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Positive moves in the climate fight
Today we’re
looking at positive developments in the climate fight, from whales
reuniting in their natural habitat to cheap train tickets curtailing
emissions in Germany. But first, a bit of bad news:
When Alpha
Natural Resources executives steered their company into bankruptcy in
2015, the future of one of the biggest US coal miners appeared dim.
Seven years later, the company’s stock price has skyrocketed and those
same executives have enjoyed years of fat dividends and bonuses. How?
By dumping environmental and labor obligations worth hundreds of
millions of dollars onto smaller companies and state and federal
governments — and keeping profitable mines so they could ride the
upswing in coal prices.
Alpha is
just one of the biggest examples: Every major US coal company, from
Peabody to Murray, did the same thing — filing for bankruptcy and
spinning off old mines and expensive pension plans onto the shoulders
of shady companies and taxpayers. In the first of a multi-part series
in partnership with NPR, Bloomberg’s Josh Saul, Zachary Mider and Dave
Mistich looked at Alpha’s tactics in both Appalachia and Wyoming, and
how they fit into the wider problem of fossil fuel companies leaving
behind billions of dollars in liabilities for others to clean up.
You can read the story
here, and listen on
NPR’s Morning Edition here.
The Twilight mining complex in West
Virginia. Photographer:
Kristian Thacker
Now for the good news
By Leslie Kaufman
Combating
the climate crisis means taking on some of the most seismic challenges
humanity has ever faced — and it’d be fair to say things aren’t going
as well as they could be. But all hope is not lost: The past few
months offer up a number of positive climate developments.
The US
joined the climate fight.
The US
passed the
Inflation Reduction Act,
which, despite the name, contains the most sweeping climate measures
in American history. Through tax credits and other incentives for
renewable energy, electric vehicles and carbon capture and storage,
the law aims to cut US greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 2005
levels by 2030.
Seville
is digging sustainable cooling.
Seville is
building
subterranean canals
powered by renewable energy to help cool part of the city above. The
CartujaQanat project brings technology that was used in
ancient Persia to modern-day Spain. Vertical shafts pierced along the
canals allow the cooler air to escape, reducing the increasingly
sweltering air temperature above the surface.
A German
ticket cuts emissions.
Germany’s
three-month experiment with super-cheap public transportation
saved 1.8 million tons of CO2
emissions, equivalent to powering about 350,000 homes for a
year. The €9 ticket, which included nationwide travel on trains,
subways, trams and buses, was designed to combat inflation but had a
climate-friendly side effect as Germans used their cars less,
according to the VDV public transport lobby.
California bans gasoline-powered cars.
California’s air regulator approved plans to phase out sales of
gasoline-powered vehicles by
2035, a world first (New York soon
followed suit). The
state’s initial goal is to increase the share of electric vehicle
sales to 35% by 2026. California then hopes to cut climate-warming
pollution from cars, pickups and SUVs by 395 million metric tons by
2040.
Briquettes of peat in Carragh, west of Dublin, on July 19, 2022.
Photographer: Paul Faith/Getty Images
Peat
gets protection.
To protect
degraded moorlands, the British government will
ban the sale of peat
for use as a fertilizer in private gardens and allotments by 2024. In
addition to filtering water, preventing flooding downstream and
nurturing wildlife, peatlands are major carbon sinks, helping to
mitigate global warming.
India
scales green hydrogen.
India will
increase its green hydrogen
production capacity to an annual 25 million tons by 2047 as
it weans itself off fossil fuels. Green hydrogen is expected to play a
major role in efforts to decarbonize heavy industry and meet the
country’s goal of reaching net zero by 2070. India’s current output
comes from a handful of pilot projects.
Congo
creates marine reserves.
The Republic of Congo will
establish its first three marine
reserves in the Atlantic, an organization that advises the
government said. The reserves will cover 12% of the West African
country’s ocean zone and protect breeding grounds used by humpback
whales and leatherback turtles. The reserves will also cover areas
inhabited by whale sharks, the world’s largest fish.
Americans go solar.
US
households
will install a record number
of solar-power systems this year to help reduce electricity bills,
according to a BloombergNEF analysis. Residential solar installations
will increase by about 5.6 gigawatts in 2022, led by Florida, Texas,
the Midwest and California. Households are expected to add three times
more solar this year than commercial building owners, the researcher
said.
Sweden
tests clean air travel.
Sweden’s
Braathens Regional Airlines said it operated the first flight of a
commercial aircraft
powered entirely by sustainable
fuel in June. Sustainable fuel is seen as the most
realistic route to reducing carbon emissions in aviation as electric
and hydrogen-powered planes remain years away. Fuel maker Neste Oyj
said its alternative reduces life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions by as
much as 80% compared with kerosene.
Fin
whales return to the Antarctic.
Brought to
near-extinction by industrial whaling, the fin whales of the Southern
Hemisphere have returned to their ancestral feeding grounds in the
Antarctic in high densities, according to a report published in July
in the
journal Nature. The
recovery of fin whales, good in itself, could also help restore
bacteria crucial to helping the ocean absorb carbon.
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