EarthxAction News 8-20-2024

Carbon capture is ramping up big time, Nuclear to fuel AI revolution, Indigenous people protecting rain forests

Aug 20, 2024

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U.S. Department of Energy allocates $54.4M to advance carbon management tech

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced a significant $54.4 million investment aimed at advancing carbon management technologies, a critical step in the nation's push towards reducing carbon emissions and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. This funding, announced on August 13, 2024, by the DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM), will support a range of projects designed to capture and manage carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from both industrial sources and the atmosphere.

(From CarbonCredits.com)
Brad Crabtree, Assistant Secretary of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management.
“Reaching our climate goals requires a significant scale-up of our carbon management projects and infrastructure. DOE’s investments in carbon management will address technical challenges and help reduce costs to accelerate the widespread deployment of these technologies across the Nation, while also helping to ensure projects deliver benefits to communities and workers and mitigate potential risks to public health and the environment.”

Click here for the article.

Canadian carbon capture and removal company lands up to $100M to speed deployment

Svante, a Canadian carbon capture and removal company based in Burnaby, British Columbia, has secured up to $100 million in funding from the Canada Growth Fund (CGF) to accelerate the deployment of its innovative climate technology. This investment, announced on August 15, 2024, is part of Canada’s broader strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and foster growth in the clean technology sector.

This funding is seen as a key step in Canada’s commitment to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. The CGF, which was established in 2023 with a $15 billion capital, is focused on accelerating the deployment of clean technologies across Canada and attracting private investment to support these initiatives.

(From Geek Wire)
Svante is developing devices that are deployed at industrial facilities to capture carbon emissions as well as technology to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which is known as direct air capture. The trapped carbon is then concentrated for storage or industrial uses.
The company is building a 141,000-square-foot facility just east of Vancouver in Burnaby, B.C. The site will manufacture carbon capturing filters and operate as Svante’s global headquarters and R&D center.
In February, Svante was selected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for a large-scale, carbon capture pilot project at a fossil fuel refinery in Texas. The DOE initiative provides cost sharing that could unlock up to $95 million of federal funding to develop the Delek’s Big Spring project.

Click here for the article.

What is carbon capture and storage?

AI to go nuclear? Data center deals say it’s inevitable

As the demand for artificial intelligence continues to soar, the tech industry is on the brink of an energy crisis. With AI models growing in complexity and requiring massive computational power, the data center industry is racing to find sustainable energy solutions. One of the most promising—yet controversial—answers is nuclear energy. Tech giants and data center operators are increasingly looking to nuclear power as the only viable option to meet the growing energy needs of AI-driven operations.

The shift towards nuclear is driven by the sheer scale of energy consumption required by AI technologies. Data centers, the backbone of cloud computing and AI, already consume about 1% of the world’s energy. As AI adoption accelerates, this figure is expected to climb dramatically, putting an enormous strain on existing power grids.

(From CIO)
Many of the deals under discussion are with existing nuclear power providers for hyperscalers to access energy or to employ small module nuclear reactors (SMRs) with smaller carbon footprints that will be annexed to existing nuclear power plants. Nucor, Oklo, Rolls-Royce SMR, Westinghouse Electric, Moltex Energy, Terrestrial Energy, General Electric, Hitachi Nuclear Energy, and X-energy are among the roster of companies with SMRs under development to meet the growing needs of AI data centers.

Click here for the article.

AI is fueling a 'nuclear renaissance.' Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos are in the mix.

A chart comparing Big Tech companies’ 2023 electricity use against select reference countries.

Rewarding farmers for regenerative agriculture is ‘critical for decarbonising the food sector’

Despite the recognized benefits, scaling regenerative agriculture remains a challenge. The financial burden of adopting new technologies, seeds, and equipment falls heavily on farmers, often resulting in short-term yield reductions. Experts argue that financial incentives and shared risk mechanisms are necessary to make these practices more viable. Creating a reliable system for payments based on environmental outcomes, such as carbon reduction, could provide new income streams for farmers, encouraging wider adoption.

(From Reuters)
“Most of the farmers that we work with need to get a financial return in that particular season. For a short period of one to three years, it’s really an uphill battle because no one is willing to put in place a financial incentive,” he says.
Andrea Olivar, strategy director for Latin America at supply chain NGO Solidaridad agrees that the market premium for smallholders is typically missing from the move to regenerative agriculture.
“At the moment, premiums to producers for regenerative efforts are not widely implemented by the market,” she says.

Click here for the article.

Amazon deforestation cut by 83% in places protected by Indigenous communities – new research

It is their land after all. Ownership encourages stewardship.

(From The Conversation)
By combining satellite imagery for the entire Amazon region with data from the Brazilian national census, our new study found that deforestation in areas protected by Indigenous communities was up to 83% lower compared to unprotected areas. These results show that Indigenous communities can play an important environmental stewardship role by helping to prevent deforestation by people encroaching on their lands.