This week, East Boston made news by promoting a group that is looking to spearhead forward thinking climate action. Electric vehicle news is abuzz now that Jaguar Land Rover announced they will electrify all their cards from 2020. In international news, France is in the process of passing legislature banning oil output in 2040, Italy has seen an incredible jump in solar thermal usage in the last decade, and a Tunisian company is rallying for a renewable energy trading route, funneling Saharan solar energy to Europe. And finally, good news for food waste! A forest in Costa Rica was saved with food waste from the 1990’s that was dumped on a technicality and turned out to be something amazing.
What news have you been reading this week? Share with us @GreentownLabs!
- Greentown Labs has partnered with Tufts University! We are excited to see where this partnership takes us and look forward to working with a recent Tufts graduate as a “Greentown Fellow”
“Tufts is excited to be working with Greentown Labs, especially since they are our neighbors in Somerville,” said Linda Abriola, University Professor and director of TIE. “We look forward to collaborating closely with the innovative thinkers at Greentown toward our shared goal of supporting environmental sustainability.”
WBUR News – As Construction And Tides Rise, Group Aims To Make Eastie ‘More Resilient’ Against Climate Change
- Harborkeepers, an East Boston group dedicated to community-based climate work. It’s a bottom-up approach in a city concerning climate preparedness.
“The trouble with climate change is it’s the biggest thing that human beings have ever done, so big that it’s hard sometimes to back up and even see it.”
CNBC– All Jaguar Land Rover vehicles will be electrified from 2020, automaker says
- Jaguar Land Rover, the largest automotive manufacturer in the U.K., has announced that from 2020 all its new vehicles will be electrified.
“Jaguar Land Rover is the latest automotive giant to turn to electric and hybrid vehicles. From 2019, for example, every new Volvo will have an electric motor.”
Bloomberg Markets– France Plans to End Oil Output by 2040 With Exploration Ban
- France will stop granting new exploration permits next year as it seeks to end all oil and gas production by 2040, according to a draft bill presented at a cabinet meeting Wednesday.
“While France’s oil and gas output is small, the plan may affect companies such as Vermilion Energy Inc., which has several concessions, and could reduce the prospect of discoveries off French Guiana.”
Futurism- 12,000 Tons of Food Waste Saved This Forest — and Could Help Us Save the Planet
- Twelve thousand orange peels and pulp, dumped in the 1990s, transformed a degraded portion of a Costa Rican park into a lush (re)forest. This kind of project can improve soil, sequester carbon, and prevent waste from generating greenhouse gases.
“The area that received the orange peels was divided from the [area that did not receive the peels] by a single track dirt road, but the two areas looked like completely different ecosystems.”
Solar Thermal World – Italy: 6,820 Municipalities Report Solar Thermal Use
- In 2005, Legambiente, the largest environmental association in Italy, began publishing an annual report called Comuni Rinnovabili to show renewable deployment in Italian municipalities. The number of communities which had solar thermal installations increased from 108 in 2005 to 6,820 in this year’s edition, which is based on 2016 figures.
“Municipalities have likewise been promoting solar thermal in their building regulations by introducing mandatory requirements and standards beyond national rules. For example, in Rivoli in the Piedmont region, solar thermal must meet 60 % of the domestic hot water requirements in newbuilds.”
The Guardian – Huge Tunisian solar park hopes to provide Saharan power to Europe
- Developer TuNur has applied to build a 4.5GW plant in the Sahara and pipe enough electricity via submarine cables to power two million European homes
“If European governments take the Paris accord seriously and want to meet the less than two degrees target for global warming, we need to start importing renewables.”