Climate Change, Carbon Taxes, Decarbonization and ENGOs – Page 6

Return to coal or reinvent itself? The simmering feud over an Alberta mining town’s future – by Kyler Zeleny (Globe and Mail – July 24, 2022)

July 25, 2022

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Crowsnest Pass has not had an operational coal mine for 40 years. Now the struggling community is divided over whether to embrace the resource to save itself

For decades, John Kinnear and his family proudly mined coal from the towering mountains that form the border between Alberta and British Columbia. As a local historian in the nearby community of Crowsnest Pass, he has seen the bounty that coal brought for generations of families.

But he also knows how the country – and world – has soured on the dusty black commodity buried deep within the Rockies, and he has come to understand that point of view. Recently, when he visited Line Creek, a Teck Resources coal mine to the community’s west, he was struck by the desolation left in its wake.

Ten financial actors own half of the world’s oil, gas, coal emissions – study – by Staff (Mining.com – July 24, 2022)

July 25, 2022

https://www.mining.com/

Ten financial actors with the most influence on the fossil fuel economy own 49.5% of potential emissions from the world’s largest energy firms, a recent study has found.

In a paper published in the journal Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, researchers from Canada, France and New Zealand take a deep look into the CU200, which are the 200 Carbon Underground firms that own 98% of global fossil reserves in the form of oil, gas, or coal.

USGS Scientists Help Address Conflict Mining (United States Geological Survey – June 27, 2022)

July 19, 2022

https://www.usgs.gov/news/

The USGS has collaborated with several international organizations working to track and monitor illegal mining and armed groups funded by natural resources around the world.

The concept of conflict diamonds or “blood diamonds” emerged in the late 1990s when it became evident that several violent civil wars in Africa were connected to mining and trading of rough diamonds. In 2006, the U.S. Geological Survey was asked by the U.S. Department of State to help address illegal diamond mining in Africa.

Since then, the USGS has collaborated with several international organizations working to track and monitor illegal mining and armed groups funded by natural resources around the world. USGS scientists help detect where illegal mining is likely taking place and develop realistic production numbers to determine a country’s true capacity for mining and exporting various resources.

US not adequately planning for raw materials needed to fuel policy initiatives – Pebble developer – by Darren Parker (MiningWeekly.com – July 19, 2022)

July 19, 2022

https://www.miningweekly.com/

“Pebble is the largest undeveloped copper deposit in the world and
the proposed Pebble mine needs to be part of this solution, instead
of being portrayed as part of the problem by misguided environmental
activists who do not have a credible plan for reaching net-zero,”
Thiessen added.

Northern Dynasty, the company behind the controversial Pebble copper project, in Alaska, has urged politicians, environmental activists and the public to pay attention to concerns raised by the mining industry about a looming copper supply gap.

Commenting on a recent report by S&P Global, entitled ‘The Future of Copper: Will the looming supply gap short-circuit the energy transition?’, Northern Dynasty CEO Ron Thiessen said the conclusions were consistent with comments and concerns previously raised by the company and other key mining industry companies and organisations.

As Europe bakes, Germany reckons with a return to coal – by Kamyar Razavi (Global News – July 19, 2022)

July 19, 2022

https://globalnews.ca/

Europe is scorching. Temperatures across parts of the continent are soaring to dangerous highs again on Tuesday. The high for London will be close to 40 degrees. Berlin will hit 35.

Amid what’s been an intense, dangerous heat wave, there are difficult conversations happening across Europe about the future of energy, and how to prevent even more damage to the planet by burning fossil fuels.

California went big on rooftop solar. Now that’s a problem for landfills – by Rachel Kisela (Los Angeles Times – July 15, 2022)

July 19, 2022

https://www.latimes.com/

California has been a pioneer in pushing for rooftop solar power, building up the largest solar market in the U.S. More than 20 years and 1.3 million rooftops later, the bill is coming due.

Beginning in 2006, the state, focused on how to incentivize people to take up solar power, showered subsidies on homeowners who installed photovoltaic panels but had no comprehensive plan to dispose of them. Now, panels purchased under those programs are nearing the end of their typical 25-to-30-year life cycle. Many are already winding up in landfills, where in some cases, they could potentially contaminate groundwater with toxic heavy metals such as lead, selenium and cadmium.

Sri Lankan crisis: When green fanatics get taken seriously – by Ravi Shanker Kapoor (Sunday Guardian – April 9, 2022)

July 19, 2022

Homepage

Rajapaksas made the fatal mistake of forcing the nation to go organic by outlawing chemical fertilizers in April 2021.

What is more dangerous than the kiss of Judas? Infatuation with intellectuals’ ideas. Sri Lanka is suffering on account of both, but the latter has proved to be more lethal. While its association with China in infrastructure projects weakened it financially, its ban on fertilizers, promoted by green fanatics resulted in the worst economic crisis it has been facing since Independence in 1948.

Opinion: ‘Dr Copper’ has a worrying message about the energy transition – by Daniel Yergin (Financial Times – July 13, 2022)

July 14, 2022

https://www.ft.com/

The writer chaired the new S&P Global study ‘The Future of Copper: Will the looming supply gap short-circuit the energy transition?’

As countries try to figure out how to meet their targets for net zero emissions, minerals have become a big target of concern. Several governments and international organisations have expressed alarm about whether there will be sufficient supply to meet the needs of, as the International Energy Agency puts it, moving “from a fuel-intensive to a mineral-intensive energy system”.

There has been much discussion of the lithium and cobalt needed for electric vehicle batteries. But less attention has been given to copper, though it is the foundation for the energy transition, indeed the “metal of electrification”. A new report focuses on this key role.

EU lawmakers back gas, nuclear energy as sustainable – by Samuel Petrequin and Raf Casert (Associated Press – July 6, 2022)

July 8, 2022

https://apnews.com/

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union lawmakers voted Wednesday to include natural gas and nuclear in the bloc’s list of sustainable activities, backing a proposal from the EU’s executive arm that has been drawing fierce criticism from environment groups and now looks set to trigger legal challenges.

As the EU wants to set the best global standards in the fight against climate change, the decision could tarnish the bloc’s image and question the region’s commitment to reaching climate neutrality by 2050.

OPINION: Natural gas and nuclear power are now considered green investments in the EU. Will Canada follow suit? – by Jeffrey Jones (Globe and Mail – July 7, 2022)

July 7, 2022

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The European Union Parliament has declared that nuclear power and natural gas can be labelled as green for investment purposes, alongside wind, solar and other renewable energy sources.

Environmental activists are not at all pleased, saying including the two energy sources in the EU’s green “taxonomy” will only hamper the fight against climate change. Now the focus turns to other countries, including Canada, hard at work on standards for investments that fit with their own low-carbon transitions.

Teck Resources to start emissions-capture pilot at B.C. smelter in 2023 – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – June 29, 2022)

July 4, 2022

https://financialpost.com/

Company is looking to implement the technology in time to meet its 2030 emissions targets

Teck Resources Ltd. will attempt to capture carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions from its lead, zinc and silver smelter in Trail, B.C. by the middle of 2023, an early step in its pledge to reduce emissions by a third by 2030 and to reach net-zero by 2050.

Carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) is an emerging technology that sequesters CO2 emissions from industrial sites before they are released into the atmosphere, and instead permanently stores them underground. Already, captured CO2 can be used for enhanced oil recovery and in the future, companies hope to develop technology to repurpose the gas into new products such as jet fuel.

Mining Industry Warns Energy Transition Isn’t Sustainable – by Irina Slav (Oil Price.com – July 03, 2022)

July 4, 2022

https://oilprice.com/

The energy transition has been set by politicians as the only way forward for human civilization. Not every country on the planet is on board with it, but those that are have the loudest voices. And even amid the fossil fuel crunch that is beginning to cripple economies, the transition remains a goal.

It is no secret that the transition—at the scale its architects and most fervent proponents envisage it—would require massive amounts of metals and minerals. What does not get talked about so much is that most of these metals and minerals are already in short supply. And this is only the start of the transition problems.

Research priority #1: cheaper green fuels – by Bjorn Lomborg (Financial Post – June 29, 2022)

July 4, 2022

https://financialpost.com/

Innovation in green energy has been neglected for three decades

For three decades, climate campaigners have fought to make fossil fuels so expensive people would be forced to abandon them. Their dream is becoming reality: energy prices are spiralling out of control and will soon get even worse. Yet we are no closer to solving climate change.

Energy costs increased 26 per cent across industrialized economies last year and will rise globally by another 50 per cent this year. While western governments are blaming Russia’s war on Ukraine, prices were already rising because of climate policies designed to choke fossil fuel investment.

In energy-strapped Europe, coal gets a Greek encore – by Derek Gatopoulos (Associated Press/Toronto Star – June 25, 2022)

June 28, 2022

https://www.thestar.com/

KOZANI, Greece (AP) — At Greece’s largest coal mine, controlled explosions and the roar of giant excavators scooping up blasted rock have once again become routine. Coal production has been ramped up at the site near the northern Greek city of Kozani as the war in Ukraine forced many European nations to rethink their energy supplies.

Coal, long treated as a legacy fuel in Europe, is now helping the continent safeguard its power supply and cope with the dramatic rise in natural gas prices caused by the war.

Junk Science Week: Net Zero Edition — Vaclav Smil: Why net-zero 2050 really won’t work – by Vaclav Smil (Financial Post – June 21, 2022)

June 22, 2022

https://financialpost.com/

Complete decarbonization of the global economy is only conceivable at the cost of unthinkable economic retreat

How will we deal with unfolding climate change? There is now a widespread consensus that we need to do something to prevent many highly undesirable consequences. But what kind of action, what sort of behavioural transformation would work best?

For those who ignore the energetic and material imperatives of our world, those who prefer mantras of green solutions to understanding how we have come to this point, the prescription is easy: just decarbonize — switch from burning fossil carbon to converting inexhaustible flows of renewable energies.