We Now Know the Full Extent of Obama’s Disastrous Apathy Toward The Climate Crisis ❧ Current Affairs
Columbia University’s oral history of the Obama presidency consists of interviews with 470 people ranging from administration officials to activists who tried to shape Obama era public policy. It’s the “official” oral history, conducted with funding from the Obama Foundation,…
Arizona’s water troubles show how climate change is reshaping the West
Jay Famiglietti moved to Arizona this year after a career using satellites to study how the worst drought in a millennium was sapping groundwater beneath the American West. He has documented that the decline of groundwater in California’s Central Valley…
Reparations for climate change? Some think oil companies should pay
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Revolutionary New Clean Fuel Developed that Could See Cars Being Powered by Sunshine
An environmentally clean fuel made from the power of the sun has been devised by scientists which could revolutionize motoring.
The solar-powered technology converts carbon dioxide and water into liquid fuels that can be directly dropped into a vehicle’s engine.
The researchers from the University of Cambridge harnessed the power of photosynthesis to convert CO2, water, and sunlight into multi-carbon fuels—ethanol and propanol—in a single step.
These fuels have a high energy density and can be easily stored or transported, according to scientists whose work was published in Nature Energy.
“Shining sunlight on the artificial leaves and getting liquid fuel from carbon dioxide and water is an amazing bit of chemistry,” said Dr. Motiar Rahaman, the new study’s first author.
“Normally, when you try to convert CO2 into another chemical product, you almost always get carbon monoxide or syngas, but here, we’ve been able to produce a practical liquid fuel just using the power of the Sun.”
They managed this by developing a copper and palladium-based catalyst, optimized to allow the artificial leaf to produce more complex chemicals.
Unlike fossil fuels, these solar fuels produce net zero carbon emissions and are completely renewable—and unlike most bioethanol, they do not divert any agricultural land away from food production, experts said.
OTHER BIOFUEL DEVELOPMENTS: First Flight of Regional Jet Powered by Hydrogen Fuel Cells–40-Seater is Largest Ever to Fly
While the technology is still at laboratory scale, the researchers said their ‘artificial leaves’ are an important step in the transition away from a fossil fuel-based economy.
Bioethanol is often touted as a cleaner alternative to gasoline since it’s made from plants instead of fossil fuels.
The United States is the world’s largest bioethanol producer. According to the USDA, almost 45% of all corn grown in the USA is used for ethanol production.
MORE AUTOMOTIVE NEWS: Car Makes Record-Breaking 621-Mile Trip on Single Charge Powered by the Sun
Currently, the artificial leaf and copper catalyst are proof of concept devices, and show only modest efficiency, the study authors added. They are now working to optimize the light absorbers so that they can better absorb sunlight and optimize the catalyst so it can convert more sunlight into fuel.
Further work will also be needed so the device can be mass-produced and make large volumes of fuel.
SHARE This Development In Bioethanol Fuels With Your Friends…
Europe, US lawmakers want oil executive ousted from leading world climate talks
Dozens of members of the US Congress and European Parliament called for Sultan Al Jaber to be removed as COP28 president-delegate.
Al Jaber runs the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC). Photo: iStock Over 100 United States and European Union lawmakers have appealed to the leaders of their countries and the United Nations to oust oil executive Sultan Al Jaber as head of this year’s 28th Conference of Parties (COP28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), reported news agency Bloomberg.
The United Arab Emirates is hosting this year’s UN climate summit. However, the country has the third biggest net zero-busting plans for oil and gas expansion in the world, British newspaper The Guardian had earlier reported.
Read more: Climate Crisis: ‘Massive investment in CCS is a cover for the expansion of the fossil fuel industry’
UAE’s plans are surpassed only by Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Al Jaber runs the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC).
Al Jaber is overseeing ADNOC’s expansion to produce oil and gas equivalent to 7.5 billion barrels of oil, The Guardian report said. Ninety per cent of this expansion would have to remain in the ground to meet the Net Zero scenario set out by the International Energy Agency.
The recent letter, seen by Bloomberg Green, was addressed to US President Joe Biden, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and UNFCCC Executive Secretary Simon Stiell. It was signed by 99 EU and 34 US lawmakers.
Further steps are needed to limit the influence of fossil-fuel companies at the talks to be hosted by the United Arab Emirates at the end of the year, the letter further said.
Read more: COP28 head calls for ramping up renewables, carbon capture and climate finance
This isn’t the first concerted effort to remove Al Jaber. In January, more than two dozen US lawmakers called on the country’s climate envoy John Kerry to apply diplomatic pressure on the UAE to replace him as COP28 chief.
African climate activists had also equated the appointment to putting the fox to be in charge of the henhouse. In February, green EU lawmakers also made the same case in a letter addressed to UN’s Stiell.
COP28 will take place in a global energy crisis scenario orchestrated by the Russia-Ukraine crisis and when already industrialised and high-energy consuming countries are planning to reopen coal plants and drive new oil and gas developments, especially in Africa.
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