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An article from Ecowatch

Today [October 28], the largest marine protected area in the world was created in the Ross Sea, off the coast of Antarctica. This is a huge victory for the whales, penguins and toothfish that live there and for the millions of people standing up to protect our oceans.

Source: New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
(Click on image to enlarge)

For years, Greenpeace has campaigned for protection of the Ross Sea at the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), the international body responsible for stewardship of Antarctic waters. Each year, Greenpeace, the Antarctic Ocean Alliance and millions of people around the world would call on governments to do the right thing, each time thinking this was the year it would finally happen. But year after year, there was always something blocking progress. But this year, all of CCAMLR’s members finally agreed—it’s time to make the Ross Sea a protected sanctuary!

The Ross Sea sanctuary becomes the biggest marine protected area in the world, covering 1,550,000 km2 (which is roughly the size of three Texases, two Spains, or one Mongolia), almost three quarters of which will be a fully-protected.

Known as “the Last Ocean,” the Ross Sea has been identified by scientists as the most pristine shallow ocean left on Earth. It’s stunning, but we were starting to wonder if it would ever be protected…

To finally get agreement to protect the Ross Sea a time clause of 35 years was included, which means that in 35 years CCAMLR members will again need to decide on its future. Marine protection, to be truly effective, needs to be long lasting so we have all those years ahead of us to make sure when the Ross Sea sanctuary is up for renewal, there is no resistance to making it permanent. We’re pretty confident that by 2051 it will be a simple decision!

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If we can connect up the planet through Internet, can’t we agree to preserve the planet?

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This year has already been a huge year for ocean protection.

The Ross Sea win comes on the heels of President Obama’s decision to expand the Papahanaumokuakea National Marine Monument, making it—until now—the world’s largest marine protected area. Just days before that, Obama also made history by establishing the first National Marine Monument in the Atlantic, protecting canyons and seamounts.

Other nations have been stepping up too on protecting their national waters—such as Chile’s creation of a massive marine park around Easter Island and the UK’s commitment to create protected “Blue Belts” around its overseas territories.

As big as these new sanctuaries are, the ocean is bigger still. Despite a pledge at the World Conservation Congress this summer to protect 30 percent of our oceans by 2030 , we have a long way to go to meet that target—and Greenpeace is pushing for more, with a goal of setting aside 40 percent of our world’s oceans as fully-protected sanctuaries.

The science is clear that ocean sanctuaries are vital to protecting biodiversity, rebuilding fish populations and increasing resilience to climate change. Unfortunately, long battles like the one that led to this victory for the Ross Sea need more than just good science—they need millions of people speaking up for our oceans. Without your voices, the best scientific case in the world is not enough to stand up against the short-term interests of the powerful commercial fishing lobby.

The tide seems to be turning on marine conservation, but as the long battle to win protection for the Ross Sea shows, getting action in shared seas, beyond national jurisdiction is a massive challenge. That’s why we need to do more to protect the so-called High Seas, which at the moment not only have no protection, they don’t even have an agreed system that could protect them. But we are getting there! Greenpeace is working tirelessly to ensure that United Nations delivers sanctuaries on the high seas, as well as campaigning and mobilizing to protect some of our most precious shared seas like the Arctic. With your help, we want to do even more.

Thank you all for your part in this victory! Together, we can keep the momentum building and ensure that we’ll have healthy oceans long into the future. Let’s make this the decade of ocean protection!

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An article from the Climate Examiner

Renewable sources of electricity overtook coal last year to become the largest source of installed capacity in the world, the International Energy Agency has reported.

Some 153 gigawatts (GW) of net renewable electricity capacity was installed around the world over the course of 2015, up 15 percent on the previous year. For comparison, Canada’s entire electricity capacity in 2014 was 133 GW.

Most of the growth has come from solar and wind, the global body said in its Medium-term Renewable Market Report published this week. Of the total, 63 GW came from onshore wind and 49 GW from solar photovoltaic.

Forty percent of the growth has occurred in China, where reportedly two turbines were built every hour on average last year. The People’s Republic is expected to continue to lead the world in growth in renewables for the foreseeable future, followed by the United States, then the European Union.

“When people talk about China, they think about coal, but it is changing,” said IEA chief Fatih Birol.

Looking forward, the renewables sector is expected to climb by 42 percent between 2015 and 2021.

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Are we making progress in renewable energy?

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The organization credits what it describes as “a transformation of global power markets led by renewables” to two factors. The first is a sharp reduction in costs for solar and onshore wind. Over the coming five years, costs for solar photovoltaic are predicted to drop by a further 25 percent and for onshore wind by 15 percent.

The second major factor has been government subsidies for the installation of renewable capacity. Over the next five years, policy changes in four key countries will drive much of the new growth: the US, China, India and Mexico.

The agency is careful to point out however that it is only the capacity to generate electricity that has surpassed coal, not the actual amount of electricity produced. Because wind and solar are intermittent—producing less or no electricity when the wind isn’t blowing or the sun isn’t shining, and at other times producing more electricity than needed—the proportion of actual generation remains much lower than coal, gas, hydro and nuclear, which can generate electricity at any time of the day.

Renewable sources of electricity are predicted to deliver 28 percent of generation by 2021, up from 23 percent last year. But most of this will come from existing hydroelectric dams. Hydro represented 71 percent of global renewable generation in 2015. Wind generated 15 percent, bio-energy eight percent and solar just four percent.

The report authors also warn that despite the significant growth in the sector, this is still insufficient to meet the Paris Agreement’s 2°C maximum increase in average global temperatures above pre-industrial times by the end of the century.

In addition, the IEA notes, while growth in clean electricity capacity has soared in the last few years, renewable penetration for transport and heating remains slow.

(Thank you to Janet Hudgins, the CPNN reporter for this article.)

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An article from the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature)

Key decisions boosting support for Indigenous peoples’ rights have been adopted by IUCN State, government and civil society members today [9 September] at the IUCN World Conservation Congress taking place in Hawaiʻi.

Photo: Colectivo Siestesia – UICN América del Sur
Click on photo to enlarge

In a landmark decision, the IUCN Members’ Assembly has voted to create a new category of membership for Indigenous peoples’ organisations. This will open the opportunity to strengthen the presence and role of Indigenous organisations in IUCN – a unique membership union gathering 217 state and government agencies, 1, 066 NGOs, and networks of over 16,000 experts worldwide.

“Today’s decision to create a specific place for Indigenous peoples in the decision-making process of IUCN marks a major step towards achieving the equitable and sustainable use of natural resources,” says IUCN Director General Inger Andersen. “Indigenous peoples are key stewards of the world’s biodiversity. By giving them this crucial opportunity to be heard on the international stage, we have made our Union stronger, more inclusive and more democratic.”

“This decision is historical in that it is the first time in IUCN’s history that a new membership category has been established,” says Aroha Te Pareake Mead, Chair of IUCN’s Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy (CEESP). “It also marks a turning point for the inclusion and full participation of Indigenous peoples in all aspects of IUCN’s work.

“For Indigenous peoples this provides an unprecedented opportunity to contribute to global policy on biocultural conservation, indigenous issues, traditional knowledge and the future direction of conservation as distinct peoples. I am proud of IUCN and its members for doing the right thing and enabling Indigenous peoples to speak for themselves as full members of the Union.”

IUCN Members have also called today for all protected areas to be considered as no-go areas for environmentally damaging industrial activities and infrastructure developments. IUCN Members emphasized the need for respect of Indigenous peoples’ rights as a high priority, to ensure their free, prior and informed consent in relation to activities in sacred natural sites and territories conserved by Indigenous peoples and local communities. To date, only World Heritage sites have been recognised as off limit.

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(Click here for the Spanish version of this article or here for the French version)

Question for this article

Indigenous peoples, Are they the true guardians of nature?

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The need for consideration of the rights of Indigenous peoples has also been emphasized as part of the decision to increase the coverage of marine protected areas in order to achieve effective conservation of the oceans.

Tomorrow IUCN Members are expected to vote on a motion related to primary forests, which highlights the role of Indigenous peoples and local communities in conserving intact forest landscapes. Ecosystems such as primary forests are vital for the protection of Indigenous cultures and livelihoods of the poorest and most marginalised communities.

Other motions important for Indigenous peoples have also been adopted on a wide range of topics.

The Members’ Assembly is the highest decision-making body of IUCN. It brings together IUCN Members to debate and establish environmental policy, to approve the IUCN Programme and to elect the IUCN Council and President.

Motions are proposed by IUCN Members every four years to set priorities for the work of IUCN. IUCN’s membership currently stands at over 1,300 and includes some of the most influential government and civil society organisations from more than 160 countries, giving the decisions taken at the IUCN Congress a powerful mandate.

Resolutions and Recommendations on important conservation issues are adopted by this unique global environmental parliament of governments and NGOs, guiding IUCN’s policy and work programme and as well as influencing many other organisations around the world.

About IUCN

IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature, helps the world find pragmatic solutions to our most pressing environment and development challenges. IUCN’s work focusses on valuing and conserving nature, ensuring effective and equitable governance of its use, and deploying nature-based solutions to global challenges in climate, food and development. IUCN supports scientific research, manages field projects all over the world, and brings governments, NGOs, the UN and companies together to develop policy, laws and best practice. IUCN is the world’s oldest and largest global environmental organisation, with almost 1,300 government and NGO Members and more than 15,000 volunteer experts in 185 countries. IUCN’s work is supported by almost 1,000 staff in 45 offices and hundreds of partners in public, NGO and private sectors around the world. www.iucn.org.

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A press release from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)

Cities now have an unprecedented opportunity to transform and decarbonise their energy supply and use, according to a new report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). Renewable Energy in Cities, released today [18 October] on the sidelines of the Habitat III Conference in Quito, estimates energy use in 3,649 cities and explores their potential to scale-up renewable energy by 2030. It finds that while there is no one-size fits all solution, every city has massive potential to cost-effectively boost renewable energy use at the local level.

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“Cities can play a transformative role in leading the world to a clean and sustainable energy future,” said Adnan Z. Amin, IRENA Director-General. “We have to rethink the entire urban energy landscape, which requires rigorous planning and holistic decision-making. Renewable energy, combined with energy efficiency, will power the future growth of cities. We must ensure this transition happens as soon as possible.”

Electricity use varies widely across cities depending on climate conditions, population density and development stage. Likewise, energy use for transport varies greatly depending on urbanisation models. Today, renewables supply only 20 per cent of this energy, but much more is possible. Renewable Energy in Cities outlines three priority areas – both in technology and in policy – where cities can take action to scale up renewables use: renewable energy in buildings (for heating, cooling, cooking, and appliances); sustainable options for transport (electric mobility and biofuels); and creating integrated urban energy systems.

Accounting for 65 per cent of global energy use and 70 per cent of man-made carbon emissions, cities must play a key role in the transition to a low-carbon economy. By highlighting best practice from cities around the world, the report shows what is possible and what policies are needed to enable the change. It also provides concrete examples of how city actors can accelerate the switch to renewable energy at the local level by acting as planners, regulators, financiers and operators of urban infrastructure.

“By 2050, urban populations are expected to double, making urbanisation one of this century’s most transformative trends,” said Mr. Amin. “Now is the time to grow with renewables, leapfrog dirty technology, and create cities of the future that people are proud to call home.”

Renewable Energy in Cities was released today in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the Habitat III Conference taking place in Quito, Ecuador. Meeting every 20 years, this year’s Habitat Conference is focused on sustainable urbanisation. Within this context and for the first time ever, the Conference is discussing the proliferation of renewable energy as a means to achieve a sustainable urban future and common prosperity.

Download the Renewable Energy in Cities report

Are we making progress in renewable energy?

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Information drawn from various sources as indicated

China is playing a major role in financing renewable energy.

According to the UNEP study of Global Trends in Renewable Energy , as of 2015, China has invested $101.9 billion in renewable energy, 36% of the world’s total. The US is a distant second, at $44.1 billion.

New investment in renewable energy by country and asset class, 2015, and growth on 2014 – Source: UNEP, Bloomberg new energy finance
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Of course, the bulk of their investment is in China itself, but their investment is also noticeable in Latin America.

According to PV Magazine, Argentina is investing US $ 340 million in three solar facilities to generate 100 megawatts each. They are being built by three Chinese enterprises: Power China, Shanghai Electric and Talseun

Also in Argentina, according to Rio Negro, the country is investing US $250 million in wind farms to be supplied by Envision Energy, a Chinese firm.

Meanwhile, in Mexico’s inaugural power auction in April, according to PV Magazine , the Chinese solar power firm JinkoSolar signed long-term power purchase agreements with Mexico’s Federal Electricity Commission for three solar projects due to produce 188 MW by April 2018. According to the Bloomberg Company JinkoSolar is one of the fastest growing companies in the world.

According to Business News Americas, almost all the major solar power module manufacturers are Chinese, while five of the top ten wind blade manufacturers are Chinese – led by Goldwind, the biggest wind turbine supplier in the world. Goldwind has said it is interested in developing manufacturing facilities in Brazil and has also supplied turbines to projects in Ecuador, Panama, Bolivia and Chile.

Looking to the future, according the the UNEP study, China’s R&D spending challenged Europe’s for the first time in 2015, each investing $2.8 billion.. In third place, the US edged up to $1.5 billion. Solar continues to dominate renewable energy R&D, with spending rising to $4.5 billion and equal to that in all the other sectors combined.

Are we making progress in renewable energy?

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An article by Joe Romm in Think Progress (abbreviated)

Solar energy has grown 100-fold in this country [USA] in the past decade. Globally, solar has doubled seven times since 2000, and Dubai received a bid recently for 800 megawatts of solar at a stunning “US 2.99 cents per kilowatt hour” — unsubsidized! For context, the average residential price for electricity in the United States is 12 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Solar’s exponentially declining costs and exponentially rising installations
(the y-axis is a logarithmic scale).
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Solar energy has been advancing considerably faster than anyone expected just a few years ago thanks to aggressive market-based deployment efforts around the globe. Since it’s hard to keep up with the speed-of-light changes, and this is the fuel that will power more and more of the global economy in the near future, here are all the latest charts and facts to understand it. If you are looking for one chart to sum up the whole solar energy miracle, Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) Chairman Michael Liebreich has one from his keynote address at BNEF’s annual conference in April titled “In Search of the Miraculous” [see chart above]:

Thanks to sustained long-term deployment programs, Liebreich explained, “We’ve seen the costs come down by a factor of 150 since 1975. We’ve seen volume up by 115,000.” “How much more miracle-y do you need your miracles to be,” Liebreich added.

What that chart doesn’t reveal is that the price drop and the sales volume increase are directly linked. There is a learning curve: Over the past four decades, for every doubling in scale of the solar industry, the price of solar modules has dropped roughly 26 percent. . .

BNEF projects that by 2040, the world will invest an astonishing $3.4 trillion in solar. That’s more than the projected cumulative investment of $2.1 trillion for all fossil fuels — and $1.1 trillion in new nuclear — combined.

The result of these investments and the continued learning by solar (and wind) makes “these two technologies the cheapest ways of producing electricity in many countries during the 2020s and in most of the world in the 2030s. . . ”

This year we learned “City of Palo Alto considers solar power contract at under $37/MWh.” Bloomberg reported last week that “Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s NV Energy agreed to pay 3.87 cents a kilowatt-hour for power from a 100-megawatt project that First Solar Inc. is developing.”

It is worth remembering that U.S. solar power bids include the 30 percent Investment Tax Credit. According to one analysis, NV Energy’s “$.0387/kWh would potentially turn into about $.07/kWh if we backed out the 30% Federal Tax Credit and 60% depreciation in Year One.”

The bids seen around the world this year without subsidies or incentives are even more stunning. Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) received a bid this year for 800 megawatts at a jaw-dropping “US 2.99 cents per kilowatt hour.”

Two other bids were below US 4 cents/kWh, and the last two bids were both below 4.5 cents/kWh — again all of these bids were without subsidies!

That 2.99 cents bid is way down from a 2015 deal Dubai signed for more than 1000 megawatts at 5.84 cents over 25 years. So Dubai has seen a 50 percent price drop in solar in just 18 months.

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Are we making progress in renewable energy?

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And these prices aren’t unique to the Middle East. As Bloomberg New Energy Finance reported in April, Enel Green power signed a contract for $.036/kWh in in Mexico — 3.6 cents.

With prices dropping so fast, sales of solar PV [photovoltaic] systems have been soaring, as you can imagine.

From 2005 through 2015, annual PV sales in this country went up 100-fold! And projections suggest that solar sales may double this year, driven by Congress’s five-year renewal (with phase-out) of the solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC). . .

The solar miracle has been driven by major state, national, and international policies. BNEF Chair Liebreich calls this “The March of the Price Signal” — the rapid expansion of global deployment programs, especially market-based mechanisms such as renewable portfolio standards and reverse auctions.

Unfortunately, other countries have had bigger and more reliable deployment programs whereas our erratic policies generally diminish or disappear whenever and wherever conservatives assume control. In the past decade in particular, massive government-led deployment policies in China and Germany have been a major driver of the world’s stunning price drop.

The good news is that solar power in this country has a very bright future, thanks to the renewal of the ITC. By one recent projection, the U.S. could hit 100 gigawatts total installed capacity by 2021. That said, India also plans to hit 100 gigawatts by 2022.

China, however, plans to triple solar PV capacity to 150 gigawatts installed by 2020! So the race is definitely on.

No wonder the International Energy Agency concluded last fall: “Driven by continued policy support, renewables account for half of additional global generation, overtaking coal around 2030 to become the largest power source.”

The ‘Other’ Form Of Solar Energy, Which Can Run At Night

Earlier this month, I wrote about the “other” form of solar, concentrating solar thermal power, which uses sunlight to heat water and uses the steam to drive a turbine and generator. That heat can be stored over 20 times more cheaply than electricity — and much more efficiently — so CSP [Concentrated Solar Power] can provide power long after the sun has gone down.

Now that China appears to be placing a large bet on solar thermal electric, it seems likely CSP will also start coming down the learning curve, which will help it increase sales, which in turn will keep it coming down the learning curve — a virtuous circle that PV is already benefiting from.

The 2014 STE Technology Roadmap from the International Energy Agency (IEA) projected that while PV could generate 16 percent of the world’s electricity by 2050, as much as 11 percent could be generated by STE [solar thermal energy] at the same time.

Given how fast solar PV has been coming down in price — and given the world’s commitment in Paris last December to keep ratcheting down carbon pollution in the coming decades to keep total global warming “well below 2°C” — it seems entirely possible if not likely that solar power will outperform the IEA’s scenario.

Indeed, it’s precisely because clean energy has been moving at the speed of light that “almost everything you know about climate change solutions is probably outdated,” as I’ve been detailing for months. Stay tuned to this channel for more surprises.

(Thank you to Janet Hudgins, the CPNN reporter for this article.)

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A blog by David Doniger and Alex Hillbrand for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)

At 6:55 on Saturday morning [October 14], more than 140 countries sealed a landmark deal, called the Kigali Amendment, to phase down the powerful climate-warming pollutants called hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) under the Montreal Protocol, the treaty that saved the ozone layer.

Source: Guus Velders, RMI, reprinted by NRDC by permission
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Almost ten years after NRDC and others first proposed amending the Montreal treaty to curb HFCs, countries reached a deal that will avoid rampant growth in these dangerous chemicals, eliminate most current uses over time, and replace them with a new generation of alternative chemicals and products that are climate-friendlier and more energy-efficient.

The HFC agreement establishes timetables for all developed and developing countries to freeze and then reduce their production and use of HFCs, chemicals used in air conditioning, refrigeration, insulating foams, and other applications.

HFCs are the fastest growing climate pollutants, and they pack hundreds to thousands of times the climate-warming punch of carbon dioxide, pound for pound. Scientists estimate that HFCs could add up to 0.5° Celsius to global temperatures by century’s end if their growth is not checked, dooming our chances to meet the Paris Climate Agreement’s target of holding warming below 2.0°Celsius.

But the new agreement will avoid this disaster. A new analysis by Dr. Guus Velders and colleagues projects that the Kigali amendment will avoid nearly 90 percent of the temperature increase that HFCs could have caused.

NRDC estimates that the agreed HFC phase-down will avoid the equivalent of more than 80 billion tons of CO2 over the next 35 years. (This includes controls on emissions of HFC-23 emissions occurring as a byproduct of HCFC-22 production, which also was agreed in Kigali.)

This is equivalent to knocking out the entire planet’s fossil-fuel CO2 emissions for more than two years.

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Despite the vested interests of companies and governments, Can we make progress toward sustainable development?

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This is the biggest step to protect against catastrophic climate change that countries have taken in the year since the landmark Paris agreement.

The HFC phase-down will trigger further reductions in CO2 emissions from power plants because more efficient air conditioners and other equipment will require less electricity.

Under the amendment, developed countries agreed to make their first HFCs cuts by 2019; in fact, the U.S., the European Union, and other countries have already started. Developed countries will also take the lead in bringing climate-friendly, energy-efficient alternatives to market.

China, Brazil, South Africa, Argentina, and more than 100 other developing countries committed to freeze their HFC production and use by 2024, and reduce in subsequent steps. India, Gulf States, and Pakistan agreed to make HFC reductions on a slower track, starting with a freeze in 2028 (three years earlier than India had originally proposed).

Developed nations committed to provide additional funds through the Montreal Protocol’s Multilateral Fund to support developing countries in achieving their commitments. The agreement also opens the door for countries that choose to move faster to benefit from early MLF funding, and for the MLF to support energy efficiency improvements alongside the reduction of HFCs.

While funding for the MLF’s next three-year cycle will be negotiated next year, developed country parties have pledged new funding to support developing countries’ adoption of alternatives. A group of countries pledged to provide an additional $27 million in “fast start” financing for next year, and this will be matched by $53 million from a coalition of 19 philanthropies, for a total of $80 million.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking to the plenary Friday afternoon, urged countries to deliver an ambitious agreement and to bet on the future of clean energy technology, noting that “ten years in this world of technology is a lifetime – many lifetimes, in fact.”

So, on a warm Kigali night in October, the Montreal Protocol that saved the ozone layer has taken on its shoulders the responsibility to help solve the global climate crisis. If this treaty succeeds as spectacularly as before, tonight will mark a major turning point in the fight to keep our planet safe for generations to come.