350 Humboldt

Why Not in Humboldt?

Born out of an anti-car protest in 1974, Bogotá, the Colombian capital, closes many roads to cars every Sunday, leaving them free for bikes, skates and pedestrians. Once a week the citizens of Bogotá take back the streets of their city. Every Sunday, between 7am and 2pm, many of the biggest roads are shut to cars and left open to bikes, skates and feet. The weekly event was born out of a one-day protest in 1974 against cars taking over the world’s streets. It now covers 127 km (79 miles) of streets in the city and, on average, 1.5 million Bogotanos use the Ciclovía every Sunday. It has spread to most other Colombian cities and has been copied by mayors across the world, from Buenos Aires to Bengaluru, who hope the initiative can help get people in shape, improve mental health, reduce car usage and help fight climate change in the way that it has in Colombia. Part of the attraction is the fun and the family-friendly atmosphere. Bogotá’s cycleways are punctuated with aerobics classes, people selling fresh juices, and the sound of salsa; it’s a space for the exercise-obsessed to stretch their legs and their lungs uninhibited by cars, but it’s also a safe place to teach the young the benefits of exercise.

Even as fossil gas production rose by 40 percent from 2015 to 2022, methane emissions from gas extraction fell by 37 percent, according to a study of Environmental Protection Agency data published today by climate nonprofits Ceres and the Clean Air Task Force. That finding suggests that when energy companies want to, they can effectively reduce emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas with 82 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide over 20 years, and 30times the warming potential over 100 years.

A new law in the United States will prevent billionaires from being held accountable for their jet emissions by keeping passengers of private planes anonymous. A recent amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorisation bill allows private plane owners to anonymise their registration information. This makes it significantly more difficult to track private plane activity, addressing longstanding complaints from celebrities and billionaires. Private jet owners had to register their aircraft with the public FAA civil registry, enabling tracking through open radar mapping. The new law allows jet owners to hide their personal identifying information, making tracking much harder. Prominent people like Elon Musk and Taylor Swift have faced heat in the past after a student named Jack Sweeney tracked their private aircraft use and estimated how much carbon pollution their air travel was causing.

Claudia Sheinbaum made history when she won the Mexico’s presidential election on Sunday. Sheinbaum is a PhD engineer who specializes in determining how much energy industries and countries use, and how fossil fuels harm the planet. Her scientific credentials include contributing to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change fourth and fifth assessment reports, specifically the chapters on how to lower greenhouse gas emissions from industries like mining and steel. In 2015 and 2018, she co-authored papers laying out strategies to transition Mexico’s electric grid to 100 percent renewable energy. This is, as far as we know, the first time a world leader has expertise in how to decarbonize a country. As mayor of Mexico City, “she boosted the city’s public electro-mobility and cycling infrastructure, and initiated a large solar power park on the rooftops of a major wholesale market,” the AP reported. Her president platform “includes a goal to have 50 percent of Mexico’s electricity demand met through zero-carbon sources by 2030, using a mix of wind and solar as well as hydroelectric and geothermal power; investing $13.6 billion in renewable energy; [and] adding nearly 2,400 miles of transmission lines,” TNR reported. She’s also pledged to increase geothermal power and lithium production. But she has also supported fossil fuels: Sheinbaum has also pledged to increase refining capacity at Pemex.

In an interview with Fox News, former President Donald Trump [and convicted felon] disparaged environmental agencies and mocked concern about climate change, E & E News reports.

New International Energy Agency study. At a global level, reaching net-zero by 2050 would “make energy cheaper, not more costly”, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA). It compared global energy costs on the world’s current path – heading for 2.4C of warming – with the accelerated action needed to reach net-zero by 2050 and stay below 1.5C. It totted up investment needs, financing costs, the cost of fuel – including fossil fuel “rents”, such as oil company profits – as well as subsidies and distributional impacts. Strikingly, the IEA concluded that accelerating climate action to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 would make the global energy system “more affordable and fairer”.

Here is why more women should be leading climate action

Women have suffered more from climate-linked disasters than men. Research shows that women represent 80% of people displaced by extreme weather and that women are also 14 times more likely to die from it than men. And yet, gender is largely missing from the dialogue around the climate crisis. But Carla Pascoe Leahy writesthat women and gender-diverse people are not just “helpless victims.” They bring “crucial perspectives and leadership to tackling these problems.” She points out that companies with 30% women on their boards “display better climate governance, climate innovation and sustainability performance.” Now if only we could get more women elected to high office. Read more »

Pollution Paradox: How Cleaning Up Smog Drives Ocean Warming

And as if in response… Oil ads pulled. Reuters and The Financial Times removed ads sponsored by Saudi Aramco after a complaint that they misled the public by portraying the world’s largest oil company as a climate advocate. Reuters also pulled a podcast on climate solutions that its brand studio produced for Saudi Aramco.

Guterres also has backed a windfall tax on fossil-fuel firms, which he called the “godfathers of climate chaos”, the Associated Press reported.

The World Is Not on Track to Hit the Target of Tripling Renewable Energy Generation by 2030: Countries have not taken the actions necessary to meet the goal of tripling renewable energy generation by 2030, according to an analysis of national policies by the International Energy Agency, as Fiona Harvey reports for The Guardian. “The tripling target is ambitious but achievable—though only if governments quickly turn promises into plans of action,” said Fatih Birol, the executive director of the IEA, in a statement. Governments agreed last December at COP28 to pursue the goal as part of an attempt to avoid the most harmful effects of climate change. But global investment in renewables is now nearly double investment in fossil fuels. And the US sets new record with $71B in clean energy investment.

U.S. Utilities Are Slow to Embrace Grid Enhancing Technologies: Operators of transmission lines and other grid hardware have many tools available to boost the capacity of existing infrastructure, but U.S. companies have been slow to try these technologies, as Peter Behr reports for E&E News. The catch-all term for these tools is “grid-enhancing technologies,” which can include sensors, software and cables. The Biden administration and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission have taken steps to increase the use of the technologies, but they are running into reluctance from utility companies that have track records of taking a while to warm up to new ways of doing things.

The Chevrolet Equinox EV Is Exactly What the Market Needs: Positive reviews are coming in for the Chevrolet Equinox EV, a new model that has begun arriving at dealerships. Patrick George of InsideEVs declares the model to be a “home run” with its combination of 300-plus miles of range and pricing in the mid-$30,000 range. At least three manufacturers now offer EVs with more than 300 miles of range for less than the cost of the average new vehicle sold in the US, according to an analysis by Bloomberg Green.

California’s plan to phase out fossil fuel trucks, buses and vans is ahead of schedule, and Governor Newsom seized the opportunity today to jab at one of his favorite opponents: Big Oil. Newsom made a surprise appearance today on a press call with state regulators to announce that zero-emission vehicles accounted for 16 percent of medium- and heavy-duty sales last year, well beyond the state’s 6 percent mandate for this year. He had some fiery rhetoric for groups like the Western States Trucking Association and 17 Republican attorneys general who are challenging California’s clean truck regulations in federal courts.

Wildfire smoke killed more Californians prematurely in a decade than car accidents, a new study finds.

*****

Fun event: