O Programa das Nações Unidas para Assentamentos Humanos (ONU-HABITAT) convida os cariocas a utilizar a ferramenta da Prefeitura do Rio de Janeiro denominada Participa.Rio, cujo objetivo é elaborar o Plano de Desenvolvimento Sustentável do município, com o apoio do organismo da ONU.
A plataforma online pode ser acessada pelo endereço www.participa.rio, por meio da qual habitantes da capital fluminense poderão enviar opiniões para a elaboração do Plano, que conta com a participação do ONU-HABITAT e é baseado na Agenda 2030 para o Desenvolvimento Sustentável das Nações Unidas.
O Plano de Desenvolvimento Sustentável da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro será baseado em documentos e compromissos firmados pelo município a partir de 1992 e renovados em 2012, além de compromissos internacionais e instrumentos municipais.
O objetivo, segundo a Prefeitura do Rio, é a construção de uma visão de longo prazo para a cidade, alinhada aos Objetivos de Desenvolvimento Sustentável (ODS) da Organização das Nações Unidas.
The report, three years in the making, builds on evidence from the 10 previous reports published by the IWA. It sets out a ’10 point plan’ which details the urgent and essential actions for Wales to reach 100% renewable energy by 2035.
The first point is ‘Fund the Future’, this includes an immediate 12-18 month low carbon economic stimulus which accelerates action on renewable energy and energy efficiency. The report also includes plans to decarbonise the transport industry and harness the potential for bioenergy.
The report says that by switching to 100 per cent renewable energy by 2035, Wales could create 20,150 jobs annually. This change would create £7.4 billion in total Welsh gross value added and improve the country’s ability to meet its climate targets.
On a blog post, Shea Buckland-Jones, Re-energising Co-ordinator of the IWA, said that the new plan is “radical and requires shared public and political ambition”. He also highlights the urgency of these actions, saying “the time to tackle climate change is quickly running out”.
This follows a report which found that the immediate phase-out of fossil fuels is crucial to meet future climate targets set at the Paris Agreement.
Marine Energy Wales, who will be holding a conference in April where the IWA will discuss their plan, has welcomed the new report.
David Jones, Project Director at Marine Energy Wales, said: “It is positive to see marine energy playing a key role in this comprehensive study and we look forward to working with stakeholders in delivering the ambitions. A transition to a low carbon economy has never been so critical and our oceans will need to play a significant role if we are to mitigate climate change and the impacts upon the future generations.”
Germany needs e-mobility to reach its 2030 emissions reduction targets in transport, Chancellor Angela Merkel told an audience of think tank and university researchers at the Global Solutions Summit in Berlin. The set goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector by 42 percent by 2030 is impossible to reach with the old system of internal combustion engines, according to Merkel. She added that gains in efficiency have so far always been cancelled out by rising transport volumes.
In her speech, Merkel focused on the value of multilateralism and international cooperation. She stressed Germany’s challenges in meeting its climate goals and highlighted the introduction of a climate cabinet as a way to get the legislative process coordinated.
At a citizens’ dialogue event held in the northern coastal town of Bremerhaven one day before her speech in Berlin, Merkel said Germany would soon have to make “tough decisions” in climate policy in order to make progress on its emissions reduction targets, the Süddeutsche Zeitung reports. Merkel said a “holistic” approach was necessary for citizens to accept that a shift towards a low-carbon economy also comes with unpopular adjustments.
Germany has so far failed to cut carbon emissions in transport. Volkswagen has recently announced a major push into e-mobility, but the industry remains Split over the merits of other ways to power the cars of the future.
Imagem feita por satélite de Iquitos, no Peru, em meio à Floresta Amazônica. Foto: NASA/Good Free Photos
A avaliação mais abrangente e rigorosa sobre o estado do meio ambiente, desenvolvida pela ONU Meio Ambiente durante os últimos cinco anos, foi publicada hoje (13) com um alerta de que os danos ao planeta são tão desastrosos que a saúde das pessoas será cada vez mais ameaçada se ações urgentes não forem tomadas.
Da ONU Meio Ambiente no Brasil
O relatório, produzido por 250 cientistas de mais de 70 países, afirma que se não ampliarmos drasticamente a proteção ambiental, cidades e regiões na Ásia, Oriente Médio e África poderão testemunhar milhões de mortes prematuras até a metade do século. A publicação também alerta que os poluentes em nossos sistemas de água potável farão com que a resistência antimicrobiana se torne a maior causa de mortes até 2050 e com que disruptores endócrinos afetem a fertilidade masculina e feminina, bem como o desenvolvimento neurológico infantil.
Mas o estudo também destaca que o mundo tem a ciência, a tecnologia e os recursos financeiros de que precisa para seguir na direção de um caminho de desenvolvimento mais sustentável, embora ainda falte apoio suficiente do público, das empresas e de líderes políticos, que se agarram a modelos ultrapassados de produção e desenvolvimento.
O sexto Panorama Ambiental Global foi lançado enquanto ministros do Meio Ambiente de todo o mundo participam do fórum ambiental de mais alto nível do planeta, em Nairóbi. Na pauta das negociações da Quarta Assembleia da ONU para o Meio Ambiente, estão questões críticas como o fim do desperdício de alimentos, a difusão de carros elétricos e o combate à poluição plástica nos oceanos, entre muitos outros desafios urgentes.
“A ciência é clara. A saúde e a prosperidade da humanidade estão diretamente ligadas ao estado do nosso meio ambiente”, afirmou Joyce Msuya, diretora-executiva interina da ONU Meio Ambiente. “Esse relatório é um panorama para a humanidade. Estamos numa encruzilhada. Vamos continuar no nosso caminho atual, que levará a um futuro sombrio para a humanidade, ou vamos dar uma guinada para um caminho de desenvolvimento mais sustentável? Essa é a escolha que nossos líderes políticos têm que fazer, agora.
Opções de políticas inovadoras A projeção futura de um planeta saudável com pessoas saudáveis baseia-se em um novo modo de pensar, em que o modelo “cresça agora, limpe a bagunça depois” é substituído por uma economia de “lixo-quase-zero” até 2050. De acordo com o Panorama, investimentos verdes de 2% do Produto Interno Bruto (PIB) dos países trariam um crescimento no longo prazo tão alto quanto o previsto atualmente, mas com menos impactos das mudanças climáticas, escassez de água e perda de ecossistemas.
Atualmente, o mundo não está no caminho para cumprir os Objetivos de Desenvolvimento Sustentável (ODS) até 2030 ou mesmo até 2050. Ações urgentes são necessárias agora, uma vez que qualquer atraso nas ações climáticas aumenta o custo de alcançar as metas do Acordo de Paris, pode reverter o nosso progresso e, em algum momento, tornar essas metas impossíveis.
O relatório aconselha a adoção de dietas com menor consumo intensivo de carne e redução do desperdício de alimentos, tanto em países desenvolvidos quanto em países em desenvolvimento. Isso reduziria em 50% a necessidade de aumentar a produção de comida para alimentar a população estimada de 9 a 10 bilhões de pessoas no planeta em 2050. Atualmente, em nível global, 33% dos alimentos comestíveis são desperdiçados e 56% do desperdício acontece em países industrializados, afirma o relatório.
Embora a urbanização esteja acontecendo globalmente num nível sem precedentes, o sexto Panorama Ambiental Global aponta que o fenômeno pode apresentar uma oportunidade para aumentar o bem-estar dos cidadãos, ao mesmo tempo em que diminui a pegada ambiental deles por meio de uma governança aprimorada, planejamento do uso da terra e infraestrutura verde. Além disso, o investimento estratégico em áreas rurais reduziria a pressão para que as pessoas migrem para as cidades.
O relatório pede ação para conter o fluxo de 8 milhões de toneladas de poluição plástica que vão parar nos oceanos a cada ano. Embora o problema tenha recebido cada vez mais atenção nos últimos anos, ainda não há um acordo global para enfrentar o lixo marinho.
Os cientistas observam avanços na coleta de estatísticas ambientais, particularmente de dados geoespaciais, e destacam que há um enorme potencial para avançar no conhecimento usando o big data e colaborações mais fortes em coleta de dados entre parceiros públicos e privados.
Ao invés de lidar com questões individuais, como a poluição da água, políticas que lidam com os sistemas na sua integridade, tais como energia, alimentação e resíduos, podem ser muito mais efetivas. Por exemplo, um clima estável e um ar limpo estão interligados. As ações de mitigação climática para alcançar as metas do Acordo de Paris custariam cerca de 22 trilhões de dólares, mas os benefícios de reduzir a poluição do ar poderiam equivaler a 54 trilhões de dólares.
“O relatório mostra que já existem políticas e tecnologias para traçar novos caminhos de desenvolvimento que evitarão esses riscos e levar saúde e prosperidade para todas as pessoas”, afirmaram Joyeeta Gupta e Paul Ekins, que copresidiram o processo do GEO-6.
“O que falta atualmente é a vontade política de implementar políticas e tecnologias a uma velocidade e escala suficientes. A quarta Assembleia das Nações Unidas para o Meio Ambiente, que está em curso nesta semana em Nairóbi, precisa ser o momento no qual os formuladores de políticas enfrentam os desafios e aproveitam as oportunidades de um futuro muito mais brilhante para a humanidade”, complementam.
The Weltec Biopower / Lanes Farm Energy biogas plant has started building near Pontefract, West Yorkshire, UK. Photo: Weltec Biopower
The plant will go live in late 2019 and deliver c7.3 million m³ of biomethane to the UK gas distribution network and will supply 9,600 households with energy
In winter 2019, the German biogas plant manufacturer Weltec Biopower has started building a biomethane plant near Pontefract, West Yorkshire, UK. The client is Lanes Farm Energy, a gas-to-grid project developed by Aqua Consultants. Tel Sultan, director of Lanes Farm Energy said After in-depth discussions with over ten technology providers, Weltec was selected to be our partner to deliver the technology. The plant will go live in late 2019 and deliver c7.3 million m³ of biomethane to the UK gas distribution network. This amount of eco-friendly natural gas equivalent is sufficient to supply about 9,600 households with sustainable energy, 24/7.
“The locally sourced feedstocks contribute greatly to the project’s sustainability emphasises Dr. Kevin Monson, Sales Manager at Weltec UK. Food leftovers account for more than half of the 80,000 tpa of substrate. “Additionally, there is cattle and chicken manure as well as grass silage and hybrid rye”, reports Monson. The effective utilisation of leftovers is a key reason why Charlotte Morton, Chief Executive of the Anaerobic Digestion & Bioresources Association (ADBA), considers biomethane projects such as the one in Pontefract to be ecologically and economically trend-setting. According to ADBA, the anaerobic digestion (AD) of food leftovers could cover a third of the gas or power demand in the UK and create 35,000 new jobs.
“For a large project such as the one that is being rolled out for Lanes Farm Energy to be successful, a lot of experience, hard work, co-operation and proven technology is required”, explains Carsten Hesselfeld, Sales Engineer at Weltec UK. Under consideration of the substrate structure, the solids are fed through two walking-floor feed hoppers with 110 and 220m³, and two Multimix units, which removes foreign objects, liquefies, shreds and macerates incoming solids to make them into an easily pumpable, easily mixed, easily digested liquid. The mashing and shredding process will make sure that the bacteria can access the substances in the digester faster and will reduce the energy required for mixing”, says Hesselfeld. Liquids will be fed in controllable volumes directly to digesters from five pre-storage tanks, of which two are equipped with a stainless steel bottom.
The gas production will take place in four stainless-steel digesters with a height of 8.8 m and an above-average capacity of 6,848m³ each. Weltec has decided to implement membrane upgrading to transform the biogas into high-quality biomethane. In a separation process comprising several stages, the raw biogas will be refined efficiently without methane slip. In this way, c850 standard m³ of biomethane that is suitable for feed-in will be produced every hour from December 2019 on.
Additionally, the biomethane production will yield digestate, which can be used as high-quality fertiliser, returning organic material and nutrients to the land. For this purpose, it will first be pasteurised and separated. The focus on sustainability is also reflected in these process steps. For example, the pasteurisation unit will be equipped with a state-of-the-art energy-efficient heat recovery system. For on-site electricity supply, Weltec will integrate a 500 kilowatt CHP. The operator will generate additional income from exporting excess electricity to the grid.
Biomethane plants such as Lanes Farm Energy will play an increasingly important role in the UK national energy mix. Compared to coal or oil, the biomethane production from leftovers enables carbon savings of about 90 percent. With the UK needing to boost energy security post-Brexit, and to re-balance its energy mix to reduce carbon emissions in accordance with the Paris Agreement, recovering clean, reliable biomethane from organic wastes and injecting it into the gas grid is a crucial piece of the energy jigsaw observes Dr. Kevin Monson and adds: “The provision of sustainable renewable heat and transport fuel from wastes means that biomethane will surely be further promoted by forward-thinking Governments. Biomethane plants are the epitome of the sustainable circular economy. The technology is proven and the gas grid is a ready-made distribution network.”
We are inviting: Journalists, journalism networks and journalism funders
07 Apr – 08 Apr 2019 Berlin
BUSINESS JOURNALISM IN TRANSFORMATION
SIGN UP NOW: The story of the energy transition cuts across borders and beats. One major angle is how businesses are transforming in response to the climate crisis. This is why we’re making business and the energy transition the focus of our second Global Energy Transition Journalism conference (GETJO). Clean Energy Wire CLEW is offering fellowships to the event for five members of the CLEW Journalism Network. Apply before 22 February to be considered.
Why hold a conference?
Business reporters often cover how companies are meeting new emission standards, or how they are innovating to fulfill the demands of the energy transition. But just how business and the energy transition are related to the climate crisis is often overlooked. And journalists who focus on climate change may also neglect the business angle.
After a first successful conference on the sidelines of last year’s COP23 in Bonn (check out the GETJO17 highlights here and the conference programme here), we will hold the second Global Energy Transition Journalism conference on 7 – 8 April 2019 in Berlin. The gathering will bring together journalists and other media professionals, foundation representatives and journalism researchers to address these questions:
What do businesses do to fight the climate crisis?
How are old, established industries transforming themselves?
Who are the innovators? Who is leading, lagging or even working against the transition?
How do companies act and shape the transition across borders?
And what questions should journalists be asking to get to the bottom of the story and inform their readers?
Attending the conference
The conference is free of charge. Participants must pay for their own travel and accommodation.
Five CLEW Journalism Network members will be selected to receive fellowships covering travel costs (reimbursement) and accommodation (07. – 09.04). To be eligible, you must:
Be a member of the CLEW Journalism Network. If you haven’t joined yet but would like to do so, sign up here now.
Submit the registration form above.
Send your idea on how business journalism should tackle the energy transition to: network@cleanenergywire.org. Perhaps you can draw from your own work as an example, you know an outlet in your region that already does great work on this, or you have a future vision of what best practices should be.
The registration deadline for the CLEW Journalism Network fellowships is Friday, 22 February.
All other registrations will be handled on a first-come-first-serve basis. We aim to process your application as soon as possible.
This page will be updated shortly with the conference programme and speakers. Stay in the loop by following us on Twitter and Facebook.
#GETJO2019 will take place back to back with the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue
If you would like more input from ministers and global business leaders, you can stay on for two extra days: The Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue (BETD), held at the German Foreign Office on 9-10 April 2019, brings together 1,500 experts on all aspects of the energy transition. Check their website for programme updates and how to seek accreditation.
The German Development Agency (GIZ) is also planning to offer a limited number of fellowships for international journalists travelling to the BETD. We will share their call for applications when it’s available.
The report, published by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, has found that overall, greenhouse gas emissions have fallen 42 per cent since 1990.
The UK has domestic targets for reaching greenhouse gas emissions under the Climate Change Act known as carbon budgets, the figures revealed that the country met the second carbon budget, covering 2013-2017 emissions.
The report found that carbon emissions fell by 2.7 per cent in 2017, compared to the previous year. It follows a 5 per cent cut in overall greenhouse gas emissions in 2016.
The transport sector was the biggest contributor of emissions, contributing to a massive 27 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions in the UK.
Yesterday, the Government announced a £48 million investment to drive down bus emissions in the UK. This money will fund new green vehicles and infrastructure to drive forward government plans to clean up the air in towns and cities.
After the latest figures were released, Friends of the Earth released a report calling for the implementation of a free bus system to ensure emissions are reduced accordingly.
Transport emissions were followed closely behind by energy supply, contributing to 24 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK. Coal use for electricity fell by 27 per cent to a record low, following the closure of two major plants.
This follows a report that found immediate phase-out of fossil fuels is crucial to meet current climate targets.
The report said that if current carbon intensive technologies were replaced with carbon free alternatives, carbon emissions would steadily decline, dropping to near zero in 40 years. This would result in a 64 per cent chance of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Last month, Carbon Brief released analysis which showed that in 2018, UK electricity generation dropped to its lowest since 1994.
A Rede Juruena Vivo é formada por organizações da sociedade civil, agricultores familiares, indígenas, estudantes, acadêmicos, coletivos (associações comunitárias e fóruns de mobilização social), servidores públicos e empresas interessadas em alternativas para o desenvolvimento local considerando a integridade da bacia do rio Juruena e buscando contribuir com espaços de participação popular nas discussões sobre gestão ambiental e recursos hídricos.
