Ibiza and Majorca plan for 100 per cent renewable energy by 2050

Ibiza and Majorca could be running on 100 per cent renewable energy by 2050, under plans unveiled by the islands’ government yesterday.

The proposed climate change law would make the islands some of the greenest in the world but could also pave the way for clashes with Madrid.

The Balearics generate less than 3 per cent of their electricity from renewable sources at present, primarily from solar panels. Coal-fired power plants, diesel generators and gas plants account for more than 70 per cent of supply, while most of the rest is imported from the mainland.

The plan would involve a phased shutdown of the islands’ main coal plant, at Alcúdia on Majorca, between 2020 and 2025, a proposal that has been rejected by the Spanish energy ministry. Joan Groizard, the Balearic islands’ energy director, said the target to move to entirely renewable energy would mean the islands needed to achieve “100 per cent renewable electricity long before 2050”.

Large car parks would have to install solar panels by 2025. By 2035, car hire companies would be forced to electrify their entire fleets and new non-electric vehicles would be banned from entering the islands.

Mr Groizard said he hoped that the law would help the islands “be recognised as a low-carbon destination, where the rest of Europe can not only enjoy a holiday but also learn something they can then apply to their own energy transitions”.

Sam Fankhauser, director of the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics, said: “Going 100 per cent renewable by 2050 is a much more aggressive target for the power sector than most other countries have.”

Britain is aiming to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent compared with 1990 levels by 2050.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ibiza-and-majorca-plan-for-100-per-cent-renewable-energy-by-2050-gp6dpzptl

AL GORE DISCUSSES CLIMATE ACTION, EXTREME WEATHER AT WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM (VIDEO)

Climate Reality’s founder, Al Gore, is in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) 48th annual meeting, where he discussed extreme weather, climate action, and the goal of limiting global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius enshrined in the Paris Agreement.

The three-day annual event is being held January 23-26 with attendance expected from a who’s who of global and business leaders, academics, activists, and more, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will deliver the opening address; French President Emmanuel Macron; British Prime Minister Theresa May; Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau; and US President Donald Trump, who is set to deliver a keynote address before the close of the meeting.
The Forum engages the foremost political, business, and NGO leaders in hopes of shaping global and industrial agendas to improve the state of the world.

“Convening participants under the theme, Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World, the meeting will focus on finding ways to reaffirm international cooperation on crucial shared interests, such as international security, the environment and the global economy,” WEF writes. Read More

No Straw Please

Make it a part of your ordering when you're at a restaurant. When you order your drink, make sure to say "no straw." Soon it will become automatic. "Iced tea, no straw."

Rethinking the Utility Business Model

Interviews - An interview with Dan Cross-Call from the Rocky Mountain Institute - Renewable Energy Magazine, at the heart of clean energy journalism

Over the past year, the adoption of distributed energy resources (DERs), such as solar PV, has increased tremendously. Alongside escalating concerns around carbon and greenhouse gas mitigation, this has forced an understanding that US utilities need to re-orientate their operating strategy and industry outlook in the face of regulatory, policy, and technological change – or risk losing market share.

The latest report from the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), Reimagining the Utility, aims to help policymakers and industry leaders make this transition by framing the critical choices regulators and utilities must make to best shape the ongoing evolution of a cleaner, more resilient, and more customer-oriented grid.

REM talked to Rocky Mountain Institute’s Dan Cross-Call to discuss these issues in greater depth.
Read More

UK 'could adopt' Norway bottle recycling system

Advisers to government say the schemes have massively reduced plastic litter in the environment and seas. And a ministerial delegation has been to Norway to see if the UK should copy an industry-led scheme that recycles 97% of bottles.
In the UK, figures show that only around half of all plastic bottles get recycled.
Norway claims to offer the most cost-efficient way of tackling plastic litter
The Norwegian government decided the best method would be to put a tax on every bottle that's not recycled - then leave the operating details of the scheme up to business.
It works like this: The consumer pays a deposit on every bottle - the equivalent of 10p to 25p depending on size.
They return it empty and post it into a machine which reads the barcode and produces a coupon for the deposit.
If the careless consumer has left liquid in the bottle, the machine eats it anyway - but hands the deposit to the shopkeeper who'll need to empty the bottle.
Similar schemes are in operation in other Nordic nations, Germany, and some states in the US and Canada.
The managers of the Norway operation say it could easily be applied to the UK. Read More

How Bill Gates aims to clean up the planet

It’s nothing much to look at, but the tangle of pipes, pumps, tanks, reactors, chimneys and ducts on a messy industrial estate outside the logging town of Squamish in western Canada could just provide the fix to stop the world tipping into runaway climate change and substitute dwindling supplies of conventional fuel.

It’s a simple idea: strip CO2 from the air and use it to produce carbon-neutral fuel. But can it work on an industrial scale?

It could also make Harvard superstar physicist David Keith, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and oil sands magnate Norman Murray Edwards more money than they could ever dream of.

The idea is grandiose yet simple: decarbonise the global economy by extracting global-warming carbon dioxide (CO2) straight from the air, using arrays of giant fans and patented chemical whizzery; and then use the gas to make clean, carbon-neutral synthetic diesel and petrol to drive the world’s ships, planes and trucks. Read More

YOUNG WATER LEADERS CONFERENCE BERLIN: NOV 7, 2018

Welcome to the Young Water Leaders Berlin Event which connects current leaders with future leaders to ensure a water-secure world for today’s and future generations.

Young Water ​Leaders was ​launched in ​September 2017 ​to connect ​current leaders ​with future ​leaders. ​

Young Water ​Leaders Berlin ​is the first ​major event to ​bring current ​and future ​leaders ​together to ​build a water-​secure world.​ ​

~Robert ​Brears, Author ​of Urban Water ​Security (Wiley)​, Founder of ​Mitidaption, ​Mark and Focus, ​and Young Water ​Leaders . Read More