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The US appoints its new climate envoy; new hope for the northern white rhino; the EU revises its 2040 climate plan; a pact explores green hydrogen exports; Morocco's national reforestation campaign.
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The US appoints its new climate envoy; new hope for the northern white rhino; the EU revises its 2040 climate plan; a pact explores green hydrogen exports; Morocco's national reforestation campaign.
About EarthxNews:
A weekly program dedicated to covering the stories that shape the planet. Featuring the latest updates in energy, environment, tech, climate, and more.
EarthX & EarthXtra
Love Our Planet.
The Official Network of Earth Day.
About Us:
At EarthX, we believe our planet is a pretty special place. The people, landscapes, and critters are likely unique to the entire universe, so we consider ourselves lucky to be here. We are committed to protecting the environment by inspiring conservation and sustainability, and our programming along with our range of expert hosts support this mission. We’re glad you’re with us.
EarthX is a media company dedicated to inspiring people to care about the planet. We take an omni channel approach to reach audiences of every age through its robust 24/7 linear channel distributed across cable and FAST outlets, along with dynamic, solution oriented short form content on social and digital platforms. EarthX is home to original series, documentaries and snackable content that offer sustainable solutions to environmental challenges. EarthX is the only network that delivers entertaining and inspiring topics that impact and inspire our lives on climate and sustainability.
EarthX Website: https://earthxmedia.com/
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TVTranscript
00:00America has a new climate envoy, the White House announcing who will be stepping into John Kerry's role as the top environmental official on the world stage.
00:11Plus, the European Union is making some changes to its 2040 climate proposal after a series of protests from farmers across Europe.
00:20And veterinarians in Kenya, they're celebrating after successfully completing a medical procedure that could save a rhino subspecies from extinction.
00:30Hello and welcome to EarthX News, where we focus on sustainability and the environment.
00:42I'm Christina Thompson. Let's get into some of the biggest headlines facing our planet.
00:46A nuclear power plant could soon be reopening in Michigan.
00:50Media reports indicate the Biden administration is set to offer a $1.5 billion loan to restart the Palisades nuclear plant on Lake Michigan.
01:00The funding, which is set to get conditional backing from the U.S. Energy Department, is expected to be offered in late February.
01:08Now, the DOE says it has not confirmed any loan offer and reports about it are just, quote, mere speculation.
01:15But, if successful, it would mark the first time in history that a closed U.S. nuclear plant has been reopened.
01:22Holtec International acquired the 800-megawatt power plant in 2022 after Entergy Corporation closed it due to financial reasons.
01:30But in October of 2023, Holtec began submitting plans to restart Palisades after pleas from Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
01:37More than a dozen reactors have closed since 2013 amid competition from cheaper power resources like natural gas and renewables.
01:46The Energy Department has warned that as many as half of the nation's nuclear reactors are at risk of closing due to economic factors.
01:54The White House is appointing John Podesta as the U.S.'s new chief climate diplomat.
01:59John Kerry, who previously held the position, recently announced that he'll be stepping down as U.S. Special Climate Envoy and is expected to do so sometime this spring.
02:09Podesta currently serves as a senior advisor on clean energy to the Biden administration.
02:14In his role, he will oversee some $370 billion in climate investment authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act.
02:22In the past, Podesta held high-ranking positions in both the Clinton and Obama White Houses.
02:26While serving in the Obama administration, Podesta had a large role in brokering the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.
02:33Podesta will remain at the White House for his new role instead of moving to the State Department.
02:38His new title will be Senior Advisor to the President for International Climate Policy.
02:44The United States will start to pay to add solar panels to structures such as hospitals and schools after disasters.
02:50FEMA will install them on public buildings that are rebuilt due to damage caused by extreme weather and other disasters.
02:57The goal is to make them more resilient against future calamities and create places where residents can gather if power from the grid is knocked out after a disaster.
03:06Plus, it will also reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
03:09The change comes amid major shifts in America's response to disasters.
03:13Insurers are starting to steer clear from high-risk areas, and FEMA is overhauling its programs to help individual disaster survivors after acknowledging that the current programs often fail to provide adequate support.
03:26When major disasters happen, FEMA will typically reimburse state, local, tribal, or territorial governments 75 percent of the cost of rebuilding or repairing structures like schools, hospitals, fire stations, libraries, and other buildings.
03:40That 75 percent reimbursement would now apply to the additional costs of adding solar panels and other energy-related improvements, like heat pumps, batteries, or energy-efficient appliances.
03:52Companies are fully taking advantage of new clean energy tax credits.
03:56The market for clean energy tax breaks, which was created by a U.S. government program, is surging faster than expected.
04:03Deals totaling as much as $9 billion have already been done, with tens of billions more expected this year.
04:11The tax credit transfer program for renewable energy companies was created in the 2022 Climate Law.
04:17Renewable energy companies often do not rake in enough profit to absorb all the tax credits they generate.
04:23The law lets them sell the credits to other companies to monetize on what they cannot use.
04:28Roughly 100 companies pursuing more than 1,000 clean energy projects have shown they plan to sell tax credits in the new market.
04:36The Danish energy company Orsted has withdrawn from an agreement with Maryland to sell electricity from an offshore wind farm off the coast of Ocean City,
04:45potentially impacting the state's goal of achieving 100 percent clean energy by 2035.
04:51This after the company also recently halted similar plans for two offshore wind farms off the coast of New Jersey.
04:58Orsted citing challenging market conditions like high inflation, high interest rates, and supply chain constraints.
05:05And earlier in the month, European energy firms Equinor and BP canceled their agreement with New York State
05:11to sell power from their proposed offshore wind farm, citing supply chain problems, rising inflation, and higher borrowing costs.
05:19Orsted did, however, express the intention to continue advancing development and permitting for the combined project.
05:26The withdrawal is not a cancellation, but the steps to keep the project in motion just aren't clear at the moment.
05:33The state of Maryland says they are committed to generating 8.5 gigawatts of wind energy by 2031,
05:39contributing to the national target of 30 gigawatts in offshore wind by 2030.
05:43In other offshore wind farm news, New Jersey just approved two new projects, one of them the largest ever planned in the United States.
05:52The agreement includes higher rates with added provisions to prevent potential requests for future increases and cancellations.
06:00The Board of Public Utilities is working to avoid a similar fate of Orsted's Ocean Wind 1 and Wind 2 projects,
06:06when they were canceled due to factors in the market.
06:09Attentive Energy 2, which is a joint venture between Total Energies and Choreo Generation,
06:15will construct the massive wind farm approximately 40 miles off the coast of New Jersey.
06:21Once operational, it will produce up to 1.34 gigawatts of electricity when winds are high enough to turn the generators.
06:28With backup from nuclear coal, natural gas, or hydroelectric, the project's combined output will power about 1.8 million homes.
06:38That's according to the developers' estimates.
06:40The projects will increase residential electricity rates by 0.684 cents per month.
06:46That's according to E&E News, and commercial rates by about $58 per month.
06:52Industrial customers will see an increase of $513 per month.
06:56In a hearing, developers were told not to ask for any rate increases in the future, regardless of circumstances.
07:02Turning now to international news ahead of this year's Global Climate Summit, also known as COP29,
07:08the UN's climate chief is calling on countries to ramp up actions to close the financing gap when it comes to tackling climate change.
07:16Here's that story.
07:18The United Nations climate chief says more needs to be done to meet global climate change deadlines.
07:23Simon Steele is calling for more money to meet climate goals and fewer loopholes in climate agreements.
07:30Without far more finance, 2023's climate wins will quickly fizzle away into more empty promises.
07:39United Nations climate officials say the next two years are crucial for curbing climate change.
07:45Negotiations will happen in Baku this year.
07:47Another meeting will be held in Brazil in 2025.
07:50We must spend the year working collectively to evolve our global financial system so it's fit for purpose.
07:59By next year, countries will be required to come up with new and stronger pledges to cut emissions of all heat-trapping gases.
08:07UN officials say encouraging countries to invest more money that could help poorer nations meet their climate goals.
08:14Steele estimates $2.4 trillion a year will be needed.
08:17That doesn't include money from China.
08:19The cash injection would be used to invest in renewable energy and help fund relief efforts from floods, storms, drought and heat waves.
08:28It will take an Olympian effort over the next two years to put us on track to where we need to be in 2030 and in 2050.
08:39Richer nations have promised less than 5% of what's estimated to help poorer nations.
08:44Experts say they often haven't even delivered that much.
08:47We need torrents, not trickles, of climate finance.
08:51For EarthX, I'm John Glasgow.
08:53In response to Europe-wide demonstrations of agricultural workers angry about the impact of low wages,
09:02heavy regulations, cheap imports and a proposal that would force farmers to cut pesticide use across the EU,
09:09the European Commission made adjustments to some key passages of its new climate plan.
09:13In a proposal for a new 2040 goal for cutting greenhouse gas pollution,
09:18the European Commission recommended the EU slash net greenhouse gas emissions by 90% by 2040.
09:24While the overall target was within the range recommended by the EU's official climate science advisors,
09:30the EU executive weakened part of the recommendation concerning agriculture,
09:35removing language that mentioned a possible 30% cut to agricultural pollution between 2015 and 2040.
09:42Also excised were recommendations for citizens to make changes to their behavior,
09:46like eating less meat and a push to end fossil fuel subsidies.
09:50One German EU lawmaker praised the more farmer-friendly language in the climate plan.
09:55Listen.
09:55It is yet to be seen if these latest revisions will appease the protesters' concerns.
10:23This is an incredible story.
10:26The first successful embryo transfer using IVF in rhinos could save a rhino subspecies from extinction.
10:33At a conservancy in Kenya, veterinarians successfully transferred the embryos of two southern white rhinos
10:39into a surrogate mother.
10:41Now scientists are hoping this could potentially be a way to save another subspecies, the northern white rhino.
10:48This subspecies is almost extinct with only two remaining northern white rhinos,
10:52both females, in the world.
10:55BioRescue, a group trying to save the northern white rhino,
10:58has been creating embryos with eggs from one of the surviving female northern white rhinos
11:03and sperm collected from a male northern white rhino before they died.
11:07Scientists say the next step will be selecting rhinos to serve as surrogate mothers
11:11and implanting them with northern white rhino embryos.
11:15They hope to do this over the next six months.
11:17With northern white rhino's pregnancies taking 16 months,
11:21northern white rhino babies could potentially be born in two to three years.
11:26Coming up, one form of renewable energy.
11:28It's getting lots of attention.
11:30Why all the chatter?
11:31It is very rare when humanity can develop new source of energy.
11:37And in our case, this is what is happening.
11:40And right now, the interest is booming because the benefits,
11:44the upside of this technology is evident to everyone.
11:49Stay tuned.
11:50That story is just ahead.
11:51The world's biggest commercial vehicle maker and a Middle Eastern renewable energy company
12:10are teaming up in an effort to decarbonize transportation.
12:14In a new pact, Daimler truck and United Arab Emirates-based MassStar
12:18agreed to explore the Gulf states' supply of liquid green hydrogen,
12:22along with the feasibility of exporting clean energy source from Abu Dhabi to Europe by 2030.
12:29Now, the treaty comes as the UAE company seeks to become a leading and reliable producer
12:35and supplier of low-carbon hydrogen by 2031.
12:39And the German automaker aims to make its entire range of trucks and buses carbon-neutral
12:44and driving operations across its global core markets within the next 15 years by 2039.
12:51Daimler truck officials say the company will invest in developing fuel cell trucks
12:55with first sales of hydrogen-powered long-haul rigs starting in 2027.
13:00By 2030, Daimler aims to sell 10,000 hydrogen-powered rigs annually.
13:06The partnership is just one of the latest ventures MassStar has been involved with.
13:10Since it started in 2006, the Middle Eastern company has committed to invest over $30 billion
13:16in renewable energy projects in more than 40 countries.
13:21The partnership aiming to explore the green hydrogen supply in the UAE,
13:25a country usually associated with fossil fuel production,
13:29comes at a time when hydrogen power appears to be emerging as a popular clean energy solution
13:35as the world strives to achieve net zero.
13:37Joining us now to discuss is the CEO of Natural Hydrogen Energy, Vyacheslav Zugonik.
13:44Vyacheslav, thank you so much for coming in.
13:46I want to get to the growing hydrogen movement in a moment.
13:49But first, I just want you to quickly expand on the efforts between Daimler truck
13:53and a Gulf state-based energy firm seeking to create fuel cell rigs in Europe using green hydrogen.
13:59Green hydrogen is something easy to understand, and many companies are working on this topic
14:07to manufacture and deliver green hydrogen.
14:11The process is straightforward, and as we see, big contracts have been installed in place.
14:19However, the main problem remains for green hydrogen is its cost.
14:24To make it a viable solution for a long term, we need this hydrogen to be cheap.
14:31Ideally, we would need it to be cheaper than the fossil-based fuels, and it is not the case today.
14:40So what would a hydrogen infrastructure need to look like in order to have these trucks be a viable solution?
14:46I believe that there is another viable solution for hydrogen to be extracted from the underground.
14:56This is the topic my startup is working on.
15:00We're working on natural hydrogen.
15:02And natural hydrogen, unlike all other types of hydrogens in the hydrogen rainbow,
15:07is the only primary source of energy.
15:11So it means that we don't need to spend any energy to make hydrogen.
15:16The nature did the work for us.
15:18What we need to do is only to extract it.
15:21And economically, it makes it extremely attractive because it means that we don't need to spend electricity
15:28for green hydrogen or natural gas for gray hydrogen or something else energy-containing to make hydrogen.
15:37We already have it on the ground.
15:39And then economic models done by my company, but also by other researchers,
15:45are showing that this will be the cheapest source of hydrogen on Earth.
15:50There's a ton of growing interest right now in the clean energy power source,
15:54but studies show that far more natural hydrogen underground than there is believed.
15:58Proponents see hydrogen as a plentiful replacement for fossil fuels.
16:02Skeptics, though, they say that its large-scale use might not be practical or cost-effective.
16:07But what do you say to that?
16:08Will tapping the hydrogen be economic, and is there an environmental downside to it?
16:14We are still at a very early stage of the development of this new resource.
16:19It is very rare when humanity can develop a new source of energy.
16:25And in our case, this is what is happening.
16:27We are unveiling the potential of this new source of primary energy.
16:31As a person who's been working for 13 years on this topic, I was able to see the development when I started a long time ago to work.
16:42There were only a handful of individuals worldwide researching hydrogen underground.
16:47And right now, the interest is booming because the benefits, the upside of this technology is evident to everyone.
16:56And the estimates for the quantity of hydrogen on Earth are continuously increasing because our knowledge is continuously increasing about that topic.
17:07And answering the opponents, which are saying that it may not be reliable, that the numbers today are showing that there could be 10 trillion tons of naturally occurring hydrogen trapped underground.
17:23And if we can extract definitely a tiny portion of that, that would supply all the hydrogen we need for the clean energy transition.
17:32We don't know if it will work, but at least it's worth trying.
17:36That work we're doing in my startup, Natural Hydrogen Energy, but also other companies, big and small, are starting to work on this topic.
17:44All right, Vyacheslav Zhigonek, thank you so much for coming on. We appreciate it.
17:50Coming up, volunteers in Morocco work to safeguard the nation's forests.
17:54Stay tuned. We'll have more on their efforts when we return.
17:56A national reforestation campaign is underway in Morocco, with the primary part of the project taking place in northwestern province along the country's coast.
18:15Alex Salvi has that story.
18:17Forests cover 13% of Morocco's territory, a proud part of the country's identity.
18:22But the prized site is in grave danger.
18:26Overgrazing, illegal logging, climate-induced droughts, and other factors are resulting in the rapid degradation of the ecosystem,
18:33prompting a vital campaign to try to save the forest before it's too late.
18:37Morocco's forests are also a vital component of the country's economy.
18:40The vast environment accounts for 1.5% of its total GDP and 17% of national fodder production and nearly half of Morocco's firewood.
18:49It means that the survival of the forest is not only vital to sustaining the country's environment and heritage, but also its 37 million residents.
18:59The most important characteristic of these plants is that they don't contain any weeds.
19:03Another advantage is that they are very economical and don't require much water even after being replanted.
19:10The first step of the project is rather simple.
19:13Plant more trees.
19:14But it's also the type of plants that matter, with Morocco turning to over 500 million diverse plants that are disease-resistant to allow them to thrive.
19:23Further, they require minimal water, making them the perfect fit to overcome the oftentimes harsh environment under the Moroccan sun.
19:29There's a new working approach that focuses on involving local communities living near the forest.
19:35They will benefit from these operations and must be involved in their success.
19:39It's an essential part of the strategy.
19:41We also offer significant incentives to the locals, such as compensating them for relinquishing their pastoral rights.
19:47The project is only made possible due to its local involvement.
19:51Nearly $700,000 is earmarked for 18 associations across the country, involving 2,000 reforestation breeders.
19:59This is an approach that doesn't only allow the project to be sustained over time, but have a direct benefit for those most affected.
20:07It's beneficial for both the local community and the state.
20:11If the project succeeds, it will benefit the community through the trees and their acorns, as well as from the mushrooms and truffles that grow under the trees.
20:18These are the benefits of oak trees.
20:19We are eager to see this project succeed because we will get all these benefits, God willing.
20:25When it's all said and done, the project hopes to plant 600,000 hectares by the year 2030, at which point Morocco's forest and its people will hopefully thrive in their new environments.
20:36For EarthX, I'm Alex Salvi.
20:39Alex Salvi, thank you.
20:41And one of the world's most critically endangered sharks, it's been caught on camera.
20:46Scientists captured video of the rare white-tip shark around the Cayman Islands, where they are protected.
20:52Researchers working under the UK's Marine Conservation Project, called the Blue Belt Program, recorded the footage using a baited remote underwater video system.
21:01The shark, known for its inquisitive nature, was seen swimming around the camera and rubbing its head against the bait.
21:08Scientists say the oceanic white-tip used to be one of the most abundant species of sharks swimming in tropical waters.
21:15But over the past few decades, their numbers have dropped about 98 percent due to being hunted for its fins or mistakenly caught in fishing nets.
21:23Let's hope this apex predator continues to make a comeback.
21:27And an adorable moment at the Bronx Zoo in New York City, where a couple of snow leopard cubs were seen enjoying their first snowfall.
21:35The cubs were captured frolicking around in the fluffy white powder in January.
21:39Zoo officials say the little leopards were practicing their hunting skills, jumping, climbing, and sneaking up on each other.
21:46How cute.
21:47That's it for this edition of EarthX News.
21:49Please join us again next week.
21:51I'm Christina Thompson.
21:53I'm Christina Thompson.
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