(AU SMH) 5000 Free Fast Electric Car Chargers To Be Built Around Australia

Sydney Morning Herald - Nick O'Malley

Australian electric car charging network JOLT plans to install 5000 free fast chargers across capital cities after Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager, bought a stake in the company and pledged an initial $100 million towards building the network.

Drivers using JOLT chargers would receive 7 kWh – equivalent to about 45 kilometres of driving – for free, and be charged for power drawn after that. JOLT would also make money from advertising sold on its charging stations.
 

A JOLT fast charging station in operation in Adelaide.

All the power it sells will be renewable and the installation of the charging points is expected to begin in Sydney in September. JOLT operates charging stations in Adelaide.

Charlie Reid, a managing director of BlackRock’s Global Renewable Power team, said for the world to reach net zero emissions by 2050, the last internal combustion car engine would need to be sold by 2035. He said this would happen globally and in Australia, whatever government policies were in place, as Australia imported its vehicles.

“With the world heading towards fully electric or hydrogen fleets, Australia will follow suit and will follow quickly,” he said.

Investing

'Everyone was watching': BlackRock is showing its hand on coal

“What we find in the Australian market is that people do want to purchase electric vehicles, but they don’t have the infrastructure in place in order to support their purchase. And that’s part of the rationale for our investment in JOLT.”

Mr Reid said the global electric car fleet would have to increase from about 12 million to more than 200 million by 2030.

“That creates a $7 trillion investment opportunity and a $1 trillion investment opportunity in infrastructure to support those vehicles,” he said.

JOLT chief executive Doug McNamee said the investment showed that, after a slow start, Australia’s electric car market had turned a corner.

He said the total cost of ownership of electric cars was lower than for comparable internal combustion cars, and they would soon also be cheaper to buy.

A JOLT fast charger; more are set to be installed in Australia.

Tesla had demonstrated electric cars could be attractive to consumers on merit, and now that major car manufacturers were dedicating all of their research and development to the technology, they would continue to improve.

According to a new report by the Electric Vehicle Council, which represents the industry in Australia, in the first half of 2021, 8688 electric cars were sold in Australia, which was more than was sold in all of 2020.

The council’s chief executive Behyad Jafari said this was about 1.5 per cent of new cars sold, compared with a market share of about 10 to 15 per cent in similar markets overseas. He described the figure as low but growing rapidly.

The growth now appeared to be locked in, particularly due to new policies announced by the NSW government to encourage the use of the technology, he said.

BlackRock is the world’s largest investment manager and, in a series of high-profile statements, its boss, Larry Fink, has made it clear climate change is a key to concern to its clients.

The investment in JOLT is BlackRock’s first in electric car infrastructure in the Asia Pacific region and its largest investment in the sector in the world.

Links

• 5000 free fast electric car chargers to be built around Australia
• IPCC report may have underplayed risk of freak El Nino and La Nina events
• Scientists turn to risky plan B as the world fails on climate change
• Monster solar farm backed by Atlassian founder about to get ‘significantly bigger’
• Blowing smoke: Toyota’s emissions advantage splits sector
• ‘Negative value’: BHP struggles to offload NSW’s biggest coal pit

(CNN) Germany's Deadly Floods Were Up To 9 Times More Likely Because Of Climate Change, Study Estimates

CNN -  Angela Dewan

Flooding in July damaged the main road leading through the Ahr river valley in Germany.

London - Record rainfall that triggered deadly floods in Western Europe in July was made between 1.2 and 9 times more likely by human-caused climate change, according to a new study.

 At least 220 people were killed between July 12 and 15 -- mostly in Germany, though dozens also died in Belgium -- and homes and other buildings were destroyed in flash flooding that followed heavy rainfall. Some parts of the region experienced more rain in a single day than they would typically expect in a whole month.

The study, conducted by 39 scientists and researchers with the World Weather Attribution (WWA) project, also found that the most extreme rain was a once-in-400-year event, and that climate change increased the intensity of daily extreme rainfall by 3% to 19%.

"These floods have shown us that even developed countries are not safe from severe impacts of extreme weather that we have seen and known to get worse with climate change," Friederike Otto, the associate director of the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford, said in a statement.

"This is an urgent global challenge and we need to step up to it. The science is clear and has been for years."

A billion children are at 'extremely high risk' of climate shocks, UNICEF says

The one-in-400-year frequency only refers to the particular region studied and does not mean it will be another 400 years until other parts of Europe, or the world, will see a similar weather event, explained Maarten van Aalst, a professor of climate and disaster resilience from the University of Twente in the Netherlands.

 "In this case, [the projection for next year is] possibly worse because, year by year, if the trend so far is that the climate is increasing, the risk will continue to grow. So, if anything, we're expecting a higher chance of this happening next year than this year. But it's basically a one-over-400 chance every single year," van Aalst said at a news conference.

The Ahr River in Insul, Germany, on July 15, 2021 after heavy rainfall.

The scientists focused on the areas around the Ahr and Erft rivers in Germany and the Meuse in Belgium, where rainfall records were broken. But they also took into account what was happening across a larger region, including parts of France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Switzerland, to establish how the extreme weather event had been influenced by increasing global temperatures.

The scientists looked at weather records and used computer simulations to compare the picture today -- in a world that is 1.2 degrees Celsius warmer than it was in pre-industrial times -- to that of the late 1800s.

They warned that the warmer Earth gets, the more frequent and intense these rain events will be. Specifically, if global temperatures rose to 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels, the intensity of rain in a single day would increase by a further 0.8 to 6% and would be between 1.2 and 1.4 times more likely to happen, their models project.

River measurement stations destroyed

Rain fell at the normally snowy summit of Greenland for the first time on record

Van Aalst said that the findings should be a "wake-up call" for governments and local leaders to improve their preparedness for extreme weather events, including looking at how homes are constructed so that children, the elderly and people with disabilities can reach safety in events like floods or fires.

"I hope it's a wake-up call also to people that have not just been affected by this one, but also people elsewhere -- because it's been heatwaves elsewhere, where I could tell a similar story," he said.

"We are just facing more extreme events of many kinds, and the only thing we can do is, on the one hand, closing the tap off the increase in greenhouse gases to avoid the risk of getting further out of hand, and on the other hand, preparing for that more extreme climate."

The scientists acknowledged their estimate -- 1.2 to 9 times more likely, due to climate change -- was a wide range, and explained that the models they used and the data available to them around such localized events prevented them from narrowing their findings down further.

They were also missing crucial data, as some measurement stations were destroyed by the floods.

Two brothers embrace Monday, July 19, in front of their parents' home, which was destroyed by flooding in Altenahr, Germany.

The study acknowledged that a number of conditions had worsened the severity of the floods, including that the soil in the region was already saturated, and that the terrain in some locations, with narrow valleys and steep sloping mountains, led "to funnel-like effects in the event of extreme floods." Those factors were taken into account in their models.

 This summer, the Northern Hemisphere has experienced wide range of extreme weather events beyond deadly flooding, including record-breaking temperatures that in some instances have triggered wildfires in the US, Canada, Siberia, Algeria and southern Europe.

On August 14, rain fell on the summit of Greenland for the first time on record, as temperatures there rose above freezing for the third time in less than a decade. The warm air fueled an extreme rain event that dumped 7 billion tons of water on the ice sheet.

The US state of Tennessee is now experiencing heavy rains and deadly floods, as the National Weather Service in Nashville reported more than 17 inches of rain in the city of McEwen, possibly setting a new state record for 24-hour rainfall. If verified, it would smash the previous state record set in September 1982 with 13.6 inches of rain the city of Milan.

Links

• Heavy rainfall which led to severe flooding in Western Europe made more likely by climate change
• Enormous scale of destruction is revealed as water subsides after historic western Europe flooding
• More than 150 people still missing in German floods unlikely to be found, officials fear
• World Weather Attribution
• (Euronews) Experts: Europe Floods Show Urgency To Tackle Climate Change
• (Reuters) From China To Germany, Floods Expose Climate Vulnerability.
• (Climate News Network) Flood Risk Will Rise As Climate Heat Intensifies
• (NYT) German Floods Raise The Bar On Extreme Weather Events
• (NYT) Europe Flooding Deaths Pass 125, And Scientists See Fingerprints Of Climate Change
• (The Guardian) What Is Causing The Floods In Europe? 

(The Conversation) How Would Planting 8 Billion Trees Every Year For 20 Years Affect Earth’s Climate?

The Conversation - Karen D. Holl

If we planted 8 billion trees a year for 20 years, what would happen on Earth? – Shivam K., age 14, Nawada, Bihar, India

Planting 8 billion trees a year would replace about half of the 15 billion cut down annually. Michael Tewelde/AFP via Getty Images

Author Karen D. Holl is Professor of Restoration Ecology, University of California, Santa Cruz

Politicians, business leaders, YouTubers and celebrities are calling for the planting of millions, billions or even trillions of trees to slow climate change.

There are currently almost 8 billion people on Earth. If every single person planted a tree each year for the next 20 years, that would mean roughly 160 billion new trees.

Could massive tree planting actually slow climate change?

Trees and carbon

Carbon dioxide is the main gas that causes global warming. Through photosynthesis, trees and other plants transform carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into carbohydrates, which they use to make stems, leaves and roots.

The amount of carbon a tree can store varies a great deal. It depends on the tree species, where it is growing and how old it is.

Let’s say the average tree takes up 50 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. If a person planted a tree every year for 20 years – and each one survived, which is highly unlikely – those 20 trees would take up about 1,000 pounds, or half a ton, of carbon dioxide per year.

The average person in the United States produces a whopping 15.5 tons of carbon dioxide a year compared with 1.9 tons for an average person in India. This means that if each person in the U.S. planted one tree per year it would offset only about 3% of the carbon dioxide they produce each year, after all 20 trees had matured. But, it would offset 26% for somebody in India.

Planting trees is certainly part of the solution to climate change, but there are more important ones.

Clearing the Amazon rainforest for livestock farms in Brazil in 2017. Brazil Photos/LightRocket via Getty Images

Protecting the trees we have

There are about 3 trillion trees on Earth, which is only half as many as 12,000 years ago, at the start of human civilization.

People cut down an estimated 15 billion trees each year. A lot of those trees are in tropical forests, but deforestation is happening all over the planet.

Protecting existing forests makes sense. Not only do they absorb carbon dioxide in the trees and the soil, but they provide habitat for animals. Trees can provide firewood and fruit for people. In cities, they can offer shade and recreational spaces.

But trees should not be planted where they didn’t grow before, such as in native grasslands or savannas. These ecosystems provide important habitat for their own animals and plants – and already store carbon if they are left undisturbed.

Doing more

To slow climate change, people need to do much more than plant trees. Humans need to reduce their carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions quickly by transitioning to renewable energy sources, like solar and wind. People should also reduce the amount they drive and fly – and eat less meat, as meat has a much larger carbon footprint per calorie than grains and vegetables.

It is important that everybody – businesses, politicians, governments, adults and even kids – do what they can to reduce fossil fuel emissions. I know it can seem pretty overwhelming to think about what you as one person can do to help the planet. Fortunately, there are many options.

Volunteer with a local conservation organization, where you can help protect and restore local habitats. Discuss with your family new lifestyle choices, like biking, walking or taking public transit rather than driving.

Two Girl Scouts take a stand against deforestation

And don’t be afraid to lead an effort to protect trees, locally or globally. Two 11-year-old Girl Scouts, concerned about the destruction of rainforests for palm oil plantations, led an effort to eliminate palm oil in Girl Scout cookies.

Sometimes change is slow, but together people can make it happen.

Links

• How Many Trees Are There in the World?
• CO2 Emissions per Capita 
• All About Trees
• Welcome to the Global Forest Watch map!
• Mapping tree density at a global scale
• Deforestation explained
• Renewable Energy
• Transportation and Climate Change 
• Carbon footprint facts and quiz for kids