DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

The U.S. Energy Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E, aims to develop a dozen projects to recycle spent nuclear fuel. "I don't see many really looking seriously into reprocessing," Grossi told Reuters in an interview late on Wednesday at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter had halted reprocessing of nuclear waste in 1977, citing proliferation concerns. "Nobody will be doing reprocessing without the IAEA being involved," he said, noting that any nuclear waste recycling North Korea is undertaking is an exception. The United States has spent billions of dollars over decades on a project at Yucca Mountain in Nevada to store nuclear waste.

"Many countries faced with sharply rising energy costs and heightened security of supply concerns are turning to nuclear power," the IAEA said in a release announcing the exhibit. "We don't get to net zero by 2050 without nuclear power in the mix." The United States has already earmarked billions of dollars toward keeping existing nuclear power plants open as part of a broader strategy to decarbonize the economy and is hoping to encourage new projects. The nuclear power industry has had trouble raising money in recent years, having taken a huge public relations hit following the 2011 reactor meltdown at the Fukushima power plant in Japan. Even so, Hannah Fenwick, the co-lead of Nuclear for Climate which represents a network of 150 associations advocating for governments to embrace nuclear power, said her organization was lobbying policy-makers at COP27 to consider nuclear energy investments and was getting decent feedback.

☆ Iran offers nothing new in latest meeting, UN nuclear watchdog says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi attends the opening of the IAEA General Conference at their headquarters in Vienna, Austria, September 26, 2022. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger/File PhotoSHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov 9 (Reuters) - The head of the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog on Wednesday said Iran did not offer anything new during a recent meeting in Vienna about its nuclear program, but added that talks would continue in the coming weeks. “So, they didn't bring anything new,” IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi told Reuters on the sidelines of the COP27 climate conference in Egypt. That pact had restrained Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for relief from U.S., EU and U.N. economic sanctions, but former U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from it in 2018, claiming Iran was in violation. Indirect talks between Tehran and U.S. President Joe Biden's administration on reviving the largely hollowed-out deal are stalled.

The declaration would build on an agreement spearheaded by the United States and EU last year to slash methane emissions 30% by 2030 from 2020 levels. The draft said signatories could also bolster monitoring and reporting of methane emissions - forcing companies to face up to the scale of their problem. The 27-country EU is the world's biggest buyer of gas, while the United States is the world's biggest oil and gas producer. Agriculture is the top source of methane emissions worldwide, but experts say the energy sector can cut emissions faster - and often at low cost. So far, the Global Methane Pledge does not include China, the world's biggest methane emitter.

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Small island nations suffering the brunt of climate change want Big Oil to pay for mounting damage from ocean storms and sea-level rise, Antigua's prime minister told delegates at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt on Tuesday. "The oil and gas industry continues to earn almost 3 billion United States dollars daily in profits," Browne said, speaking on behalf of the Alliance of Small Island States. "It is about time that these companies are made to pay a global carbon tax on their profits as a source of funding for loss and damage. Profligate producers of fossil fuels have benefited from extortionate profits at the expense of human civilization. Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Katy Daigle and Janet LawrenceOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ COP27: What they are saying at the climate summit
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Sri Lanka Zimbabwe Adds Quotes Leaders Of Poland | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Nov 8 (Reuters) - World leaders, policymakers and delegates from nearly 200 countries are at the COP27 U.N. climate summit in Egypt, where they hope to keep alive a goal to avert the worst impacts of climate change. Profligate producers of fossil fuels have benefited from extortionate profits at the expense of human civilization. EMMERSON DAMBUDZO MNANGAGWA, PRESIDENT OF ZIMBABWE"Those mostly responsible for the climate crisis must listen and prioritize climate finance to help prevent disasters and climate victims recover. Developed nations should be giving leadership to work on climate challenges rather than abdicating their responsibilities. It is no secret that climate financing has missed the target….

☆ UN experts at COP27: Corporate climate pledges rife with greenwashing
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Gloria Dickie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and others attend the COP27 climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt November 7, 2022. At last year's climate negotiations in Glasgow, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appointed 17 experts to review the integrity of non-state net zero commitments amid concerns about "a surplus of confusion and deficit of credibility" involving corporate green boasting. "Bogus net zero claims drive up the cost that ultimately everyone will pay," she said. An estimated 80% of global emissions are now covered by pledges that commit to reaching net zero emissions. For example, a company cannot claim to be net zero if it continues to build or invest in new fossil fuel infrastructure or deforestation.

The United States is among over 100 countries that have pledged to cut their methane emissions 30% by 2030 from 2020 levels. They also say smaller wells often produce only insignificant methane emissions that don't warrant the cost and effort of a monitoring program. The problem, environmentalists say, is that collectively, the smaller wells produce a massive amount of climate-damaging methane. Exempting wells that produce less than 6 barrels per day would effectively exclude more than 80% of those marginal wells from the EPA rule, according to KIOGA. The supplemental ruling could also address the industry's use of flaring, or the deliberate burning of excess natural gas from well sites, which can also lead to methane emissions.

☆ As Maine’s winters shorten, tiny ticks threaten state’s mighty moose
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Lauren Owens Lambert | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

“We’ve seen that areas with lower moose density tend to have healthier moose with fewer ticks,” said state Moose Biologist Lee Kantar, who is running the study. Maine's moose population is currently the largest of all the lower 48 states at over 60,000 animals, according to state figures, thanks to an ideal habitat and careful management of the annual moose hunt. Kantar is now leading research to test whether thinning the moose population through increased hunting can help. It is unclear, he said, what an ideal moose population would be for Maine but he hopes the study will help answer that. Each year, the Maine moose hunt draws around 50,000 applications in a lottery for the 2,000 to 3,000 moose permits typically issued.

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterThe president of the United States, the largest World Bank shareholder, traditionally appoints World Bank presidents. A coalition of civil society groups on Wednesday called for the World Bank to fire Malpass. "We have – and will continue – to make that expectation clear to World Bank leadership. Selwin Hart, special adviser to the UN secretary-general on climate action, had also criticized the World Bank at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow last year. Large banks, especially the World Bank, "cannot continue to fiddle while the developing world burns," he said.

Search resuls for: "Richard Valdmanis"

10 mentions found