China To Spend $382B To Lower Energy Consumption/Pollution
China’s cabinet has announced that it will invest $382 billion in energy efficiency and pollution reduction projects over the next 30 months. The goal of the investment is to lower the annual amount of coal that’s used by the country by 300 million tons. Currently, China purchases 185 million tons of coal from other countries and some experts forecast China’s appetite for coal to grow to as much as one billion tons by 2030. This investment is part of a 2020 goal to to reduce carbon emissions per unit of GDP by 40-45 percent from 2005 levels.
Sapphire Energy’s Commercial Demonstration Algae-to-Energy Facility Up And Running
Sapphire Energy, has announced the completion of the first phase of its Green Crude Farm. This is significant because the Green Crude Farm is the world’s first commercial demonstration algae-to-energy facility. The facility is expected use approximately 300 acres of algae focused ponds and processing plants to produce 1.5 million gallons of crude oil each year. The completion of the first phase of the Green Crude Farm is the first step towards providing a viable blueprint for scalable algae biofuel facilities globally. The next step for the company is to spend this year and next performing “shakedown” testing, and finalizing facility operations and commissioning.
Carbon Neutral For 2 UK Airports
The Manchester Airports Group (MAG) has published a Corporate Social Responsibility report that highlights two of their airports going carbon neutral. The airports, which are located in East Midlands and Bournemouth, lowered their carbon output by 7,171 tonnes. They are now in their first full year of carbon neutral operations. MAG’s third airport, the Manchester Airport, is expected to become carbon netural by 2015.
Environmental Defense Fund Announces Key Grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies
The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) has received a 3-year, $6-million grant by Bloomberg Philanthropies to execute a strategy that focuses on minimizing the environmental impacts of natural gas explorations through hydraulic fracturing. The funding will help support the work that will go into securing rules and industry best practices in the 14 states with 85 percent of the country’s unconventional gas reserves. Other initiatives include disclosing all chemicals used in the hydraulic fracturing process, as well as chemicals used in drilling and operating wells, and requiring measurement and reporting of air emissions and the content of waste water, optimizing rules for well construction and operation, minimizing water consumption, protecting groundwater and ensuring proper disposal of wastewater, improving air pollution controls, including capturing fugitive methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and reducing impacts to communities and ecosystems.
