*[Enwl-eng] 🌏CAN EECCA Newsletter: Rosatom and Russia’s War in Ukraine, glacier degradation in Kyrgyzstan and fuel of the future
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enwl at enw.net.ru
Tue Nov 7 19:31:12 MSK 2023
CAN EECCA ENGLISH DIGEST
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Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia
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Regional Climate News
Rosatom and Russia’s War in Ukraine
More than 20 months after Russia started an
unprovoked and unjustified war in Ukraine, the European nuclear industry
continues to cooperate with the Russian corporation Rosatom. This paper
shows how Russia uses its civil-m,ilitary nuclear corporation Rosatom as a
strategic tool and how Rosatom is involved in the war against Ukraine.
Shrinking Caspian, invisible opposition,
elusive pipeline
Central Asia is facing a water crisis as the
Caspian Sea's water level continues to decline, posing a severe threat to
the ecosystem and marine economy in the region. Climate change, combined
with human influence, has exacerbated the issue, leading to reduced
precipitation, increased evaporation, and diminished water inflow.
Additionally, the region is witnessing anti-government protests, but
authorities' efforts to suppress dissent have left the political landscape
unpredictable and potentially unstable. Meanwhile, discussions about
building a natural gas pipeline across the Caspian Sea from Turkmenistan to
Azerbaijan are ongoing, with political will and commercial deals needed to
make progress on this front.
Investments are on the side of renewable
energy, not nuclear power
In recent public discussions of plans to
build nuclear power plants (NPPs) in Kazakhstan, it has been argued that
NPPs will create jobs and local industry. However, economist Zhannat
Salimova-Tekai points out that solar and wind power plants create
significantly more jobs per gigawatt of installed capacity than NPPs, and
these jobs are available to a wider range of professionals. She also argues
that attracting private investment and borrowing for NPP construction is not
feasible in Kazakhstan due to insurance risks, low tariffs, and the lack of
an efficient electricity market. In addition, the cost of electricity from
NPPs is the most expensive in the world today, which contradicts the opinion
of NPP proponents that it is cheap.
How Climate Change and Glacier Degradation
Affect Power Sector in Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan is experiencing an energy deficit
due to a lack of produced electricity for the population, resulting in
increasing imports of electricity and possible "regulatory blackouts" of
lights. The drop in electricity production is related to water levels in
hydropower plants, especially the Toktogul HPP, which depends on shrinking
glaciers and increasing global warming. Preserving glaciers and reducing
carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere are important measures to
mitigate the energy crisis and conserve resources.
New Water Agreements in Central Asia: What
Kyrgyzstan Should Do
The Center for Political and Legal Studies
in Kyrgyzstan emphasizes the importance of water management in Central Asia
because of the resource interdependence between upstream and downstream
countries in the region, the need to support agriculture and ensure
environmental sustainability. Afghanistan, which has become an active
participant in water management projects, is also changing the dynamics of
water resources. Existing agreements on water do not satisfy either upper or
lower countries, which creates potential conflicts, and resolving water
disputes requires mutual understanding and concessions between countries in
the region, with conflicts that can be resolved through peaceful means, and
may possibly lead to conflicts.
Lithuanian Foreign Ministry sends a note to
Belarus over NPP operation
The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry urges
Belarus to halt the operation of the first and second power units of the
Belarusian nuclear power plant due to safety concerns. Lithuania believes
that the BelNPP in Astravets poses a threat to the whole of Europe and
insists on suspending the operation of these power units until all safety
issues are resolved. This move by Lithuania is linked to growing concerns
about the safety of the nuclear plant and its impact on the environment.
More serious changes are needed - ecologists
on Russia's new doctrine
The new climate doctrine recently signed by
the Russian President is structurally similar to the previous version
approved in 2009, but contains some important differences. The new doctrine
includes the objective of achieving carbon neutrality, which means a balance
between greenhouse gas emissions and their uptake by ecosystems. Issues
include methodologies for accounting for emissions, including wildfires, and
assessing the ability of forests to absorb greenhouse gases. It also
includes a presidential decree to reduce emissions to 70 percent of 1990
levels by 2030, although emissions were already 50 percent below 1990 levels
when the doctrine was signed in 2020.
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World Climate News
World shift to clean energy is unstoppable,
IEA report says
A new report from the International Energy
Agency (IEA) highlights an "unstoppable" shift toward renewable energy but
emphasizes that the phase-down of fossil fuels is not happening quickly
enough. While the IEA predicts that renewables will provide half of the
world's electricity by 2030, it warns that emissions remain too high to
prevent a temperature rise above the critical 1.5°C threshold. The report
calls for a 50% reduction in investment in fossil fuels and praises progress
in expanding renewable energy and the adoption of electric vehicles and heat
pumps, emphasizing the need to support clean energy transitions worldwide.
To triple renewable energy, the Global South
needs finance
With just one month until COP28, the global
target to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030 to over 11,000 gigawatts
is poised to take center stage. This target, aligned with limiting
temperature rise to 1.5°C, offers hope in the fight against climate change.
However, achieving this goal requires a significant increase in financial
support and financial reform, particularly for the Global South, where
investment in renewable energy has remained stagnant. The G20's commitment
to yearly investment of $4 trillion by 2030, mostly from private and public
sources, is necessary, but structural and historical injustices in the
global financial system, such as high capital costs in developing economies,
must be addressed to facilitate renewable energy adoption.
A Letter to COP 28 President from medical
community
A letter from the international health and
medical community addressed to COP 28 President-Designate Sultan Ahmed
Al-Jaber calls for a decisive end to fossil fuel dependency at the UN
Climate Change Conference in Dubai. The letter emphasizes that addressing
the climate crisis is essential for achieving health and well-being for all,
citing the impacts of climate change-induced extreme weather events, air
pollution from burning fossil fuels, and the economic costs associated with
health impacts. It calls for an accelerated, just, and equitable phase-out
of fossil fuels as the most significant way to protect global health, reduce
air pollution-related deaths, and transition to clean energy sources while
emphasizing the need to leave no one behind and increase investments in
clean energy. The letter also highlights the need to exclude fossil fuel
interests from climate negotiations to safeguard global collaboration on
climate progress.
Climate storytelling from the Global South
CNN Academy is offering a comprehensive
media training program for early-career content creators, journalists, and
storytellers from developing countries in Latin America, the Caribbean,
Africa, and Asia. The program will focus on climate change reporting and
cover topics such as climate science, investigative journalism, data-driven
reporting, multimedia storytelling, and ethical considerations in climate
reporting. Participants must demonstrate a strong interest in climate change
storytelling, fluency in English, and a commitment to attending the training
program in Abu Dhabi from December 3rd to December 10th.
Baltic Sea faces ‘critical challenges’ on
climate and biodiversity, report warns
The Baltic Sea is facing significant
challenges due to the climate crisis and biodiversity degradation, as
highlighted by a comprehensive audit from the Baltic Marine Environment
Protection Commission (Helcom). The audit found that from 2016 to 2021,
there was little to no improvement in the health of the Baltic Sea. Fish
stocks were at dangerously low levels, pollution, land use, and resource
extraction continued to pressure the sea, and the climate crisis was taking
its toll, leading to reduced ice cover, more extreme weather, and rising
water temperatures.
What is ‘white hydrogen’ and could it be a
fuel of the future?
White hydrogen, a form of natural hydrogen
found within the Earth, has gained attention as a potentially clean and
renewable energy source. Unlike the majority of hydrogen production that
relies on fossil fuels, white hydrogen can be extracted from beneath the
Earth's surface and is continuously replenished through natural processes.
While there is still much to learn about how white hydrogen deposits form
and their commercial viability, this resource offers the potential for a
cleaner and more sustainable alternative to traditional hydrogen production
methods.
Reducing pollution accelerates global
warming. How do we solve this catch-22?
Efforts to reduce air pollution,
particularly sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions from sources like coal plants,
have led to an unmasking effect, where the removal of pollutants has allowed
more solar radiation to reach the Earth, leading to an increase in
temperatures. This phenomenon has been observed in China, where a successful
"war on pollution" led to significant reductions in SO2 emissions but also a
0.7-degree Celsius rise in average temperatures since 2014. The unmasking
effect could have a greater impact on warming than greenhouse gases in some
industrial Chinese cities, and experts warn that similar jumps in warming
may occur in other highly polluted regions if they clean the skies of SO2
and related aerosols.
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Sent: Tuesday, November 07, 2023 7:01 PM
Subject: 🌏CAN EECCA Newsletter: Rosatom and Russia’s War in Ukraine,
glacier degradation in Kyrgyzstan and fuel of the future
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