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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

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