For residents of the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, the United States’ recent success in clinching a major piece of climate change legislation may feel like too little, too late. Over the past 40 years, as the world’s largest historical emitter of greenhouses gases repeatedly failed to take significant action on the climate, the region surrounding Svalbard has warmed at least four times as fast as the global average, according to significant research published Thursday. The study suggests that warming in the Arctic is happening at a much faster rate than many scientists had expected. And while U.S. lawmakers this summer hashed out the details of a massive bill to speed their nation’s shift toward cleaner energy — the culmination of months of deliberations — the new findings were just the latest visceral reminder that the planet’s changing climate isn’t waiting around for human action. - Washington Post
The Tibetan Plateau, known as the “water tower” of Asia, supplies freshwater for nearly 2 billion people who live downstream. New research led by scientists at Penn State, Tsinghua University and the University of Texas at Austin projects that climate change, under a scenario of weak climate policy, will cause irreversible declines in freshwater storage in the region, constituting a serious threat to the water supply for central Asia, Afghanistan, Northern India, Kashmir and Pakistan by the middle of the century. “The prognosis is not good,” said Michael Mann, distinguished professor of atmospheric science at Penn State. “In a ‘business as usual’ scenario, where we fail to meaningfully curtail fossil fuel burning in the decades ahead, we can expect a substantial — that is, nearly 100% loss — of water availability to downstream regions of the Tibetan Plateau. I was surprised at just how large the predicted decrease is even under a scenario of modest climate policy.” - Penn State 
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today released three reports showing that wind power remains one of America’s fastest growing energy sources and a generator of high-quality jobs. Wind power accounted for 32% of U.S. energy capacity growth in 2021, employs 120,000 Americans, and now provides enough energy to power 40 million American homes. The 2021 wind market reports show that the domestic expansion of wind power is proving to be an essential source of clean, cheap energy generation that supports President Biden’s goals of reaching 100% clean electricity by 2035 and a net zero economy by 2050. - Energy.gov
Booming electric vehicle sales have spurred a growing demand for lithium. But the light metal, which is essential for making power-packed rechargeable batteries, isn't abundant. Now, researchers report a major step toward tapping a virtually limitless lithium supply: pulling it straight out of seawater. "This represents substantial progress" for the field, says Jang Wook Choi, a chemical engineer at Seoul National University who was not involved with the work. He adds that the approach might also prove useful for reclaiming lithium from used batteries. Lithium is prized for rechargeables because it stores more energy by weight than other battery materials. Manufacturers use more than 160,000 tons of the material every year, a number expected to grow nearly 10-fold over the next decade. But lithium supplies are limited and concentrated in a handful of countries, where the metal is either mined or extracted from briny water.- Science
In a year of record-high prices for fossil fuels, as lawmakers consider new policies that can help fight inflation, renewable energy is already helping to shield Americans from steep jumps in their electricity bills. For example, in Texas, even as some observers have incorrectly blamed renewables for the state’s strained power grid, more than a third of electricity in the first half of 2022 came from wind and solar projects. Wind and solar have both set records already this year. High production from renewables and high fossil fuel prices together mean wind and solar are having an outsized impact on lowering energy costs. Based on benchmark natural gas prices, RMI estimates that, on average, wind and solar projects in Texas have avoided $20 million per day in fuel that otherwise would have been needed for fossil fuel-based power plants to meet electricity demand.- RMI  Swiss mountain pass will lose all glacier ice ‘in a few weeks’ for first time in centuries8/21/2022
The thick layer of ice that has covered a Swiss mountain pass for centuries will have melted away completely within a few weeks, according to a local ski resort. After a dry winter, the summer heatwaves hitting Europe have been catastrophic for the Alpine glaciers, which have been melting at an accelerated rate. The pass between Scex Rouge and Tsanfleuron has been iced over since at least the Roman era. But as both glaciers have retreated, the bare rock of the ridge between the two is beginning to emerge – and will be completely ice-free before the summer is out. - The Guardian
n 2015, about 10% of Australia's vast mangrove forests in the Gulf of Carpentaria mysteriously died. Scientists have now figured out the cause - and warn the forests may struggle to recover in a changing climate. - BBC
The 1.32 GW Hornsea Two will dethrone the 1.2 GW Hornsea One as the largest operating offshore wind farms in the world. It’s 462 square kilometers (178 square miles) in size, and it will power more than 1.3 million homes. Hornsea Two is off the east coast of England and was developed and is owned by Danish wind giant Ørsted. It features 165 Siemens Gamesa 8 megawatt (MW) turbines; most of the wind turbines’ blades were manufactured at Siemens Gamesa’s factory in Hull. All of Hornsea Two’s wind turbines are now commercially operational. The entire project will be fully commissioned after the final reliability runs are completed, and that’s expected later this month. - Electrek  Standing atop the Hoover Dam today, the millions of tourists who visit each year can get a real sense of the climate crisis in the West: In addition to extreme heat, the sight of so-called "bathtub rings" that envelop Lake Mead has become an unsettling reminder of where the water level once was before the region's historic drought began. The changes are "stunning to see," Kristen Averyst, senior climate advisor for Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, told CNN. "If people don't think that climate change is impacting them here and now, just go to Lake Mead and have a look around, because that paints a pretty clear picture of what we're up against when it comes to climate change." - CNN  Saudi oil giant Aramco has broken its own record with a $48.4bn (£40bn) profit for the second quarter of 2022. It is a 90% year-on-year increase and marks the biggest earnings for the world's largest energy exporter since its public listing three years ago. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has seen oil and gas prices skyrocket. Russia is one of the world's biggest exporters but Western nations have pledged to curb their dependence on the country for their energy needs. According to Bloomberg, the Saudi oil giant's figure represents "the biggest quarterly adjusted profit of any listed company". As well as the record profits, the state-owned Saudi energy giant announced it would keep its dividend unchanged at $18.8bn for the third quarter. - BBC
As a 23-year-old drought intensified by climate change and overallocation continue to endanger the Colorado River water supply, Arizona, Nevada and Mexico will face more reductions in their allotments, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced Tuesday. According to new projections by the Department of Interior, the river’s main reservoir, Lake Mead in Nevada, will reach record low levels in January, triggering a “Tier 2a” shortage that calls for a collective reduction in Colorado River use by Arizona, Nevada and Mexico. About 80 percent of the more than 720,000 acre-feet reduction will come from Arizona. California would not be impacted by the newly declared shortage because the reductions are based on previously negotiated levels. - Inside Climate News
Governments and corporate net-zero commitments are pushing the petrochemicals industry to cut its emissions by 2050. Despite facing a more complex decarbonization path than any other sector, petrochemicals players’ net-zero targets cover more of the global manufacturing capacity than other heavy emitters like steel and cement. Electrification and carbon capture and storage are likely to play a central role in reducing emissions from the production of high-value chemicals, or HVCs, which are key feedstocks used to make plastics and many manufactured goods. - BNEF
As electric vehicle (EV) sales continue to increase, questions about how these cars and their batteries will be disposed of have been top of mind for current owners, future buyers, policymakers, and many experts in the automotive industry. EVs are a newer technology, and their batteries require different end-of-life processing than gasoline vehicles. Luckily, lithium-ion battery recycling research and development has been going on for years and there is an existing and growing repurposing and recycling system in North America for these components. The map below is from recent research that explores the network of companies already recycling and repurposing batteries – these include recycling companies such as Redwood Materials, Li-Cycle, and Ascend Elements. The industry is quickly growing capacity for future recycling, with planned facilities in Nevada, New York, and Georgia, to name just a few. - UCS
On the surface, the Inflation Reduction Act that President Biden signed into law on Tuesday may sound like a massive government spending program. Indeed, it promises to put nearly $370 billion in federal funding behind the energy transition. But, if you dig deeper, the IRA is less about the power of government spending and more about the power of the private sector. The tax incentives, loans, and grants at its center are all intended to nudge the private sector to go faster in deploying existing technologies like wind and solar while also advancing future technologies. “The path they went down is 100% the ‘sweeten the deal path,’” says Karen Karniol-Tambour, chief investment officer for sustainability at Bridgewater. “Let’s just give lots of incentives to make the green stuff really competitive.” - Time
Four Ways the Inflation Reduction Act Speeds Shift to a Cleaner, More Affordable Energy Future8/21/2022
The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is a once-in-a-career opportunity, permanently shifting the course of both the US economy and global climate to a better future. And it represents the culmination of decades of work by RMI — our experts and analysis played a direct role advancing key provisions — along with countless other NGOs, businesses, communities, scientists, and policymakers The full implications of the nearly 800-page bill continue to be assessed. But early modeling suggests its incentives will drive dramatic emission reductions: at least 40 percent by 2030, just shy of US commitments to lower emissions by half in that time. - RMI
New US Climate Law Will Reduce Carbon Emissions & Make Electricity Less Expensive Economists Say8/21/2022
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu announced Tuesday her intent to file legislation that potentially would allow for the elimination of fossil fuels in new construction or major renovations, following in the footsteps of regulations in New York City, Seattle and Washington, D.C. The city’s pursuit of such building standards follows Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, R, signing a major climate bill last week. The state law establishes a pilot program that will allow 10 municipalities to create local policies restricting the use of fossil fuels in new construction projects. Those policies intend to spur the adoption of cleaner technologies to power buildings, such as electric heat pumps. - Smart Cities Dive
Emerging small reactors projected to provide 90 GW of nuclear power to US grid by 2050: NEI survey8/21/2022
The push for carbon-free energy will drive the growth of small modular reactors, or SMRs, with 300 of them expected to be online by 2050 supplying 731 TWh of power, according to the results of a survey the Nuclear Energy Institute conducted with a subset of its member utilities and released Aug. 5. - Utility Dive
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