DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Appeals court affirms conviction of Chauvin for George Floyd murder
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Jonathan Allen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

April 17 (Reuters) - The Minnesota Court of Appeals on Monday upheld the conviction of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd during a 2020 arrest, rejecting Chauvin's request for a new trial. In December 2021, Chauvin pleaded guilty in federal court to charges he violated George Floyd's civil rights. The most serious state crime for which Chauvin was convicted was second-degree unintentional murder involving third-degree assault. Writing for the appeals court panel, Judge Peter Reyes disagreed. "Chauvin crossed that line here when he used unreasonable force on Floyd."

☆ Corporations desperate to avoid poor quality carbon credits and are starting up their own climate funds to offset emissions
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The voluntary carbon market has a problem with bad quality carbon credits. "Headline after headline is published exposing these offsets for poor quality," Michelle You, CEO and cofounder of carbon removal platform Supercritical told Insider. The London Stock Exchange has also done this for investors - instead of getting dividends, they get carbon credits. He expects bespoke funds will phase out when the quality of carbon credits is better assured. Frontier Fund has brought widespread attention to the carbon removal space and sends critical demand signals to early carbon removal companies, Supercritical's You said.

☆ Major registries in the carbon offset market are allowing dubious credits, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Emma Newburger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Major registries in the carbon offset market are systematically over-crediting projects and delivering dubious carbon offsets, a practice that allows some companies to make unjustified claims of climate progress, according to a new report published Tuesday in the journal Frontiers in Forests and Global Change. A group of researchers led by Barbara Haya, director of the Berkeley Carbon Trading Project, studied nearly 300 carbon offset projects across the world that comprise 11% of all carbon offset credits to date. Carbon offset projects allow businesses and governments to balance out their carbon emissions by supporting green initiatives that reduce or sequester an equal amount of carbon pollution. The report comes amid repeated concerns over whether carbon offsets are an accurate and effective way to mitigate climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. Voluntary carbon offset programs have been widely criticized as insufficiently regulated schemes that allow governments and corporations to undermine net-zero emission targets.

☆ This startup converts carbon into chemicals used in everything from cars to furniture. Check out the 15-slide pitch deck ViridiCO2 used to raise $3.5 million.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

UK startup ViridiCO2 is helping chemical manufacturers cut fossil fuel use with captured carbon. A startup helping chemical manufacturers cut their use of fossil fuels has just raised £3 million (around $3.5 million) in seed funding from EQT Ventures. It is one piece of the carbon capture, storage, and utilization puzzle. ViridiCO2 doesn't capture carbon itself but works with point-source carbon capture companies to do so. "These are big chemical manufacturers and also consumer product manufacturers," Stewart added.

☆ Corporate Climate Plans Fall Well Short of Targets, With a Few Bright Spots
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Dieter Holger | Carbon Market Watch S Executive Director Sabine Frank | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

The climate plans of major companies continue to fall short—but there are some bright spots. The net-zero plans of Holcim and H&M have also won approval from the Science Based Targets initiative. Decent disclosureWhile scope 3 emissions can be challenging to calculate and control, having net-zero plans that cover the complete value chain is best practice. Apple, iPhone manufacturer Foxconn Technology Co. and H&M were all noted for helping their suppliers to access renewable energy either with financial support, advice or connecting deals. The retailer has worked with suppliers to reduce packaging waste and to adopt farming practices that sequester greenhouse gases, as well as helping them access renewable energy.

☆ New technique from U.S. national lab promises to strip carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and factories at record-low cost
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +12 min

Just as importantly, industrial processes such as making iron, steel, cement, fertilizer, pulp and paper, and bioenergy could all reduce their carbon dioxide emissions this new technique. "We have the technology to be able to capture carbon dioxide from those industrial point sources. PNNL's technique removes carbon dioxide at the source, rather than sucking it out of the air. The technique of vacuuming up existing CO2 out of the air is known as direct carbon capture, and is exemplified by the Swiss company Climeworks. Graphic courtesy Nathan Johnson at Pacific Northwest National LabWhat happens with the rest of the carbon dioxide?

☆ Amazon's drone delivery unit hit with layoffs just as 10-year-old project finally launches
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Annie Palmer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +12 min

Two employees said Carbon, who replaced Prime Air co-founder Gur Kimchi, was hired to turn Prime Air into a real business with a sensible budget. Sources with knowledge of Prime Air said cuts in the drone delivery business were expected considering the division's many struggles. Monica Williams, a College Station resident, poses with a Prime Air drone at a community event in July. College Station residents also expressed concern about the prospect of drones harming the deer, foxes and birds that are native to the area. "As we continue to expand, we will update you when drone delivery is available for your household."

☆ Court asked to void verdict against Derek Chauvin in George Floyd's murder
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

An attorney for Derek Chauvin asked an appeals court Wednesday to throw out the former Minneapolis police officer’s convictions in the murder of George Floyd, arguing that legal and procedural errors deprived him of a fair trial. But Neal Katyal, a special attorney for the state, said Chauvin got “one of the most transparent and thorough trials in our nation’s history. ... Chauvin’s many arguments before this court do not come close to justifying reversal.”Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill sentenced Chauvin to 22 1/2 years after jurors found him guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. “Judge Cahill managed this trial with enormous care, and even if Chauvin could identify some minor fault, any error is harmless,” Katyal said. Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin addresses the court as Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill presides over Chauvin's sentencing on June 25, 2021, at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis.

☆ 8 top business leaders—from Yelp, Zillow, Dell, and more—on the habits they want to cultivate in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Natasha Piñon | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Dell TechnologiesJen Felch, Chief Digital Officer and CIO"Going into 2023, I'm focused on cultivating a habit of asking better questions. In 2023, I'm resolving to tackle my own executive burnout, and to be more authentic about it. In 2023, I'm committing to meditating 10 minutes per day, five days a week. Ultimately, entrepreneurial employees have the passion to make the 'new' happen, powering through hurdles, and inspiring real innovation around them." NextdoorSarah Friar, CEO"In 2023 there are several important habits that I will cultivate to help me and the Nextdoor team succeed.

☆ Salesforce's new marketplace wants to make it easier for companies to integrate carbon credits into their climate-action strategies
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Erica Sweeney | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Salesforce has a new marketplace for carbon credits, also known as carbon offsets. Companies can use their carbon credits on projects designed to help alleviate the climate crisis. Carbon credits as product stock-keeping units require a set of unique attributes that weren't available in the out-of-the-box product. Buyers on Net Zero Marketplace must commit to buy carbon credits as part of a comprehensive climate-action strategy — not as a substitute for absolute reductions. Providers of carbon credits don't always have the traditional sales and marketing tool kits needed to successfully bring credits to the market.

☆ Investors ignore China Covid spike at their peril
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Pete Sweeney | Thomson Reuters | Asia Economics Editor Pete Sweeney Joined Reuters Breakingviews In Hong Kong In September Previously He Served As Reuters' Chief Correspondent For China Economy | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

HONG KONG, Nov 18 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The blistering relief rally underway in Chinese equities is understandable. Most of China’s trading partners have moved on to living with the virus, but Xi still aspires to keep it out. New cases have officially multiplied from roughly 1,000 per day in October to 25,353 on Thursday. In the second, Covid-19 finally runs wild in China, killing the unvaccinated elderly as it did in Hong Kong earlier this year. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index in Hong Kong has risen nearly 30% in the past 14 trading days, Refinitiv data show, while the onshore benchmark CSI300 index gained 9%.

For more than 70 days this summer, a marine heatwave cooked the waters of the western Mediterranean. "We've been witnessing marine heatwaves during the last 20 years," said Garrabou, who's also coordinator of the T-MEDNet marine monitoring network. A 2016 marine heatwave along Chile's southern coast caused huge algae blooms that wiped out fish farms and cost the aquaculture industry some $800 million, said scientist Kathryn Smith with the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. As the world warms, marine heatwaves are expected to become more frequent, according to the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Though economists have yet to account fully for the impacts of marine heatwaves, recent experience has many concerned.

☆ Midterm elections live updates: Pennsylvania races, New Hampshire Senate race too early to call
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( Brandy Zadrozny | Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Sahil-Kapur-Headshot.Jpg | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +109 min

Share this -Link copiedWisconsin Senate and governor's races too early to call It is too early to call the Senate and gubernatorial races in Wisconsin, according to NBC News. Share this -Link copiedNew Hampshire Senate race too early to call The Senate race in New Hampshire is too early to call, according to NBC News. Share this -Link copiedPennsylvania Senate and governor races are too early to call After polls closed at 8 p.m. While Maricopa County election officials initially categorized the problem as a “hiccup,” it took hours before a solution was identified early Tuesday afternoon. In Columbus County, election officials allegedly were harassed by an “observer following one-stop workers” and photographing or filming the workers, it said.

While Maricopa County election officials initially categorized the problem as a “hiccup,” it took hours before a solution was identified early Tuesday afternoon. According to the poll, 46% of voters said their family’s financial situation is worse than it was two years ago. Civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP, filed a similar complaint Friday against state election officials. The app and portal had been down for part of the morning and the state's election hotline also briefly experienced issues. In Columbus County, election officials allegedly were harassed by an “observer following one-stop workers” and photographing or filming the workers, it said.

By the end of Election Day, approximately 21,000 total interviews will be conducted. Civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP, filed a similar complaint Friday against state election officials. The app and portal had been down for part of the morning and the state's election hotline also briefly experienced issues. In Columbus County, election officials allegedly were harassed by an “observer following one-stop workers” and photographing or filming the workers, it said. Share this -Link copiedSunny weather in most battleground states on Election Day It’s a bright and sunny Election Day in many battleground states!

How the midterm election outcome could impact Biden's agenda Nov. 8, 2022 02:02 Read the full story here. Civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP, filed a similar complaint Friday against state election officials. The app and portal had been down for part of the morning and the state's election hotline also briefly experienced issues. In Columbus County, election officials allegedly were harassed by an “observer following one-stop workers” and photographing or filming the workers, it said. Share this -Link copiedSunny weather in most battleground states on Election Day It’s a bright and sunny Election Day in many battleground states!

“We implore voters and members of the media to allow election officials to do their work.” The process is painstaking. In New Hanover, students allegedly were harassed while walking to class from a voting site, and an observer allegedly “angrily” confronted an election official, the board reported. “There are 8,800 election jurisdictions and we see issues pop up every election day,” the official said, citing low-level cyberattacks against election websites or accidental website outages as potential examples. Share this -Link copiedSunny weather in most battleground states on Election Day It’s a bright and sunny Election Day in many battleground states! Karamo sued Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey last week to toss absentee ballots unless voters present identification, alleging election law violations regarding the counting of the ballots.

Wisconsin judge won’t order sequestering of absentee ballotsMADISON, Wis. — A Wisconsin judge on Monday, less than 14 hours before polls opened, refused to order that military absentee ballots be pulled aside and sequestered until it can be verified that they were cast legally, saying that would be a “drastic remedy” that could disenfranchise voters. The Republican chair of the Wisconsin Assembly’s elections committee along with a veterans group and other voters sued on Friday, seeking a court order to sequester the ballots. Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Maxwell denied that request for a temporary restraining order in a ruling from the bench following a two-hour hearing Monday afternoon. “That just seems to be a drastic remedy,” he said of sequestering the ballots. Read the full story here.

☆ Carbon-Capture Projects Are Taking Off. Here’s How They Stash the Greenhouse Gas.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Eric Niiler | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Sixty-five miles off the coastal Norwegian city of Bergen, a drilling rig is punching through layers of mud and rock below the North Sea. The energy firms behind the rig aren’t prospecting for oil or gas. They are searching for a place to stash vast amounts of the greenhouse gases emitted by industrial facilities across Europe. The Northern Lights project—a $2.6 billion joint venture of Shell PLC , TotalEnergies SE, Equinor ASA and the Norwegian government—is one of almost 200 carbon-sequestration projects now in operation or in development around the world, according to the Global CCS Institute, a think tank that promotes carbon capture. When completed in 2024, Northern Lights will be the world’s biggest effort to sequester, or store, carbon dioxide underground.

☆ ‘I’ve always wanted to be a tree’: Human composting starts to catch on
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( Evan Bush | Evan Bush Is A Science Reporter For Nbc News. He Can Be Reached At Evan.Bush Nbcuni.Com. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

The bill took cues from Washington state, where lawmakers in 2019 became the first in the U.S. to legalize human composting and where a nascent industry is growing. Four Washington state funeral facilities are now licensed to perform natural organic reduction, according to Rob Goff, the executive director of the Washington State Funeral Directors Association. California’s law will give regulators with the state’s Cemetery and Funeral Bureau until 2027 to create regulations for a human composting program. The know-how behind human composting began in ranchers’ fields. Human composting could instead help soils sequester carbon and provide nutrients for plant life.

☆ How the airline industry plans to wean itself off one billion tons of carbon emissions
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-24 | by ( Trevor Laurence Jockims | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

But Taylor has nothing on the airline industry, whose annual CO2 emission is pushing one billion metric tons. Airlines have completed test flights with sustainable aviation fuels, and the deals with sustainable aviation fuel producers have started to accumulate. American is the first airline globally to receive validation from the Science Based Targets initiative for its intermediate GHG emissions reduction targets and the only U.S. airline to report using more than 1 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel in 2021. From ethanol, Gevo then processes further into a product that is chemically identical to standard aviation fuel. Judged against the standards of its own industry, American remains a leader in carbon reduction efforts.

Search resuls for: "sequester"

21 mentions found