transizione energetica

The weekly round-up on the climate crisis and data on carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. Death and devastation.Heavy rains in southern Brazil they provoked massive floods and landslides in Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil.More than half of the state's 497 cities were affected by the storms, with roads and bridges destroyed in several areas.The storms also caused landslides and the collapse of a hydroelectric dam near the town of Bento Gonçalves, killing 30 people.Authorities said a second dam in the area was also at risk of collapsing due to rising water levels. “It is the fourth environmental disaster of this type in a year, after the floods of July, September and November 2023.Flooding across the state has surpassed that recorded during the historic deluge of 1941,” remember AP.The Guaiba River, which runs through the city of 1.4 million inhabitants, he reached the record level of 5.3 meters. “Residents of several...

COP, the United Nations Climate Conference, is probably the only place where, not at all delighted – given that everything could have been different and everything could have been done more courageously and better, but above all earlier – I will stand up and applaud an oilman, almost in tears I will embrace Ferdinand, he is truly in tears while hiding his face in his hands, and speaking in the plural I will ask the friends I will say goodbye to and see each other again in a year according to this timetable of our own:what do you think?What do we think?What do we do now? If there is one thing that this COP has demonstrated, the Spanish Minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, told me, it is the power of consensus.What's more, he did it when there was no one left to believe it.Not even we, the press, the so-called guardians of democracy.Because on the penultimate day, a reporter asked whether the rules should be changed for the sake of negotiations.At the moment they re...

The weekly round-up on the climate crisis and data on carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. From photovoltaic panels to wind turbines to electric batteries:the ecological transition passes through critical raw materials, also known by the English acronym CRM (Critical Raw Materials).Well-known metals such as lithium and cobalt, lesser-known but equally important minerals such as bauxite or rare earths, critical raw materials are defined as such precisely because of their economic importance and the supply risk associated with them.As writes the European Commission, “reliable and unhindered access to certain raw materials is a growing concern within the European Union and around the world.To address this challenge, the European Commission has created a list of critical raw materials (CRMs) for the EU, which is subject to regular review and update."Starting from 2011, the list of CRMs at European level is drawn up and updated every three years, based on supply contingencies and econom...

It started today third part from the 28th session of the ISA, the International Seabed Authority, the intergovernmental body responsible for overseeing deep-sea mining operations and protecting the oceans.The meeting session will last until November 8th.Marking what is a key step for global ocean policies was the request presented on Wednesday by around a hundred environmental groups who asked for a moratorium on underwater mining precisely in view of the meeting that opened today in Kingston, Jamaica.Opponents to deep sea mining in fact, they fear that the way is being paved for the beginning of exploitation in the near future, despite the devastating consequences - still little explored - that mining on the ocean floor will have on the marine ecosystem.The worst - the activists point out - is that everything is being passed off as a practice that will make the world more sustainable by helping the energy transition away from fossil fuels. I'm alone 21 countries who took sides a few m...

15.7 million.That's how many trees there are in Scotland was shot down, from 2000 to today, to make way for the development of wind farms in the country.This was made known by the Scottish Government's Rural Affairs Secretary himself, who stated that he had initiated actual tree felling plans in order to build turbines for the generation of clean energy on public lands.The paradox is that the controversial initiative is part of the administration's plans to make Scotland zero emissions within the next decade.In fact, the government aims to add around 20,000 turbines in the coming years so as to be able to generate a total of 20 Gigawatts (GW) of clean energy.An ambitious strategy in terms of reducing climate-changing emissions which, however, does not explain and does not justify the need to reduce, on balance, the equivalent of a real forest.Since the beginning of the current century, with an average of 2,000 trees per hectare, the equivalent of at least 7,858 hectares has been defore...