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By Sharon Kimathi, Energy and ESG Editor, Reuters Digital
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Hello!
What runs and has no feet, roars but has no mouth? It’s water! Water, more specifically, the lack of it, is today’s main focus as droughts hit areas in the United States and Uruguay, while Britain considers state ownership of struggling Thames Water.
The Biden administration’s climate agenda is facing an unexpected challenge in drought-prone Corpus Christi, Texas, where a proposed clean hydrogen hub would require the installation of energy-intensive, expensive and potentially environmentally damaging seawater desalination plants.
The Gulf Coast port is in the running for up to $1 billion available under President Joe Biden’s 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to create a regional hub to produce hydrogen, a low-emissions fuel made by electrolyzing water that can help decarbonize heavy-emitting industries and transportation.
A hydrogen hub would require access to millions of gallons of water – a challenge in Corpus Christi which is experiencing a multi-year drought.
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A general view of the Canelon Grande reservoir during a severe drought, in Canelones, Uruguay June 29, 2023. REUTERS/Alejandro Obaldia
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Biden’s green hydrogen plan hits climate obstacle
“It makes no sense to create a purported clean energy source that in turn destroys an entire ecosystem, threatens other economies reliant upon a healthy bay system, and usurps the water supply for residents,” the Coastal Alliance to Protect the Environment, a Corpus Christi activist group, wrote in a letter to U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, shared with Reuters.
Reuters interviewed six researchers who study hydrogen as green power and had exclusive access to an analysis by Rystad Energy consultancy that showed that the Biden administration’s vision of low-carbon hydrogen may run into a challenge that is itself exacerbated by climate change: water scarcity.
Producing hydrogen requires enormous amounts of fresh water in a world increasingly affected by climate-driven drought.
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Water levels fall in Uruguay
Speaking of climate-driven drought, Uruguay, the South American country of 3.5 million people, is reeling from its worst drought in 74 years, pushing frustrated residents to depend on bottled water.
At the Canelon Grande Reservoir, a major source of water for Uruguay’s thirsty capital Montevideo, water levels have been so low for so long that grass now covers much of what used to be a lake.
Low rainfall has forced water authorities to use water from a saltier part of the Santa Lucia river, which supplies most of Uruguay’s drinking water, leaving tap water undrinkable for many.
“It’s horrible. You can’t drink it,” said teacher Adrian Dias, who buys two or three 6.5 liter (1.7 gallon) bottles of water every two weeks. “My wife has hypertension, so it’s impossible for her to drink this water because of the amount of salt it has.”
Anger over water shortages has incited multiple protests on the streets of the capital. At state-owned water utility OSE, graffiti says “there is no drought, just looting.” “There’s water, but it’s in private hands,” reads a banner hanging outside OSE.
Struggling Thames Water
On the topic of private water, the British government is considering temporary state ownership of Thames Water – which supplies a quarter of British households’ water – if it cannot raise more funds to drive its turnaround.
Thames Water is struggling with 14 billion pounds ($17.8 billion) of debt and has failed to meet customer and environmental targets, including stemming the flow of raw sewage into rivers.
Its management had asked shareholders for a 1 billion pound equity injection to strengthen its balance sheet and fund the necessary upgrade of aging infrastructure.
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A woman offers flowers in the swash zone to mourn victims of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami at a beach in Iwaki, Fukushima prefecture, Japan, March 11, 2023. Kyodo/via REUTERS
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- Japan is set to begin pumping out more than a million tonnes of treated water from the destroyed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant this summer, a process that will take decades to complete. Click here to find out how Tokyo Electric Power Company plans to deal with the water.
- The U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down race-conscious policies in college admissions includes some warnings to companies about the legal limits of workforce diversity efforts and is likely to fuel challenges to them, experts said.
- Walt Disney has been accused of systematically underpaying women in California in a lawsuit that alleges the company’s female employees in the state earned $150 million less than their male counterparts over an eight year period.
- In state after state, conservative lawmakers this year have banned medical procedures for transgender youth. Now, a growing number of federal judges are blocking those laws from taking effect.
- Breakingviews: The Pacific Ocean phenomenon – El Nino – is back. Resultant floods, heatwaves, water scarcity and fires will damage crops and infrastructure, may cost trillions, and augur inflation and rate hikes. Worse, climate change makes such events stronger and more frequent, embedding supply shocks.
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Pierfrancesco Vago, executive chairman of the cruise division of global container shipping company, MSC Group, shares his thoughts on their biofuel-using cruises amid the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calling for the shipping industry to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050:
“MSC Cruises purchased 400 tonnes of bio-LNG to show its commitment to the deployment of drop-in renewable fuels and energy transition measures towards the pioneering net zero gas emissions voyage.
“The line is the industry’s first deep sea ocean cruise operator to buy bio-LNG as a fuel source that has significant lifecycle emissions reductions.
“We cannot do this alone, however. Given the absolute importance of alternative fuels for our industry as well as for other sectors across civil society to achieve decarbonization, we all need to work together to increase their availability at scale.
“Our purchase of bio-LNG will send a clear and meaningful signal to the market that there is demand from cruise lines and the broader maritime industry for cleaner fuels, but we need governments, producers and end-users to collaborate and scale-up the availability of these much-needed and new sources of power.
“Net zero sailing will utilize bio-LNG using a mass-balance system, the most environmentally efficient method of delivering the benefits of renewable biogas.”
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The ring of cameras trained on London’s roads to charge drivers of the most polluting vehicles 12.50 pounds ($16) a day is due to expand next month – and not everyone is happy about it.
If Mayor Sadiq Khan’s plan goes ahead, London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) will become one of the world’s largest to tackle air pollution, encompassing 5 million extra people in the capital’s leafier and less-connected outer boroughs.
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Lee Young-Min and her children pose for photographs during an interview with Reuters in Seongnam, South Korea, June 28, 2023. REUTERS/Daewoung Kim
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Today’s spotlight shines a light on the South Korean families stocking up on salt as the Fukushima water is released, while fashion brands are driving demand for green shipping fuels.
South Korean shoppers are snapping up sea salt and other items as worry grows about their safety with Japan due to dump more than 1 million metric tons of treated radioactive water from a wrecked nuclear power plant into the sea.
The water was mainly used to cool damaged reactors at the Fukushima power plant north of Tokyo, after it was hit by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011. “I recently bought 5 kilograms of salt,” Lee Young-min, a 38-year-old mother of two children, said as she made seaweed soup in her kitchen in Seongnam, just south of the South Korean capital, Seoul.
She said she had never bought so much salt before but felt she had to do what she could to protect her family. “As a mother raising two children, I can’t just sit back and do nothing. I want to feed them safely.”
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Containers are seen on the Maersk’s Triple-E giant container ship Majestic Maersk, APM Terminals in the port of Algeciras, Spain January 20, 2023. REUTERS/Jon Nazca/
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Fashion brands are a key driver of demand for green shipping fuels, according to shipping group Maersk, as the sector faces pressure from consumers and regulators to reduce its climate footprint.
The shipping industry, which itself aims to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, has begun offering low-emission fuels such as biofuels made from cooking oil and food waste or methanol produced from renewable energy as an alternative to fuel oil.
The fashion industry accounted for 26% of the more than 240,000 containers that Maersk shipped last year using biofuels under its ECO Delivery contracts, making it the biggest sector using the low-emission fuel service, the company said.
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“Summer droughts and water shortages aren’t going anywhere. Swapping sticking-plaster fixes like hosepipe bans for smarter, long-term solutions that reduce water waste will save energy and money while also critically safeguarding our water supplies.”
Glynn Williams, UK country director at global pump manufacturer, Grundfos
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- July 5, London, Great Britain: Former Chelsea striker Didier Drogba launches a campaign to highlight the problems with fake agents targeting players in Africa. The campaign is in collaboration with the Didier Drogba Foundation and the International Labour Organization.
- July 5, Brussels, Belgium: The European Commission presents its annual report on the state of democracy and the rule of law in the EU’s 27 member countries, looking at issues such as the freedom of media and courts, lingering COVID restrictions, civil liberties, women’s and LGBT rights.
- July 5, Tokyo, Japan: The Japanese Trade Union Confederation known as Rengo issues its latest estimates for wage hikes, which at more than 3% stand at a three-decade high. Cautious Japanese firms boosted pay to secure talent and compensate employees facing higher costs of living amid a dwindling pool of workers in an aging population.
- July 5, Brussels, Belgium: The European Commission proposes laws to prevent pollution and degradation of soils in Europe, and binding targets for EU countries to cut food waste by 2030.
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