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Wind and solar finally overtake coal in power generation for the European Union. 30% of EU electricity is now generated by wind and solar. Power generation from coal and gas dropped by 17% in first 6 months of 2024, resulting in one third drop in sector emissions, according to climate think tank Ember. In 13 member states power generation from solar and wind was higher than coal and gas with Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and Hungary achieving this for the first time. This makes US commitment to climate change all the more critical for 2024-2028. EU is a big contributor to emissions for climate change. It is also setting aggressive goals. This progress brings into view zero power from coal and gas.  Andrea Hahmann , scientist at Denmark technical University, author of one chapter in the IPCC report on energy systems says “The ‘crossing of the lines’ demonstrates that the EU’s electricity transition is possible, and we should not give in to pessimism. The renewable energy targets that must be met are substantial but achievable with the proper policy measures.” ...

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Methane is a greenhouse gas that can warm the atmosphere 80 times as fast as carbon dioxide in the short term. Methane leaks out of oil and natural gas wells and is produced in burning of oil, natural gas and coal. It is also produced by livestock and landfills. US president Biden and 90 countries have pledged to control methane gas emissions at COP26 in Glasgow by signing a methane pledge. The methane pledge is for reducing methane emissions by 30% by 2030. US, EU, Nigeria, Indonesia have signed the pledge. China, Russia, India have still to sign the pledge.

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Did you know 7% of all carbon emissions today come from cement production. In the cement production process 90% of the carbon emissions come from using fossil fuels to heat up the limestone and clay to 2700 degrees to produce clinker. Cemex is workoing with Swiss company Synhelion to use solar energy to do this by 20230.  Heidelberg Materials is working to  add carbon capture to the process at its Brevik, Norway plant, then store it in the seabed near Bergen in liquefied CO2 form. This will absorb the carbon emissions to meet a goal of 8% of carbon emissions to be stored globally by 2030. 

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The German lower and upper houses of parliament, the Bundestag and the Bundesrat, passed legislation to end the use of coal by 2038. The phase out has two parts one is the legal avenue for reduction in emissions, the other is the regional economies of affected states. The government will provide 40 billion euros for restructuring economies, including reskilling workers and providing new infrastructure, for the effort. coal operators will also receive compensation if they announce plans for closure of coal plants by 2026.

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A $369 billion US climate and tax package being negotiated in the Senate by Senator Schumer could put put Biden within reach of his goal to cut US carbon emissions by 50% by 2030. The package would introduce cash incentives for electric cars and spend billions for renewable energy expansion to get Biden to within reach of his goal by cutting carbon emissions by 40% by 2030.

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DW.com's Aditya Sharma takes a deeper look at India's efforts to tackle climate change before the COP26 Glasgow Summit. Mr. Modi will attend the global summit in Glasgow, Scotland, COP26. Chinese president Xi Jinping is not expected to attend. India is the only major country to be on track to achieve its targets set in the Paris Climate change Agreement, according to the UN Environment Program's Emission Gap Report.  This report in DW.com says India plans to reduce the emissions intensity of GDP- volume of emissions for every unit of GDP- by around 35% by 2030 from 2005 levels. India is also nearing its goal under 2015 Paris Agreement for achieving about 40% share of non fossil fuel based electricity generating capacity, which the government expects will be achieved by 2023, 7 years ahead of schedule. Behind this are ambitious goals for solar energy generation set by prime minister Modi, after his first experiments with new solar energy technologies when he was running the state government in Gujarat state. Modi sees new technologies of the future playing a big role in making it possible to achieve ambitious goals way ahead of schedule. This is the unique approach India is adopting of pushing ahead with newer and newer technologies. ...

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Chinese president Xi Jinping has set strict carbon emissions targets for 2021, in his commitment to achieve peak carbon emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. Power cuts for industry are put in place to meet the targets. A 56% rise in coal prices is also making it less profitable for power plants to generate electricity. This will further reduce Chinese GDP growth. Banks have cut year over year GDP growth for quarters three and four to 4.7% and 3%.

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COP26 stands for Conference of the Parties for Climate Change. The conference will be held in Glasgow from 31 October to 12 November 2021 in the UK. It is important because for the first time the major countries are keen on pushing forward with climate change policies and targets. This includes India, China, US, European Union, and major Asian, Latin American, African nations. In India Mr. Modi has set a target of 450 GW for renewable energy. China is aggressively cutting back on its use of coal to the point of tolerating cutbacks in electricity for industry and cities. US, UK, Germany, Nordic countries are pushing forward with new targets for reducing coal consumption and increasing renewable energy production, advancing renewable energy technologies. The new Biden administration in the US and the Greens in Germany have replaced administrations that were not as committed to tackling climate change. With China and India also committed to tackling climate change with renewed vigor the stage is set for serious steps to be taken. To reach the target of limiting global heating by no more than 1.5 degrees centigrade countries all over the world have to cut emissions by 45%. In reality emissions will increase by 16% in 2021 because China and India still depend on coal and developed nations have not cut back enough. To cut use of coal and preserve forests, avoid the drastic changes in weather patterns with drought and floods in different parts of the same country seen in Germany, India, African countries and other Asian countries a lot needs to be done. Here Mr Kerry the US Representative for Climate Change, says -"There is a significant increase in ambition on cutting emissions than ever imagined possible. A much larger group of people are stepping up." It is not clear if Mr. Xi of China will attend the Glasgow meeting. He has talked to Mr. Biden at length on this issue recently. Mr. Modi of India will attend and will meet Denmark's prime minister Mitte and other leaders before the COP26 in Glasgow.  ...

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The plans for 20 liquefied natural gas projects are being launched or sped up in the EU which would give about 83% of the natural gas imported by the EU from Russia in 2021. LNG produces half of the carbon dioxide emissions of coal and Europe sees it as a transitional fuel. The EU plans a 14% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 2020, and a lot of this will come from a massive expansion of wind and solar energy, and using energy more efficiently.

Doubling down on LNG means the EU will find itself into many long term commitments to LNG that would hurt the effort to meet climate change action goals say experts.

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China generates 53% of its emissions from coal in May 2024. All the remaining from non fossil sources. Two factors are evident, yet both do not indicate a big fall off in fossil emissions from this point just a plateauing effect with it flattening out. The first is that China is putting in solar and wind at 8 times the level of the US, taking up two thirds of world solar and wind installations. The second is that the one third of emissions from construction and real estate is falling off because that industrial sector has collapsed. Overall the future points to slowing of emissions as China comes only gradually down from that 53%. What happens in China makes a huge impact on climate change. India has also committed to climate change action and meeting targets early under PM Modi so that India as it industrializes will not follow the path of jumping fossil emissions China had. This is useful to know as the US and EU, UK, expand solar and wind. It is important that the US stay committed to climate change action something missing from the Republican platform for 2024. Delaying climate change action will impose huge costs on the US that could be about 1 trillion dollars if it is stalled now and is taken up in 2028. ...

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In this video DW.com looks at China with its CO2 emissions making up 30% of the global total and addition of coal power capacity. Yet China is also the country with a huge effort to build solar energy and is at the forefront in electric cars. What does this mean and how does it affect the search for reaching a limit to the use of fossil fuels? DW.com's Christian Pricelius takes a look.

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Germany generated 45% of its energy from coal and 25% from renewable energy sources in 2013, according to AG Energiebilanzen. Chancellor Merkel, who as environment minister supported the Kyoto agreement in 1997, announced a plan to cut carbon dioxide emissions by an additional 62 to 78 million tons by 2020. The cuts will rest largely on improving energy efficiency, and with a third of the cuts in the power industry. With the drive to close 17 nuclear plants in Germany, the power industry has increasingly relied on coal generated energy. This is an effort to change this situation. It is supported by German public opinion.

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The European Union plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030, based on 1990 levels. The 21 hour summit of EU leaders met in Brussels. It was a constant worry about climate proposals said Angela Merkel. After a 21 hour debate agreement was reached including overcoming concerns of coal dependent countries. Merkel says "it was worth a sleepless night."

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The ruling in a 5-4 decision requires the EPA to consider cost when the agency makes environmental rules. It does not remove the regulations on mercury emissions and does not prohibit the EPA from setting rules. A lower court will have to rule on how the case should be handled. Its likely effect is for the EPA to consider the price for industry compliance in setting environmental rules. The majority decision wirtten by Justice Scalia says the EPA "must consider cost- including, most importantly, cost of compliance- before deciding whether regulation is appropriate and necessary." The current EPA environmental rules were set in 2012, and were put into effect in early 2015. During the early part of the process of setting the rules the EPA did not consider cost. But in the later stages the agency estimated costs of compliance for utility sector at $9.6 billion and public health benefits of at least $37 billion. Justice Elena Kagan alluded to this in her dissenting opinion. Some utilities have received an extension on installing scrubbers to remove mercury pollutants, and these plants would now receive more time. Of the 600 power plants the EPA regulates as part of the rule, 450 are coal fired plants. Of these 35% were given a 1 year extension for compliance. About 21 states heavily dependent on coal and power companies brought this case before the court. ...

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This report in the New Yorker provides a good glimpse at the problems of global warming and limiting climate change goal of 1.5 degrees centigrade. Sally Ann Ranney co-founder of the American Renewable Energy Institute answers questions from the New Yorker magazine. Limiting climate change warming of the planet to 1.5 degrees centigrade by 2100 is a goal enshrined in the Paris Agreement. In the absence of this the global warming would be 2.7 degrees centigrade by 2100. For this 1.5 degrees centigrade goal to be reached fossil fuel use and carbon emissions have to be cut by 50% by 2030 and 100% by 2050. 

The ice pack in the Arctic is part of a planetary cooling system and its accelerated melting is a good sign of the danger the planet faces. Ranney answers a number of these questions.

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A quick look at the graph in this Times Report shows the carbon dioxide CO2 emissions for the US, European Union, China and the Rest of the World in 2020. For the EU it is about 3.0 billion tons of CO2 emissions, for US it is 5 billon tons, for China 10 billion tons and the Rest of the World 16.0 billion tons. What this tells us is that a lot will depend on not just China, but India and other countries such as Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia in the developing world for how much CO2 emissions can be reduced to tackle climate change and other environmental problems.  For that 16 billion tons in the rest of the world reduction will depend on renewable supply and technologies to do it, rapid growth of economies in India and other countries to generate the resources and technology initiatives to get a shift from coal. Meanwhile it is a choice between having electricity for homes in rural areas in India or not. This is where bright spots such as solar technology in India that are giving quantum leaps for renewable solar energy with new technology cutting cost in successive waves of development can play a part.  ...

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Friedman on the energy bill, why its watered down in response to efforts of coal-state democrats in the absence of any support from Republicans, and why he still thinks by setting a price on carbon emissions this bill put forward by Waxman and Markey is good for America and the world. The need for young Americans to mobilize support, and for President Obama to do the same. The bill's goal is to reduce carbon emissions to 17% below 2005 levels.

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As winter approaches pollution reaches dangerous levels in New Delhi causing a public health emergency. Millions of anti-pollution masks are now distributed at schools, colleges, hospitals and local markets. As the weather cools a thick haze from car emissions and coal power plants builds up over New Delhi making it hard to see. The cool weather appears to trap the pollutants in northern India against the Himalayan mountains creating a stifling haze. Construction dust and smoke from paddy crop burned in the Punjab adds to the problem. This year it is getting worse than ever. Pollution levels are about 20 times what is considered healthy by the WHO. The air quality index hit 494 on November 3, 2019. Some parts of the city hit 1000 on the index. Over 500 is considered dangerous and "hazardous" to health. The government of Delhi and the state and federal authorites have taken some action to close schools, ban work at construction sites, implemented odd even license plates rule for cars entering New Delhi. A survey shows about 40% of residents of New Delhi wanted to move to some other city, and 16% want to travel this time of the year to escape pollution. ...

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Akio Toyoda, CEO of Toyota may be out of step with the times. As other companies move forward in leaps in developing electric vehicles, Toyota moves slowly and deliberately. Now he is stepping back and Toyoda who is 66 years old is giving the CEO position to 53 year old engineer Koji Sato. When it comes to digitization, electrification and connectivity, Toyoda says that he belongs to an older generation and he wants the younger generation to decide what future mobility will look like.  Toyota under Akio Toyoda has concentrated on hybrids and plug in hybrids which make up about 30% of global sales. Toyota has fallen so far behind in Ev vehicles that it is not even in the top ten car companies making EV's in the US. Its belief was that from an emissions standpoint hybrids do just as well as EV vehicles. By 2035 only zero emission vehicles will be allowed in the EU. In California this includes plug in hybrids only by 2035. Toyota is now making a U turn after studying Tesla's approach and using a new platform dedicated to EV's and set a goal of 3.5 million EV vehicles by 2030.   ...

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Malcolm Turnbull is replaed as leader of the Conservative Party by Mr. Morrison, who favors supporting the coal industry and jobs in mining. Climate change politics has played a major role in Australian leadership changes. Failure to pass legislation that would have pulled back greenhouse emissions led to the change replacing Mr. Turnbull as prime minister with Mr. Morrison.

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A large number of utility companies ( most of the big companies like Duke, AEP, Consolidated Edison, DTE, Edison, PG&E and so on) in the USA are working with General Motors to come up with the whole system for putting electric cars on the road and to work out all the issues relating to electricity recharging of the batteries in the cars. Even though coal is used to generate this electricity it reduces overall emissions as the electric plants burn coal with lower emisssions than the internal combustion engine burns gasoline. Charging the cars at night might be attractive as the utilities might find that this is more efficient for them as they may be able to increase production at power plants with extra capacity.

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Allyson Chiu and Emily Wright show how inventors in India are working on more efficient residential air conditioning units that cool single rooms. About 1.2 billion units are there across the globe, billions more may be needed to replace the old ones and to meet surging demand in Asia, Latin America and Africa. International Energy Agency estimate is for these AC units to triple by 2050 what they are now, adding 2.4 billion AC units. Using the existing technology and emissions would mean putting 2 billion metric tons of emissions from these older AC units into the atmosphere in 2050 or what 476 million cars put out, says IEA.  The Indian government, RMI, a global coalition including Gree of China, and Daikin of Japan are doing the research on new AC units. In 2015 about 5% of India's 300 million households had such AC units. 8-10 million units were sold in 2023. This would rise to 1 billion units sold and installed by 2050 says IEA, that would emit 25 gigatons of cumulative emissions in 2050, or what a staggering  6 billion gas powered cars emit. ...

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Paris Olympics organizers want this to be the smallest footprint on climate at 1.58 million metric tons of CO2. This is half that in 2012 London Olympics of 3.4 and 20% less than in Tokyo Olympics of 1.96. No rhetoric, actual facts is the goal even with 13 million spectators from many countries.

It was an opportunity for us to stage this Games in a different way, both for us to prove that the Games can be done differently, but also to leave a legacy,” says Georgina Grenon, Paris 2024’s director of environmental excellence." It is not that difficult to get 50% cut in emissions by using wood or low carbon cement. New construction is a big source of emissions. Paris organizers plan to use existing or temporary infrastructure, and also reuse what is built, and build some facilities in underserved deprived areas to use later for affordable housing. It is a remarkable and commendable effort.

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This report in Der Spiegel shows how the efforts to act on climate change are stalled in Germany with the failure to agree on how coal fired plants will be closed in the ongoing three party negotiations. The FDP party is pro-business and no agreement is reached with the Greens and the CDU on how to move ahead with the 65% of German power plants that do not rely on renewable energy such as solar and wind. Modern gas facilities are unprofitable making this a major challenge for Germany to cut power emissions under the Paris Climate Change Agreement and German targets of the Merkel government. Spiegel points out that energy companies are not keen on keeping the old coal power plants which are now outdated and an agreement is needed.

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When it comes to climate change China is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world- more than North America, Europe, South America and Africa combined. It emits about one third of greenhouse gas emissions in the world. When it comes to climate change action China is meeting its 2030 targets 6 years earlier, and it is meeting all the increased use of energy through renewables. Yet there is another side and this is that China is building coal fired plants at a rapid pace to meet its energy needs. Xie Zenhua meets John Kerry at Sunnylands estate in southern California to discuss how China and the US can cooperate on climate change action. No two nations are so critical to meet the challenges posed by climate change from fires to floods and drought.