However, the news was far less bright from the crucial Cerrado savanna below the rainforest, where clear-cutting hit a new annual record last year, rising by 43 percent from 2022, according to the national space research agency’s DETER surveillance program.

Satellite monitoring detected 5,152 square kilometers (nearly 2,000 square miles) of forest cover destroyed in the Brazilian Amazon last year, down 50 percent from 2022.

That still represented a loss 29 times the size of Washington DC in Brazil’s share of the world’s biggest rainforest, whose carbon-absorbing trees play a vital role in curbing climate change.

Meanwhile, the Cerrado, a biodiversity hotspot whose ecosystems are intricately linked with the Amazon’s, lost over 7,800 square kilometers of native vegetation last year, the highest since monitoring began in 2018.

“We saw some important victories on the environment in 2023. The significant reduction in deforestation in the Amazon was a highlight,” said Mariana Napolitano of environmental group WWF-Brasil.

“But unfortunately we aren’t seeing the same trend in the Cerrado… That is harming the biome and the extremely important ecosystem services it provides. And we saw the impact at the end of the year, with extremely high temperatures.”

Environmental groups have accused the Lula government of turning a blind eye to the destruction of the lesser-known Cerrado to appease the powerful agribusiness lobby.

The figures for both the Amazon and Cerrado were updated through December 29.

Taken together, the total area razed in the two regions was 12,980 square kilometers in 2023, down 18 percent from 2022.

After beating far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in a divisive election in 2022, veteran leftist Lula returned to office on January 1, 2023, vowing “Brazil is back” as a partner in the fight against climate change.

Agribusiness ally Bolsonaro (2019-2022) had drawn international criticism for presiding over a 75-percent increase in average annual deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon versus the previous decade.

Experts say the destruction in both the Amazon and Cerrado is driven mainly by farming and cattle ranching in Brazil, the world’s top exporter of soybeans and beef.

The post Deforestation in Brazilian Amazon halved in 2023 appeared first on Digital Journal.

The ZEV mandate will only apply to England, Wales and Scotland and not Northern Ireland. This is against the backdrop of Northern Ireland currently having less than 1 percent of UK’s total charging points with an alarming proportion of these being antiquated and unreliable. There are concerns that Northern Ireland will fall further behind the rest of the UK.

Speaking about the legislation to Fleetworld, Sue Robinson, Chief Executive of the National Franchised Dealers Association (NFDA) explains its significance: “The introduction of the ZEV mandate into law will be a key policy in driving electric vehicle uptake and will heavily influence the automotive retail sector in its ongoing transition to electric.”

She adds that: “The automotive retailing sector has been supportive of the Government’s targets for net-zero in 2050 and as such has invested heavily in driving the electrification of the vehicle parc.”

For 2024, original equipment makers (OEMs) will be subject to a £15,000 penalty per non-compliant car. If an OEM does not meet the target percentage for that year, then there are options to mitigate the fines including buying ‘credits’ from other OEMs who have a surplus. This type of carbon offset, a type of reduction, avoidance, or removal of emissions, to compensate for emissions released elsewhere has been criticised by environmentalists, with businesses facing accusations of “greenwashing” over their carbon-offsetting claims.

Robinson explains that NFDA’s Electric Vehicle Approved (EVA) accreditation scheme was also launched in 2019 to encourage retailers to enhance their expertise in the electric vehicle sector and increase consumer confidence during the transition to electric. Since its launch, the scheme reached a significant milestone last year of 500 accredited dealer sites, with many more still due to be processed in 2024.

One important factor will be ensuring there is demand and that the public understand the timelines involved and the consistency of public policy. This leads Robinson to state: “Nevertheless, there is still more that needs to be done by government to maintain the positive electric vehicle trajectory in registrations and increase public confidence in these greener, cleaner vehicle types. The recent news that government has missed its own target of six rapid or ultra-rapid chargers at every motorway service station in England by the end of 2023 will do the industry no favours in its attempts to ease the minds of consumers.”

Measures like price incentives and improving EV charging infrastructure are favoured by the NFDA. In addition, changing public perceptions and building trust and enthusiasm are important components in any strategy.

In the NFDA’s recent Consumer Attitude Survey, 62 percent of over 800 driving licence holders across the UK attributed cost and 57 percent attributed lack of charging facilities in the UK as to why they were not interested in purchasing an electric vehicle.

The post A road less travelled: UK tries to jump start the electric car revolution appeared first on Digital Journal.

According to data from the Red Electrica Espanola (REE), the production of electricity from renewable sources reached nearly 135,000 GWh last year, the equivalent of 50.4 percent of the overall national energy mix.

That percentage, which is eight points higher than 42.2 percent reached in 2022, represents a record, with Spain passing the 50 percent threshold for renewable electricity for the first time, an REE statement said.

Wind was the leading source of energy for the second year running, generating 63,000 GWh, or 23.3 percent of the total electricity generated in Spain.

And solar power installations generated 37,000 GWh of power, or 14 percent of the overall total, well above the figure for hydropower which accounted for 9.5 percent, it said.

The figure for nuclear-generated electricity remained stable, accounting for 20.3 percent of the total, while gas-generated power fell seven points to 17.2 percent over the same period.

The figures “are irrefutable proof that the green transition is advancing steadily in Spain,” said Beatriz Corredor, head of REE’s parent company Redeia, in a statement.

The government of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has pledged to increase the share of renewable-generated energy to 74 percent of Spain’s overall electricity production by 2030, a feasible target given the country’s natural abundance of sunshine and wind.

As a result, there has been a surge in huge projects involving solar installations and wind farms boosted by massive investment, notably in the sparsely-populated north and centre of the country.

The figure makes Spain one of the leaders in Europe in terms of the most renewable power capacity.

Germany also released preliminary figures in mid-December showing that for the first time, electricity generation from renewable sources was over 50 percent of the total in 2023.

The post Spain generated record 50% of power from renewables in 2023 appeared first on Digital Journal.

TotalEnergies is pushing ahead with its Tilenga drilling project in Uganda and the 1,443-kilometre (897-mile) East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) to transport it to the coast in Tanzania in the face of opposition from activists and environmentalists.

“This mission will evaluate the land acquisition procedures implemented, the conditions for consultation, compensation and relocation of the populations concerned, and the grievance handling mechanism,” the statement said, adding that a report would be submitted by April.

Tilenga targets oil under the Murchison Falls nature reserve in western Uganda with a planned 419 wells, triggering fears for the region’s fragile ecosystem among the people who live there and environmentalists.

Drilling began in mid-2023 and production is slated for 2025.

TotalEnergies, which is working with Chinese oil company CNOOC on the project, says its 6,400-hectare acquisition plan affects “19,140 households and communities owning or using plots of land and includes the relocation of 775 primary residences”.

“To date, 98 percent of the households concerned have signed compensation agreements, 97 percent have received their compensation, and 98 percent of households to be relocated have taken possession of their new homes,” the company added.

Resistance to the project has rallied opponents of fossil fuel development as well as conservationists and those fearing the effect on local populations.

Human Rights Watch called in July for the plans to be halted, saying in a report that it had already “devastated thousands of people’s livelihoods in Uganda”.

The oilfield would “ultimately displace over 100,000 people”, it charged.

– Legal battles –

Four environmental groups — Darwin Climax Coalitions, Sea Shepherd France, Wild Legal and Stop EACOP-Stop Total in Uganda — filed a criminal complaint in France in September accusing TotalEnergies of “ecocide”.

A first case filed in 2019 was thrown out last year by a Paris court, while TotalEnergies says the Tanzania-based East African Court of Justice has also rejected a complaint.

Other aid groups and 26 individual Ugandans filed a further French civil case in June calling for “reparations”.

TotalEnergies said Thursday it had named Benin’s former Prime Minister Lionel Zinsou to lead the land acquisition assessment, calling him a “recognised expert in African economic development”.

Zinsou has worked with TotalEnergies in the past through his consulting company.

The French branch of Friends of the Earth, which is also participating in the legal battle against the projects, expressed scepticism about the review.

“They are trying to get names which can help whitewash their image, but you’ve got to look beyond the names to concrete things like their expertise and what methodology is used,” said Juliette Renaud, who heads up the group’s campaigns against multinationals.

A TotalEnergies spokesman said the review wasn’t a public relations exercise.

“We’re doing this for the people concerned, not for our image,” he said. 

TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne acknowledged last year that company hadn’t done as well as it could have concerning the relocations.

“The subject of relocations should have been handled earlier,” he said in an interview with French business magazine.

The post TotalEnergies to review land buyouts in contested Africa projects appeared first on Digital Journal.

Previous research has shown that rapid human and agricultural expansion has had a particularly dire impact on vultures in Africa, due to habitat change and poisoning.

But the new study by researchers at the University of St Andrews and The Peregrine Fund found that other large birds of prey — or raptors — that do not depend on scavenging and are less vulnerable to poisoning had also suffered similarly severe depletions. 

Scientists said these large birds of prey in decline face a “double jeopardy” — increasingly dependent on protected areas, they also have a more restricted habitat.  

Unless Africa’s conservation network is extended and other human threats are eased, “large raptor species are unlikely to persist over much of the continent’s unprotected land by the latter half of this century”, said lead author Philip Shaw, honorary research fellow at the University of St Andrews. 

The study, published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, measured changes in population abundance for 42 raptor species in Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, northern Cameroon, Kenya and Botswana during two periods, 1969 to 1995 and 2000 to 2020.  

Of the birds studied, 37 species had witnessed declines, with 29 plummeting by at least 30 percent over three generational periods.

The authors concluded that as a group, Africa’s diurnal raptors — those active during the day like eagles — “are facing an extinction crisis, with more than two-thirds of the species examined potentially qualifying as globally threatened”.

– Human impact –

Larger birds are particularly at risk because they need a wider habitat and breed more slowly than smaller birds, rendering their populations less resilient.

Human threats include shooting, trapping, poisoning, electrocutions or collisions with energy infrastructure, with birds killed for food or belief-based reasons.

The animals they prey on are also targeted. 

Species declines were most pronounced in West and Central Africa, where protected areas are particularly underfunded. 

High regional levels of poverty and corruption have been linked to adverse conservation outcomes for numerous charismatic mammal species, according to the study. 

To protect the birds, the researchers point to two solutions. 

The first is to expand protected areas in Africa in line with one the goals set at the Convention of Biological Diversity (COP 15) in 2022 — to effectively conserve and manage at least 30 percent of the world’s surface by 2030. 

Currently, protected areas account for just 14 percent of Africa’s land and inland waters, Shaw said. 

The second is to manage existing protected areas more effectively, Shaw added. 

Researchers stress that effective conservation of large birds of prey is in human societies’ best interests. 

Vultures, for example, by scavenging carcasses can limit the transmission of zoonotic diseases to human populations, Shaw said. 

The loss of big predators also has a profound effect on ecosystems. 

Without them, prey populations can become unregulated and damage crops. 

“In Africa, losing the largest and most uniquely adapted avian predators will most likely have the biggest impact on ecosystem function,” Shaw said. 

The post Africa’s large birds of prey facing ‘extinction crisis’: study appeared first on Digital Journal.

TotalEnergies is pushing ahead with its Tilenga drilling project in Uganda and the 1,443-kilometre (897-mile) East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) to transport it to the coast in Tanzania in the face of opposition from activists and environmentalists.

“This mission will evaluate the land acquisition procedures implemented, the conditions for consultation, compensation and relocation of the populations concerned, and the grievance handling mechanism,” the statement said, adding that it would submit its report by April.

Tilenga targets oil under the rich Murchison Falls nature reserve in western Uganda with a planned 419 wells, triggering fears for the region’s fragile ecosystem among the people who live there and environmentalists.

Drilling began in mid-2023 and production is slated to begin in 2025.

TotalEnergies, which is working with Chinese oil company CNOOC on the project, says that its 6,400-hectare acquisition plan affects “19,140 households and communities owning or using plots of land and includes the relocation of 775 primary residences”.

“To date, 98 percent of the households concerned have signed compensation agreements, 97 percent have received their compensation, and 98 percent of households to be relocated have taken possession of their new homes,” the company added.

Resistance to the project has rallied opponents of fossil fuel development as well as conservationists and those fearing the effect on local populations.

Human Rights Watch called in July for the plans to be halted, saying in a report that it had already “devastated thousands of people’s livelihoods in Uganda”.

The oilfield would “ultimately displace over 100,000 people,” it charged.

Four environmental groups — Darwin Climax Coalitions, Sea Shepherd France, Wild Legal and Stop EACOP-Stop Total in Uganda — filed a criminal complaint in France in September accusing TotalEnergies of “ecocide”.

A first case filed in 2019 was thrown out last year by a Paris court, while TotalEnergies says the Tanzania-based East African Court of Justice has also rejected a complaint.

Other aid groups and 26 individual Ugandans filed a further French civil case in June calling for “reparations”.

TotalEnergies said Thursday it had named Benin’s former Prime Minister Lionel Zinsou to lead its land acquisition assessment, calling him a “recognised expert in African economic development”.

Zinsou has worked with TotalEnergies in the past through his consulting company.

The post TotalEnergies to review land buyouts in contested Africa projects appeared first on Digital Journal.

However, new environmental and fiscal challenges are looming for the 78-year-old leader of Latin America’s biggest economy.

Here are some things you need to know about Lula’s first year back in power:

– Tough political challenges –

The leftist veteran Lula narrowly won the presidency from his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro in a bitter election that deeply divided Brazil, leaving him no honeymoon period at the start of his third term in office.

A week after he was sworn in, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters invaded government buildings in the capital in January 8 riots.

“Lula has to face more challenges than during previous mandates. He had no grace period and faced a hostile parliament” dominated by the right, said Andre Rosa, a political scientist at the University of Brasilia.

Nevertheless, he managed to push through significant social aid programs and the economy has been doing better than expected.

“We are coming to the end of the year in a very good situation, I would say exceptional even, when we know the state in which we found the country,” Lula said after his final cabinet meeting for 2023.

– Economic wins and headwinds –

Brazil’s inflation has continued to fall, and Lula — after months of standoff with the Central Bank — managed to obtain four consecutive interest rate cuts.

The government estimates growth of three percent in 2023, after the economy performed better than expected in first three quarters, and unemployment figures are at their lowest since 2015.

The end of the year was marked by parliament adopting a vast reform of the tax system that the business community has demanded for over three decades.

The reform was welcomed by the S&P Global ratings agency which upgraded Brazil from BB- to BB, following fellow credit rating agency Fitch which did so in July.

However, some economists warn the government could struggle to balance public finances in 2024, when growth is expected to slow.

– Environmental paradox –

One of Brazil’s most high-profile challenges has been the destruction of the Amazon, and deforestation halved between January and November compared to the same period in 2022.

Suely Araujo, a senior specialist of Brazil’s Climate Observatory, said that one of the factors was “increased controls” by IBAMA, the government’s main environmental agency which suffered severe budget and staff cuts under Bolsonaro.

The government also approved eight new indigenous reserves, considered by scientists to be essential defenses against deforestation. 

But the good news on the rainforest — whose carbon-absorbing trees are key to the climate race — was offset by record-high deforestation for November in the Cerrado savanna, a biodiverse region below the Amazon that has been hit by a recent surge in clear-cutting, mainly for farming.

Lula’s government has also faced criticism for oil exploration projects near the mouth of the Amazon, and its announcement in the middle of global climate talks that it planned to join OPEC+, an expansion of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

“Being a leader on climate and joining OPEC+ is incompatible,” said Araujo.

– Globe-trotting and controversy –

Lula paid visits to the United States, China, attended a BRICS summit in South Africa and a G7 meeting in Japan, along with the COP28 climate talks in Dubai, to show Brazil was back on the international scene after ties deteriorated under Bolsonaro.

While Rosa, the political scientist said foreign relations have improved, Lula has also caused consternation with his stance on the conflict in Ukraine, where he says both Kyiv and Moscow are equally responsible for the war.

Lula has also accused Israel of committing the “equivalent of terrorism” in Gaza by killing innocent women and children in its war on Hamas.

In 2024, experts expect him to focus more on internal politics and rising crime ahead of municipal elections in October.

The post Triumphs and tests: Brazil’s Lula marks one year back in office appeared first on Digital Journal.

Adams explains to Digital Journal why AI at scale, IT sustainability and the economic outlook are each fundamental to the coming year.

Sustainable IT

Sustainable IT covers the manufacturing, use, management and disposal of information technology in a way that minimises its impact on the environment.

On the subject of IT sustainability, Adams says: “In 2024, sustainability will increase its prominence and become a core consideration for IT solutions, with companies intensifying their focus on energy-efficient data centres, eco-friendly hardware, and carbon-neutral cloud services. What was once a mere aspiration will now become a non-negotiable business imperative, driven not only by environmental consciousness but also by the growing expectation from consumers and stakeholders. 2024 will serve as the inflection point in the pursuit of these ambitious sustainability objectives and will set the stage for a greener and more sustainable IT landscape in the coming year and beyond.”

AI @ Scale

This is built around ensuring companies have correctly planned AI implementation and integration to allow them to build effective models.

Delivering AI is something many firms needs to achieve. If 2023 was about learning the technology, 2024 is all about delivery. Adams predicts: ““As the enterprise AI imperative only gains momentum in 2024, many organizations in highly regulated industries will find the public cloud limiting or prohibitive for AI and ML agendas, and we will see a surge in data repatriation and management.”

In terms of specifics, Adams continues: “These regulated industries (such as financial services, healthcare, etc.) must consider data sovereignty and security policies when devising their AI/ML workloads and may require hybrid cloud or on-prem deployments. In addition, for high performance workloads, latency from cloud-based applications just won’t be acceptable. For accelerating time-to-value, many will present opportunity to partners experienced in designing, building, deploying, and managing enterprise solutions (inclusive of software, compute/GPU, data technologies, and infrastructure) which support advanced workloads with optimal performance and stability at scale.”

Economic Headwinds

Whatever technology is introduced, things can become derailed through economic factors outside of the control of the firm. To prepare for this possibility, Adams suggests: “Navigating an unpredictable global economy poses some challenges. Although there are concerns with high-interest rates and US debt, GDP remains resilient. This environment underscores the importance of businesses investing in their IT strategies, as investments into AI capabilities continue. Companies who focus on short term fundamentals while creating opportunities to invest for the long term will win!”

The post Green computing: IT sustainability can help to deliver business growth appeared first on Digital Journal.

Thousands of photovoltaic slabs are being installed across the United States every day, particularly in the sunny west and south of the country, as states like California race to towards greener energy production.

But with an expected lifespan of around 30 years, the first wave of solar installations is now coming to the end of its usefulness, sparking a rush to recycle things that might otherwise end up in the landfill.

“What is about to happen is a tsunami of solar panels coming back into the supply chain,” said Adam Saghei, chief executive of Arizona-based We Recycle Solar.

“One of the challenges with any industry is, there hasn’t been that much planning for a circular economy. 

“(Solar) is a sustainable form of energy; there needs to be a plan for the retirement of those assets.”

Saghei’s plan involves, among other things, reusing panels.

Anywhere up to five percent of panels either have a minor production defect or get damaged during transport or installation.

These still-working panels can be refurbished and diverted to other markets, often abroad, Saghei says.

But for the panels that no longer function — either because they’re decrepit, or because they were damaged beyond use during installation, or smashed by hailstones — there’s treasure to be found.

“We’re doing what’s called urban mining,” says Saghei, refering to a process that took his engineers three years to perfect.

That mining recovers silver, copper, aluminium, glass and silicone — all commodities that have a value on the open market.

While the uses for the metals might be obvious, what to do with silicone and glass is less so, but nonetheles intriguing.

“You can use it for sand traps on golf courses, you can refine it for sandblast mix, you can also use it for the stones or the glass mix that you get for outdoor fireplaces,” says Saghei.

With capacity to process up to 7,500 panels every day at the plant in Yuma, a surprisingly small amount goes to waste.

“Depending on the make and model of the panels… we’re able to get up to 99 percent recovery rate.”

– Logistics –

For Meng Tao, who specialises in sustainable energy infrastructure at Arizona State University, developing an efficient lifecycle for solar panels is a pressing issue.

With the United States among countries committed to weaning itself off fossil fuels following a landmark COP28 climate agreement, solar panel installation looks set to increase to a peak two decades from now.

“Once it matures, then the annual installation and the decommissioning will be about the same,” he told AFP. 

“But for the next 20 years… at least for the next 10 years… we’ll just have more instalations than retirements.”

The problem with recycling, he says, is not just that the value of recovered materials from panels can be relatively low, but also the logistics.

With panels distributed to thousands of sometimes far-flung rooftops, it can cost a lot of money just to get them to a recycling center.

And unlike some jurisdictions, the United States imposes the cost of removal and recycling on the end user — making it more attractive for households just to dump their old units at the local landfill.

“There has to be some policy support” to plug the gap between what consumers will pay and the total lifecycle cost of the panels, says Tao.

– Growing market –

For Saghei, as for any business leaders, profitablity is important.

“You don’t see too many getting into the business because recycling has a cost. It’s not free. It’s labor intensive. It’s energy intensive,” he says.

But he does see a way forward.

Recovering materials from old solar panels that can be put back into new solar panels is — he is convinced — a winning proposition.

“These are markets that are growing,” he says.

“Right through this process we are able, once the industry scales to even larger figures, to put those raw commodities back into the supply chain.

“What’s exciting is we’re at the forefront.”

The post ‘Urban mining’ offers green solution to old solar panels appeared first on Digital Journal.

The penalty is the largest ever for a violation of the Clean Air Act, which requires vehicle and engine manufacturers to comply with emissions standards, the department said.

Cummins, which is based in Columbus, Indiana, was accused of installing defeat devices in the engines — parts or software that can bypass emissions controls or render them inoperative.

Defeat devices and auxiliary emission control devices were allegedly installed on nearly one million engines produced since 2013 for RAM pickup trucks, which are made by Stellantis. Stellantis did not immediately reply to a query from AFP.

“The Justice Department is committed to vigorously enforcing the environmental laws that protect the American people from harmful pollutants,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. 

“The types of devices we allege that Cummins installed in its engines to cheat federal environmental laws have a significant and harmful impact on people’s health and safety,” Garland said.

“Our preliminary estimates suggest that defeat devices on some Cummins engines have caused them to produce thousands of tons of excess emissions of nitrogen oxides,” he said.

“The cascading effect of those pollutants can, over long-term exposure, lead to breathing issues like asthma and respiratory infections.”

The German automaker Volkswagen was found by the US Environmental Protection Agency in 2015 to have installed emissions control-defying software in diesel-powered cars in a scandal which came to be known as “Dieselgate.”

The Justice Department said that the $1.67 billion to be paid by Cummins to the US government and state of California is the second-largest ever environmental penalty, topped only by the more than $20 billion settlement reached with BP in 2015 for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The post Cummins to pay $1.67 bn to settle engine emission control claims appeared first on Digital Journal.