Sustainability Roundup

Good Morning,

Pakistan is struggling with the devastating floods, Germany announced a new LNG facility in a call for green move from Russian energy, California approved a wave of aggressive new climate measures, China's extreme drought is pushing the country to rely even more on coal, India’s success with electric vehicles is encouraging as the local automakers sold more than three times as many electric vehicles, as a year earlier, and Hawaii shuttered its last remaining coal-fired power station marking a major milestone in the state's ambitious effort to transition to net zero.

Let's jump in.

EU's Carbon Allowance (ETS) price development

UK's Carbon Allowance (ETS) price development

Major News Roundup

• Pakistan has been hit by devastating and deadly floods. Floods have killed at least 1,100 and submerged about a third of the country, as record monsoon rains inundate the country, washing away bridges, roads and crop fields. The U.N. refugee agency has rushed in more desperately needed aid and the country secured a $1.1 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund to avert an imminent default. But government officials in Pakistan estimate the damage of the floods alone will run over $10 billion (New York Times)

  • Pakistan’s government slashed its economic growth projections due to the floods. The floods have made previous projections irrelevant and economic growth is estimated at 2.3% now. The government had set a target of 5% growth in June.

• India’s success with electric vehicles is encouraging for low-income countries. The country’s success with two- and three-wheeled vehicles, which sell for as little as $1,000, could be a template for other developing countries (New York Times)

  • Indian automakers sold 430,000 electric vehicles in the 12 months that ended in March, more than three times as many as a year earlier. Most were two- and three-wheeled vehicles, with cars accounting for just 18,000. For reference, Americans bought about 487,000 new electric cars in 2021.

• China’s ambitious climate targets will require nearly $19 trillion of investment to accomplish, according to the nation’s top climate envoy. The 19 trillion of spending needed to peak emissions by 2030 and zero them out by 2060 will bring great opportunities for the new energy industry. China already has the world’s largest solar and wind power fleets, and is installing massive amounts of new panels and turbines in remote desert areas (Bloomberg)

• Germany announced new L.N.G. facility, calling it a green move from Russian energy. The government said much of the infrastructure under construction to supply L.N.G. could also be reused to import hydrogen, which Europe is expecting to be an important clean fuel of the future (New York Times)

• Carbon should cost 3.6 times more than the current US price, new research says. Currently, the United States government uses a price of $51 per ton of carbon dioxide emitted, but the researchers wrote in the journal Nature that the price should be $185 per ton — 3.6 times higher than the current U.S. standard (Nature)

• China's extreme drought is pushing the country to rely even more on coal, as droughts dried up reservoirs by as a lot as half, crippling hydropower stations in Southwestern provinces, where hydropower is a approx. 70-80% of total electrical energy supply (Time)

• Dutch city Haarlem becomes world’s first to ban meat adverts in public. The city located to the west of Amsterdam, will enact the prohibition from 2024 after meat was added to a list of products deemed to contribute to the climate crisis. Adverts will not be allowed on buses, shelters and screens in public spaces (Guardian)

Latest from the environmental news in Finland

• Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority criticizes Fortum's ad for greenwashing, saying it gives an overly positive picture of the company's environmental impact (HS)

• PM Marin and Finnish government has signed "the Marienborg Declaration - Baltic Sea countries plan to increase wind power production sevenfold by 2030 (HS)

• Russia's war has increased the burning of coal in Finland. According to Statistics Finland, coal was used as a fuel for electricity and heat production and industry in April–June by 25 percent more than in the previous year (Tilastokeskus)

• As a first city and company in Finland, Hyvinkää lämpövoima is planning a water based seasonal heat storage, which would bring savings of at least 1.5 million euros per year. The large warehouse would have maximum capacity of 500,000 cubic meters, and brings ability to store waste heat generated during summer and autumn, which can be used in colder months (Kauppalehti)

Climate pledges and action

• Hawaii closes its last coal-fired power plant. A state law bans the use of coal for energy production beginning next year (Guardian)

• California approved a wave of aggressive new climate measures. The state lawmakers passed a flurry of new climate bills late Wednesday, including a record $54 billion in climate spending and keeping open the state’s last nuclear plant. California's Net Zero target is 2045 (Boston Globe)

• Berlin is heavily expanding its new fleet of electric buses. As the German capital struggles to meet its climate goals and deal with an energy crunch, it’s quickly expanding a battery-powered overhaul of its public transit fleet. The overall goal is to make the city’s buses emissions-free by 2030, replacing 1,600 diesel vehicles with 1,700 electric ones at an estimated cost of 2 billion euros, when you include the new infrastructure needed (Bloomberg)

Latest from the academics on environment, biodiversity, and carbon sequestration

• New research forecasts more dire sea level rise as Greenland’s ice melts. The melting of the Greenland ice sheet could eventually raise global sea levels by at least 10 inches even if humans immediately stop burning the fossil fuels that are warming the planet to dangerous levels, according to a new study published in Nature (Nature Climate Change)

• Building wooden cities worldwide would significantly reduce carbon emissions. We show that if 90% of the new urban population would be housed in newly built urban mid-rise buildings with wooden constructions, 106 Gt of additional CO2 could be saved by 2100 (Nature)

• Global fish stocks will not be able to recover to sustainable levels without strong actions to mitigate climate change, a new study has projected. Study suggest that climate change has reduced fish stocks in 103 of 226 marine regions studied, including Canada, from their historical levels. These stocks will struggle to rebuild their numbers under projected global warming levels in the 21st century (University of British Columbia)

• Will Paris agreement succeed? As much of the world's efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change hinge on the success of the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement, a new Nature Climate Change study is the first to provide scientific evidence assessing how effective governments will be at implementing their commitments to the agreement - researchers found that American credibility on climate change is lagging behind other regions, especially Europe (Nature Climate Change)

Picture of the week: Ocean heat content changes since 1955 (Nasa)