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Greenhouse gas emissions show significant increase this year: According to calculations by the think tank Agora Energiewende, greenhouse gas emissions will increase significantly this year. Compared to 2020, they are expected to increase by around 47 million tonnes, the analysis states. This is the largest increase since 1990, it says, which is why the decline in emissions compared to 1990 will only be 37 percent. Last year’s decline was mainly due to the corona pandemic. In the meantime, the economy has picked up again and there are also more cars and trucks on the roads.  „The supposed success of 40 percent emission reduction last year was not effective climate protection, but a flash in the pan, caused by Corona and special effects,“ Agora Director Patrick Graichen emphasised. In 2021, Germany will record the highest increase in greenhouse gas emissions since 1990, he said. „This exceeds even the increase after the economic crisis of 2009/2010.“ handelsblatt.com

IPCC report presented: Every six years, researchers from all over the world evaluate the scientifically relevant studies on climate change. Last Monday, the first part of the IPCC’s sixth assessment report was published. The conclusion is frightening. The increase in the global mean temperature of 1.5 degrees compared to the pre-industrial level could already be reached earlier than previously assumed. It is highly likely that the warming limit set out in the Paris Climate Agreement will already be reached in the early 1930s. Following the publication, politicians began a reflexive communication calling for immediate action. UN Secretary-General António Guterres saw it as an immediate goal that the extraction of fossil energy sources had to be stopped. Coal, oil and gas would destroy the planet. There is a „red alert for humanity“. „The planet is in mortal danger,“ also said Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD); climate protection is a „vital“ task. The Green Party’s candidate for chancellor, Annalena Baerbock, demanded on Twitter that the government, together with the European Union (EU), Great Britain and the USA, must do everything to make the upcoming climate summit a turning point. China and Australia see no reason to tighten their climate policies. fair-economics.de,  zeit.de, tagesschau.de, rnd.de (China and Australia)

48.8 degrees – that’s how high the thermometer rose in the Italian city of Syracuse last week.

The high temperatures favour the numerous forest fires around the Mediterranean. In Greece, Turkey, Algeria and Italy, the forests are burning. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis sees the climate crisis as one of the main reasons for the devastating forest fires in the country. „I stress it is not climate change, it is a climate crisis. And we as a country are part of it.“ tagesspiegel.de

What the parties plan to do about the climate crisis: Climate change plays an important role in the election campaigns of all parties. How do the parties want to slow down the rise in temperature? The analysis clearly shows that the ambitions are very different. n-tv.de

New analysis on greenhouse gas emissions: By 2038, coal-fired power generation will consume almost half of Germany’s residual CO2 budget. If Germany does not phase out coal until 2038, as planned, future CO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants will add up to almost two billion tonnes under current conditions – that is 45 percent of Germany’s residual CO2 budget. This share could even rise to 74 per cent should the energy transition falter in this country. sonnenseite.com

Scholz wants wind expansion in six months: The fact that there is an election campaign can be seen not only in the posters of all places, but also in the statements of politicians. SPD candidate for chancellor Scholz wants wind turbines to be built faster. Participation procedures should „not be allowed to drag on“. He does not trust the CDU/CSU to support this. He considers the Greens to be imaginative, but not capable of „taking the excavator into their hands“. n-tv.de

Expansion of renewables and climate protection: the pace is far too slow. The expansion figures in Germany show that although PV and wind energy are increasing, they are not even close to reaching the level that would be sufficient for a „climate-friendly“ transformation of supply structures. euwid-energie.de

BOOK TIP OF THE WEEK:

Solutions –Nachhaltige Lösungen für eine lebenswerte Zukunft

The climate crisis has us firmly in its grip. It affects us all and is already having an impact on our society. But we can do something about it!  Solutions is a photo project that creates positive utopias by showing concrete solutions to the climate crisis. For this purpose, documentary photographer Tina Eichner travelled with her camera to various projects in Germany and all over the world and documented different possibilities of how something can be done against the climate crisis already today. The Balinese family business Putu’s Bamboo Straws, for example, produces sustainable straws from bamboo, the artist Isabell Ott from Berlin makes art out of rubbish, the Sanne family builds a balcony solar system instead of a sun awning, and the Sieben Linden eco-village strives for a holistic sustainable lifestyl

The sustainable scope for action and design presented cover various areas of our society such as mobility, renewable energy, protest movements, circular economy, education, sustainable building, biodiversity, consumption and social change. They provide positive impulses and incentives to break out of previous routines and actively shape the change towards a green future.  The richly illustrated volume is bilingual in German and English. With its impressive photos, it shows that much is possible – and everything is feasible. oekom.de

 


EU strategy: Largely unnoticed by the public, the EU has already begun to prepare for this new climate reality. welt.de
Hamburg: How the city can solve its water problem. welt.de
NRW: Fifty percent electricity from renewables in 2030. wdr.de 
Corona pandemic: Significantly more household waste. zeit.de
Lignite: Protests at Garzweiler continue. taz.de
USA: Warmest July since records began. sueddeutsche.de
France: Fight against cigarette butts. esslinger-zeitung.de
Gas heating: Only five per cent can be eco. rnd.de


The seventeeen goals magazine tells inspiring stories about how people move the world and shows how everyone can make a contribution to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.


MOBILITY:

Tesla boss back in Berlin: Brandenburg’s Minister of Economics Jörg Steinbach announced on Twitter that he had had a „very relaxed evening meeting“ with Musk and Minister President Dietmar Woidke. CDU candidate for chancellor Arnim Laschet also met Musk at the construction site and did not take a question about the water shortage in Brandenburg seriously. wiwo.de , saechsische.de

Car sharing and sustainability: Car sharing can unfold its sustainability potential especially if it becomes an attractive alternative to owning a car as an element of a multimodal transport offer. In this context, free-floating systems seem to be at a disadvantage: they seem to attract households that are more attached to private car ownership. Station-based systems, on the other hand, are more attrractive for customers who do without a private car. springerprofessional.de

Learning from Barcelona and Paris: The pandemic has changed the view of mobility and sustainability. A study shows: Providers of e-cars could profit from this. In other cities there are already more sustainable offers. faz.net

Mobility instead of cars – the concept of the IAA Mobility: The VDA has presented the concept of the IAA Mobility. The effort to progress will probably require some getting used to. heise.de

E-mobility – bought at a high price: The switch to e-mobility comes at a high price and is socially unjust. This is the conclusion of a study by Deutsche Bank, quoted by „heise.de“. According to the study, it costs the German state more than 20,000 euros if a BEV is used in the upper middle class instead of a car with a combustion engine. This is due to other fiscal effects in addition to the pure purchase premium. In addition, higher earners would benefit significantly more, they say. The fiscal effects result from lower revenues from energy or mineral oil tax, vehicle tax, CO2 tax on petrol and diesel and value-added tax, writes the bank under the title „Right of way for e-mobility bought dearly by the state„. If e-cars are used as company cars, they fall even more, according to the report. For comparison, the bank draws on public budget expenditure per pupil, which is said to have been 8200 euros in Germany in 2019. elektroauto-news.net

Mobility and Corona: Will we be able to use the pandemic to usher in a mobility turnaround? A Fraunhofer survey does not speak in favour of this: the desire to travel seems to be greater than before. faz.net

HYDROGEN:

Low-cost electricity for green hydrogen is now becoming a reality: The high price of electricity is considered the main obstacle to entry into the production of green hydrogen. Now a subsidy programme is starting. handelsblatt.com

Poor climate balance for blue hydrogen? A study concludes that hydrogen with CCS technology hardly contributes to climate protection. But the balance depends on many details. golem.de
Climate-neutral drives: Deutz to produce hydrogen engine in series from 2024. Cologne-based engine manufacturer Deutz is expanding its climate-neutral portfolio and is presenting a hydrogen engine for the first time. The first customer is an energy supplier. handelsblatt.com
Climate-neutral production: Steel production is to become climate-friendly – and hydrogen is seen as the solution. However, the manufacturer Georgsmarienhütte wonders where the gas will actually come from. tagesschau.de , heise.de(background)

Helgoland: Two hydrogen projects are being built here. The project partners RWE, Shell, Gasunie and Equinor have signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen their cooperation in the Aqua Sector offshore hydrogen project. The project aims to demonstrate that in Germany hydrogen production at sea is an efficient, cost-effective and sustainable option for the production of green hydrogen. ndr.de

1,261 fuel cell cars in Germany: As of 1 June 2021, 1,261 fuel cell cars (hydrogen drive) were registered in Germany. This is stated in the answer of the Federal Government (19/31761) to a small question of the parliamentary group Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (19/30905). In response to the question of what number of hydrogen-powered passenger cars the Federal Government expects in Germany in 2025 and 2030, the answer states that fuel cell passenger cars are electric vehicles according to the definition of the Electric Mobility Act (EmoG). Accordingly, the federal government’s targets for electric vehicles apply. „The Federal Government writes: „Incentives for the market ramp-up of fuel cell cars are provided by funding programmes. The large number of applications for funding shows that there is continuously a very high level of interest in the vehicles and funding opportunities. The market ramp-up of fuel cell passenger cars by 2030 is strongly dependent on the development of the vehicle supply on the market and is therefore difficult to predict, it continues. The „Metastudy Hydrogen – Evaluation of Energy System Studies“, commissioned by the National Hydrogen Council and prepared under the leadership of the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research, summarises several scenarios for the demand for hydrogen in passenger road transport, most of which expect a low share of fuel cell passenger cars by 2030. Various reports by the National Platform for the Future of Mobility (NPM) also indicated a low share. However, one of the studies evaluated for the meta-study, which was carried out by Ludwig-Bölkow-Systemtechnik, reckons with significantly higher values, the government reports.

LAST WEEK IN THE BUNDESTAG

FDP asks about Climate Protection Act: In a small question (19/31902), the FDP parliamentary group wants to find out how the Federal Government assesses the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court on the Federal Climate Protection Act. It also asks the federal government whether, against the background of this decision, section 4 paragraph 1 sentence 7 of the Climate Protection Act („Subjective rights and actionable legal positions are not established by or on the basis of this Act“) is still applicable.
Greens want to know how many e-bikes have been sold: The parliamentary group Bündnis 90/Die Grünen wants to know from the Federal Government how the number of electric bicycles sold and existing in Germany between 2010 and 2020 has developed. In a small question (19/31861), the MPs also inquire whether the federal government promotes public or private charging facilities for e-bikes.

LITERALLY

„At the moment we are walking with our eyes wide open into the next catastrophe“.

Christian Hönig, environmental expert and tree protection officer at BUND Berlin, says the decisive role here is played by the soil. Both in our forests and in the fields. And the soil is in a really bad way right now. The sealing of the soil, i.e. the construction of roads or housing estates, destroys around 50 hectares of land every day in Germany. That is the equivalent of about 70 football fields. It is one of the biggest problems in the world. The area we have is finite. And one day it would be over, nothing would work anymore. We will no longer be able to expand. Soil is one of the most important resources we have – and it is also one of the scarcest. focus.de


PODCAST RECOMMENDATION

Climate alarm – what can managers and private investors do?

In companies, saving the climate is becoming a matter for the boss – if only for career reasons. This podcast provides information on which companies are becoming pioneers and how private investors can invest their money. manager-magazin.de


AFRICA

Nigeria: Shell pays millions in compensation in Nigeria. The British-Dutch oil company Shell pays almost 95 million euros in compensation to communities in Nigeria for environmental pollution caused by oil leaks in the Niger Delta. dw.com

Mozambique: Foreign troops are fighting Islamists in Mozambique – and for power. Five African countries have sent soldiers, the EU and the USA military advisors. At stake is a huge natural gas field, but also influence in the region. derstandard.at

Ebola in Côte d’Ivoire again: The worldwide fear of the coronavirus has also led to other diseases being lost from view. Disturbing news is now coming from an African country – independent of COVID-19. dw.com
Population growth: In thirty years, Nigeria will have the same number of people as the entire EU. Is that a problem? Africa’s population is growing rapidly and will double by 2050. A horror scenario? Not necessarily – if the right course is set now. nzz.ch
Colonialism and Germany: Coming to terms with colonialism „Children no longer know what is happening in Africa or the world“. Genocide in Namibia? Even in school lessons there is often a lack of education. Many Germans are unaware of the colonial past. tagesspiegel.de
Guinea: Case of infection with deadly Marburg virus confirmed in West Africa. faz.net
Election in Zambia: It’s all about the economy. A new president is elected in Zambia. But the election is taking place under difficult circumstances: Africa’s former model democracy is crumbling. The economy is weakening and human rights are suffering. dw.com

Sudan: Should extradite ex-President Bashir to International Criminal Court. The Austrian Foreign Minister assured the Chief Prosecutor of the Criminal Court of cooperation at a meeting in Khartoum. derstandard.at

Tanzania: When Samia Suluhu Hassan became the new president of Tanzania, she received a lot of praise: she released prisoners and started vaccinating against Corona. Now opponents are being arrested again. Is she now showing her true colours? sueddeutsche.de

MORE KNOWLEDGE

Reconstruction in the Ahr Valley: The destruction caused by the floods in the Ahr Valley is huge. Wolfgang Büchs, who is one of the main authors of a three-volume monograph on the Ahr valley published on behalf of the State Office for the Environment in Rhineland-Palatinate, explains that the reconstruction will not be a reconstruction of the status quo: „The crucial thing is to get the flood peaks of the Ahr tributaries under control in such a way that they do not overlap and then accumulate into a very high flood wave. We need an intelligent flood management system. This is a task that requires engineering skills. The reporting system also needs to be improved.“ tagesschau.de

How climate-friendly Tiny Houses are: Compact houses are seen as particularly environmentally friendly. However, they are not necessarily the best form of housing in terms of climate technology. From the point of view of wanting to change something and slow down climate change, tiny houses are not a solution, according to researchers. From a climate-technical point of view, dense housing should be pushed. A high population density on several floors and generous outdoor spaces is ideal. futurezone.at

   

Desperation on Pacific islands: Rising sea levels and the soon to be annual threat of storm surges threaten to lead to the „loss of millions of lives, homes and livelihoods in the Pacific and around the world“, according to Henry Puna, Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF): „Governments, big business and the world’s largest emitters can no longer ignore the voices of those already suffering from this unfolding existential crisis. They can no longer choose rhetoric over action. There are simply no more excuses.“ But the climate crisis is only one area affecting the Pacific islands, the Corona crisis and the economic crisis due to the lack of tourists is also hitting the islands very hard. faz.net

3000 litres of water for a packet of rice: Basmati rice only grows in a few places in India and Pakistan. But water consumption is high, and the groundwater level is falling in the growing areas. spiegel.de
Planned dams: Around 260,000 kilometres of watercourses are to be dammed worldwide. deutschlandfunknova.de
Farmers: How farmers can become climate savers. wiwo.de

CALENDAR

Hydrogen Region Saar: small country – big projects

The special role of Saarland in the development of hydrogen as an energy carrier in an industrial region rich in tradition and exciting, partly cross-border projects will be addressed by renowned speakers at the TÜV SÜD H2 Forum „Hydrogen Region Saar: small country – big projects“ on 31 August 2021. he Hydrogen Region Saar is located in the heart of Europe – an appropriate setting for the presentation of the Hydrogen Roadmap Europe by Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, Secretary General of Hydrogen Europe in Brussels. Other presentations at the event will focus on sector coupling in the industrial environment and the role of hydrogen in the transformation of steel production. tuvsud.com

THE LAST:

Motorway app – without added value and 1.2 million expensive: A motorway app has been available in Germany for three weeks, but this little digital helper is obviously not really helpful. Stefan Gelbhaar, transport policy spokesman for the Green Party in the Bundestag, calls it an „app without added value“. It is a farce and a case for the Court of Auditors. With the APP, it should be possible, for example, to call up the route conditions before the journey, i.e. above all information about current road works, accidents, diversions and traffic jams. After entering a route, messages are displayed; in order to interpret them, users have to click on each one. This could be very tedious for longer routes. Some users missed the road works they had known about for days in the list. Incidentally, the app does not have its own navigation function, but forwards to Google Maps or Apple’s Maps application. heise.de

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