Weekly newsletter - 1st June 2020

👋 Hi there, here’s what you need to know from this past week of 1st June in under 5 minutes. 

1. 

Government confirms plans for UK ETS

🔎 What’s going on?

The UK government confirms that a domestic Emissions Trading System (ETS) will be established when the UK leaves the EU and the EU-ETS at the end of 2020. 

 📉 What does this mean?

Let’s first start with what “Emissions Trading System (ETS)” is. It’s a market-based system where the government is trying to limit pollution (in this case, carbon emissions) by giving out permits to businesses. These permits limit (or “cap”) the amount of carbon emissions a business can emit each year. 

The new UK-ETS has been designed with the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland governments. The ultimate goal of the ETS is to reduce carbon emissions. Therefore, the UK government wants to not just replicate the EU-ETS, but also be more ambitious by aligning the permits to the UK’s net-zero climate law. This makes perfect sense. The system applies to over 1000 UK factories, plants, businesses and airlines who are still covered by the EU-ETS. ❓Why should I care?

The main goal of an ETS is to limit and reduce carbon emissions – although not perfect, the EU-ETS has so far been successful in putting a cap on industry emissions. Replicating it for the UK should (hopefully) yield similar results for UK emissions. 

🚦 Where do we need to be?

For the UK-ETS to be successful, we need a good carbon price – that is absolutely crucial. Before Coronavirus, the carbon price for the  EU-ETS was EUR 25 per tonne. Due to the slowdown, the price has now dropped to EUR 15 per tonne. The price is linked to the amount of revenue the system generates, so of course, a lower price means less revenue for EU member states. Over 80% of the revenue generated is spent on climate action – such as renewable energy, energy efficiency and climate change mitigation and adaptation measures.  

👤 What can I do about it? #theblueplanetposttips

As an individual or business, put an internal price on carbon. This simply means that you start measuring your personal or business carbon footprint. The mere act of measuring your footprint allows you to set an internal price on carbon – it means you know what your activities are costing the planet. 

Once you’ve measured and put a price on carbon – then work to reduce it, offset it or remove it. 

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2. 

Carbon capture startup Climeworks raises USD 75 million

🔎 What’s going on?

 Carbon capture startup Climeworks raises USD 75 million (CHF 73 million) in equity (shares) from private investors. This is the largest ever private investment into direct air capture technology. 💭 Cool, tell me more!

Climeworks have developed technology that captures carbon dioxide from the air and removes it permanently. They do this with specially made carbon collector machines, which uses a fan to draw in air.  Each collector has a special filter material (made of cellulose fibre) that absorbs carbon to its surface. Once the filter is full of carbon dioxide, the collector is closed and the carbon is released through high temperature. The pure carbon dioxide is then collected for storage.

There are many ways to store this carbon, including turning it into products. Climeworks have partnered with an Icelandic carbon storage company, Carbfix. Carbfix takes the carbon dioxide collected by Climeworks machines and mixes it with water and pumps it deep underground (usually basalt rock formations). Through natural mineralization, the carbon dioxide reacts with the basalt rock and turns into stone within a few years.

The Climeworks machines are powered by geothermal energy (which is a renewable source). Founded in 2009, the company has raised USD 124 million (CHF 120 million) in total so far. The money will be used to scale the technology and the business model. ❓Why should I care? 

As a reader of theblueplanetpost, you know an emissions gap exists (we talked about it last week), this means we currently have just two options: 1) reduce carbon emissions and/or 2) remove carbon from the atmosphere. There are three ways of removing carbon out of the sky: plant-based (through plants such as kelp farming or reforestation), mineral-based (weathering rocks naturally e.g. olivine) and chemically (direct air carbon capture).  Climeworks provides a chemical solution to permanently remove carbon. 🚦Where do we need to be?

If we are to limit global temperature to 1.5C, then firstly we need to emit no more than 420 Gigatonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. Secondly, we need to start removing carbon from the atmosphere. Based on the latest research, we need to remove 10-15 gigatons of carbon per year from the atmosphere until 2050. And then scale the removal to 20 gigatons of carbon until 2100.

👤 What can I do about it?  #theblueplanetposttips

Start supporting carbon removal technologies such as Climeworks, which are mostly privately funded and usually under-funded. As a business, you can support them by investing directly – get in touch here. Alternatively, check out Nori, which is a carbon removal marketplace.

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👂💬 What else we’ve been hearing this week...

Around the 🇬🇧 UK...

1. Over 200 British firms urge government to align economic recovery with net zero climate goal

2. OVO pledges to deliver all-electric fleet by 2030

3. Pilot projects seek to tap private sector investment for nature restoration and resilience boost

4. Coal - free first for electricity in Great Britain

5. UK gears up £2.6m recycling project for electric car motors

Around the World 🌎 this week:

1. Hungary sets 2050 climate neutrality goal in law, issues green bond

2. Germany will require all petrol stations to provide electric car charging

3. Greece goes after cleaner transport with tax breaks for electric cars

4. Germany unveils plans for €40bn climate spending surge

5. Iberdrola to invest up to 4 billion euros in French renewable energy

6. Renewables surpass coal in US energy generation for first time in 130 years

❤️

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