Vláda sa má pripojiť k medzinárodnému úsiliu o vývoj technológií na zníženie emisií metánu u dobytka. Od ministra poľnohospodárstva Martina Heydona sa tiež očakáva, že v pondelok na klimatickom summite vo Washingtone v USA povie, že Írsko má v nadchádzajúcich rokoch minúť výrazne viac na výskum poľnohospodárstva a potravinových systémov súvisiacich s klímou.Očakáva sa, že v prejave na summite Agricultural Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM4C) povie, že Írsko „uznáva, že zmena klímy je jednou z najväčších výziev, ktorým globálne čelíme, a že jej riešenie si vyžaduje medzinárodnú spoluprácu“. „Írsko sa už predtým zaviazalo zvýšiť investície do výskumu klimaticky inteligentného poľnohospodárstva a potravinových systémov o 40 percent v období rokov 2021 až 2025. Na tomto samite oznamujem náš zámer zvýšiť ich na 60 percent,“ povedal Heydon. očakáva sa, že to oznámi konferencii. „Naša zvýšená ambícia zabezpečí zvýšenie o takmer 9,5 milióna EUR v porovnaní s rokom 2020 a naše celkové investície do výskumu súvisiaceho s klímou sa do roku 2025 zvýšia na viac ako 25 miliónov EUR.“ (Martin Wall)

Mäso vyrobené z kultivovaných buniek by mohlo byť pre klímu 25-krát horšie ako bežné hovädzie mäso, pokiaľ vedci nenájdu spôsoby, ako prepracovať energeticky náročné kroky pri jeho výrobe. Mäso vypestované v laboratóriu alebo „kultivované“ mäso sa vyrába pestovaním živočíšnych kmeňových buniek okolo lešenia v bujóne bohatom na živiny. Bolo navrhnuté ako šetrnejšia a ekologickejšia alternatíva k tradičnému mäsu, pretože využíva menej pôdy, krmiva, vody a antibiotík ako chov zvierat a odstraňuje potrebu chovať a zabíjať hospodárske zvieratá,…(Alice Kleinovej)

Medzi všetkými technologickými inováciami, ktoré transformujú náš svet,  je digitalizácia jednou z najdôležitejších pre environmentálnu efektívnosť a udržateľnosť: odhaduje sa, že digitálne technológie môžu pomôcť znížiť globálne emisie skleníkových plynov o 20 %. Na druhej strane, výroba výpočtových zariadení, použité suroviny a spotrebovaná energia so sebou prinášajú aj dopad na životné prostredie: ide o takzvanú digitálnu uhlíkovú stopu, ktorá zodpovedala 2 % celkových globálnych emisií v roku 2015 a 4 % v r. 2020. Tieto čísla sú nepochybne menšie ako množstvo emisií ušetrených digitalizáciou, no stále sa zvyšujú: pri súčasnom tempe by sa percento mohlo zvýšiť na 8,5 % do roku 2025 a 14 % do roku 2040. Obmedzenie našej digitálnej uhlíkovej stopy je možné pomocou elektriny vyrobenej z obnoviteľných zdrojov , ale aj pomocou riešení zo samotných informačných technológií – napríklad spoločnosti, ktoré prechádzajú do cloudu, výrazne znižujú svoje emisie.

State Street Corp spustila riešenie na obsluhu uhlíkových aktív, ktoré umožní integráciu uhlíkových aktív do investičných portfólií.V rámci riešenia sa poskytuje celý rad služieb správy fondov a depozitárov, vrátane vedenia záznamov, výpočtu čistej hodnoty aktív a podávania správ, uvádza americká depozitná banka vo vyhlásení z 9. mája. Podľa Phila Kima celková obchodovaná hodnota dodržiavania predpisov a dobrovoľných kreditov na trhu s uhlíkovými aktívami dosiahla minulý rok rekordných 865 miliárd eur (950,67 miliardy USD) a očakáva sa, že do roku 2030 vzrastie 15-násobne. „Naše nové riešenie na obsluhovanie uhlíkových aktív pomôže klientom získať prístup k tejto vznikajúcej triede aktív, aby mohli priamo držať uhlíkové kvóty a kredity a obchodovať s nimi ako s inými produktmi a v konečnom dôsledku sa snažiť maximalizovať potenciál svojich investičných portfólií pomocou fondu State Street. odbornosť administratívy,“ uvádza sa vo vyhlásení. State Street so sídlom v Bostone mala k marcu 2023 aktíva vo výške 37,6 bilióna dolárov v úschove a/alebo správe. ( Hui Ching-hoo )

India is seeking an exemption for its micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) from the European Union's carbon tax, which will be implemented on October 1, 2023. During a meeting of all stakeholders, including top officials of various line ministries such as , business and power, as well as industry leaders from the private sector, a decision was made to assess the level of awareness and find a strategy to move forward. The ministry will also press the European Union to conclude an agreement on the mutual recognition of its carbon certificates. The official said the issue is being addressed bilaterally with the EU and multilaterally at the World Trade Organization as well as other forums. At the bilateral level, India is asking the EU to conclude a mutual recognition agreement and exempt MSMEs in the country. next India's own Carbon Credit Trading System (CCTS) guidelines are being developed by the Ministry of Power. The introduction of India's own carbon tax would help Indian exporters reduce the burden of carbon taxes. The European Union is introducing a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) from 1 October 2023. CBAM would result in a 20-35 percent tax on selected EU imports from 1 January 2026. Domestic companies from seven carbon-intensive sectors, including steel, cement, fertilizers, aluminum and hydrocarbon products, will have to apply to EU authorities for certificates of compliance to meet CBAM standards. Developing countries like India will have to pay the highest taxes under the Carbon Border Tax (CBT), according to a report by economic think tank GTRI. The think tank also warns that CBT will result in greater trade diversion and more trade between developed countries. GTRI founder Ajay Srivastava said that even if a product from India is cheaper than an American product, the tax plus the cost of the product would make Indian products more expensive. This would lead to EU firms sourcing more from developed countries, causing trade to shift to more expensive suppliers.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) global warming scenario of 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2100 assumes an annual CO2 reduction of 6 billion tonnes from carbon capture and storage by 2050. This CO2 must be transported from capture to storage or use. . For comparison, today's annual transportation of coal is about 7.5 billion tons.

CO2 can exist in gaseous, liquid, solid or supercritical fluid form depending on temperature and pressure. There are different CO2 capture technologies. Chemical absorption, membrane separation and electrochemical capture systems deliver the captured CO2 in high purity gas form. Cryogenic capture technologies deliver captured CO2 in solid form like dry ice. CO2 storage in deep onshore or offshore geological reservoirs occurs with CO2 in the supercritical liquid phase. The Icelandic company CARBFIX has developed storage in shallow offshore or offshore wells in the young basaltic rock covering most of Iceland. With this technology, CO2 is dissolved in water, which is pumped into wells under moderate pressure. CO2 transport is most economical in dedicated CO2 pipelines when volumes are large and distances are not too long. In some cases, this also applies if the transport includes an ocean section. For smaller volumes or the transport of long ocean sections, it is more economical to transport CO2 in liquid or solid form. (Henrik Madsen)

The European Union's Carbon Border Tax Mechanism will introduce a tax on imported goods with a high carbon content from countries with less stringent climate rules. Story so far: The 27-nation European Union (EU) is stepping up its push for climate action with the European Parliament, the bloc's lawmaking body, as climate talks gather pace. Earlier this month, it voted to approve a wide-ranging deal to reform the EU's carbon market, with the aim of reducing emissions by 62 % by 2030 compared to 2005 levels. The carbon market mechanism has helped reduce emissions from power plants and factories by 43 % since 2005, however, it will phase out CO2 emissions permits for factories by 2034. Alongside this phasing out of free carbon allowances, the EU will gradually introduce another ambitious and first-of-its-kind policy – the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), aimed at leveling the playing field for EU producers and encouraging trading partners outside the EU to adopt carbon pricing regimes as a critical approach to the fight against climate change. While the EU believes the mechanism is a global solution to the global problem of climate change, trading partners such as the United States, China, Russia and developing countries including India have opposed the measure, calling it unilateral, "protectionist" and even trade-friendly. weapon. Lawmakers in the European Parliament reached a political agreement on a carbon border tax last December, but India, along with China, Brazil and South Africa, opposed the plan at the 27th climate summit of the Conference of the Parties (COP27) in Sharm El Sheikh. He argues that this could lead to market distortions and affect developing countries that did not initially contribute to industrial emissions. (Diksha Munjal, The Hindu)

Italian oil company Eni is facing the country's first climate lawsuit, with environmental groups accusing the company of using "lobbying and greenwashing" to shift more fossil fuels despite knowing about the risks posed by its product since the 1970s. Greenpeace Italy and Italian law group ReCommon aim to build on a similar case targeting Anglo-Dutch oil company Royal Dutch Shell in the Netherlands to force Eni to reduce its carbon emissions by 45 % by 2030. "The urgency to act on the climate crisis has prompted us to file Italy's first climate lawsuit against the country's largest energy company," said Matteo Ceruti, the plaintiffs' lawyer. The allegations stem in part from a study commissioned by Eni between 1969 and 1970 from its Isvet research center and shared with the Guardian by the non-profit climate intelligence service DeSmog. The report made it clear that the growing use of fossil fuels without control could lead to a climate crisis within a few decades. “[C]albon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by an average of 10 % globally over the past century due to increased use [of fossil fuels], according to a recent UN Secretary-General's report; by the year 2000, this increase could reach 25 %, with "catastrophic" consequences for the climate," the report said. (Stella Levantesi in Rome, The Guardian)

 For almost three decades, the Arctic Council has been a successful example of post-Cold War cooperation. Its eight members, including Russia and the United States, have collaborated on climate change research and social development across the ecologically sensitive region. Now, a year after council members cut ties with Russia following its invasion of Ukraine and as Norway prepares to take over the presidency from Moscow on May 11, experts are asking whether the polar body's viability is at risk if it cannot work with a country that controls over half of the Arctic coast. An ineffective Arctic Council could have dire consequences for the region's environment and its 4 million inhabitants, who face the effects of melting sea ice and the interest of non-Arctic countries in the region's largely untapped mineral resources. The work of the council, which includes the eight Arctic states of Finland, Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Russia, Denmark, Canada and the United States of America, has in the past led to binding agreements on environmental protection and preservation. It is also a rare platform that gives a voice to the indigenous people of the region. It does not deal with security issues. But after the end of cooperation with Moscow, about a third of the council's 130 projects are suspended, new projects cannot continue, and existing ones cannot be renewed. For example, Western and Russian scientists no longer share knowledge about climate change, and cooperation on possible search and rescue missions or oil spills has also stopped. (WASHINGTON/LONDYN/OSLO, Reuters)

A group of activist lawyers has launched a major new legal action against the government for acting against a Commission on Climate Change recommendation last year, Marc Daalder reports.

The High Court was asked to overturn the government's decision to artificially lower the price of carbon because it went against the advice of the Commission on Climate Change. Climate lawyers behind previous major legal action against the government and the commission filed a new statement of claim on Tuesday, this time targeting climate change minister James Shaw. Lawyers for Climate Action (LCANZI) say Cabinet's decision to reject the Commission's recommendation on price controls in the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) has breached the requirements of the Zero Carbon Act. While Shaw recommended that the commission's settings be fully followed, the cabinet overruled him at a meeting in late November over concerns about the cost of living impact of a rising carbon price. As climate minister, it was ultimately Shaw's responsibility to implement the Cabinet decision. Under climate legislation, ETS price controls must be set in a way that is consistent with our emissions budgets and other climate targets. A derogation is permitted in certain circumstances, but a full explanation of the reasons for the discrepancies must be provided in the report to Parliament. (Marc Daalder, Sustainablefuture)

Reducing a building's carbon footprint is challenging, but the benefits are significant. Efficient, low-carbon facilities use cost-effective solutions to minimize emissions while improving health, equity and reducing operating costs. Property managers and building owners can consider several tools to reduce carbon emissions and save costs: – Decarbonization – Electrification – Efficiency – Digitization. The World Economic Forum emphasizes that these approaches are necessary to reduce carbon emissions and the overall cost of running a building. Buildings can achieve low or zero carbon readiness by reducing (or eliminating) energy generated from fossil fuels, using renewable energy, reducing refrigerants with high global warming potential, and incorporating low-carbon, reused or recycled energy materials into construction. Energy efficiency saves energy supply costs and reduces future network infrastructure costs. Passive measures such as better insulation and high-efficiency appliances can reduce overall electricity consumption. Real-time data and analytics also enable energy efficiency and flexibility in building requirements. Energy-smart buildings can save up to 15 % of energy through basic automated control, with demand-controlled ventilation saving a further 10 %. Building systems integration can deliver incremental energy savings of up to 18 % compared to basic HVAC and lighting controls. In addition, efficient buildings with an interactive grid can reduce energy costs by up to 20 % through active demand management. (Frikkie Malan, MSN)

The Net Zero Live specification will explore how designers should deal with net zero in the commercial sector. Net Zero Live is back with a day-long program exploring how the sector can best prepare for decarbonisation to meet the government's 2050 emissions target. Chaired by Editor-in-Chief Chloe McCulloch and Special Projects Editor Jordan Marshall, two morning sessions will look at determining the approach to retrofit and renovation, as well as the Building Awards Net Zero Award finalists sharing their next steps. Sponsored by Kingspan Data and Flooring, the afternoon session will focus on the net zero specification in the commercial sector. Achieving net zero carbon emissions is an important part of environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategies in the commercial real estate sector, and assessing the carbon emissions associated with the entire life cycle of a building is vital. However, improving the energy efficiency of workplaces is difficult. To move the office sector from ambition to action, industry change is urgently needed. Pjoin our panel of experts from Lendlease, Kingspan Data and Flooring and the British Council for Offices who explore the areas to consider when designing a clean commercial workspace. After considering all aspects of building design, panelists will discuss design requirements as well as product and material specifications that can assist in implementation. (Hollie Tye, Building Design)

Funding for a US-UAE-led initiative to develop climate-friendly agricultural practices worldwide has risen to more than $13 billion, a US official said on Monday, according to trending reports citing al arabiya. The Agricultural Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM for Climate) was launched in 2021 and aims to unite nations to reduce agricultural emissions, which account for about 10 to 12 percent of greenhouse gas emissions from sources such as manure, machinery and fertilizer application to the intergovernmental panel on climate change. US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the latest funding figures at the AIM for Climate Summit in Washington DC on Monday, speaking alongside UAE Minister of Climate and Environment Mariam Almheiri and former US Vice President Al Gore.  About $10 billion of the $13 billion comes from governments, and the rest comes from nongovernmental parties that fund initiatives to support small farmers, emerging technologies and reduce methane, a U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesman said. "Climate change continues to affect long-term agricultural practices in every country, and a strong global commitment is needed to meet the challenges of climate change head-on," Vilsack said in a statement. The UAE will host the COP28 climate change talks this autumn. Since COP27 last November, $8 billion has been pledged to AIM for Climate. The AIM for Climate Summit runs until Wednesday and will bring together representatives from Canada, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, as well as academics and business leaders. (MENAFN)

New City College is proud to announce the launch of the first low-carbon FE lab to deliver green skills training for London's workforce. The state-of-the-art laboratory was launched at a special breakfast presentation on Thursday 4 May, attended by industry experts and business leaders who had the opportunity to view the new facilities and hear about the benefits that this challenge will bring to a new way of working to meet cleaner energy and net zero goals. The launch follows the creation of the Central London Forward Partnership, led by New City College, which includes nine colleges in central London. The partnership has successfully secured a £2.7m bid from the Strategic Development Fund (SDF) to deliver high quality technical training in the low carbon energy sector. The lab has been developed at New City College Hackney and will be invaluable to employers who need to retrain staff in green skills and low carbon technologies. Courses and training for the next generation of installers include solar PV, solar heat pumps, air source heat pumps, electric storage, electric vehicle charging, retrofitting and energy efficiency. Speaking at the launch, Gerry McDonald, Chief Executive and Group Director of New City College said: “This new and innovative training facility is a major step forward in our commitment to sustainability and makes us the sector's leading school for the low carbon energy agenda. We have invested in it and delivered, putting us in a good position to pioneer this vital work.” Gerry added to the participants: “You are the people who will do it. And you need a college to work hand-in-hand with industry and other partners to make sure London and the UK have the right people and skills to make the necessary changes to get to zero.” (BBC News Team, Co2News)

Direct Air Capture (DAC) technologies offer new opportunities to move closer to our climate change mitigation goals. However, we still have a long way to go before DAC can be fully implemented as a mitigation measure. 
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has now made its message very clear. Our actions over the next seven years will affect the evolution of the global climate for the next thousand. This means that we must use all available measures to limit the increase in global temperature. In the DAC device, carbon dioxide is effectively "sucked" out of the atmosphere, reducing its concentration in the air and mitigating its greenhouse effect. DAC technology is useful because it has the potential to help remove CO2 directly from the air and not just stop CO2 emissions from fossil sources. However, DACs also pose a challenge as they must process large volumes of air to produce a discernible impact, making the process expensive. "The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is only 0.04 percent," says Jon Hovland, who is chief scientist at the Norwegian scientific institute SINTEF Industry. "Because of this low concentration, a large amount of energy is required to extract the gas, and the equipment requires a large area. This makes the cost per ton of captured CO2 very high," he says. What do we need to do to start DAC in Norway? 
We know of about 18 DAC test and demonstration facilities around the world, operating with a combined annual capture capacity of about 9,000 tons of CO2. The largest facility currently in operation is in Iceland and can capture up to 4,000 tons of gas per year. In Norway, there are many factors in favor of the country being able to build a DAC infrastructure. Norway has large volumes of geological storage capacity on its continental shelf, favorable climatic conditions and a high level of expertise in carbon capture and storage (CCS). (SINTEF, AlphaGalileo)

Methane leaks from Turkmenistan's two major fossil fuel fields alone caused more global warming in 2022 than the UK's entire carbon emissions, satellite data has revealed. The oil and gas-rich country's powerful greenhouse gas emissions are a "staggering" and "infuriating" problem that should be easy to solve, experts have told the Guardian. The data he created Kayrros for the Guardian, found that Turkmenistan's western fossil fuel field on the Caspian Sea would leak 2.6 million tons of methane in 2022. The eastern field emitted 1.8 million tons. Together, the two fields released emissions equivalent to 366 million tons of CO ₂ , which is more than the UK's annual emissions, which are the 17th largest in the world. Methane emissions have risen alarmingly since 2007, and this acceleration may be the biggest threat to keeping global warming below 1.5°C, according to scientists. According to the researchers, it also seriously risks the launch catastrophic climate tipping points . (Damian Carrington)

The carbon offset market has become a veritable minefield for organizations seeking to achieve net zero goals. With many offset schemes condemned as 'worthless', it is imperative that businesses find options that have real-world impact and use them strategically to avoid claims of greenwashing. The rapid growth of the carbon offset market, which is set to quadruple in size by 2020-21, has raised concerns that Australian organizations are using unreliable carbon credits to buy their way to net zero targets rather than making meaningful changes to decarbonise. Market analysis shows that carbon credits may not always deliver what is promised. As such, organizations need to educate themselves on how to ensure the most effective offsets for their decarbonisation journeys. The voluntary carbon market has soared to $2 billion in 2021, but not without criticism. A 2022 analysis revealed that more than 90 percent of rainforest carbon offsets from the world's largest certification body were "worthless" and called "phantom credits" that did not represent real carbon reductions.  This challenge to the integrity of carbon offsets, combined with increasing pressure on companies to prove they are decarbonizing, has created what you might call an imperfect storm. (Sandra Rossi)

Because of Illinois' unusual geology, many companies across the country might want to capture carbon dioxide emissions from their operations and transport the gas to Illinois for sequestration underground. Before that happens, Illinois should implement strong safeguards to protect residents, landowners, taxpayers, drinking water and the climate. New federal subsidies support the use of technologies to capture and store the carbon dioxide released when fossil fuels are burned. This technology allows the gas to be stored thousands of feet underground to keep it out of the atmosphere, where it would help raise global temperatures. Archer Daniels Midland Co. in Decatur has been operating the nation's first carbon sequestration project for more than a decade, and more are planned elsewhere. But for a carbon sequestration network to cause a significant drop in carbon dioxide emissions, it would have to be exponentially larger than the ADM network. (Editorial board  CST)

Scientists reported on Monday that a large glacier in the northwest Greenland interacts with ocean tides, resulting in previously incomprehensible melting and potentially faster sea level rise . A group of glaciologists from the University of California, Irvine and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory published the study on Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Observations from the Petermann Glacier revealed that the glacier's grounding line—the area where the ice sheet begins to extend over the ocean—can shift significantly as the tide approaches each day.According to Enrico Ciracì, lead author of the study and a UCI scientist, the Petermann Grounding Line line “migrates between 2 and 6 kilometers (1.2 to 3.7 mi) s ebb and flow. This is an important finding: The traditional view among scientists was that the grounding line did not migrate with the tides—and that represents another major source of melting that could accelerate sea-level rise. Between 2016 and 2022, warmer tidal cycles melted a 670-foot hole in the bottom of the glacier along the grounding line — big enough to fit two Statues of Liberty inside. This phenomenon could worsen in the coming years and decades as ocean temperatures rise. CNN recently she announced , that sea surface temperatures were the highest on record this spring — a spike that has alarmed scientists, who fear it could be a factor. (Brandon Miller, CNN meteorologist)

The situation seems to be getting worse with every report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The latest is the Synthesis report (March 2023), which reveals that the global surface temperature between 2011-2020 was about 1.09 degrees Celsius higher than between 1850-1900. Incidentally, this is an average temperature that is higher over land (1.59 degrees) than over the ocean (0.88 degrees). The report also states that historical net emissions from 1850 to 2019 were about 2,400 (+/- 240) gigatonnes (GT) of CO2. About 58 percent of that happened between 1850 and 1989, and the rest from 1990 to 2019. In addressing carbon emissions, the key issue is inequality—that is, how the developed world gets out of very high carbon emissions per capita and prepares the developing world for what even for minimal energy consumption. The UNFCCC report (1992) states that climate protection should be done on the basis of equity and in accordance with their "common but differentiated responsibilities" (CBDR) and respective capacities. Consequently, in the Kyoto Protocol (1997), more responsibility was transferred to the developed world, which was assigned legally binding targets, while targets for developing countries were voluntary. The Kyoto Protocol was not ratified by the US because developing countries such as China and India, which were large emitters (although their per capita emissions were much lower than the world average), did not have binding targets. Canada also withdrew in 2012. Japan and Russia later did so. By 2012, the Kyoto Protocol had weakened to the point that it covered only 11.8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions (WRI). (THE AUTHOR SUMIT DASGUPTA)