The Weekly Anthropocene, March 6 2024
A nature restoration bill and carbon tariffs in the EU, inmates breeding endangered butterflies, floating solar in Italy and Indonesia, a cotton-picking robot, 100,000 saltwater crocodiles, and more!
The Big Picture
The International Energy Agency has issued a new report on carbon dioxide emissions in 2023, and it shares some landmark statistical milestones.
Global anthropogenic CO2 emissions rose by 1.1% in 2023 as China and India saw higher emissions, but emissions growth since 2019 would have been three times higher if not for the rapid global growth of clean energy.
A massive 540 GW (540,000 MW) of new clean energy capacity was installed worldwide in 2023, up 75% from 2022!
The emissions of advanced economies (a technical category here encompassing most of Europe plus the USA, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand, and a few more) fell by 4.5% in 2023, even as their economies collectively grew by 1.7%. Absolute decoupling!
Advanced economies’ emissions in 2023 fell to as low as they had been in 1973.
Advanced economies’ coal demand in 2023 fell to as low as around 1900. (Yay!)
Since 2007, coal demand in advanced economies has halved, while renewables more than doubled, from 16% to 34% of electricity generation.
Renewables plus nuclear (another safe, low-carbon power source) now provide 50% of electricity generation in advanced economies, for the first time ever. (YAY!)
The future of global emissions is increasingly decided in Asia: China emitted 15% more CO2 than all the advanced economies combined in 2023 (see top chart1).
This is why it’s so important that renewables are growing swiftly in plateauing giant China and rising titan India!
Australia
The Australian population of the titanic saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) was driven to the edge of extinction by unregulated hunting in the mid-20th century, with an estimated 3,000 individuals left in Australia by the 1970s. Now, after decades of protection, they seem to have achieved “full recovery,” with an estimated 100,000 individual crocodiles in Australia today. The species can grow to over 6 meters long, and 21,000 of the current Australian croc population are estimated to be over 3.5 meters long. Another victory of rewilding!
Australian scientists are working with Google and The Nature Conservancy to use AI to identify and breed heat-resistant varieties of kelp. AI analysis of satellite imagery will help find surviving kelp stands in the vast ocean, and AI analysis of kelp genetics will help breed strains that can survive increasingly frequent marine heat waves. A spectacular example of innovative, proactive, Anthropocene-ready conservation!
European Union
The European Parliament passed a landmark nature and biodiversity restoration bill with unprecedentedly ambitious rewilding goals. The bill sets a target of restoring 20% of the EU’s entire land and sea area by 2030, and furthermore requires member states to restore 30% of currently degraded habitats (a smaller area) by 2030, 60% by 2040, and 90% by 2050. Here’s a deep dive!
“This law is not about restoring nature for the sake of nature. It is about ensuring a habitable environment where the wellbeing of current and future generations is ensured.”
-EU Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius
The EU also instituted its landmark Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, (CBAM), popularly known as “carbon tariffs,” which will now exact a carbon price on companies importing key goods (cement, iron, steel, aluminum, hydrogen, fertilizer, and electricity) that are created with emissions-heavy processes. This is a REALLY big deal; it’s particularly relevant for Europe’s rapidly growing “green steel” industry, which will now get a direct financial competitive advantage for its low-emissions manufacturing techniques, and will help incentivize many other low-carbon manufacturing projects in the future!
An agreement has been signed to build a 540-megawatt combined floating wind and floating solar project off the coast of Calabria, Italy. Floating solar continues its rise as a new form factor for the renewables revolution!
Indonesia
A 92-member all-women volunteer firefighting crew dubbed “Power of Mama” are using canoes, drones, motorbikes, and pump-driven hoses to patrol for and extinguish peatland fires in the Ketapang district of Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo. Peatlands are a vital carbon sink, and the nearby rainforest is home to a large orangutan population; these heroines’ selfless work protecting their homeland communities and ecosystems is of global importance!
Halmahera Island in the North Maluku province2 is home to a spreading 10-aviary bird sanctuary within Ake Tajawe Lolobata National Park. The dedicated staff work to rehabilitate parrots seized from the pet trade or found injured in the wild. They’ve released 100 birds back into the wild since they were founded five years ago, and as of December 2023 had 25 current residents. As Indonesia continues to industrialize and works to adapt to climate change, this kind of compassionate endeavor will be critical to preserving the great archipelago-nation’s rich biodiversity!
And on the densely populated island of Java, the 145 MW 250-hectare Cirata Reservoir project (inaugurated in November 2023) is the largest floating solar installation in Southeast Asia. Plans are afoot to expand it to 500 MW, and the Indonesian government hopes to build sixty more such projects!
Burkina Faso
In the impoverished West African nation of Burkina Faso, local prizewinning architect Diébédo Francis Kéré is spearheading a movement to build “passively cooled” buildings with local materials such as laterite stone to help provide community safe spaces in a warming climate. Spectacular work!
Vanuatu
The Pacific island nation of Vanuatu was scythed by Cyclone Pam in 2015, one of the most powerful cyclones ever to make landfall. Now, a new study has found that the islands’ forest cover is bouncing back faster than expected, thanks in part to stewardship efforts by local people.
United States
Electric and hybrid vehicles continue to zoom ahead in America, reaching a record high of 16% of new car sales in 2023. Reducing air pollution locally and greenhouse gas emissions globally; great work!
The first five turbines of the under-construction Vineyard Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts have been connected to the grid and switched on! Those five are currently providing 68 MW, supplying 30,000 homes and businesses. When complete, Vineyard Wind will have 62 turbines and a capacity of over 800 MW. Excellent work!
“The winds of change are blowing through Massachusetts, as Vineyard Wind now powers 30,000 homes in our state with clean, renewable energy. With billions of dollars being unlocked from the Inflation Reduction Act to drive our clean energy revolution forward, Vineyard Wind is only the beginning.”
-U.S. Senator Ed Markey, D-MA.
Relatedly, the 924 MW Sunrise Wind and 810 MW Empire Wind 1 projects have reached new agreements with the New York State government, putting two huge new offshore wind projects in Empire State waters back on track after financial turmoil in 2023.
This writer’s home state of Maine continues to move forward on the great American “Biden Boom” clean energy transition! In recent weeks, Governor Mills announced the selection of Sears Island as the site for a historic wind turbine assembly port and a new report highlighted the incredible potential for long-term energy storage in the Pine Tree State.
Nine prisoners at the Mission Creek Corrections Center for Women in Washington State are working as “butterfly techs” running a captive breeding program for the endangered Taylor’s checkerspot butterfly, raising nearly 4,000 individuals from larvae through metamorphosis to adulthood. Check out the full story.
An engineering team in Mississippi has developed a new cotton-picking robot. Thanks to a deep-learning algorithm, it’s able to select only cotton bolls that are ready for harvest, unlike the current standard of giant vehicle-sized cotton harvesters. It’s also lighter, so it doesn’t compact the soil and make it harder for water and fertilizer to reach roots. Another awesome example of the global “farm-bot” surge!
Los Angeles just provided a brilliant proof of concept for the “sponge city” climate resilience strategy. When an “atmospheric river” super-storm dumped nine inches of rain in three days in February 4-7 2024, the city managed to collect 8.6 billion gallons of stormwater, enough to meet the needs of 106,000 households for a year. This is thanks to years of careful work replacing impermeable surfaces; LA urban managers have created de-paved “spreading grounds” where stormwater can percolate through the soil to underground aquifers or cisterns, as well as more green spaces and parks adjoining roads to soak up runoff. As the turbulent atmosphere of the Anthropocene brings unpredictable floods and droughts to much of the world, strategies like these (already spreading worldwide!) will be incredibly useful in ensuring consistent water supply. Great work!
A side note: it is confusing that the EU is marked as saffron and India as dark blue in the IEA chart at the top of this newsletter, especially given that there’s dark blue on the EU flag and saffron on the Indian flag! IEA folks, if you’re reading, please change this in future reports.
Part of the island chain historically known to Europeans as the Moluccas.
Sponge city ..Bravo LA ..👍
Great collection if good news. What stood out for me was Indonesia's solar..sixty more facilities planned!? That's huge!