Environment
Unauthorized production of lead acid batteries endanger environment, say experts
An uncontrolled growth of Illegally made lead acid batteries and their recycling across the country is posing a great threat to environment and public health, according to officials and environmentalists.
The unauthorized business continues unabated due to the absence of any comprehensive plan and effective watchdog mechanism, they said.
The Department of Environment (DoE), the environment watchdog, can do little with its only 11 designated officials to deal with over 500 illegal recycling and manufacturing plants, official sources said.
Read: Acid, lead from expired batteries threaten health, environment in Khulna
The DoE, however, promulgated a new gazette notification on Feb. 25 this year replacing its old one of 2006 to check the illegal business through some mandatory provisions, but its inadequate logistics made no major impact on the industry.
Environmentalists found the latest DoE move a feudal practice that fails to yield any expected result because of the lack of coordinated and comprehensive plan in its enforcement mechanism.
Battery industry insiders said currently there are over 500 illegal battery recycling and 35 illegal manufacturing plants in operation across the country.
Read: Info-Sarker-3: Lithium-ion battery use “to harm environment”
These came up in last 15 years as the batteries were in high demand for multiple uses, particularly in battery-run easybikes, solar power, industries and motor vehicles.
According to the environmentalists a good number of the unauthorized plants were set up by some Chinese nationals who came to the country on travel visa and got involved in the business in connivance with their local partners.
A big number of these plants were set up in Gazipur, Savar and Demra area while others are in other parts of the country.
Read Demand raised for formation of environment clubs
On the other hand, as per statistics of Accumulators Battery Manufacturers & Exporters Association of Bangladesh (ABMEAB), there are 24 legally-set up battery manufacturing industries of which five have recycling processing facilities meeting the government’s compliances.
Sharif Jamil, General Secretary of Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon (BAPA), a platform of environmentalists, observed that frequent disposal of lead acid battery at open places by battery sellers and illegal recyclers leads to a serious air pollution posing a great risk to human body.
Experts said lead acid batteries are made up of plates of lead and separate plates of lead dioxide, which are submerged into an electrolyte solution of about 38% sulphuric acid and 62% water.
Read: Lead Exposure: Bangladesh 4th worst-hit in terms of child deaths
If the batteries are melted in open places without following modern disposal and recycling system, they said, it interferes with a variety of body processes and is toxic to many organs and tissues including heart, bones, intestines, kidneys, and reproductive and nervous systems.
They also said lead interfered with the development of the nervous system and was, therefore, particularly toxic to children, causing potentially permanent learning and behaviour disorders.
Symptoms include abdominal pain, confusion, headache, anaemia, irritability, and in severe cases, seizures, coma and death. Routes of exposure to lead include contaminated air, water, soil, food, and consumer products.
The environmentalists said the recent introduction of solar home system and electric vehicles had given a big boost to the use of lead acid batteries, which prompted a number of local and foreign national firms to come into the battery manufacturing business.
Read Experts seek gender-responsive environment for volunteer engagement
Recent closure of about 3000 battery manufacturing plants in China also played a big role in setting up business by Chinese nationals, said a top official at the DoE.
According to battery industry insiders more than 5 million units of batteries are used annually by different sectors in Bangladesh with its 10% growth rate.
Director General of DoE Md Ashraf Uddin admitted the existence of illegal battery recycling and manufacturing business and said his department launches drives frequently against their operators through mobile court across country and file cases on regular basis.
“But on many occasions, the actual owners of these illegal business remain untraceable as they are not found on the spot during our operations”, he told UNB.
Read Environment Minister to highlight Bangladesh priorities at 'COP26 July Ministerial'
He also claimed that the recently promulgated new regulations will play a major role in checking the illegal business as it made mandatory for business operators to meet some compliances to run their business—either in the sales, disposal, recycling or manufacturing.
He, however, expressed his limitations in enforcement of the new law because of lack of adequatelogistics as the DoE has only 11 officials to deal with the matter across the country.
The BAPA general secretary said the DoE’s move will not be able to improve the situation unless there is any comprehensive plan with necessary logistics with strong commitment.
“First of all, the government needs to change its current mind set to deal with the matter”, said Sharif Jamil.
Read Climate action: BYLC holds World Environment Day Creative Competition
About the illegal recycling and manufacturing, an official of ABMEAB said some Chinese nationals come to the country and collect a primary permission from Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) and start business without any compliance.
He said the issue was discussed in a tripartite meeting of BIDA, DoE and battery manufacturers, but no positive response came from the BIDA to check this illegal business.
ABMEAB President Munawar Misbah Moin said illegal battery operators not only harm environment and public health, but it also hurt the tax-paying legal plant operators.
Read Environmental Sustainability: Dekko ISHO joins hands with Eco Via
Western wildfires calm down in cool weather, but losses grow
Cooler weather on Tuesday helped calm two gigantic wildfires in the U.S. West, but a tally of property losses mounted as authorities got better access to a tiny California community savaged by flames last weekend and to a remote area of southern Oregon where the nation’s largest blaze is burning.
Scientists say evidence shows Oregon’s Bootleg Fire generated its own “fire tornado” this month, with winds higher than 111 mph (179 kph). The rare phenomenon is associated with extreme fire behavior spawned by dry, hot conditions, experts said.
Meanwhile, teams reviewing damage from the massive Dixie Fire in the mountains of Northern California have so far counted 36 structures destroyed and seven damaged in the remote community of Indian Falls, said Nick Truax, an incident commander for the fire. It’s unclear if that figure included homes or smaller buildings.
The assessment was about half done, Truax said in an online briefing Monday night, and the work depends on fire activity.
Read: Wildfires blasting through West draw states to lend support
The Dixie Fire has scorched more than 325 square miles (842 square kilometers), an area bigger than New York City, and it was partially contained Tuesday. More than 10,000 homes were threatened in the region about 175 miles (282 kilometers) northeast of San Francisco.
A historic drought and recent heat waves tied to climate change have made wildfires harder to fight in the American West. Scientists say climate change has made the region much warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.
An inversion layer, which is a cap of relatively warmer air over cooler air, trapped smoke over much of the fire Monday, and the shade helped lower temperatures and keep humidity up, incident meteorologist Julia Ruthford said.
Similar smoke conditions were expected through Tuesday. Monsoon moisture was streaming in over the region but only light showers were likely near the fire. A return to hotter, drier weather was expected later in the week.
The Dixie Fire, burning mostly on federal land, is among dozens of large blazes in the U.S.
With so many fires, officials have to prioritize federal resources, said Nickie Johnny, incident commander for the Dixie’s east section, crediting help from local governments and California’s firefighting agency.
“I just wanted to thank them for that because we are strapped federally with resources all over the nation,” she said.
Authorities also were hopeful that cool temperatures, increased humidity and isolated showers will help them make more progress against the Bootleg Fire in Oregon. Crews have it more than halfway contained after it scorched 640 square miles (1,657 square kilometers) of remote land.
Read:Western wildfires: Crews make progress on huge Oregon blaze
“The mild weather will have a short-term calming effect on the fire behavior. But due to the extremely dry conditions and fuels, as the week progresses and temperatures rise, aggressive fire behavior is likely to quickly rebound,” a situation report said Tuesday.
The lightning-sparked fire has destroyed 161 homes, 247 outbuildings and 342 vehicles in Klamath and Lake counties, the report said, cautioning that the numbers could increase as firefighters work through the inner area of the fire.
On July 18, a day of especially extreme fire activity, the blaze spawned a fire tornado in the Fremont-Winema National Forest, scientists say. The phenomenon occurred when smoke rose nearly 6 miles (10 kilometers) into the sky and formed giant clouds, Bruno Rodriguez, a meteorologist assigned to the Bootleg Fire, told the Herald and News of Klamath Falls, Oregon.
Those massive clouds, combined with intense heat from the fire, intensified the updraft and pulled rotating hot air from the Earth’s surface to the base of the clouds, creating a tornado, Rodriguez said.
Neil Lareau, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Nevada, told the newspaper that extensive tree damage, scoured road surfaces and damage to the soil indicate winds speeds between 111 mph (178 kph) and 135 mph (217 kph).
“Prior to last year, there had only been two well-documented tornado-strength vortices generated by fires,” said Lareau, who began studying the phenomenon after fire-generated tornadoes occurred last fall. “A decade ago, we could not have even imagined this. But here we are.”
Scientists told the newspaper that fire-generated tornadoes need to urgent study because it’s suspected they can hurl embers far afield and potentially start new blazes.
The National Weather Service confirmed the tornado but said the agency wasn’t sure how to categorize it. That’s because, unlike a normal tornado that could travel for miles, the winds from a fire tornado will stop as soon as it gets too far from the fire’s heat.
Read:Wildfire smoke clouds sky, hurts air quality on East Coast
“If they don’t have the heat from the fire, then they don’t have the updraft. Without the updraft, it would weaken very quickly,” said Ryan Sandler, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Medford, Oregon.
Elsewhere, high heat was expected to return to the northern Rocky Mountains, where thick smoke from many wildfires drove pollution readings to unhealthy levels.
Unhealthy air was recorded around most of Montana’s larger cities — Billings, Butte, Bozeman and Missoula — and in portions of northern Wyoming and eastern Idaho, according data from U.S. government air monitoring stations.
In California, the 106-square-mile (275-square-kilometer) Tamarack Fire south of Lake Tahoe was chewing through timber and chaparral but was more than halfway contained. Evacuation orders for about 2,000 residents on both sides of the California-Nevada line have been lifted. At least 23 buildings have burned.
'Small Countries Left Fending for Ourselves,' Says Dominica's Environment Minister
Last week, leaders from seven of the world's wealthiest countries gathered in Cornwall, the UK, for the 2021 G7 Summit.
The heads of state from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, the US, and representatives of the EU met to discuss global challenges – including a response to the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change.
The leaders reaffirmed their goal to limit global heating to 1.5C and to protect and restore 30 percent of the natural world by the end of this decade. However, experts say that the summit failed to provide developing nations with the funds needed to cut greenhouse gas emissions and cope with the impacts of global warming.
Also read: In poorest countries, surges worsen shortages of vaccines
The Caribbean is one of many regions globally that has seen the devastating impact of climate change. When category 5 Hurricane Maria struck Dominica, an island of only 72,000, in September 2017, more than 90 percent of the island's structures were destroyed. However, in the face of catastrophe, the country's Prime Minister, Dr the Honourable Roosevelt Skerrit, declared that the small country would commit to becoming the world's first climate-resilient nation by building back better and stronger.
Cozier Frederick, Dominica's Minister of Environment, Rural Modernisation and Kalinago Upliftment, told CS Global Partners [http://www.csglobalpartners.com/] that "Small countries like Dominica have done little to hyperbolise the climate crisis. Instead, we in Dominica are on our way to climate resilience because we have no other choice, we are left fending for ourselves. Global leaders need to live up to their climate commitments, otherwise, climate catastrophe will worsen for us all."
Also read: G7 must ensure vaccine access in developing countries: UN experts
Today, with the help of the Citizenship by Investment (CBI) Programme [http://www.cbiu.gov.dm/ , Dominica is constructing over 5,000 weather-proof homes for its citizens and investing in rehabilitating its agriculture and fishing industries. It is also working towards building a geothermal plant which will reduce the cost of electricity for consumers and provide electricity to the French islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, which in turn will encourage foreign exchange.
CBI programmes legally grant citizenship status to applicants who invest in a host country's economy and do so much faster than traditional immigration processes. Dominica's CBI programme provides applicants with a swift processing time, thorough due diligence and affordable investment options channelled into health, education and employment initiatives on the island. With second citizenship from Dominica, individuals and their families can quickly formulate a Plan B and obtain global mobility without physically relocating, going through extensive interviews or waiting years as commonly associated with the traditional immigration process.
Also read: Opportunities for Children's Future Increase with Citizenship by Investment, Says Dominican PM in Times of India Webinar
As summit ends, G-7 urged to deliver on vaccines, climate
The Group of Seven leaders aim to end their first summit in two years with a punchy set of promises Sunday, including vaccinating the world against coronavirus, making huge corporations pay their fair share of taxes and tackling climate change with a blend of technology and money.
They want to show that international cooperation is back after the upheavals caused both by the pandemic and the unpredictability of former U.S. President Donald Trump. And they want to convey that the club of wealthy democracies — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States — is a better friend to poorer nations than authoritarian rivals such as China.
But it was uncertain how firm the group’s commitments will be on coronavirus vaccines, the economy and the environment when the leaders issue their final communique. Also unclear was whether all of the leaders would back the United States’ call to chastise China for repressing its Uyghur minority and other abuses.
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the summit’s host, wanted the three-day meeting to fly the flag for a “Global Britain,” his government’s initiative to give the midsized country outsized influence when it comes to global problem-solving.
Read: Biden urges G-7 leaders to call out and compete with China
Brexit cast a shadow over that goal during the summit on the coast of southwest England. European Union leaders and U.S. President Joe Biden voiced concerns about problems with new U.K.-EU trade rules that have heightened tensions in Northern Ireland.
But overall, the mood has been positive: The leaders smiled for the cameras on the beach at cliff-fringed Carbis Bay, a village and resort that became a traffic-clogged fortress for the meeting. The last G-7 summit was in France in 2019. The pandemic scuttled the planned 2020 event in the United States.
The leaders mingled with Queen Elizabeth II at a royal reception on their first evening, and were served steak and lobster at a beach barbecue on their second.
America’s allies were visibly relieved to have the U.S. back as an engaged international player after the “America First” policy of the Trump administration.
“The United States is back, and democracies of the world are standing together,” Biden said as he arrived in the U.K. on the first foreign trip of his 5-month-old presidency. After the G-7 summit, the president is to have tea with the queen on Sunday, attend a NATO summit in Brussels on Monday and hold talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Geneva on Wednesday.
At the G-7, Johnson described Biden as a “breath of fresh air.” French President Emmanuel Macron, after speaking one-to-one with Biden, said, “It’s great to have a U.S. president part of the club and very willing to cooperate.”
Read: Biden sells G-7 on global tax, but U.S. Congress is a hurdle
The re-energized G-7 made ambitious declarations during their meetings about girls’ education, preventing future pandemics and using the finance system to fund green growth. Above all, they vowed to share vaccine doses with less well-off nations that urgently need them. Johnson said the group would pledge at least 1 billion doses, with half that coming from the United States and 100 million from Britain.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus commended the vaccine pledge but said it’s not enough. To truly end the pandemic, he said, 11 billion doses are needed to vaccinate at least 70% of the world’s population by the middle of next year.
“We need more and we need them faster,” Tedros said.
Public health advocates said much more than just doses was needed, including money and logistical help to get shots into the arms of people in poorer countries.
“It’s not enough to just get vaccines flown into capitals,” said Lily Caprani, head of COVID-19 vaccines advocacy for UNICEF. “We can’t let them potentially go to waste or be at risk or be at risk of not being delivered. So it’s a real end-to-end solution that’s needed.”
The leaders’ final communique is expected to formally embrace placing a global minimum tax of at least 15% on large multinational companies to stop corporations from using tax havens to shift profits and to avoid taxes.
Read: G-7 nations expected to pledge 1B vaccine doses for world
The minimum rate was championed by the U.S., and dovetails with the aim of Biden — and Johnson — to focus the summit on ways the democracies can collaborate to build a more inclusive and fair global economy and to compete with rising autocracies like China.
Non-G-7 nations India, South Korea, Australia and South Africa were invited to attend as guests to bolster the group’s support for fellow democracies.
The White House said the leaders had also agreed an infrastructure plan, the Build Back Better world plan, to help low and middle-income countries. The move is a response to China’s “belt and road” initiative, which has increased Beijing’s influence in countries around the world.
White House officials said Biden wants the G-7 leaders to speak in a single voice against the forced labor practices targeting China’s Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities. Biden hopes the denunciation will be part of a joint statement Sunday, but some European allies are reluctant to split so forcefully with Beijing.
The summit was also supposed to focus on climate change and to set the stage for the U.N. climate conference being held in November in Scotland.
Climate activists and analysts have said filling a $100 billion annual fund that is intended to help poor countries tackle the effects of global warming should be at the top of the G-7′s to-do list.
Read:G-7 to put off agreement on when to end coal-fired power generation
Johnson’s office said he met with U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Saturday and that the two agreed on the need for countries to step up and make ambitious commitments to cut carbon emissions and phase out the use of coal.
But very little substance on the topic has so far emerged from the talks, to the frustration of environmental protesters who gathered nearby to make their message heard.
Large crowds of surfers and kayakers took to the sea in a mass paddle protest Saturday to urge more action on protecting the oceans, while thousands chanted and beat drums as they marched outside the summit’s media center in Falmouth.
“G-7 is all greenwashing,” the protesters sang. “We’re drowning in promises, now’s the time to act.”
Environmental Sustainability: Dekko ISHO joins hands with Eco Via
Dekko ISHO Group has signed a monetary and strategic capital investment agreement with Eco Via, a bioplastic initiative with its own innovation in compostable polymer, led by three young entrepreneurs from Dhaka.
The signing ceremony was held in Dekko ISHO’s corporate office and attended by Prottoy Hossain, Director of Dekko ISHO Group, and the co-founders of Eco Via: Rashik Hassan, Riasat Zaman, and Ashfaqul Azam.
“This endeavor is a step towards integrating more sustainable practices in our business operations,” said Prottoy Hossain, Director.
He said they believe Eco Via will play a big role in ensuring global environmental sustainability and they are proud to be a part of their future endeavors.
Also read: PM calls for massive tree plantation to save environment
PM calls for massive tree plantation to save environment
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday urged the people to go for massive plantation of trees to protect the country from the adverse impacts of climate change.
The prime minister was inaugurating the ‘National Tree Plantation Campaign-2021’ marking the World Environment Day.
“We’ll have to protect the environment. This country is ours. If we want to protect the country from the adverse impacts of climate changes, we’ll have to promote greenery further in this green Bengal (Sabuj Bangla),” she said.
READ: BGB, Banayan sign MoU for tree plantation
She launched the campaign by planting saplings at official residence Ganobhaban here.
Noting that she planted saplings with her own hands, Sheikh Hasina called upon the people to plant trees in the whatever places available to them.
“Plant at least one sapling. But it would be best, if you can plant three saplings. I want you to plant three saplings –-one for fruit, one for timber and one herbal,” she said.
Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Md Shahab Uddin and its Deputy Minister Habibun Nahar were present on the occasion.
This year, the National Tree Plantation Campaign is being observed with the theme “Mujibborshe Angikar Kori, Sonar Bangla Sabuj Kori” aimed at motivating the people to make Bangladesh even greener in the Mujib Year.
READ: Tree plantation to transform Bangladesh’s tourism: Mahbub
The day is being observed across the world with the theme of ‘Ecosystem Restoration’ on Saturday.
The prime minister said Bangladesh has achieved a remarkable success in afforestation increasing the country’s forestation to 22 per cent thanks to different measures taken by her government.
She mentioned that the trees not only protect the environment, but also provide financial solvency and other benefits to the people.
READ: PM to launch tree plantation campaign July 16
Sheikh Hasina also called upon the people to take proper care of trees. “It is not enough to plant saplings only. You’ll have to take care of these as well.” she said.
'The Salt in our Waters’ screened in Seoul
‘The Salt in our Waters,’ a film on climate change, directed and produced by renowned Bangladeshi Director Rezwan Shahriar Sumit, has been screened at the International Studies Hall of Korea University.
Bangladesh Embassy in Seoul screened the film on Tuesday in collaboration with UNDP Seoul Policy Centre and Korea University to mark the upcoming World Environment Day-2021,
Diplomats, the World Bank representatives and students were present at the event, said a media release on Wednesday.
Also Read: Artist Shahabuddin urges all to donate for making film on Bangladesh
The film, which depicted the direct and indirect effects of climate change, was highly admired by the audience.
Dr Stephan Klingebiel, Director of the UNDP Seoul Policy Centre, and Professor Suh-Yong Chung from the International Studies Division of the University of Korea, spoke at the event.
They highlighted the challenges posed by global climate change including the various initiatives of UNDP and the University of Korea to address its adverse effects.
Read Young Scouts urged to help people in coping with climate change
Bangladesh Ambassador to South Korea Abida Islam referred to the ‘whole-of-society approach’ and ‘a whole-of-world attitude’- proposed by the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the recently concluded '2021 P4G Seoul Summit'.
She highlighted various initiatives of the Bangladesh government to address the adverse effects of climate change.
She also elaborated on the activities of Bangladesh as the Chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum and as the host country of the South Asian office of the Global Center on Adaptation.
Read Dhaka calls for global leaders’ concerted efforts in tackling climate change
After the screening, the Director and Producer of the Film Rezwan Shahriar Sumit and Co-Producer Ilann Girard, who were connected virtually, responded to the queries of the participants.
Carbon storage offers hope for climate, cash for farmers
The rye and rapeseed that Rick Clifton cultivated in central Ohio were coming along nicely — until his tractor rumbled over the flat, fertile landscape, spraying it with herbicides.
These crops weren’t meant to be eaten, but to occupy the ground between Clifton’s soybean harvest last fall and this spring’s planting. Yet thanks to their environmental value, he’ll still make money from them.
Farmers increasingly have been growing offseason cereals and grasses to prevent erosion and improve soil. Now, they’re gaining currency as weapons against climate change.
Read:St. Vincent warns of volcanic eruption, orders evacuations
Experts believe keeping ground covered year-round rather than bare in winter is among practices that could reduce emissions of planet-warming gases while boosting the agricultural economy, if used far more widely.
“For too long, we’ve failed to use the most important word when it comes to meeting the climate crisis: jobs, jobs, jobs,” President Joe Biden said in his April address to Congress. One example, he added: “Farmers planting cover crops so they can reduce the carbon dioxide in the air and get paid for doing it.”
Clifton, 66, started growing cover crops several years ago to improve corn, soybean and wheat yields. Then he read about Indigo Agriculture, a company that helps businesses and organizations buy credits for carbon bottled up in farm fields. He signed a contract that could pay about $175,000 over five years for storing greenhouse gases across his 3,000 acres (1,214 hectares).
“If you can get something green on the ground year-round, you’re feeding the microbes in the soil and it’s a lot healthier,” he said, touring a barn loaded with cultivating and harvesting equipment. “And if somebody wants to pay you to do that, it looks to me like you’re foolish not to do it.”
Agriculture generates about 10% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions: methane from livestock, nitrous oxide from fertilizers, carbon dioxide from machinery.
All industries are under pressure to reduce emissions, primarily by switching to renewable energy.
But farming has something most others don’t: the ability to pull carbon dioxide, the most prevalent climate-warming gas, out of the atmosphere and store it. Plants use it in photosynthesis, their process of making food.
Besides cover crops, promising techniques for carbon storage include reducing or eliminating tillage and letting marginal croplands revert to plains or woods, said Adam Chambers, a U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service air quality scientist.
Agriculture won’t be “the sole solution, but I see it as a solid plank in an overall program to address climate change over the next few decades,” said David Montgomery, a University of Washington geologist.
The National Academy of Sciences estimates agricultural soils could take in 250 million metric tons (276 million tons) of atmospheric carbon dioxide annually, which would offset 5% of U.S. emissions.
Some caution against overselling farmland’s potential. Iowa State University ecologist Steven Hall says that at some soil depths, microbes convert carbon absorbed by cover crops into gas that returns to the atmosphere.
“It may make sense to pay farmers to do this,” he said. “But I would go into it a bit more suspicious that we’ll get a maximum performance on all farms.”
The federal government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars helping farmers make environmentally friendly changes. Since 2005, those actions have produced an eight-fold increase in prevention of greenhouse gas emissions, the NRCS says.
The latest U.S. Census of Agriculture in 2017 found more farmers were switching from conventional soil tilling, a big source of carbon pollution, to reduced or no-till practices. It also recorded a 50% increase in cover cropping over five years.
But the 15.4 million acres (6.2 million hectares) planted in cover crops were just 6.7 % of the land suitable for it.
Biden has ordered the Department of Agriculture to craft a plan for making such practices so common that the U.S. farm industry would become the world’s first to achieve net zero emissions.
Read: Hydrocarbon exploration: Experts for formula-based pricing to attract IOCs
Secretary Tom Vilsack has pledged bigger payments for pulling marginal lands out of crop production to make way for carbon-absorbing grasses, trees and wetlands. He announced $330 million for local climate partnerships and $25 million for testing new ideas.
Supporters say unless the actions are mandatory, which farmers resolutely oppose, more financial incentives will be needed.
The agriculture department is consulting industry groups about tapping the $30 billion Commodity Credit Corp., which helps keeps farm incomes and prices stable, to establish a “carbon bank” that could pump in more funds.
Republican lawmakers say financing carbon storage should be left to rapidly developing private markets.
Indigo Agriculture is among recent arrivals brokering sales of credits for farmland carbon to buyers wanting smaller environmental footprints. Thousands of growers with a combined 2.7 million acres (1.09 million hectares) have signed with Indigo to receive payments for greenhouse gas storage, said Chris Harbourt, head of its carbon program.
The Boston-based company’s agronomists help producers adopt the techniques. It uses farm management data, soil sampling and modeling software to calculate credits, based on volumes of gases pulled underground or prevented from being generated.
IBM, J.P. Morgan Chase and Barclays are among buyers of Indigo’s credits. Farmers currently get $15 for each metric ton ($15 per 1.1 ton) of carbon with payments phased in over several years.
The extra cash is nice but hardly a windfall, said Lance Unger, who recently enrolled 7,500 acres (3,035 hectares) near Carlisle, Indiana. More important is that carbon-sequestering steps also mean bigger yields and profitability from lands packed with organic nutrients, the third-generation farmer said.
“I want to make our farm better for the fourth generation,” said Unger, 33, strolling through corn stubble in a field he now tills more lightly than before. He also uses cover cropping and more efficient fertilizing, which reduces nitrous oxide emissions.
Still, some farmers are reluctant to change habits ingrained over generations. Others wonder whether carbon markets will work.
Pending U.S. Senate and House bills would help farmers get started and provide third-party inspections to verify improvements. The chief Senate sponsor, Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, said attitudes have changed since she unsuccessfully proposed a similar program in 2009.
“Farmers have been hit right in the head with one weather disaster after another. They know the climate is changing,” the Democrat said.
The measures have bipartisan sponsorship and support from industry groups such as the American Farm Bureau Federation. The Environmental Defense Fund is among green organizations backing it.
But an opposing coalition of other environmentalists and small-farm groups says credit markets let corporate polluters outsource carbon reduction instead of mending their own ways.
The critics told Congress that farmers who adopt the newer land management practices could abandon them later. “Without adequate measurement tools or guarantees of permanence, quantifying soil carbon to use in a carbon market becomes a guessing game and does not guarantee actual reductions in greenhouse gases,” they said.
Read: World carbon dioxide emissions drop 7% in pandemic-hit 2020
Bruno Basso, a Michigan State University soil and plant scientist, said farmers are unlikely to resume old ways after seeing how the changes benefit their lands. Carbon storage methods and technology to assess their performance are improving, he added.
The NRCS and Colorado State University continue refining an online system that calculates carbon stored and greenhouse gases prevented through conservation efforts. It’s based on factors such as location, soil types, tillage practices, nutrient applications and crop cultivation.
Such complex data analysis lends credibility to eco-friendly agriculture, once widely associated with “offbeat farmers,” said Keith Paustian, a soil and crop scientist at Colorado State.
“It seems to some degree utopian, but what is best for the planet can also be what’s best for farmers and society,” he said.
Biden directs US to mitigate financial risk from climate
President Joe Biden is directing federal agencies to develop a comprehensive strategy to identify and manage financial risks to government and the private sector posed by climate change.
An executive order Biden issued Thursday calls for concrete steps to mitigate climate risks, while protecting workers’ life savings, spurring job creation and helping the United States lower greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.
New regulations could be issued on the banking, housing and agriculture sectors, among others.
“Extreme weather related to climate change can disrupt entire supply chains and deprive communities of food, water or emergency supplies,″ the White House said in a statement Thursday.
Snowstorms can knock power grids offline, while floods made worse by rising sea levels can destroy homes and businesses.
Read: Biden hails Israel-Hamas cease-fire, sees ‘opportunity’
The new strategy is intended to identify public and private financing needed to mitigate such risks and help safeguard Americans’ financial security, the White House said.
Biden has made slowing climate change a top priority and has set a target to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by up to 52% below 2005 levels by 2030. He also has said he expects to adopt a clean energy standard that would make electricity carbon-free by 2035, along with the wider goal of net-zero carbon emissions economywide by 2050.
The executive order directs White House climate adviser Gina McCarthy and economic adviser Brian Deese to develop a government-wide strategy within four months to identify and disclose climate-related financial risks. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and the White House Office of Management and Budget also would be involved, while the Labor Department will analyze how to protect pensions from climate-related risk.
Yellen also will be directed to share climate-related financial risk data and issue a separate report within six months.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has already begun work on potential regulations that would require companies to disclose risks related to global warming, while Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said his agency has begun taking steps to assess climate change-related risks to the banking system.
Whether through rising seas or extreme weather, climate change “already presents increasing risks to infrastructure, investments and businesses. Yet, these risks are often hidden,” the White House said.
“From signing a loan for a new home or small business to managing life savings or a retirement fund, it is important for the American people to have access to the information needed to understand the potential risks associated with these significant financial decisions,” the administration explained.
The new executive order “ensures that the right rules are in place to properly analyze and mitigate these risks″ and disclose them to the public, “empowering the American people to make informed financial decisions,″ the White House said.
Read: US civil rights leader urges Biden To give 60 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to India
Environmental groups hailed the executive order, saying Biden recognizes the enormous risks posed by climate change.
“The Biden administration affirmed today it recognizes that corporate disclosure and voluntary commitments alone are not sufficient for addressing systemic climate risks and that regulators must act,″ said Ben Cushing, a financial advocacy campaign manager for the Sierra Club.
Twelve Republican senators wrote a letter to Powell earlier this year accusing the central bank of moving “beyond the scope of the Federal Reserve’s mission” by increasing scrutiny of climate threats.
Protected areas cover a sixth of Earth’s land and freshwater
Roughly a sixth of the planet’s land and freshwater area now lies within protected or conservation areas, according to a United Nations report released Wednesday.
Next comes the hard part. The world needs to ensure that those regions are actually effectively managed to stabilize the climate and to curb biodiversity loss while also increasing the total area of protected places, scientists say.
“Protected and conserved areas play a crucial role in tackling biodiversity loss,” said Neville Ash, director of the U.N. Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre, which produced the report. But simply drawing lines on a map isn’t enough. Conservation areas “need to be effectively managed and equitably governed,” he said.
The “Protected Planet” report also found that about 8% of coastal and ocean waters are within protected areas.
“There has been a substantial increase in the protection of marine ecosystems in the past decade. But the protection of land areas hasn’t increased as much in that time,” said Stuart Pimm, an ecologist at Duke University, who was not involved in the report.
Read:Restore planet amid pandemic: UN chief
“What we really need to know about is the quality of the protected areas — not just the quantity of square miles,” Pimm added.
“It is nowhere near enough,” said Charles Barber, senior biodiversity advisor for the World Resources Institute, who was not involved in the report. “We need to conserve half of the Earth if we are going to maintain the basic biological operating system’” of the planet.
Several scientific and environmental groups are now calling for 30% or 50% of the planet to be protected. Earlier this month, President Joe Biden set a goal of conserving at least 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030.
“There’s plenty of scientific evidence that protected areas are the cornerstone of biodiversity protection and climate stabilization,” said Eric Dinerstein, a conservation biologist at RESOLVE, a nonprofit group.
“Humanity is heading for an environmental cliff — so we have to do a U-turn,” he said. “We know that the creation of more protected areas is absolutely vital. The questions are: How much, where, and how fast?”