Green - An environmentalist community

What is made from the same wood as a Christmas tree, held together by glue and manufactured in a Swedish factory for assembly later?

If that calls to mind flat-pack furniture and meatballs, you're wrong.

If you answered "a wooden wind turbine", you could be a visionary.

According to Modvion, the Swedish start-up that has just built the world's tallest wooden turbine tower, using wood for wind power is the future.

"It's got great potential," Otto Lundman, the company's chief executive, says as we gaze upwards at the firm's brand new turbine, a short drive outside Gothenburg.

It's 150m (492ft) to the tip of the highest blade and we are the first journalists to be invited to have a look inside. The 2 megawatt generator on top has just started supplying electricity to the Swedish grid, providing power for about 400 homes.

The dream of Lundman and Modvion is to take the wood and wind much higher.

Images are from linked document

The world's biggest oil producer is now also aiming to become a key hub for making batteries for electric vehicles, as Saudi authorities look for new ways to diversify the economy and develop a domestic auto industry.

Saudi Arabia is looking at investing in the production of EV batteries and manufacturing hydrogen-powered vehicles as the next step in its plans to build a nexus for carmaking in the Middle East, Khalid Al-Falih, the minister of investment, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

"What's next is the supply chain," Falih said Wednesday during the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore. Authorities "hope that EV batteries will be a key supply chain manufacturing opportunity."

Seven years into Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's program to wean the country off hydrocarbons, focus is increasing on manufacturing after scant progress in diversifying an economy that still relies on oil and its close derivatives - petrochemicals and plastics - for more than 90% of its exports.

Saudi efforts are now also zeroing in on renewable energy and mining minerals needed to develop battery chemicals. Saudi Arabia has already set a target for producing 500,000 electric vehicles by 2030.

As the kingdom looks to create a wider network of suppliers around its nascent auto industry, the Saudi wealth fund has agreed on a deal with Pirelli SpA to build a more than $550 million tire plant that would serve companies including EV maker Lucid Group Inc. and Hyundai Motors Co., which are developing plants on the west coast of the country.

As part of an effort to attract foreign talent and investment, Saudi Arabia this year restricted state entities from doing business with international companies that don't have their regional headquarters in the country by January 2024. It's set a year-end target for having 160 global companies run their Middle East operations from Saudi Arabia.

Al-Falih said upward of 180 licenses have been issued for companies to qualify for special incentives provided to those setting up a regional headquarters. "The rate is picking up to the tune of 10 companies per week that are being licensed," he said.

Besides firms that include industrial companies, some banks have also made the kingdom into their regional hub, Al-Falih said, declining to name them.

The kingdom on Wednesday sharply revised up its estimates for foreign direct investment into the $1.1 trillion economy as a result of a change in methodology. Inflows last year are now estimated at $33 billion, more than quadruple the previous assessment of $8 billion.

Al-Falih said Saudi Arabia used to rely on its central bank for FDI estimates but it's now "transitioned to the gold standard system of accounting per the IMF methodology, which is to actually measure the last dollar from the financial statements of all registered international investors in the kingdom."

The minister said he isn't worried about a potential pause of investment flows into the region because of Israel's war against Hamas, especially given the opportunities on offer in Saudi Arabia.

"We tick all of the boxes," said Al-Falih. "Beyond the current situation in Europe and the Middle East tension here and some parts of Asia, people will look around and find Saudi Arabia is the best destination to invest."

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/9743232

2 more photos on mastodon https://mastodon.social/@tracyspcy/111623765102784934

A pretty standard pro-environmental piece, however I do appreciate how it calls out the "German Green Party," which is obviously just an astro-turfed political party funded by the coal industry.

And of course the criticism of about the farce of Carbon Capture is spot-on.

As the United Nations COP28 climate talks entered the final stretch, the most recent draft of a climate deal left out the crucial “phase out” language regarding fossil fuels, the main demand expressed by many developing countries, particularly those vulnerable to climate change, as well as the European Union.

The draft deal is the precursor to a final round of negotiations over whether or how long fossil fuels will continue to be a part of the transition to a renewable energy future.

COP28 President Sultan Al Jaber encouraged those present at the summit to finalize a deal before the conference ends on Tuesday, reported Reuters.

“You know what remains to be agreed. And you know that I want you to deliver the highest ambition on all items including on fossil fuel language,” Al Jaber said.

Climate advocates are warning that the COP28 climate summit could end up being unsuccessful after the new draft of the core agreement removed the call to phase out the main driver of the climate crisis.

https://onion.tube/watch?v=FCtEWveySsA

https://invidious.lunar.icu/watch?v=FCtEWveySsA

https://invidious.perennialte.ch/watch?v=FCtEWveySsA

https://invidious.asir.dev/watch?v=FCtEWveySsA

The People’s Health Movement (PHM) has been a regular participant of the Prince Mahidol Awards Conference (PMAC) since 2007. Activists from around the world have freely given their time, ideas, and support to bring a progressive civil society perspective to an event whose objective is, reportedly, “to bring together leading public health leaders and stakeholders from around the world to discuss high priority global health issues, summarize findings and propose concrete solutions and recommendations.”

Over the years, PHM has contributed many hours of unpaid work for the PMAC, undertaking roles in the conference’s International Organising Committee (IOC). This was the case during the first phase of the preparation of the conference’s 2024 edition, focusing on “Geopolitics, Human Security and Health Equity in an Era of Polycrisises.”

At the COP28 climate conference on Saturday, nearly 120 nations pledged to triple the output of renewable energy on the planet by 2030.

In Dubai, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, along with 118 countries and COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber, launched the Global Pledge on Renewables and Energy Efficiency at the World Climate Action Summit, a press release from the European Commission said.