Category:

Climate, Environment, Renewable Energy

Why Mukesh Ambani’s gigafactory for hydrogen could be a game-changer

Zero-carbon electricity will be instrumental in decarbonizing, but it can only go so far, and we’re still quite a ways away from there. Power sector emissions flattened out early last decade, and almost certainly peaked for good in 2018.
Greater demand for renewable power will drive that curve down further, which will in turn incentivize its use in any process that can substitute electricity for something that creates greenhouse gas emissions.

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Development bank climate finance spending hit $66 bln in 2020 – report

A total $38 billion, or 58%, of the total went to low and middle income countries, the 2020 Joint Report on Multilateral Development Banks’ Climate Finance said.

Additional finance committed by other sources alongside the development banks totalled $85 billion, while direct funding from private sources was $5.9 billion.

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Floods may be nearly as important as droughts for future carbon accounting

“These wet extremes have basically been ignored in this field and we’re showing that researchers need to rethink it when designing schemes for future carbon accounting,” said senior study author Alexandra Konings, an assistant professor of Earth system science in Stanford’s School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences (Stanford Earth). “Specific regions might be much more important for flood impacts than previously thought.”

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MS&AD becomes the first Japanese insurer to adopt coal exit policy

Yuki Tanabe, Program Director at the Japan Center for a Sustainable Environment and Society (JACSES), said: “We welcome MS&AD’s announcement to completely end insurance underwriting for new coal-fired power generation projects, and urge other Japanese non-life insurers, such as Tokio Marine and Sompo, to establish similar policies immediately.”

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CRISIL launches ESG scores of 225 companies

Said Ashu Suyash, MD & CEO, CRISIL, “ESG is already playing a material role in the decisions of governments, regulators, investors, lenders and corporates. This will not only transform the investment management industry, but also redefine corporate India’s approach to risk management for sustainable value creation. Our survey shows over 80% of issuers and institutional investors intend to integrate ESG in their decision-making. Our India-focused framework sieves through the challenges of disclosure quality and standardisation by leveraging our deep sectoral expertise and proprietary databases. Our ESG research, data, insights, assessments and solutions will empower customers and stakeholders to make decisions with conviction, and contribute to sustainable progress globally.”

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The trillion dollar climate finance challenge (and opportunity)

Many countries lack the financial resources to make the transition to clean energy and a sustainable way of life that could reverse climate change.

The UN says that says that climate finance is the answer because not investing will cost even more in the long-term, but also because there are significant opportunities for investors.

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Green Dividend: China’s electric car capital has lessons for the world

“At the beginning, people had many concerns about EVs, such as safety or the convenience of charging,” Gou Yi, a deputy chief at Liuzhou’s branch of the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top economic planner, said in an interview.

“What we did was to make sure our citizens felt it’s very comfortable to use EVs. People have realized how economical and easy electric cars are, and how much cleaner our air has become after more and more EVs hit the roads.”

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