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Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Biden's climate-smart ag program was better than nothing. Trump killed it.
The "Eating the Earth' column explores the connections between the food we eat and the climate we live in. Farms are a huge climate problem, so it was great that the Biden administration made a huge commitment to 'climate-smart agriculture.' But some details of its first $3 billion initiative to make agriculture climate-smarter were not so great. The Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program, launched by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in early 2022, provided generous grants to America's least cash-strapped agribusinesses, including Archer Daniels Midland, JBS, Tyson, Cargill, and PepsiCo, as well as America's most influential farm groups, representing corn, soybeans, cotton, pork, and dairy. A few of its 135 projects actually looked climate-harmful, financing emissions-boosting pseudo-solutions like biofuels, manure digesters, and grass-fed beef. Far too many grants went to scientifically controversial efforts to sequester carbon in farm soils through trendy 'regenerative' practices like planting cover crops and reducing tillage, and not enough flowed to simpler, evidence-backed strategies to reduce methane and nitrous oxide emissions. And the Biden USDA's well-intentioned efforts to make sure a large portion of the grants went to smaller farms, specialty crops, sympathetic nonprofits, and traditionally underserved communities often seemed to take precedence over reducing emissions. I wrote a skeptical column about then-President Joe Biden's climate-smart approach back in 2022, so I had mixed feelings when the Trump administration cancelled the climate-smart commodities program this April. It was clearly a flawed program. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins had a point when she mocked it as slow and bureaucratic. While her primary complaint that it didn't send enough money directly to farmers wasn't my primary complaint — USDA sends plenty of money directly to farmers! — even some Trump-hating advocates of sustainable farming agreed with her critique of its 'sky-high administration fees.' But no one truly believes the program's cancellation had much to do with flaws in its design or execution. Its fatal flaw, from the Trump perspective, was obviously its climate-smart premise; Rollins slagged it as 'largely built to advance the green new scam,' in violation of 'Trump administration priorities.' Those priorities are not a secret: This administration doesn't believe agriculture policy should have anything to do with the climate, which is why it scrubbed the word 'climate' from USDA's website. It doesn't care that agriculture generates one-fourth of all greenhouse gas emissions. Nobody who's concerned about the planet should be happy that an imperfect agricultural program was cancelled for the sin of trying to reduce agricultural emissions. As University of Iowa economist Silvia Secchi, one of the program's harshest critics, puts it, 'Regardless of my opinion of these grants, it makes no sense to kill them before we learn anything.' The Environmental Working Group published an analysis last year attacking Biden's climate-smart approach, but vastly prefers it to Trump's screw-the-climate approach. 'Even if we didn't love where all the money was going, it was better than just giving farmers subsidies,' says the group's Midwest director, Anne Schechinger. When President Donald Trump commits egregious transgressions — deporting a Venezuelan hairdresser to El Salvador or investigating the mayor of Chicago for bragging about his diverse staff — pundits often try to look balanced by criticizing the suboptimal behaviors he uses as excuses: Biden neglected the border; DEI went too far. There's a reluctance to simply say: This is egregious. Well, I spent the last six years reporting a book on how to feed the world without frying it, and I'll say this: Trump's belief that we shouldn't even try is egregious. Biden and his team deserve credit for making climate-smart a priority. Trump's USDA agreed to keep funding some of the climate-smart grants after farm groups protested their cancellation, but it's not calling them climate-smart anymore, and it won't pursue climate-smart investments in the future. It's defiantly climate-dumb. But I've also pointed out that it's boring to harp on the badness of a climate-denial administration doing climate-denial things. And there are lessons we can learn from the politics and substance of the climate-smart partnerships — about mistakes that shouldn't be repeated, and at least one remarkable success story that should be expanded worldwide. In my book, I tell the tale of a big internal Biden administration fight over climate-smart agriculture that never made it into the public eye. On one side was then-Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who wanted to pay farmers to adopt regenerative practices — like keeping soils covered and minimizing soil disturbance — that he believed would sequester carbon in their soils and help reverse climate change. He loved the idea of fifth-generation Republican dirt farmers who wore John Deere hats and drove Ford F-150s embracing kinder and gentler approaches to their land that would help them earn a premium for sustainably grown commodities and sell soil-carbon credits as an extra crop. On the other side was White House climate aide David Hayes, who thought soil carbon was wildly overhyped — by the United Nations, environmentalists, foundations who seemed to cough up cash whenever they heard the word 'regenerative,' celebrity-studded documentaries like 'Kiss the Ground,' and even Big Ag and Big Food conglomerates eager to claim climate benefits for regenerative practices in their supply chains. Hayes pushed for at least half the climate-smart grants to go to less scientifically controversial efforts to reduce methane and nitrous oxide, which make up more than half of direct farm emissions. Hayes was right about the science. It's extraordinarily difficult to measure soil carbon accurately or ensure it remains underground. It's also extraordinarily difficult to build more soil carbon without adding more nitrogen in the form of fertilizer or manure, which have negative climate impacts of their own. Indigo Ag, a carbon-market leader that announced a plan in 2019 to help regenerative farmers sequester a trillion tons of soil carbon, has gotten less than one one-millionth of the way to that goal. Regenerative agriculture also tends to produce less food per acre, which means it requires more acres to produce the same amount of food, which means it accelerates the global march of farmland into carbon-rich forests and wetlands. 'There's just too much excitement about soil carbon,' Hayes told me. But Vilsack won on the politics. Most of the climate-smart grants promoted regenerative practices designed to move atmospheric carbon underground and help build new markets where farmers could sell soil-carbon credits — and the same was true for another $20 billion steered toward climate-smart agriculture by Biden's Inflation Reduction Act. Cover crops and no-till were by far the best-funded practices, even though there's at best mixed evidence that they can sequester much carbon. Biden even dropped a prime-time plug for cover crops into his first address to Congress. If USDA's soil-carbon obsession started the program on the wrong track, it strayed even further from its climate-smart mission by insisting that 40% of its grants go to underserved communities, and by promoting regenerative hemp, regenerative sorghum, and dozens of other alternatives to big row-crop commodities. Some of the resulting projects were just weird. One $20 million regenerative grant was divided among small farmers in New York, minority farmers in North Carolina, wine growers in California, and a nonprofit called Nature for Justice, as well as traditional big corn and soy producers in the Midwest and the giant agribusiness Corteva. It was hard to see a coherent strategy behind the grant, beyond spreading money across the country and checking all the Biden team's priority boxes. In any case, the Trump team has cancelled it, along with dozens of other grants that explicitly prioritized equity and diversity. Hayes did pressure USDA to make a serious commitment to verifying actual soil-carbon results, and to his credit, Vilsack agreed, creating a $300 million monitoring fund and steering a variety of grants toward data collection and measurement. Vilsack was excited to document the climate benefits underground, while Hayes suspected the department would learn that soil carbon was mostly a mirage; either way, it would gather valuable information. But the Trump administration is cancelling those data-focused grants, too, part of its push to scrap grants that proposed to send less than 65% of their cash directly to farmers, or had not yet sent any cash to farmers. The measurement grants generally sent more cash to scientists, universities, and companies like Indigo. The Trump team also axed most of the grants focused on large numbers of small farms growing unconventional crops, because they required much more administration. For example, the Pennsylvania group Pasa Sustainable Agriculture lost a $59 million grant because it planned to buy supplies like cover crops and tree seedlings in bulk for 2,000 farms as small as a quarter-acre rather than giving the cash to the farmers and making them buy supplies themselves. The association's director, Hannah Smith-Brubaker, says it was finally ready to ramp up in the field after spending just $2 million of its grant over the first two years, mostly on administration and preparation — and now it won't be spending anything. 'This was supposed to be an experiment,' Smith-Brubaker says. 'We'd spend five years tackling these problems on different types of farms with different practices, and we'd start to get some comprehensive answers about what works. It's such a shame that we won't.' Robert Bonnie, Vilsack's deputy who oversaw the grants, says there was a political strategy behind the grant program: By offering farmers carrots rather than sticks, and helping them develop markets for climate-smart commodities regardless of their personal climate views, USDA could build lasting support for evidence-based innovations in farm country. But he says he underestimated the Trump team's enthusiasm for policy vandalism, for trashing anything it could fit into its culture war against anything Biden-related or climate-related. 'It turns out there are no rules, and nothing matters,' Bonnie told me. Again, it's not the Biden team's fault that the Trump team hates the climate. But just as many climate hawks now wish the Inflation Reduction Act's clean-energy provisions had focused more on getting green stuff built quickly, and less on requiring union labor, American-made components, and other conditions unrelated to the climate, it's tempting to wonder what the climate-smart grants could have achieved before Trump ransacked them if they had focused on delivering quick emissions-reducing results. Actually, we don't have to wonder, because a single grant amounting to just 0.25% of the $3 billion climate-smart commodities program did exactly that. Four years ago, when a 23-year-old finance whiz named Tyler Hull was working for a farmland asset manager in Nashville, Tennessee, he spun off a subsidiary called AgriCapture to exploit the fledgling carbon markets that were starting to reward businesses for reducing emissions. Soil carbon was all the rage, and Hull figured that if he could persuade his firm's tenant cotton and corn farmers to plant cover crops, stop tilling, and adopt other regenerative practices that would sequester carbon underground, they could sell carbon credits and the company's land would get healthier. But once he dug into the science and mechanics of soil carbon capture, Hull concluded it was mostly bogus. He calculated that farmers could at best sequester one-fifth of a ton of carbon underground per acre, so they would earn less selling credits than they would spend on seeds for cover crops — and since tilling the soil in the future would release the sequestered carbon, the carbon-credit agreements would prohibit any tillage on the land for decades. 'It just didn't work,' Hull recalls. 'We had to pivot.' Hull soon stumbled across an emissions-reduction opportunity that wasn't bogus at all: reducing methane from rice fields through better water management. Methane-producing microbes that thrive in flooded rice fields are responsible for 10% of the world's agricultural emissions, but reducing the duration of flooding through practices like 'alternative wetting and drying' and 'furrow irrigation' can cut those emissions in half — the equivalent of up to two tons per acre, with no drag on yield and no restrictions on future land management. AgriCapture received a $7.5 million climate-smart grant in 2022, and it was the only project to start sending money to farmers that first year. It used remote sensing to document 30,000 tons of methane reductions on 25,000 acres, then sold the credits to an international bank. It also saved 9 billion gallons of fresh water without any loss of yield. This year, it's enrolling 150,000 acres, about 5% of U.S. rice production. The Trump administration is allowing the project to continue because it's already used most of its grant, and Hull says it will be able to keep expanding without additional federal subsidies. If rice farmers worldwide all adopted these practices, they could eliminate enough emissions to offset half the aviation industry. 'This can become the new normal,' Hull says. 'It's practical and profitable, and even if you don't care about global warming, it's saving water and creating a new export market for American farmers: carbon credits you can trust.' Regenerative agriculture is sexy and popular, with support from Al Gore, Joe Rogan, Rosario Dawson, the Indian mystic Sadhguru, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but its ability to move a lot of carbon from sky to soil remains speculative at best. By contrast, AgriCapture's effort to reduce methane by reducing flooding on rice fields is simple, effective, and potentially lucrative. There are also proven strategies to reduce methane from cow burps with feed additives, reduce nitrous oxide emissions by using fertilizer more efficiently, and store carbon above ground by planting trees and shrubs in pastures and fields — with climate benefits that are relatively easy to measure and monetize. The Biden team could have made an international splash by bringing those strategies to scale, if it hadn't been so excited about its soil-carbon experiment. Now that experiment is over, and that's Trump's fault. But in the future, if policymakers who do care about climate progress want to make climate action more popular with the public, they might want to focus on actions they know will help the climate. And if those actions can create measurable environmental benefits that farmers can get paid for, they might even be popular in farm country.
Zawya
5 days ago
- Business
- Zawya
Wizz Air advances customer compass plan with new aircraft milestone
The aircraft offers a 20% reduction in fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions More than decade ago, Wizz Air began to use upcycled waste materials from GenPhoenix for its cabin seats, which reduced over 80 thousand tons of lifecycle emissions The milestone marks a major step forward in Wizz Air's emissions reduction strategy – Flying Towards Net-Zero Wizz Air, EMEA's most environmentally sustainable airline, proudly announces that the Airbus A321neo—the latest-generation, most fuel-efficient single-aisle aircraft available today now comprises two-thirds of its operational fleet. Out of Wizz Air's total 234 aircraft, 152 are Airbus A321neo and six are A320neo, and one is Airbus A321XLR, meaning over 67% of the fleet is powered by next-generation technology. In line with its ongoing commitment to innovation and environmental sustainability with cutting-edge technologies, Wizz Air aims to operate an all-neo fleet by 2029. The Airbus A321neo will play a critical role in delivering a 7% reduction in Wizz Air's emissions intensity by 2050. The aircraft also offers a 20% reduction in fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions compared to previous generation aircraft, alongside a 50% reduction in noise pollution. Customer First Compass: Enhancing the Passenger Experience Operating an all-neo aircraft fleet is part of the airline's Customer First Compass Product pillar - its commitment to next-level travel and dedication to operating one of the youngest, safest and fuel-efficient fleets in the industry, as well as using cutting-edge tools in operations. This €14 billion initiative underscores the airline's dedication to delivering an exceptional travel experience through one of the youngest, safest, most fuel-efficient and quieter fleets in the industry, supported by advanced operational technologies. Yvonne Moynihan, Corporate and ESG Officer at Wizz Air, said: "Achieving two-thirds fleet modernisation with the A321neo is not just a milestone for Wizz Air – it's a symbol of our commitment to providing most innovative options. The introduction of our Customer First Compass earlier this year marks our dedication to investing in areas that make a meaningful impact for our customers and the planet. The A321neo is central to our strategy, enabling lower emissions while maintaining the affordable fares our customers value.' Driving Net-Zero Through Fleet Innovation Fleet renewal is one the main cornerstones of Wizz Air's Flying Towards Net-Zero roadmap, which outlines the role the airline will play in the decarbonisation. The Airbus A321neo will play a critical role in delivering a 7% reduction in Wizz Air's emissions intensity by 2050. The aircraft also offers a 20% reduction in fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions compared to previous generation aircraft, alongside a 50% reduction in noise pollution. Smart Solutions Across the Supply Chain In addition to the exterior part of the aircraft, Wizz Air also focuses on interior developments in supply chain. Since 2015, the airline has partnered with Gen Phoenix to integrate upcycled leather offcuts into its cabin seating. These materials, which would otherwise be sent to landfills, are transformed into lightweight, durable seating components that generate up to 80% less carbon emissions and use 87% less water during production[4]. What began with a single A320 aircraft has now scaled to the airline's entire fleet serving approximately 50,000 passengers daily. Through this partnership, GenPhoenix has supplied Wizz Air over 100,000 square meters of material – preventing 16 tons of waste from reaching landfill and reducing 7 300 tons of lifecycle emissions reductions annually. About Wizz Air Wizz Air operates a fleet of 234 Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft. A team of dedicated aviation professionals delivers superior service and very low fares, making Wizz Air the preferred choice of 62.8 million passengers in 2024. Wizz Air is listed on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker WIZZ. The company was recently named one of the world's top ten safest airlines by the world's only safety and product rating agency, and named Airline of the Year by Air Transport Awards in 2019 and in 2023. Wizz Air has also been recognized as the "Most Sustainable Low-Cost Airline" within the in 2021-2023 and 'Best Airline for Carbon Reduction' by World Finance Sustainability Awards in 2024. Wizz Air also received "EMEA's Environmental Sustainability Airline Group of the Year" by the CAPA-Centre for Aviation Awards for Excellence 2024. About GenPhoenix Generation Phoenix (Gen Phoenix) is delivering a new generation of materials for the next era of sustainability. Through a revolutionary circular process, Gen Phoenix rescues leather offcuts destined for landfill and regenerates them into premium, circular materials made from recycled leather fibre coveted by the world's most iconic brands for its beauty and durability. Since 2007, Gen Phoenix has diverted thousands of tons of material from landfill. Adaptable to a wide variety of feedstocks, Gen Phoenix's patented technology platform will make material circularity possible at an epic scale.
ABC News
01-06-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Bowen open to carbon tariff, says Australia must 'do more' to hit 2030 climate target but remains on track
A "carbon tariff" on dirty cement or steel made elsewhere could be considered in the Albanese government's second term, as Energy Minister Chris Bowen concedes Australia must "do more" to achieve its climate targets. Mr Bowen said Australia was "by and large on track" to meet its legislated target of reducing emissions by 43 per cent by 2030, despite new figures this week showing flatlining progress in 2024. "We've never suggested it's a linear line … But with the right approach from government, yes, we can continue to be on track [despite] facing headwinds and challenges from time to time," he told the ABC's Insiders. Labor approved a 40-year expanded licence to Australia's largest oil and gas project, Western Australia's North West Shelf, in a move criticised by environmental groups. Mr Bowen said the decision by Environment Minister Murray Watt was made according to the "very strict criteria of the environmental approvals legislation", which does not allow consideration of emissions impacts and which Labor has so far failed to reform. But he insisted the move would not jeopardise Australia's emissions efforts because the North West Shelf would be governed by Labor's safeguard mechanism, which forces large emitters to reach net zero emissions, including by purchasing offsets if they cannot avoid emissions "onsite". "It's already obliged to be reducing emissions today and it is," he said. "The whole idea of the safeguard mechanism is to send the message to the boards to say, 'Hey, you know, you should start investing in onsite emissions abatement here, because we're going to require you to buy offsets if you don't.'" The government will this year be required to set a 2035 emissions target, which it will consider pending advice from the independent Climate Change Authority. Mr Bowen said he was willing to consider new policies if required, including the use of tariffs to ensure that companies do not shift emitting activities offshore to evade the intent of Australia's targets. That practice, known as carbon "leakage", is already subject to a government review led by ANU Professor Frank Jotzo, whose preliminary papers identified clinker, cement and lime as particularly high leakage risks, and ammonia, steel and glass as moderate risk. Mr Bowen said he would be guided by the Jotzo review, which was contemplating a "carbon border adjustment mechanism" that would impose an extra cost on imports made in countries without carbon prices. "We have been clear that we want to ensure Australian industry is best placed to compete in a decarbonising world," he said. "What could be the case is … we look at particular sectors first around cement and lime, [which] are places that we looked at in particular, but I'm not going to get in front of the process … We'll have more to say during the course of this term." The US this week increased its global tariffs on steel, drawing fresh criticism from the Australian government. Mr Bowen said he did not believe the Trump administration's abandonment of climate goals would derail Australian or global action. "The United States is around 12 per cent of emissions globally. That's a lot, but it doesn't mean that the rest of the 88 per cent of us stop doing things." He reiterated Australia's enthusiasm to host the next global climate conference in Adelaide. "A conference that knocks it out of the park is our intention for Australia to showcase ourselves, to highlight the jobs opportunity for a traditional fossil fuel country like ours, that we can and will embrace the transition."
Zawya
22-05-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Aramco achieves world-first by commissioning breakthrough renewable energy storage system for gas operations
Deployment paves way for further integration of renewable power to support emissions-reduction ambition DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia – Aramco, one of the world's leading integrated energy and chemicals companies, has achieved a world-first by successfully commissioning a megawatt (MW)-scale renewable energy storage system to power gas production activities. It is the first deployment globally of an Iron-Vanadium (Fe/V) flow battery as a backup solar power source for gas well operations. Located in Wa'ad Al-Shamal, in western Saudi Arabia, the 1-MW/hour flow battery system is based on Aramco's patented technology and was developed in collaboration with Rongke Power (RKP), a global leader in flow batteries. It can support up to five wells over its projected 25-year lifespan, offers a robust alternative to existing solar energy solutions, and can handle variable power demands efficiently and cost-effectively. It is specifically engineered to withstand the hot climate of Saudi Arabia and achieve optimal performance under extreme weather conditions, setting it apart from other vanadium flow batteries on the market. Ali A. Al-Meshari, Aramco Senior Vice President of Technology Oversight & Coordination, said: "The pioneering flow battery system spearheaded by Aramco's researchers represents a breakthrough for the oil and gas industry. Aramco already powers a large number of remote gas wells with solar panels connected to lead-acid battery systems, but our ground-breaking flow battery technology offers a flexible solution for diverse renewable energy storage requirements, making it an attractive option for a variety of industrial applications. This is just one example of how Aramco is developing and deploying advanced technologies with the aim of enhancing energy efficiency and reducing emissions across its operations.' Flow batteries store energy in liquid electrolytes separately from battery cells, and electrolytes pumped into the cell convert chemical energy into electricity. In addition to providing energy independence, flow batteries can be repeatedly discharged and recharged with minimal capacity loss. They also reduce fire risks compared to other types of batteries, while their modular design makes them easier and less costly to maintain. The new (Fe/V) flow battery commissioned by Aramco aligns with the company's focus on renewables investment and energy efficiency, as part of its ambition to achieve net-zero Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions across its wholly-owned operated assets by 2050. It offers enhanced electrolyte utilization and reduced vanadium consumption compared to others available, and has a broad operating temperature range of -8°C to 60°C without the need for thermal management systems. It paves the way for further integration of the technology at isolated and unmanned oil and gas sites, providing an efficient power solution that can adapt to fluctuating demands without incurring additional expenses. Aramco Contact Information Media Relations: @aramco About Aramco As one of the world's leading integrated energy and chemicals companies, our global team is dedicated to creating impact in all that we do, from providing crucial oil supplies to developing new energy technologies. We focus on making our resources more dependable, more sustainable and more useful, helping to promote growth and productivity around the world. Disclaimer The press release contains forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements relating to historical or current facts included in the press release are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements give the Company's current expectations and projections relating to its capital expenditures and investments, major projects, upstream and downstream performance, including relative to peers. These statements may include, without limitation, any statements preceded by, followed by or including words such as 'target,' 'believe,' 'expect,' 'aim,' 'intend,' 'goal,' 'may,' 'anticipate,' 'estimate,' 'plan,' 'project,' 'can have,' 'likely,' 'should,' 'could,' and other words and terms of similar meaning or the negative thereof. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors beyond the Company's control that could cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the expected results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including the following factors: global supply, demand and price fluctuations of oil, gas and petrochemicals; global economic conditions; competition in the industries in which Saudi Aramco operates; climate change concerns, weather conditions and related impacts on the global demand for hydrocarbons and hydrocarbon-based products; risks related to Saudi Aramco's ability to successfully meet its ESG targets, including its failure to fully meet its GHG emissions reduction targets by 2050; conditions affecting the transportation of products; operational risk and hazards common in the oil and gas, refining and petrochemicals industries; the cyclical nature of the oil and gas, refining and petrochemicals industries; political and social instability and unrest and actual or potential armed conflicts in the MENA region and other areas; natural disasters and public health pandemics or epidemics; the management of Saudi Aramco's growth; the management of the Company's subsidiaries, joint operations, joint ventures, associates and entities in which it holds a minority interest; Saudi Aramco's exposure to inflation, interest rate risk and foreign exchange risk; risks related to operating in a regulated industry and changes to oil, gas, environmental or other regulations that impact the industries in which Saudi Aramco operates; legal proceedings, international trade matters, and other disputes or agreements; and other risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from the forward-looking statements in this press release, as set forth in the Company's latest periodic reports filed with the Saudi Exchange. For additional information on the potential risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from the results predicted please see the Company's latest periodic reports filed with the Saudi Exchange. Such forward-looking statements are based on numerous assumptions regarding the Company's present and future business strategies and the environment in which it will operate in the future. The information contained in the press release, including but not limited to forward-looking statements, applies only as of the date of this press release and is not intended to give any assurances as to future results. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to disseminate any updates or revisions to the press release, including any financial data or forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless required by applicable law or regulation. No person should construe the press release as financial, tax or investment advice. Undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements.
