year ago that it’s still possible to stay within the 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) scenario, the elusive international goal. Do you still feel that way?

A: I still don’t think it’s impossible, but it has become more difficult. It has become more difficult because unfortunately, the planet doesn’t forget. And unfortunately, the current energy crisis means that we are burning more fossil fuels than we did before. In Europe, lignite and coal is being burnt to ensure that there is energy. And unfortunately I also think that right now, if anything, the large oil companies are probably, at least some of them, redirecting funds back to fossil fuels. We must as humanity remain optimistic. I will say I am still optimistic we will manage temperature increases to be at a level where we can avoid the biggest disasters. But 1.5 degrees is a stretch. 

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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

African nations consider swapping debt for climate funding

By WANJOHI KABUKURU

1 of 5
 

People wade through floodwaters in the aftermath of Tropical Cyclone Freddy in Phalombe, southern Malawi on March 18, 2023. During a conference in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa on Monday, March 20, 2023, leaders of African countries hit hard by climate change discussed finance options that would allow for the forgiveness of debt in exchange for investment in green energies. 

(AP Photo/Thoko Chikondi, File)

MOMBASA, Kenya (AP) — African countries saddled with debt and ravaged by losses and damages from weather events like cyclones, drought and extreme temperatures have agreed to consider swapping debt to invest in climate action in a meeting of finance ministers in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

The “debt-for-climate swap” option is an economic tool that allows a country’s debt to be reduced in exchange for commitments on green investments. It was among several alternative green financing models discussed at the ongoing United Nations conference for finance and economic ministers that supporters say would boost funds to adapt to climate harms, protect nature and finance local communities.

It comes as many African nations are battling with the effects of costly climate change-fueled events like the ongoing drought in eastern Africa that has killed thousands and decimated livelihoods reliant on rain-fed agriculture and the aftermath of the devastating Cyclone Freddy in the south that’s left hundreds dead and thousands of others displaced.

Egyptian finance minister Mohamed Maait said that his country is one of many that is now having to add heavy climate costs to budgets stretched thin by external debt — which takes up to 17% of countries’ spending in some cases — and other basic needs.

“What am asking every day and every hour is where do I get the money to protect our people from climate extremes,” Maait said, adding that borrowing was often the only option for some nations.

Young girls pull containers of water as they return to their huts from a well in the village of Lomoputh in northern Kenya, May 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

Yet “many countries simply cannot access international financial markets because of rising interest rates,” Hanan Morsy, the chief economist of the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa told the roundtable Monday evening. Morsy added that private sector investments in climate finance are lower in Africa than in any other part of the world.

Ministers also discussed bonds that would help increase private financial flows as well as “blended finance” models that would combine development funds and private capital as potential solutions for climate funding.

Interest in green finance has been growing, along with criticism that current mechanisms don’t work for countries ravaged by climate extremes but have contributed little to the planet-warming emissions in the atmosphere.

People walk through floodwaters near flooded farmlands after heavy rainfall in Hadeja, Nigeria, Sept 19, 2022. (AP Photo)

In 2022 the International Monetary Fund established a $50 billion climate loan pot to help low and middle-income nations access affordable and longer-term financing to respond to shocks associated with climate change. Rwanda became the first African nation to receive a loan of $319 million.

But another $50 billion pot pledged by the World Bank is only sending around 5% of its funds to the ten most climate vulnerable countries, according to a recent study by the Center for Global Development. Four of the ten nations identified — Mali, Niger, Sudan and Liberia — were in Africa.

The ministers’ roundtable coincided with the Green Climate Fund board meeting, a group within the U.N. climate agency that financially supports nations to adapt to or curb climate change. On Monday the fund approved $580 million in new climate finance for developing nations.
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UN chief’s call for ambition on climate gets muted response

By FRANK JORDANS

Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry, left, and Denmark's climate minister, Dan Joergensen speak during a press conference at the Copenhagen Climate Ministerial, in Copenhagen, Tuesday, March 21, 2023. Senior government officials gathered for a climate meeting in Copenhagen gave a muted response Tuesday to calls from the head of the United Nations for countries to show greater ambition when it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. 

(Liselotte Sabroe/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

BERLIN (AP) — Senior government officials at a climate meeting in Copenhagen gave a muted response Tuesday to calls from the head of the United Nations for countries to show greater ambition when it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres urged rich countries Monday to bring forward their target for achieving net zero emissions as close as possible to 2040, and for emerging economies to aim for a date as close as possible to 2050. This would be a significant shifting of the goal posts: the United States and the European Union are currently aiming for net zero by 2050, while China is targeting 2060 and India has set a deadline of 2070.

Guterres’ call came in a video message responding to a new report by the U.N.’s top climate science panel which found that the world is still far off track if it wants to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) compared to pre-industrial times, as agreed in the 2015 Paris accord. He did not attend the Copenhagen meeting.

Speaking at the end of a two-day meeting in the Danish capital of senior officials from dozens of countries, Egypt’s foreign minister said there was no “specific answer to the aspirational goals” set out by Guterres.

“These goals will be, I’m sure, addressed within the national context and within the national abilities,” said Sameh Shoukry, who chaired last year’s U.N. climate talks in his country.

Shoukry said Egypt would have to rely on the transfer of technology “from our friends and partners” to wean itself off fossil fuels and ramp up the use of renewable energy. The country has already benefited from a number of deals and investments to green its economy in recent years.

Denmark’s climate minister, Dan Jørgensen, said his country recently brought forward its net zero target to 2045, and aims to capture more carbon than it emits by 2050. That puts Denmark far ahead of most advanced economies, though its neighbor Germany is also targeting net zero by 2045 and Finland has said it wants to achieve that goal by 2035.

The meeting in Copenhagen is one of several taking place before the U.N. climate talks in the United Arab Emirates at the end of the year.

Asked whether that summit could again see negotiations on a global pledge to phase down all fossil fuels, Jørgensen said he had “no doubt” that it will be discussed.

“Whether or not we will reach that result in Dubai later this year is of course difficult to say,” he said. “But I think we can say for sure that it will be a part of the conversation.”

Other important topics to resolve over the coming months concern how to increase funding for poor nations — including those already suffering the effects of global warming — and taking stock of what’s been achieved internationally so far since the 2015 Paris climate accord was sealed.

EU Commission proposes rules to better fight greenwashing


BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s executive arm proposed rules Wednesday to protect consumers from businesses selling goods labeled as green which actually aren’t.

The European Commission said greenwashing was a notable problem, with 53% of green claims on products or services making “vague, misleading or unfounded information.”

About 230 sustainability labels are in use across the 27-nation EU, “with vastly different levels of transparency,” according to the commission.

With its “green claims” directive, the commission wants to set common criteria that would bring more clarity. The European Parliament and EU member countries need to approve the initiative for it to take effect.

Under the proposal, companies that claim the packaging for their products is made of 30% recycled plastic would have to prove it with scientific evidence. EU countries would be in charge of setting up verification processes overseen by independent bodies.

Businesses based outside the EU making environmental claims that are directed at the bloc’s consumers also would have to respect the requirements.

The directive excludes claims covered by existing EU rules, such as the EU Ecolabel, the bloc’s voluntary label for environmental excellence, or the organic food logo, which the commission says are trustworthy and guarantee a low environmental impact.

As part of the European Green Deal goal of making the EU climate neutral by 2050 and to support waste reduction, the commission also proposed rules to promote the repair of goods such as washing machines or smartphones by introducing a so-called right to repair for consumers.

“Within the legal guarantee, sellers will be required to offer repair except when it is more expensive than replacement. Beyond the legal guarantee, a new set of rights and tools will be available to consumers to make ‘repair’ an easy and accessible option,” the commission said.

“Consumers will gain the tools they need to choose repair and make a positive contribution to the circular economy,” EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders said. “It will also send an important message to companies that sustainable business models and investments in repairs pay off.”

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EU warns Spain over expanding irrigation near prized wetland

By JOSEPH WILSON

yesterday

A water meter stands in a dry wetland in Donana natural park, southwest Spain, Oct. 19, 2022. In a letter seen by the Associated Press on Tuesday, March 21, 2023, the European Union has warned Spain for a second time that it won’t tolerate renewed plans by regional politicians in the country’s south to expand irrigation near the prized Doñana wetlands, which scientists and ecologists say are in danger of drying up. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, File)


BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — The European Union has warned Spain that it won’t tolerate renewed plans by regional politicians in the country’s south to expand irrigation near the prized Doñana wetlands, which scientists and ecologists say are in danger of drying up.

In a letter seen by The Associated Press on Tuesday, Florika Fink-Hooijer, the head of the EU’s Directorate General for the Environment, told Spain’s government that it is “necessary to immediately ensure the strict protection of Doñana’s exceptional natural treasures, especially taking into account that rainfall is increasingly scarce due to climate change.”

The Doñana wetlands are a UNESCO world heritage site and considered one of Europe’s key biospheres. Sitting on an estuary where the Guadalquivir River meets the Atlantic Ocean, their 74,000 hectares (182,000 acres) are a wintering site for a half-million waterfowl and a stopover spot for millions of other birds that migrate from Africa to northern Europe.

But the park’s lagoons and marshes are shrinking under pressure from local farmers, some of whom use illegal wells to tap its underlying aquifer. The situation has worsened because of a drought during a record-hot 2022 for Spain.

The conservative Popular Party that governs southern Andalusia, however, is again pushing forward a proposed law that would rezone more farmland near the park as irrigable. This comes a year after the party had shelved a similar initiative. Now they have it back on the agenda before municipal elections across Spain on May 28.

The European Court of Justice condemned Spain for neglecting the wetlands in 2021. That was followed by a first letter from Fink-Hooijer urging Spain to take action. The central government responded with a plan to speed up the closing of illegal wells near the park, a plan to reroute surface water from a nearby river basin, and by pledging 350 million euros ($377 million) to protect the reserve.

Fink-Hooijer warned in her second letter sent on Monday that Spain could face a fine this time if authorities continue to fail in their duty to safeguard Doñana.

Regional authorities for Andalusia who want to expand the irrigable lands say that the water for the 650 farmer they estimate would benefit from the plan would come from surface water, instead of wells.

However, other local farmers who legally use wells in the area have argued that any new water being piped into the area should go to them so that they can stop using wells, and thus help restore the aquifer.

The WWF said in a statement issued Tuesday that the water authorities “do not foresee any increase of available water” in the area.

“It is urgent and necessary to adopt measures to reduce the consumption of water and revert the poor status of the aquifer,” the environmental group said.

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