[GWSG] Your solar analyst; looming C tariff; market righteousness; cheaper H; manageable methane; plants at risk

[Tilley, Al]

1. The PVWatts Calculator of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (in a new edition) will give you an instant, free estimate of the productivity of a solar array on your roof. https://pvwatts.nrel.gov/



2. Many leaders of the EU intend to impose a carbon tariff on US goods so long as we do not limit greenhouse emissions satisfactorily. France and Spain could act independently. “It’s not whether it’s going to happen — it’s going to happen,” said John Kerry, who helped negotiate the Paris Accord. https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/13/europe-carbon-tariff-climate-change-084892

International trade laws could become a general tool to decarbonize economies and promote renewable energy. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3502978



3. Goldman Sachs will no longer invest in Arctic oil exploration or coal mines anywhere. While the bank still invests in fossil fuels, it is a move in the right direction. The motivation is more market than morality, of course; that is probably better because more trustworthy.  https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/dec/16/goldman-sachs-to-stop-financing-new-drilling-for-oil-in-the-arctic



4. Australian researchers have devised a much cheaper way generate hydrogen by splitting water. The difficulty and danger of handling and storing H mean that it is unlikely to be used as a transportation fuel (in spite of what the article says), but it could well be used as a commercial-scale power storage medium. https://phys.org/news/2019-12-scientists-cheaper-hydrogen-energy.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weekly-nwletter



5. Twila Moon of the National Snow and Ice Data Center confirms that we are in a positive feedback with methane from the Arctic permafrost, but assures us that it has not yet run away beyond our control. What happens with permafrost, and with Greenland, very much depends on our climate actions. Our current inaction requires correction.  (Three minute interview.) https://climatecrocks.com/2019/12/16/twila-moon-phd-on-arctic-melt-and-human-choices/



6. More than a third of plant species are at risk of extinction, including some wild relatives of basic food plants. We need to attend to conservation.  https://climatenewsnetwork.net/food-at-risk-as-third-of-plants-face-extinction/

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.unf.edu/pipermail/gwsg/attachments/20191217/d4debb27/attachment.html>