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☆ Why Is a Petrostate Holding This Year’s Climate Talks?
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-11 | by ( Max Bearak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Heading into this month’s United Nations-sponsored climate negotiations, the world is contending with rising climate chaos and declining democracy. It won’t be lost on any of the attendees in Baku, the Azerbaijani capital, that the talks are being hosted by an autocratic government whose economy relies almost entirely on the fossil fuels that are the primary driver of climate change. As with so much at the United Nations, which is essentially a globe-spanning bureaucracy, the decision came down to protocol. And that protocol, because of particular weaknesses within it, was easily manipulated by Russia, which is itself an autocratic petrostate. By tradition, the U.N. climate summit is supposed to take place in a different part of the world each year.

Organizations: United Nations, Eastern Locations: United, Baku, Russia, Soviet

☆ Inside the Petrostate Hosting This Year’s Global Climate Negotiations
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-02 | by ( Max Bearak | Nanna Heitmann | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It’s an unlikely place for such talk: It is out of the way, under authoritarian rule and, crucially, hyper-dependent on fossil fuels. Azerbaijan is hosting the annual climate summit, called COP29, only by dint of a quirky United Nations selection process that left it as the last option on the table. It’s a nearly vertical learning curve for officials who acknowledge their inexperience in global climate politics. They also acknowledge that they are under pressure from some people in their own country, who fear the global energy transition away from fossil fuels. Mr. Babayev himself spent most of his career rising through the middle ranks of the state oil company.

Persons: Mukhtar Babayev, ”, Mr, Babayev Organizations: United Locations: Azerbaijan, Russia, Iran, United Nations, Saudi Arabia, Vanuatu, It’s, Europe

☆ At a Mountain Retreat, Wine, Lamb Kebabs and Lots of Climate Talk
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-02 | by ( Max Bearak | Nanna Heitmann | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

A few days ago, at an ornate hilltop hotel in Azerbaijan’s wine country with panoramic views of the Caucasus foothills, the world’s top climate diplomats debated how to marshal whopping amounts of money to fight global warming and compensate poor and vulnerable countries that suffer its worst effects. “Some say single-digit trillions. Some say double-digit,” said Yalchin Rafiyev, Azerbaijan’s chief climate negotiator. The meeting was a pre-meeting, of sorts, for the main event: November’s United Nations sponsored climate negotiations, known as COP29, to be held in the seaside capital, Baku, a few hours away. At previous summits, the world’s nations had struggled to agree on a seemingly basic premise in the fight against climate change, namely that humanity’s reliance on fossil fuels must be curbed as quickly as possible.

Persons: ”, Yalchin Rafiyev Organizations: November’s United Locations: Azerbaijan’s, Caucasus, November’s United Nations, Baku

☆ Why the Era of China’s Soaring Carbon Emissions Might Be Ending
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-18 | by ( Max Bearak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

China, the world’s biggest source of planet-warming greenhouse gases for most of the past two decades, is seemingly on the verge of bending its emissions curve from years of steep growth into a flat plateau. Since China’s emissions surpassed those of the United States in 2006, China’s global share has grown to almost a third — a huge number, even with population differences taken into account. A recent spate of data from China’s government, as well as reports by energy analysts, have provided positive signs that while China’s emissions may not decrease significantly, they also may not grow. China’s president, Xi Jinping, had pledged to reach that turning point by 2030. “The important thing to understand is that when China’s emissions stop growing, it likely follows that the world’s stop growing, too,” said Dave Jones, global insight director at Ember, an energy think tank.

Persons: Xi Jinping, ”, Dave Jones, Ember Locations: China, United States

☆ A.I. Helped Spot a Copper Bonanza. It Could Transform More Than Mining.
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-11 | by ( Max Bearak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Peering into their computer screens in California last year, the data crunchers watched a subterranean fortune come into focus. What they saw transported them 10,000 miles across the world, to Zambia, and then one more mile straight down into the Earth. On Thursday, their company, KoBold Metals, informed its business partners that their find is likely the largest copper discovery in more than a decade. According to their estimates, reviewed by The New York Times, the mine would produce at least 300,000 tons of copper a month once fully operational. The New York Times also reviewed an independent, third-party assessment of KoBold’s claims, which, while slightly more conservative than KoBold’s own, largely corroborated the size of the deposit.

Persons: KoBold Organizations: KoBold Metals, The New York Times, New York Times Locations: California, Zambia

☆ Why Greece Is Betting Big on American Gas
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-31 | by ( Max Bearak | Hilary Swift | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

When a withering financial crisis forced Greece to rethink its economy a decade ago, it bet big on green power. Since then, Greece’s energy transition has been so swift “it almost feels utopian,” one Greek environmentalist said. Mountainous ridgelines and arid islands are covered in wind turbines and solar panels that today provide nearly two-thirds of the nation’s electricity.But now Greece is deliberately pivoting back toward fossil fuels, just not to burn at home. This time it’s betting that it can become one of Europe’s main suppliers of natural gas, with much of it shipped from the United States. Both Greek and European Union subsidies have funded new pipelines that crisscross the country and connect to a brand-new import terminal that will send gas to a broad swath of Central and Eastern Europe for decades to come.

Persons: ”, Greece Organizations: Union Locations: Greece, , United States, Central, Eastern Europe

☆ U.S. to Stop Buying Russian Uranium, Cutting Cash to Moscow
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-14 | by ( Max Bearak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

President Biden signed a bill into law on Monday night banning the import of uranium enriched in Russia. Russia controls nearly half the world’s enrichment capacity, and American electric utilities have been spending around $1 billion per year on the fuel to run their reactors. It provides waivers for utilities that would be forced to shut down nuclear reactors, allowing them to continue imports until 2028. Russia’s government has threatened in the past to unilaterally halt exports to the United States if a ban were put into effect. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, did not reiterate the threat but called the bill “unfair.”

Persons: Biden, Ted Cruz, Dmitri S, Peskov, ” Organizations: Texas Republican, Kremlin Locations: Russia, Texas, United States

☆ Making Flying Cleaner
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-02 | by ( Manuela Andreoni | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Flying is just about the most polluting thing many of us do. This week the Biden administration announced new moves to make aviation cleaner, proposing guidelines for how fuel producers can qualify for tax credits as part of a program to increase production of more sustainable jet fuel, my colleagues Max Bearak and Dionne Searcey wrote. The guidelines are not yet final, but what caught my attention is that they allow corn-based ethanol to be part of the answer. Among experts, ethanol can be divisive and its environmental benefits are fiercely debated, even two decades after the U.S. started mixing it with gasoline. Today, I want to lay out why the aviation industry generates so much pollution and explain the debate over ethanol.

Persons: Hiroko Tabuchi, Max Bearak, Dionne Searcey Organizations: Google, Biden Locations: New York, San Francisco, Cameroon, U.S

☆ Corn to Power Airplanes? Biden Administration Sets a High Bar.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-30 | by ( Max Bearak | Dionne Searcey | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In a move aimed at lowering the greenhouse gas emissions of air travel, the Biden administration on Tuesday issued new guidelines for how fuel producers — and in particular, makers of ethanol from corn — could qualify for tax credits under a plan to increase the supply of so-called sustainable aviation fuel. It’s especially difficult to transition airplanes away from traditional jet fuel because there are so few affordable alternatives capable of getting a plane off the ground. The global aviation sector accounts for about 3 percent of the world’s total emissions, and most jet fuel today is made from fossil fuels. President Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act offered federal tax credits for sustainable aviation fuels, industry jargon for jet fuel made without fossil fuels, that cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 percent. For months now, federal officials have been evaluating research to decide how to measure whether various biofuel-based alternatives meet that standard.

Persons: Biden, Biden’s

☆ Driven by China, Coal Plants Made a Comeback in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-10 | by ( Max Bearak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Global capacity to generate power from coal, one of the most polluting fossil fuels, grew in 2023, driven by a wave of new plants coming online in China that coincided with a slowing pace of retirements of older plants in the United States and Europe. The findings came in an annual report by Global Energy Monitor, a nonprofit organization that tracks energy projects around the world. The last time the group found coal capacity to have grown was in 2019. Coal’s heavy greenhouse gas footprint has prompted calls for it to be rapidly phased out as a source of energy, and all of the world’s countries have broadly agreed to reduce their dependence on coal. But industrializing economies, particularly in Asian countries with inexpensive access to domestic coal reserves, have set longer horizons for their transitions.

Organizations: Global Energy Monitor Locations: China, United States, Europe

☆ A First Step Toward a Global Price on Carbon
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-28 | by ( Manuela Andreoni | Max Bearak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

It didn’t make many headlines, but last week, at a meeting of the International Maritime Organization, something potentially world-changing happened. The United Nations agency, which regulates the shipping industry, essentially committed to creating the world’s first global carbon price. “I’m very confident that there is going to be an economic pricing mechanism by this time next year,” Arsenio Dominguez, the Secretary General of the maritime organization, said. “What form it is going to have and what the name is going to be, I don’t know.”The proposal would require shipping companies to pay a fee for every ton of carbon they emit by burning fuel. In other words, it’s a tax.

Persons: ” Arsenio Dominguez Organizations: International Maritime Organization, United Nations

☆ Brazil’s Clashing Goals: Protect the Amazon and Pump Lots More Oil
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-13 | by ( Max Bearak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Through his office window, the head of Brazil’s state-run oil company looked out at the cluttered landscape of Rio de Janeiro. Looking back at him, across the city’s run-down high-rises, was the looming statue of Christ the Redeemer. This, even as his country positions itself as a leader in the fight against climate change which, of course, is primarily driven by the burning of oil and other fossil fuels. Petrobras already pumps about as much crude oil per year as ExxonMobil, according to Rystad Energy, a market research firm. It’s an enormous predicament for Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, better known simply as Lula, who has fashioned himself as the pre-eminent world leader on climate issues.

Persons: Christ, Hawks, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Lula Organizations: Redeemer, Petrobras, ExxonMobil, Rystad Energy, Saudi Locations: Rio de Janeiro, China, Russia, Kuwait

☆ U.S. Gas Producers Are Racing to Sell to Asia. And Mexico Is Key.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-13 | by ( Max Bearak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As soon as next year, the United States’ fossil fuel industry will gain its first foothold on a valuable shortcut to sell natural gas to Asia. The shortcut goes straight through Mexico. The terminal is symbolic of an enormous shift underway in the gas trade, one that will influence fossil-fuel use worldwide for decades and have consequences in the fight against climate change. The American fracking boom has transformed the United States into the world’s largest gas producer and exporter. Demand is particularly growing in China, India and fast-industrializing Southeast Asian countries.

Locations: United States, Asia, Mexico, Coast, Panama, American, China, India

UNCHARTED WATERS Airlines Race Toward a Future of Powering Their Jets With Corn Carriers want to replace jet fuel with ethanol to fight global warming. Corn 2022 N.D. MINN. WIS. S.D. Corn 2022 N.D. MINN. WIS. S.D. Corn 2022 N.D. MINN. WIS. S.D. Corn 2022 N.D. MINN. WIS. S.D.

Persons: “, ”, Jeffrey Broberg, Biden, Jake Wildman, Wildman, Lauren Riley, Amelia DeLuca, Todd Becker, United’s, Seager, et, Roy Stoltenberg, It’s, “ It’s, Mr, Stoltenberg, John, Stoltenberg douses, Megan Konar, Matt Jennen, midcentury, we’ve, Chad Friese, I’m, John Hansen, Mary, sighed Organizations: Jets, Carriers, Minnesota Well, Organization, United Airlines, Delta, New York Times, Farmers, IOWA NEB, MINN, Water Resources Research, Department of Agriculture, ”, U.S . Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, Aviation, Delta Air Lines, Ethanol Company, University of Illinois, Ethanol, ” Industry, Nebraska Farmers Union, Sunrise, Reserve Locations: America, Ohio, Washington, Minnesota, Nebraska, MINN, WIS, MICH, IOWA, IOWA NEB . OHIO, . MO, KAN . MO, KAN, In Kansas, Glenwood, Minn, ”, Japan, Germany, U.S, Chippewa, Benson, Omaha, ., KAN ., Cairo, Neb, Iowa, Wisconsin, University of Illinois Urbana, Champaign, Wood, China, Foxhome, Platte, . Nebraska

The General Assembly has undergone tremendous changes as its influence has waned. What does the General Assembly do? Unlike the U.N. Security Council, which can impose sanctions or authorize the use of force, the General Assembly is purely deliberative. The General Assembly also appoints the U.N. secretary general, currently António Guterres, for five-year terms and the Security Council’s 10 nonpermanent members. Last year, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine delivered a searing rebuke of the Russian invasion of his country in a recorded address to the General Assembly.

Persons: ”, Peter J, Hoffman, that’s, Dr, “, it’s, Israel, António, Volodymyr Zelensky, Guterres, ’, ” Dr, Indira Gandhi of Organizations: United Nations, Assembly, Security Council, Social Council, BRICS, New School, . Security, United Nations ’, Pacific, General, Sustainable, General Assembly, Security, New Zealand —, Indira Gandhi of India Locations: Manhattan, New York City, United, New York, Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Caribbean, Western Europe, Ukraine, “, South Sudan, Europe, Americas, Australia, North America, Israel, Japan, South Korea, New, ”, Oceania, America

On a craggy desert plateau in Uzbekistan, a renewable energy company from the United Arab Emirates is putting up more than 100 wind turbines. The Emirates, made wealthy by decades of oil exports, want to be seen as a climate-friendly renewable energy superpower, even as it helps lock developing nations around the world into decades more fossil fuel use. He founded the renewable energy company, Masdar, which has invested billions of dollars in zero-emissions energy technologies like wind and solar power across 40 countries. Simultaneously, he directs Adnoc, the national oil company, a behemoth that makes Masdar look minuscule. Adnoc pumps millions of barrels of oil per day and is aims to spend $150 billion over the next five years, mostly to ramp up its output.

Persons: Sultan al, Jaber, Adnoc Organizations: United Locations: Uzbekistan, United Arab Emirates, Central, Emirates

☆ To Understand Clean Energy Challenges, We Went to Uzbekistan
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-14 | by ( Max Bearak | More About Max Bearak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At the center of it allClean energy investments by Masdar could help Uzbekistan, a vast, landlocked country in Central Asia where the population and its energy needs are growing rapidly, rely less on the fossil fuels that make up nearly all of its energy arsenal today. Its government relies entirely on foreign funding to build up its energy infrastructure, however, and will take what it can get. He said he hoped to get countries to agree on a tripling of global renewable energy capacity at the climate talks. Emirati funding of both renewable and fossil energy is playing out elsewhere, too. In Azerbaijan, a recent Adnoc investment in an offshore oil field overshadowed Masdar’s expansion in renewable energy.

Persons: Jaber Organizations: Oil Change Locations: Uzbekistan, Central Asia, Masdar, Al, Azerbaijan, Germany, Japan

☆ At Africa’s First Climate Summit, a Clear Call to the World: Invest in Us
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-06 | by ( Max Bearak | More About Max Bearak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Heads of state from across Africa concluded an inaugural climate summit on Wednesday in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, by issuing a declaration that called for an urgent restructuring of the way wealthier nations engage with the continent. The declaration stressed numerous times that rather than being a hapless victim, Africa was primed for leadership on clean energy and environmental stewardship. This lack of financing is one of the biggest issues dividing rich and poor nations as the world struggles to slash carbon dioxide emissions. It will be one of the main points of contention at the United Nations global climate summit starting Nov. 30 in Dubai. The historic gathering in Nairobi was partly an effort by poorer nations to amplify their argument.

Organizations: United Nations Locations: Africa, Nairobi, Kenya’s, Dubai

☆ Clean Energy Projects Are Booming Everywhere. Except in Poor Nations.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-04 | by ( Max Bearak | More About Max Bearak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The world is racing ahead with enormous investments in renewable energy, for the first time this year plowing more money into solar power than oil. But the world’s poorest countries, mostly in Africa, are effectively priced out of the action by a global lending system that considers them too risky for investment. Only 2 percent of global investment in renewable energy has been in Africa, where nearly a billion people have little or no access to electricity. Clean energy projects would help stabilize their countries and economies, they say, reducing the very risk that investors say they fear. It’s an issue that looms large this week at a climate summit in Kenya, as it will at climate talks sponsored by the United Nations later this year in Dubai.

Persons: Archip Lobo Organizations: United Nations Locations: Africa, Kenya, Dubai, Congo

On Tuesday, the leaders of eight countries that are home to the Amazon River basin agreed to work together to conserve the world’s largest rainforest at a groundbreaking meeting convened by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil. The agreement, called the Belém Declaration, for the Brazilian city where the meeting was held, provides a road map to stave off the rampant deforestation, caused in large part by industrial agriculture and land-grabbing, that has severely damaged the rainforest and has major implications for Earth’s climate. The meeting was also expected to yield a separate agreement on Wednesday among other nations with major rainforests — including the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo and Indonesia — to more closely coordinate protecting the ecosystems globally. The Amazon rainforest is not only a haven of biodiversity but also plays an important role in the fight against climate change because it pulls huge amounts of planet-warming carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and stores it away. Over the past half-century, around 17 percent of the forest has been razed and an even bigger share is severely degraded.

Persons: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Organizations: Democratic Locations: Brazil, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Indonesia

☆ Nations Aim to Zero Out Shipping Emissions by Midcentury
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-06 | by ( Max Bearak | More About Max Bearak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Negotiators from nearly every country reached a provisional agreement on Thursday to effectively eliminate the shipping industry’s greenhouse gas emissions by as close to 2050 as possible. The breakthrough was made at an annual meeting in London of the International Maritime Organization, the global shipping regulator. The agreement, which will be formally signed on Friday, also sets goals for emissions reductions to be reached by 2030 and 2040. But a strong last-minute push from small island nations and other poorer coastal countries led to commitments from the organization that are in line with limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. That is the threshold most climate scientists say the world must avoid crossing to avert the most catastrophic effects of climate change.

Organizations: International Maritime Organization Locations: London

☆ The U.S. Is Paying Billions to Russia’s Nuclear Agency. Here’s Why.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Max Bearak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It is one of the most significant remaining flows of money from the United States to Russia, and it continues despite strenuous efforts among U.S. allies to sever economic ties with Moscow. The enriched uranium payments are made to subsidiaries of Rosatom, which in turn is closely intertwined with Russia’s military apparatus. The United States’ reliance on nuclear power is primed to grow as the country aims to decrease reliance on fossil fuels. The United States ceased enriching uranium entirely. The United States and Europe have largely stopped buying Russian fossil fuels as punishment for the Ukraine invasion.

Organizations: United Locations: United States, Russia, Moscow, Rosatom, Soviet, Europe, Ukraine, Piketon , Ohio

☆ Battle Lines Harden Over Big Oil’s Role at Climate Talks in Dubai
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Max Bearak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

An unavoidable tension surrounds this year’s United Nations-sponsored climate talks in November: They will take place in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, and the most important role at the talks is held by the man who heads the national oil company. The executive, Sultan al-Jaber, and other representatives of the Emirates have argued that they have a “game changing” plan to fight climate change by welcoming oil and gas companies from around the world to participate more fully in the talks. In other words, invite the producers of the fuels that cause the majority of global warming as key players in developing a plan to slow the warming. In an interview, Majid al-Suwaidi, an Emirati diplomat who will also play a major role at the climate talks, known by the acronym COP28, said, “We need to engage the people who have the technical know-how, the skills, the technology — and, by the way, the people who provide jobs — in a conversation about how they transform.”To activists who have attended these conferences for years, that notion sounds far-fetched. “It’s just like how tobacco lobbyists need to be kept out of conversations about cancer prevention,” said Catherine Abreu, who heads Destination Zero, a network of nonprofits working on climate issues.

Persons: Sultan al, Jaber, Majid al, ”, “ It’s, Catherine Abreu Organizations: United Nations, United, Emirates Locations: United, United Arab Emirates

Registering for aid and receiving instructions after arriving in Mykolaiv from Kherson, Ukraine, on Tuesday following damage to the Kakhovka dam. Evacuees, who fled after the Kakhovka dam was destroyed, exiting a train in Mykolaiv on Tuesday. In Mykolaiv, the southern port city, an emergency train pulled out of the station to collect people fleeing the rising waters in Kherson, about 40 miles to the east. The city of Kherson straddles the Dnipro River, which has become a front line in the war, dividing the warring armies. It mostly sits on elevated land but there are some neighborhoods close to the river bank where flooding has already been reported.

Persons: ”, don’t, “, Brendan Hoffman, The New York Times Alim, Chupyna, Olha Napkhanenko, Serhiy Prytula, ” Svitlana, Sitnik Organizations: Volunteers, Red Cross, ., The New York Times, Foundation, Telegram, “ Local Locations: Mykolaiv, Kherson, Ukraine, Dnipro, Vasyl, Ostriv, ”, Ukrainian, Russian, Oleshky, Crimea

☆ A Hydropower Renaissance, but Where Are the Giant Dams?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Mira Rojanasakul | Max Bearak | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +10 min

Pumped Storage Hydropower, 1900-2040 Global map showing a concentration of planned pumped storage projects in China. Pumped Storage Existing Planned China’s momentum has allowed it to surpass Europe’s capacity for pumped storage. “Our data show that pumped storage is set to grow much faster than conventional dams,” said Joe Bernardi, who runs Global Energy Monitor’s hydropower tracker. UPPER RESERVOIR GENERATORS + TURBINES LOWER RESERVOIR When electricity demand exceeds supply, water is released to race downhill, spinning giant turbines. UPPER RESERVOIR GENERATORS + TURBINES LOWER RESERVOIR When electricity demand exceeds supply, water is released to race downhill, spinning giant turbines.

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