Lethal Heating: 10/02/17

02/10/2017

India Taps Solar, Storage To Ensure All Homes Have Power In 2018

RenewEconomy - Sophie Vorrath

Source: India Energy Storage Alliance

The Indian government has pledged to broaden the roll-out of solar and battery storage to households without power in rural and remote towns and villages, as a part of a newly launched $2.5 billion project to electrify all of the country’s households by the end of 2018.
At the launch of the project on Monday, Indian PM Narendra Modi said around one-quarter of all homes in the country were yet to be electrified, meaning about 300 million of India’s 1.3 billion people are still not hooked up to the grid.
As part of the program, the government will identify households eligible for free electricity connections, with no fee charged for the connection of “poor citizens,” the PM said.
But the majority of the program’s budget – more than 80 per cent – would go towards rural households, where solar power packs of 200-300W will be added with battery banks to un-electrified homes, along with LED lights, a DC fan and a DC power plug, and repair and maintenance for five years.
As PV-Tech reports, Modi’s latest announcement appears to be a major extension of the plan announced last December by former energy minister Piyush Goyal, that more than 16,000 Indian households across 800 remote villages would be given a solar panel, with an eight-hour battery storage backup.
When the government first started rolling out its rural electrification program, known as DDUGJY, there were more than 18,000 villages identified as un-electrified.
The scale of the new plan, and its focus on solar and battery storage, also undermines one of the federal government’s key arguments in favour of digging up and exporting more Australia coal: that it is a vital source of “cheap electricity” for India’s poor.
“India has a massive program of expanding electrification across the country and Australian coal has a very big role to play in that,” Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said in April when he visited the sub-continent and met with Indian coal billionaire Gautam Adani, whose company is, still, deliberating its final investment decision on the $21-billion Carmichael coal mine in Queensland’s Galilee basin – Australia’s largest, if built.
But that’s not the view of many reports and energy industry analysts. In February, for instance, a report from The Energy and Resources Institute (Teri) in New Delhi, suggested that renewables and batteries could undercut coal in India in less than a decade, as long as costs of the technologies continued on their current trajectory.
And if that happens, the report adds, it will reduce the country’s carbon dioxide emissions by about 600m tonnes, or 10 per cent, after 2030.
One of the key goals of India’s solar and battery storage roll-out, which will be coordinated by the state-run Rural Electrification Corporation, is to cut use of kerosene in rural and remote areas, which is both a fire risk and a heavy pollutant.
The states are expected to complete the electrification by December 2018.

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Donald Trump Is A Threat to Survival of Life On Earth: If Nuclear War Doesn't Get Us, Falling Oxygen Levels Will

Newsweek - Helena Wright*

Extreme Weather Amid Daunting Climate Report

Since President Donald Trump announced the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, the world has been looking towards other countries to pick up global leadership on climate change action.
France recently announced that it plans to become the first country to phase out all oil and gas exploration and production by 2040, according to a draft bill. What does this signal for markets and other governments? Is France stepping forward into a new era of global leadership on climate change?
Under the Paris Agreement on climate change, countries agreed to keep the global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees of warming and strive for 1.5 degrees. Impacts are still expected at 2 degrees of warming, but at least some of the world’s coral reefs could survive. Beyond this level, coral reefs, which a quarter of the world’s marine life and half a billion people depend on, are expected to be completely wiped out.
At the United Nations this week, French President Emmanuel Macron described the Paris climate deal as a “pact between generations” and has told Donald Trump that the climate deal will not be renegotiated. Macron also stated that the “door will always remain open” for America to re-join, and suggested he hopes to convince Trump to do so.
The terrifying math of climate change shows us that in order to stay within the 2-degree safety limit, the majority of the world’s existing fossil fuel reserves need to stay in the ground and not be burned. Macron’s plans to rule out fossil fuel exploration are essential, as exploration for new fossil fuels risks pushing the world over dangerous thresholds. Climate change is an existential threat.
At six degrees of warming, which we could get if all remaining fossil fuels were burned, falling oxygen levels could be a threat to the survival of life on earth. France’s new policy to phase out oil and gas exploration is absolutely in line with the science, and if anything, the year of 2040 is too late – exploration needs to be ruled out earlier.

French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on May 14. Alain Jocard/Pool/File Photo/Reuters

France’s leadership on climate change
In the past year Macron has showed great leadership on climate change. After Trump’s withdrawal from the global climate agreement, Macron strongly rebuked Trump on this, and his twitter statement to “make the planet great again” rapidly went viral.
In July, Macron announced that France would ban sales of petrol and diesel cars by 2040, and this was followed by a similar announcement by the UK to tackle air pollution. Germany is considering a similar policy, while Norway had already decided it will only allowing sales of 100% electric or plug-in hybrid cars by 2025. China is also looking at ending the sales of fossil fuel cars, following France and the UK.
France is also a leader in the area of green finance, with the launch of a 7 billion euro green bond earlier this year - the largest and longest issuance of green bonds to date. France has been a pioneer in the green bond market, and has also been the first nation to introduce mandatory climate and carbon risk reporting from institutional investors, pension funds and insurance companies.
All this makes Paris more competitive as a green finance hub, and the City of London may have to take notice of this amid the risk that Brexit-related disruption leads to the relocation of financial institutions.
With the costs of clean technology falling, financial centers including Paris and London have now been laying out plans to seize the green finance opportunity, notably by mobilizing the capital required for the low-carbon transition. There remains the risk that the UK could be losing its influence on important global issues due to the major distraction of Brexit.

Protesters carry signs during the Peoples Climate March at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 29, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

Wider impacts: Markets, banks, governments
France is not a major producer of oil, so the major effect is in terms of signaling for markets around the world. For example, it was previously found that France had one of the largest shale gas reserves in Europe, but it has already passed a ban on fracking. In 2011, France voted to ban fracking outright, taking into account public opinion.
In fact, fossil fuel exploration is a risky business financially, even aside from the impact on the planet. Several major banks already do not invest in oil and gas exploration, due to the financial risks involved. The African Development Bank and Asian Development Bank already rule out investing in exploration of fossil fuels.
Other governments must now take up the mantle and ban exploration of fossil fuels, to reduce climate risks. The unprecedented power of hurricanes over the past month, with Harvey, Irma, and now Maria, have shown that the costs of climate change will be dramatic. It is not possible to “adapt” – we must reduce emissions, and fast.
As such extreme weather events are expected to intensify over coming years, people will recognize which governments are protecting their people, and which leaders have failed to do so.
Governments that step up to reduce climate risks and take advantage of green growth opportunities will reap the rewards in terms of national prosperity. Ultimately, Macron action’s will stand the test of time, while Trump is set to find himself increasingly isolated.

*Dr. Helena Wright is a senior policy adviser at independent sustainability organization E3G.

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'Stuck In The Dark Ages': Pacific Island Leader Vents After Australia's Emissions Hit Record High

Fairfax - Nicole Hasham

Desperate Pacific islands at risk of sinking beneath the sea say Australia is "stuck in the Dark Ages" by relying on fossil fuels, in response to alarming data showing this nation's energy emissions have hit record highs.
The outcry from Australia's smallest neighbours comes just weeks after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull visited Samoa and reportedly promised Pacific leaders that he understood "very clearly" the threat of sea level rise to low-lying islands.

Greenhouse gases: not just a bunch of hot air
From tracing the exact source of CO2 in our atmosphere to measuring the earth's "carbon budget", the scientists studying climate change know a lot more about the greenhouse effect than you might think.

As Fairfax Media reported on Friday, a national audit prepared for The Australia Institute by energy analyst Hugh Saddler shows Australia's emissions from energy combustion reached a record high in the year to June, driven largely by petroleum, and specifically diesel, consumption.
The audit showed the increase in Australia's annual retail diesel emissions in the year to June on its own exceeded the total annual emissions of any Pacific nation.
Tuvalu Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga, whose tiny nine-island nation has become the poster child for the threat of sea-level rise, on Friday vented his frustration at the audit findings.
"While the rest of the world is moving ahead to renewable energy, Australia is stuck in the Dark Ages with its reliance on dirty fossil fuels. This is bad news for the Pacific", he said, adding that Australia's continued mining of coal was "extremely disappointing".
Genevieve Jiva, spokeswoman for the Pacific Islands Climate Action Network, said the findings would prompt Pacific leaders to exert further pressure on Australia at international climate talks in Bonn, Germany, in November. Fiji will chair the talks.
"It isn't the Pacific way to be confrontational, but Australia needs to be told that climate change is destroying our islands and way of life," Ms Jiva said.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg. Photo: Andrew Meares

"This is happening right now and needs action right now. Not in 20 years' time, not after the next Australian election, but right now."
Britain and France will ban the sale of new petrol and diesel-powered cars from 2040, to curb air pollution and emissions and encourage the uptake of electric cars.

A scene in Tuvalu after Cyclone Pam hit in 2015. Photo: Powersmart Solar/Facebook

Strategy.Policy.Research principal Philip Harrington, an expert consultant to federal, state and local governments, said his recent research showed electric fleet cars could be very cost effective but there were few models available for sale in Australia.
"Among the industry stakeholders that we spoke to, it's widely acknowledged that ... there are no incentives for electric vehicles in Australia, whereas almost every other country in the world does [offer incentives]. Therefore electric vehicle manufacturers don't bother to bring them here," he said.

Tuvalu Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga, whose tiny nine-island nation has become the poster child for the threat of sea-level rise, vented his frustration at the audit findings. Pictured: Fualopa motu in Funafuti Conservation Area, Tuvalu. Photo: Louise Southerden

Mr Harrington, said "bulk purchase initiatives" from fleet car buyers, such as governments and private companies, would create a guaranteed market and "provide enough confidence about sales for the global vehicle industry to be bothered bringing electric cars here".
The audit findings on road transport emissions suggest the electricity sector, where emissions cuts can most easily be made, must shoulder an even greater share of the emissions reduction burden if Australia is to meet its international obligations under the Paris climate deal.

Tuvaluan girls outside church. Photo: Louise Southerden

Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg said on Friday the government established a ministerial forum on vehicle emissions to consider possible reforms to Australia's fuel efficiency, fuel quality and noxious emissions standards, and "has a strong record of meeting its international emissions reduction commitments".

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