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A breakthrough moment for sustainable aviation fuel / Depositphotos A simple, cheap pretreatment promises to radically cut the price of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) made from waste wood biomass – potentially making it cost-competitive with fossil-based jet fuel, while cutting down emissions by up to 80%. SAF isn't a perfect green solution to aviation – indeed, no perfect solution exists at this point. Running SAF instead of jet fuel still produces carbon dioxide – but it's a higher-purity fuel, producing up to 3% more energy while burning cleaner, with heavily reduced sulfur and particulate emissions. It eliminates the entire emissions...

The electrochemical conversion of ammonia to dinitrogen in a direct ammonia fuel cell (DAFC) is a necessary technology for the realization of a nitrogen economy. Previous efforts to catalyse this reaction with molecular complexes required the addition of exogenous oxidizing reagents or application of potentials greater than the thermodynamic potential for the oxygen reduction reaction—the cathodic process of a DAFC.

US President Joe Biden Wednesday signed an executive order mandating that the US federal government become carbon neutral by 2050. The order relies on a variety of clean energy initiatives, including transforming the government’s fleet of 600,000 vehicles into electric cars by 2035. In a statement, the Biden administration said the “whole-of-government effort to tackle the climate crisis” must happen “in a way that creates well-paying jobs, grows industries and makes the country more economically competitive.” “The executive order will reduce emissions across federal operations, invest in American clean energy industries and manufacturing, and create clean, healthy, and resilient communities,”...

Leaders at the G20 summit of the world’s biggest economies reached a compromise agreement on Sunday to achieve carbon neutrality “by or around mid-century,” laying a foundation for a United Nations conference in Scotland on climate change.The Group of 20 leaders released a communique on Sunday, the second and final day of the summit, that called for halting the financing of coal-fired power generators abroad by the end of the year but did not set a target for phasing out coal domestically – a concession to top polluters China and India, the Associated Press reported.The G20 countries – including the...

Wood is the resource the world is relying on for its low carbon future. It’s touted as a replacement for concrete and steel, fossil fuels, power and plastics. But is there enough of it to go around? […] According to the latest figures from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), global forest production hit record levels in 2018. Up 11% on the year before. “We see an increasing demand for almost all of our products,” says Göran Örlander, strategist at Södra, Sweden’s largest association of forest owners. “The most obvious demand is for biofuels at the moment. Everybody wants...

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a state of emergency and a public health emergency on Wednesday as the number of people in the district who tested positive for COVID-19 rose to 10. “We’re not in a vacuum," Bowser said in a news conference. "Our country is experiencing this, and our world is experiencing this." The declaration allows the district to request federal funds to address the public health crisis further and gives the mayor the ability to order quarantines 'without the approval of a court'. Nearly 125,000 people have tested positive for the virus around the world, killing at least...

At the Place de la Bourse/Beursplein in central Brussels, tourists and commuters pick their way around coils of plastic tubing, bright green construction barriers and piles of paving stones that have been ripped up in the name of urban improvement. A few blocks north, the transformation is complete. What was once a busy boulevard clogged with traffic is now a car-free zone given over to pedestrians, bicycles, scooters and cafes taking advantage of the expanded sidewalk to offer alfresco dining. The area’s redevelopment began in 2017, and, weather permitting, will be finished by the end of 2020. But that’s just...

Becoming the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050 is the greatest challenge and opportunity of our times. To achieve this, the European Commission presented the European Green Deal, the most ambitious package of measures that should enable European citizens and businesses to benefit from sustainable green transition. Measures accompanied with an initial roadmap of key policies range from ambitiously cutting emissions, to investing in cutting-edge research and innovation, to preserving Europe’s natural environment. Supported by investments in green technologies, sustainable solutions and new businesses, the Green Deal can be a new EU growth strategy. Involvement and commitment of the public...

House Democrats outlined their vision for sweeping climate legislation Wednesday, offering a first look at a bill that would push the U.S. to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Wednesday’s white paper provides the framework that lawmakers in July promised to deliver by early 2020 – a broad climate bill targeting every major sector of the economy. “We’re treating this climate crisis like the emergency that it is,” House Energy and Commerce Chair Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) said of the so-called CLEAN Future Act. The measure includes a requirement that utilities work toward 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2050, a mandate...

On Tuesday, journalists on all three network morning shows joined liberal celebrities in rushing to defend Prince Harry and Meghan Markle against accusations of hypocrisy after the supposedly environmentally-conscious royal couple took two different trips on private jets within a week. Reporters on CBS, NBC, and ABC touted other wealthy elites like Elton John and Ellen DeGeneres scolding critics for daring to question the royals’ controversial travel habits. “Elton John coming to the defense of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. This after news broke about the royal couple’s recent vacation to Nice, France. Headlines focused on their use of a...

As summarized by CNN, below, a new report by climate action advocacy group Climate Transparency confirms the Paris Climate Hoax. Emissions are actually increasing from 15 of the G20 nations. As of now, not a single G20 country is meeting climate targets, research shows. Here are clips from the report’s executive summary:

French President Emmanuel Macron made global warming a central part of his World Economic Forum speech on Wednesday in Davos, pledging to close all of his country’s coal-fired power plants by 2021. Macron’s anti-coal pledge comes as Ecology Minister Nicolas Hulot announced France failed to meet its 2016 global warming target to limit greenhouse gas emissions to 447 million metric tons. Hulot said France would revise its global warming targets to better align with its Paris climate accord commitment to go “carbon neutral” by 2050, Reuters reported. Macron has been one of the most vocal supporters of the Paris climate...

We meet four Ladies Who Lunch in an Upper West Side New York bistro. “Martha!” cooed Susan. “Susan!” cooed Martha. “Janet and Catherine late as usual, I see.” “Never mind them. Have a sip of this exquisite Cheval Blanc.” Martha drained her glass. “It’s darling. Organic?” “Of course.” “Oh, I know where Janet is. She and Robert just returned from the islands. Lots to take care of.” Martha checked her makeup with a small mirror. “This snow isn’t helping, either. My Fendi hardly blocks out the cold!” Sarah refilled both glasses. “I don’t see how Janet’s busy. Robert has the...

Global Warming: If the rock stars who flew hundreds of thousands of miles in their jets to save the earth wanted to hug trees, they could have hugged the forest that once covered Greenland. We didn't see Sheryl Crow passing out single-sheet allotments of toilet paper to Live Earth concert-goers. But we did see perhaps the biggest-ever exercise in hypocrisy and futility as performers around the globe plugged in and amped up to save the earth from the climate impact of excessive energy consumption. John Rego, environmental director of Live Earth, insists the multi-continent charade, like the mansions of Gore,...

Welcome to Derrie-Air, the world's only carbon-neutral luxury airline, where you don't have to choose between living the high life and saving the planet. Nine out of ten scientists agree—we need to reduce our carbon emissions or perish from the face of the earth. Air travel is one of the biggest sources of carbon emissions and global warming. Derrie-Air will be the only airline that plants trees to offset every pound of carbon that our planes release into the atmosphere. But not only will we do our part to protect the environment, we will expect you, our passengers, to do...

A COUPLE of days before Al Gore was awarded his Nobel Peace prize, Michael Burton, an English High Court judge and apparently a fine film critic, ruled that Al's Oscar-winner An Inconvenient Truth was prone to "alarmism and exaggeration" and identified nine major factual errors. For example, the former vice-president predicts a rise in sea levels of 6m "in the near future". "The Armageddon scenario he predicts," declared Burton, "is not in line with the scientific consensus." I'll say. The so-called scientific consensus of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suggests rising sea levels across the next century of somewhere...

An annual accounting of Prince Charles’s households - printed on recycled paper in vegetable-based ink – finds that he has cut his annual carbon emissions by nine percent, to 3,775 tons, between April 1, 2006 and March 31 of this year. He achieved this historical feat by cutting back on helicopter jaunts and converting his Jag and Landie to run on used cooking oil, reports The Associated Press. The prince offset the other 91 percent of emissions created by his households - the Highgrove estate in western England, Clarence House in London and Birkhall in Scotland - by investing $60,000,...

Apple board member and former US vice president Al Gore would win the presidency if he ran for election, says Apple CEO Steve Jobs. "If he ran, there's no question in my mind that he would be elected," Jobs told Time Magazine. "But I think there's a question in his mind, perhaps because the pain of the last election runs a lot deeper than he lets most of us see." The report explains the background Gore's strenuous campaigning to persuade people to address the growing threat of climate-change caused environmental collapse. "We have dug ourselves into a 20-foot hole, and...

Climate Change: A Danish commission looks at the negative effect of biofuels on the environment as a new study shows ethanol use may actually increase pollution. The Kyoto deal is full of unintended consequences. The recently formed Cramer Commission, named after Dutch Environment Minister Jacqueline Cramer, who chaired it before entering the cabinet, was formed to develop ways to ensure that crops used to create biofuels as replacements for oil and gas don't do more harm than good. It seems that in the rush to develop these alternative fuels, forests in Asia have been burned to clear land for palm...

Press Releases Contact: Brendan Daly 202-226-7616 For Immediate Release 04/19/2007 Pelosi, Democrats Launch 100 Percent Carbon Neutral ‘Green the Capitol Initiative’ Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi was joined this afternoon by Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz in accepting a preliminary report by the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) of the House Daniel Beard on efforts that would reduce the environmental impacts associated with the operations of the House building complex. The preliminary report on the “Green the Capitol Initiative” was presented by the CAO in response to a March 1 letter by...