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As the global urgency to combat <keyword id="19907392" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="climate-change" source="keywords">climate change</keyword> intensifies, all eyes are on India's <keyword id="19955368" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Budget-2024" source="keywords">Budget 2024</keyword>, as there’s no better way to walk the talk than allocating funds. Speculation is rife about the potential measures the government may introduce to accelerate the transition to a sustainable energy future — a move that is supremely necessary after the slew of deadly climate catastrophes that we saw last year. India’s Union Budget 2024 will be presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in a couple of days, and is expected to reflect the nation’s commitment to achieving <keyword id="21280854" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="net-zero-carbon-emissions" source="keywords">net-zero carbon emissions</keyword> by 2070. Here are some of the key initiatives from the interim budget that was presented in February earlier this year, along with their anticipated impacts! <h2>Rooftop Solarisation</h2>One of the most talked-about initiatives is the ambitious rooftop solar programme, which aims to provide free electricity up to 300 units per month to one crore households. If implemented, this move will help in not only cutting down energy bills — a godsend for the middle- and lower-income folks — but will also give households a chance to generate and even sell their surplus power. <h2>Electric Vehicle (EV) Ecosystem</h2>Charging up the electric vehicle movement, the interim budget included measures to expand EV manufacturing and infrastructure in the country. The move aimed to accelerate the adoption of <keyword id="19895203" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="electric-vehicles" source="keywords">electric vehicles</keyword>, reducing emissions from the transport sector and making your commute cleaner and greener. Additionally, the government seemed keen on encouraging the adoption of electric buses to make urban travel more eco-friendly. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="111855546" title="Budget 2024: How will budget affect India’s position in the global space race?" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div> <h2><keyword id="20495045" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="offshore-wind-energy" source="keywords">Offshore Wind Energy</keyword></h2>Riding the winds of change, the interim budget introduced a viability gap funding for 1 GW of offshore wind energy. As per the Finance Ministry, this initiative aims to harness the power of India’s vast coastline, pushing the envelope on <keyword id="19895602" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="renewable-energy" source="keywords">renewable energy</keyword> and reducing our fossil fuel dependency. <h2><keyword id="22499996" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="national-green-hydrogen" source="keywords">National Green Hydrogen</keyword> Mission</h2>The interim budget also supercharged the National Green Hydrogen Mission with a massive boost to Rs 600 crore from last year’s Rs 297 crore. The government has continually insisted that Green Hydrogen is set to become the fuel of the future, and this announcement supports its development and adoption, paving the way for cleaner industrial processes. <h2>Coal Gasification and Liquefaction</h2>Switching up the coal game, the interim budget plans to set up coal gasification and liquefaction projects that will be able to process 100 metric tonnes by 2030. These projects aim to make the most out of coal in a cleaner way, especially by reducing our reliance on imported natural gas and slashing emissions. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="111827903" title="Union Budget 2024 for Railways: Expectations focused on improving passenger safety, experience, infrastructure" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div> <h2>Bioenergy and Biomass Aggregation</h2>Turning waste into wealth, the interim budget has also promised additional financial assistance for biomass aggregation. This, they explain, will help in creating a sustainable model for managing agricultural waste, promoting bioenergy production and giving farmers a new revenue stream. <h2>Research and Development (R&amp;D)</h2>In a nod to innovation, the interim budget allocated a whopping Rs 1 lakh crore for interest-free financing in “sunrise” R&amp;D for emerging <keyword id="19931192" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="green-technologies" source="keywords">green technologies</keyword>. If the government follows through on this promise, the funding could catapult a wave of innovation, supporting the transition to a sustainable energy future. By focusing on renewable energy, reducing carbon emissions, and supporting green technologies, India’s initial budget allocations seem to be taking significant strides towards its net-zero goal. Whether this will ultimately pan out to become a greener and more resilient future for its citizens remains to be seen.

Budget 2024: Key sustainability and energy initiatives that Indian government plans to implement this year

<ul class="summary-list"><li>US Steel's plant in Gary, Indiana, aims to deploy carbon capture to reduce its carbon footprint by 2026.</li><li>The technology will capture 0.5% of the steel mill's carbon dioxide emissions.</li></ul>A more-than-century-old steel mill in Gary, Indiana, plans to be a testing ground for a controversial <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/modularity-reshaping-climate-tech-and-infrastructure-startups-2024-2">climate technology</a>.<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-first-commercial-carbon-capture-facility-opens-2023-11">Carbon capture</a> is coming to US Steel's GaryWorks plant on the south shore of Lake Michigan, which churns out the steel that shapes modern life, from buildings and bridges to cars and wind turbines.All that production comes with an environmental cost. GaryWorks is Indiana's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.epa.gov/ghgreporting/ghgrp-state-and-tribal-fact-sheet">largest polluter of carbon dioxide</a>, federal data shows. US Steel said it can cut those emissions by about 0.5% a year by 2026 using technology from the company CarbonFree. If completed, the project would be the first commercial carbon capture at a steel plant."It's progress, not perfection," Erika Chan, US Steel's head of sustainability, told Business Insider. "We're excited about the possibilities and potential."That potential is up for debate. Many climate advocates and some researchers warn that carbon capture is an unproven distraction from other solutions that could rid steelmaking of a lot more fossil fuels and unhealthy pollutants. But those solutions are also in the early stages of development, and backers of carbon capture say curbing some emissions now is better than none at all.There's a lot at stake in the race to clean up steelmaking. Globally, the industry accounts for 8% of emissions. It's also one <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/decarbonize-steel-green-uk-scientists-how-to-cut-pollution-steel-2023-2">of the hardest to make green</a> because it requires a lot of power, heat, and coal and iron ore in most cases. Governments and companies are now pouring billions of dollars into projects trying to solve the problem.For its part, CarbonFree will spend about $150 million to build out its technology at GaryWorks, according to CEO Martin Keighley. He said his company can earn "strong returns" by selling calcium carbonate, a substance made from the captured carbon and other chemicals, to manufacturers of paint, paper, plastic, and pharmaceuticals. Once operational, CarbonFree can also claim about $3 million a year in federal tax breaks.<div type="image" title="A 3D rendering of CarbonFree's carbon capture technology at US Steel's plant in Gary, Indiana." height="2160" width="3840" msid="109035511" hostid="261" sizebytes="165578"></div>Keighley said an outside firm is vetting the carbon capture project at GaryWorks to verify that it will reduce emissions, even though a small amount of gas will be used to power the system.The company — which <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bp.com/en_us/united-states/home/news/press-releases/carbonfree-and-bp-collaborate-to-help-bring-carbon-capture-and-utilization-technology-to-industrial-sites-around-the-world.html">counts BP among its investors</a> — won't sell the captured carbon from GaryWorks for use in oil and gas production, Keighley added.Most of the carbon captured at industrial sites today is piped to oil fields and injected back underground to squeeze out more oil, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.epa.gov/ghgreporting/supply-underground-injection-and-geologic-sequestration-carbon-dioxide">according to the EPA</a>. This fuels climate advocates' complaints that the technology will extend the life of the industry most responsible for the climate crisis.<h2>'Small drop in a very big bucket'</h2>Ben Inskeep, the program director of Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana, told BI that even if emissions reductions are realized at GaryWorks, it will be "a small drop in a very big bucket.""It's not a viable pathway to decarbonize GaryWorks," Inskeep said of carbon capture. "A lot of really terrible pollution will continue and this carbon capture project won't address the magnitude of the problem."Aside from being the top carbon dioxide emitter in Indiana, GaryWorks is also a top producer of other harmful air pollutants like carbon monoxide and particulate matter. The mill is <a target="_blank" href="https://globalenergymonitor.org/projects/global-blast-furnace-tracker/summary-tables/">among just 10 in the country</a> still using blast furnaces — the dirtiest way to make steel because they burn coal and iron ore. The residents of Gary, who are majority Black, <a target="_blank" href="https://grist.org/regulation/epa-crackdown-steel-mill-pollution-gary-indiana-lawsuits/">are suffering from the health effects</a>, Inskeep said."We've been advocating for truly sustainable steel that moves away from the blast furnaces," Inskeep said.Most American steelmakers have switched to cleaner electric-arc furnaces, which melt down scrap metal into new steel. There's also emerging technology that could avoid coal and natural gas altogether by using green hydrogen and renewable electricity — <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/decarbonize-steel-green-uk-scientists-how-to-cut-pollution-steel-2023-2">though it hasn't reached commercial scale</a>.Chan said both of those strategies are included in US Steel's goal to have net-zero emissions by 2050. She noted that US Steel acquired and expanded <a target="_blank" href="https://www.localmemphis.com/article/money/us-steel-mill-east-arkansas-economic-impact/522-7eb9a294-1a0f-4b38-8e04-5b984acd4af1">a site in East Arkansas</a> with electric-arc furnaces that have 70% to 80% lower emissions than blast furnaces.Those projects require a lot of capital, Chan said. CarbonFree's technology doesn't require US Steel to make new investments.Another American steelmaker, Cleveland Cliffs, in March announced it planned to spend about $1.4 billion in Ohio and Pennsylvania to replace a blast furnace with a "hydrogen-ready" plant and electrify other furnaces. The plan is <a target="_blank" href="https://www.clevelandcliffs.com/news/news-releases/detail/629/cleveland-cliffs-selected-to-receive-575-million-in-us">contingent on a potentially half-billion-dollar grant</a> from the Department of Energy.Inskeep said he'd like to see US Steel follow a similar path."These are companies making billions of dollars in profits a year," Inskeep said. "US Steel is in the process of being acquired, potentially. It's very capable of making very large investments."Chan said she couldn't comment on negotiations with Nippon Steel, a Japanese rivaltrying to take over the company. However, both are aligned on making climate action a priority, she added. The deal is under review by national security regulators, although President Joe Biden and The United Steelworkers union have opposed it.Meanwhile, CarbonFree aims to start running its carbon capture system at GaryWorks in 2026 and hopes to expand it over the 20-year agreement."I believe strongly that in the next 20 to 30 years, we will still be releasing Co2 from industrial steel, cement, refineries, and plastic making," Keighley said. "Let's stop those emissions now and do something useful with them."

North America's largest steel mill has a plan to reduce emissions and it's a perfect example of why carbon capture is so controversial 

<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/one-planet"></a><div type="image" title="The Seabound team inside one of its containers part way through the first onboard installation." height="786" width="1000" msid="102914885" hostid="261"></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>Shipping produces about 3% of the world's annual greenhouse-gas emissions.</li><li>The UN's International Maritime Organization has set a 2050 target for the industry to get to net zero.</li><li>The Y Combinator-backed Seabound believes its on board carbon-capture tech can play a key role.</li></ul>Alisha Fredriksson didn't expect to be living on a cargo ship this summer. Luckily, she and her team are taking the three-month stints in turns.Fredriksson is the cofounder and CEO of Seabound, a climate-tech startup that aims to lower the greenhouse-gas emissions produced by the shipping industry.Seabound, backed by the famed accelerator Y Combinator, has built a carbon-capture machine that can be retrofitted onto ships. It absorbs CO2 from the exhaust gas and turns it into limestone pebbles, which can then be sold as a building material.From avocados to clothing, about <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/board-of-trade-report-maritime/embracing-the-ocean-a-board-of-trade-paper-web-version#:~:text=Global%20maritime%20sector%20trends,-While%20sometimes%20overlooked&amp;text=Approximately%2090%25%20of%20traded%20goods,countries'%20trade%20costs%20and%20competitiveness." target="_blank" rel="noopener">90% of traded goods</a> are carried on the ocean. As the backbone of global trade, shipping is responsible for <a href="https://theicct.org/sites/default/files/publications/Global-shipping-GHG-emissions-2013-2015_ICCT-Report_17102017_vF.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">3% of annual greenhouse-gas emissions</a> — a figure the industry must slash. The UN's International Maritime Organization recently set a goal for the sector to reach <a href="https://www.imo.org/en/MediaCentre/PressBriefings/Pages/Revised-GHG-reduction-strategy-for-global-shipping-adopted-.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">net zero "by or around"</a> 2050. Net zero means to balance out the amount of emissions that are emitted with those that are removed from the atmosphere. Shipping, along with aviation and steelmaking, is considered a hard-to-abate industry because of its global complexities and reliance on fossil fuels.It could cost up to<a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/energy/news/2020/jan/decarbonisation-shipping-will-take-place-land-well-sea#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20study%2C%20the,total%20to%20%241.4%20%2D%201.9%20trillion." target="_blank" rel="noopener"> $1.9 trillion</a> to decarbonize shipping, a 2020 study by University College London and the environmental consultancy University Maritime Advisory Services found. "Shipping now faces a much harder challenge than it would have done had it been better at adapting and improving over the last 10 to 20 years. It's become very urgent now," said Stephen Turnock, the head of the engineering school at Southampton University, of the International Maritime Organization's latest guidance. Some form of carbon capture will be needed for shipping to "keep the world spinning" as it moves toward more sustainable practices, said Ed Phillips, a partner at the impact-investment fund Future Planet Capital.<div type="image" title="Seabound cofounders Alisha Fredriksson and Roujia Wen" height="480" width="640" msid="102914887" hostid="261"></div><h2>Piloting the technology on board </h2>Seabound's end goal is to capture 95% of the carbon produced by a ship, though its current prototype captures only a small fraction of that. Having tested it on land, Seabound is now using a commercial container ship as its lab in a pilot project with the London-based shipping company Lomar Shipping.Seabound moved the prototype from its London research-and-development facility to a shipyard in Yalova, Turkey, where it has been installed on a midsize ship that can carry about 3,200 containers, Fredriksson said. Her team will take turns living on board to test the equipment in a real maritime environment. The equipment connects to the ship's exhaust, which flows through a reactor full of pebbles made of calcium-oxide – otherwise known as quicklime, limestone without the CO2. Then a mineralization process takes place where carbon dioxide binds to the pebbles to essentially become limestone. The fumes, now cleaner, are released through an outlet pipe. The limestone is temporarily stored on board and replaced with fresh calcium-oxide pebbles when the ship docks. The startup's opportunity is threefold: Seabound sells the carbon-capture device to ship owners, runs a subscription service for pebble collections to make it easy for shipowners to source new pebbles and offload used ones, and then sells the limestone pebbles to be used as a building material or to be sequestered.If the pilot goes well, the team will start designing and testing a new, bigger version of the device that will be its first product. "We will need some time to basically build that first product, so we want to move out of prototyping land and into actually having a product at a meaningful scale for our customers," Fredriksson said. "Then once we have really tested that on land, that's when we put the first full-scale version on a ship again." <div type="image" title="The Seabound team installing their equipment inside a shipping container onboard." height="1024" width="768" msid="102914888" hostid="261"></div><h2>Energy and weight challenges </h2>Ships usually get lighter through their voyage because they use up fuel, but capturing carbon means storing it on board in some form, which adds weight, according to Turnock. "It might need a little more power to go through the water," he said. It's likely a small amount of power, he added, but it's compounded by the weight and size of the carbon-capture device itself. "If it's quite heavy, then it usually has to be low down on the ship, and then there might be difficulty to find the necessary volume to actually fit the system in without losing cargo capacity.""Shipowners are loath to lose cargo-carrying capacity because that's what makes them their money," Turnock said.In its first pilot, Seabound placed its equipment into five shipping containers stacked on top of each other on the ship. It may require owners to sacrifice "a little bit of cargo" within the ship's max capacity, and "fuel consumption is relative to that capacity," Fredriksson said. Fredriksson added that Seabound's reaction was exothermic, meaning it needed an injection of heat to get started but then was self-sustaining. It has a "very negligible energy consumption on board," she said. <div type="image" title="The ship that Seabound has installed its pilot equipment onto." height="769" width="1024" msid="102914890" hostid="261"></div><h2>Decarbonization requires all hands on deck</h2>There are a handful of other approaches to maritime carbon capture, such as using the captured carbon to <a href="https://valuemaritime.com/videos/#:~:text=Value%20Maritime%20has%20developed%20an,can%20be%20charged%20and%20discharged." target="_blank" rel="noopener">charge a CO2 battery</a>, but overall it's a very nascent space. "It's not an industry, it's an emerging category," Fredriksson said. "What's interesting is that we're actually all trying different approaches," she added. "It's our responsibility as technology innovators or developers to figure out how we can work strategically or creatively within existing infrastructural constraints."Fredriksson said there were a host of creative ways being pursued to address the shipping industry's emissions. "If we were all trying the same thing, it would be kind of silly."Carbon capture aside, electric ships or alternative fuels are favored by others. Maersk, one of the largest container carriers in the world, is <a href="https://www.maersk.com/news/articles/2022/11/16/maersk-and-carbon-sink-sign-strategic-partnership" target="_blank" rel="noopener">betting on green methanol as a fuel,</a> while other startups hope <a href="https://www.axios.com/pro/climate-deals/2023/06/01/acel-power-candela-x-shore-big-electric-boat-investment" target="_blank" rel="noopener">electrification will take off</a>. "We're focused more on the opportunity with e-methanol, with ammonia, hydrogen, and electrification; it's just avoiding being leapfrogged," said Future Planet Capital's Phillips. "As an investor with a long-term view, sometimes backing a technology that solves an issue in the short-term can be a risk in itself." Still, Seabound's tech looks "pretty elegant" to the outsider. Leapfrogging doesn't make sense when <a href="https://www.globalmaritimeforum.org/content/2023/04/the-shipping-industrys-fuel-choices-on-the-path-to-net-zero_final.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">most ships today run on </a>fossil fuels and are still being ordered, Fredriksson said. Ships typically have a 30-year lifespan, she added. The cost of a complete overhaul to an electric fleet or one that runs on alternative fuel would be "prohibitively expensive" while the technologies themselves are still immature, she added. At scale, Seabound intends to retrofit ships when they are in dry docks for routine maintenance. Turnock expects to see a patchwork of technologies emerge. The best solution will depend on whether it's a short-distance ferry or a cargo ship sailing the high seas, he said. "I don't think there's a magic bullet out there.""We should be thinking about solutions which are overall good for the environment and make sense, not just ways of bookkeeping CO2 so we're just displacing the problem," he added.

How Y Combinator-backed Seabound is using carbon-capture tech to tackle the shipping industry's problematic emissions

The European Union's plan to impose a tax on the <keyword id="435302" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="carbon-pollution" source="Orion">carbon pollution</keyword> emitted to make goods imported from countries like India and China has sparked a debate at the United Nations climate conference in Dubai, as poorer countries argue that the tax will harm livelihoods and economic growth. Known as the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, the tax wants to set a price on the carbon emitted to make energy-intensive products like iron, steel, cement, fertilizers and aluminium in non-EU countries. The <keyword id="6355123" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="eu" source="Orion">EU</keyword> says this creates a level-playing field for domestically-manufactured goods that have to adhere to stricter green standards and also reduces emissions from imports. But other nations, particularly developing countries, are worried this would harm their economies and make it too expensive to trade with the bloc. "CBAM's sole aim is to prevent carbon leakage" elsewhere in the supply chain, European Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra said at a press conference at COP28. He said the tax is crucial for funding and achieving the bloc's climate goal of slashing emissions 55% by 2030. A recent study by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development found that a tax of USD 44 per tonnes of carbon emitted would slash pollution from the supply chain by half. It also estimated that rich countries would make USD 2.5 billion from the tax, but poorer countries might lose up to USD 5.9 billion. The EU already caps emissions from industries that operate within its 27 countries and lets them buy "allowances" if they exceed their carbon pollution limits. Without a <keyword id="78459" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="carbon-tax" source="Orion">carbon tax</keyword> on imports, the fear is that the EU's emissions cap will push industries to other nations outside the bloc that have looser rules around greenhouse gas emissions. Countries like the United States and Canada are also considering their own versions of a carbon tax, which some worry could "overwhelm" developing countries. India's government is one of those strongly opposed to the idea. India's former steel secretary Aruna Sharma urged the government to continue to oppose the tax but said industries do need to invest in lowering their carbon footprint for both exports and domestic goods. Other nations could also take a hit. Mohamed Adow, the founder-director of Power Shift Africa, an independent think tank based in Kenya, called carbon taxes a "trade weapon" that could negatively affect Africa. The tax could "lead to a loss of trade revenue amounting to at least USD 25 billion for the continent," he said. "This issue is a significant concern in international climate politics. It's not going away, and lives are at stake," said Li Shuo, director of China Climate Hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute. There's also a technical concern: Vaibhav Chaturvedi, a research fellow at the Council on Energy, Environment and Water in New Delhi, said that under the UN climate change rules, countries cannot dictate how others should reduce emissions. Carbon taxes go against that rule, he said. Trade and climate policy experts say many developing countries fear being shut out of Western markets because they won't be able to clean up their businesses fast enough. They also worry about being caught in conflicts between China and the West, with China seen as the primary target of the EU's carbon tax. But K R Raghunath, founder of clean energy solutions company KIS group, said that even though a carbon tax could be "painful" for some countries in the short-term, it will still have a positive impact because it will reduce planet-warming emissions. "It will be good for everyone in the long run," he said. "Ultimately, everybody has to reduce their carbon emissions."

Carbon tax turns into climate fight at COP28

<ul><li>The production of <keyword id="6378916" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="cement" source="Orion">cement</keyword> accounts for 8% of all carbon emissions in the world.</li><li>The demand for cement has increased like never before and it is only going to rise.</li><li>Researchers are working on developing low-carbon alternatives to traditional cement.</li></ul><keyword id="49135" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="concrete" source="Orion">Concrete</keyword> is one of the most used materials in the world, with <a href="https://cen.acs.org/materials/inorganic-chemistry/Alternative-materials-shrink-concretes-giant/98/i45">30 billion metric</a> tons being used every year. It is being used to construct and repair bridges, roads, highways, high-rise buildings, sewage systems, homes and more. The problem isn’t with the usage of concrete, but the emission of carbon that accounts for roughly 8% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions. As per a report in <a href="https://cen.acs.org/materials/inorganic-chemistry/Alternative-materials-shrink-concretes-giant/98/i45">c&amp;en</a>, we are using more concrete per capita than ever in human history thanks to the infrastructural development taking place in Asia and Africa, and upgrades to ageing structures in Europe and the Americas. Most of the <keyword id="55049" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="carbon-emission" source="Orion">carbon emission</keyword>s from concrete are caused during the process of making its binding component, cement. Researchers are exploring ways to bring down the carbon emission by using waste materials such as <keyword id="498090" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="fly-ash" source="Orion">fly ash</keyword>, <keyword id="1552145" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="slag" source="Orion">slag</keyword> and <keyword id="4724958" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="recycled-phones" source="Orion">recycled phones</keyword>. In this article, we take a look at how cement is made, the alternatives that are being researched to reduce carbon emissions and its overall impact on the environment. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="The method of making cement needs reconsideration" comment="subhead" text="The method of making cement needs reconsideration">The method of making cement needs reconsideration </cmsannotation> Cement, which is the base material used in making concrete, is created by heating powdered limestone, which is found in abundance, along with clay at roughly 1,450 °C in a kiln. It is then ground and mixed with gypsum, which prevents the powder from clumping and controls its subsequent reaction with water. This process is said to produce 800kg of carbon dioxide for every metric ton of cement. To make concrete, suppliers mix cement with sand and gravel, before adding water to trigger a chemical reaction that converts the paste into a rock-solid building material. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Cleaner alternatives are the way to go" comment="subhead" text="Cleaner alternatives are the way to go">Cleaner alternatives are the way to go</cmsannotation> To reduce the amount of carbon dioxide, manufacturers will need to use less limestone and replace it with a low-carbon alternative such as fly ash. Fly ash is the by-product of coal combustion done at power plants. The fly ash can be found accumulated around the coal-fired power plants and is said to have enough supply to make cement for 130 years at its current usage. The fly ash not only helps in lowering carbon emissions but also adding durability to the concrete. The problem with fly ash is that not all of it can be used for making cement due to the difference in chemical composition that can meet the standards of making cement. Another reason is the decline in coal-power plants as they are now being fueled by natural gas. Slag Another alternative that is being considered is slag. It is calcium aluminosilicate, the by-product of smelting iron ore during steelmaking. Slag is known to emit lower carbon during the process of making cement-like material, than traditional cement. There are manufacturers across the globe like Mexico-based Cemex, that are offering concrete containing both slag and fly ash. As per Davidé Zampini, Cemex’s head of R&amp;D, the company’s products help reduce carbon emission by up to 60% by using waste products. But according to a researcher at Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA), there isn’t enough slag or fly ash to meet the industry’s requirement. Recycled Phones Researchers are now looking at using by-products of recycled cellular phones to use as a binding material for cement. The EMPA group has teamed up with a company that uses a metallurgical process to remove precious metals from phones leaving behind a residue that contains calcium, silicon, aluminium, and iron. This residue can be used as a carbon dioxide-free cement binder. As per the report, the EMPA team is studying how to best use the residue material in cement formulations. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Impact on the environment" comment="subhead" text="Impact on the environment">Impact on the environment</cmsannotation> If the researchers find a definite low-carbon alternative to traditional cement with similar properties, it would reduce the environmental impact caused by high carbon emissions. Since the demand for cement is not going to fade away, it will be important that research carries on in this field until a certain alternative is found. If slag and fly ash are not enough, the by-products of recycled cellular phones are only going to grow in the near future. SEE ALSO <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/new-york-city-food-delivery-workers-just-won-the-right-to-bathroom-access-on-the-job-after-months-of-organizing-and-protests/articleshow/86468398.cms">New York City food delivery workers just won the right to bathroom access on the job after months of organizing and protests</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/this-neobank-for-indias-small-businesses-just-raised-31-million-led-by-sequoia-capital/articleshow/86366129.cms">This neobank for India's small businesses just raised $31 million led by Sequoia Capital</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/telecom/news/reliance-jio-powers-ahead-of-its-competitors-as-indias-broadband-connections-go-past-800-million/articleshow/86472903.cms">Reliance Jio powers ahead of its competitors as India’s broadband connections go past 800 million</a>

Here’s how researchers are considering fly ash, recycled phones and slag to lower global carbon emissions from cement

<ul class="summary-list"><li>UK scientists found a way to clean up blast furnaces, the most carbon-intensive part of steelmaking.</li><li>Steel accounts for up to 9% of global emissions and is one of the most difficult climate challenges.</li></ul>Steel built much of our modern world, but it also racked up a massive carbon footprint along the way. Now, researchers at <a href="https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/2023/novel-adaptation-for-existing-blast-furnaces-could-reduce-steelmaking-emissions-by-90" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow sponsored">the University of Birmingham have developed a process</a> to clean up the most carbon-intensive part of the steelmaking process: blast furnaces. Currently, coking coal and iron ore are fed into furnaces and heated to sky-high temperatures to create liquid iron, which is then refined into steel. About <a href="https://worldsteel.org/about-steel/steel-facts/" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow sponsored">70% of steel</a> used around the world for buildings, cars, and household appliances is made this way.For every metric ton of steel produced, nearly two metric tons of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere, <a href="https://worldsteel.org/publications/policy-papers/climate-change-and-the-production-of-iron-and-steel/" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow sponsored">according to the World Steel Organization</a>. The industry accounts for up to 9% of global emissions, meaning that if it were a country, it'd be the third-largest emitter behind China and the US.Harriet Kildahl, a co-author of the research by University of Birmingham, told Insider that her team found a way to make steel with 90% less coking coal, which could reduce carbon emissions by a similar percentage. Kildahl described it as a "closed-loop" system that captures and recycles carbon dioxide to trigger the chemical reactions that convert iron ore into steel. A mineral known as perovskite is used to react with carbon dioxide at lower temperatures, she said. The system could be retrofitted onto furnaces. "Some coking coal is used to start up this thermochemical cycle, but from that point on, you would never need to add any more," Kildahl said.The system could be easier and cheaper to adopt than other strategies to decarbonize steel because it repurposes blast furnaces rather than replacing them, Yulong Ding, a co-author of the research, told Insider. His team is searching for industrial partners to build a plant and test the process on a pilot scale. Technologies that don't use fossil fuels for steel production are emerging, though they haven't been proven to work on a commercial scale. The Swedish steelmaker SSAB built a plant that uses green hydrogen from renewable energy and <a href="https://www.ssab.com/en/news/2022/05/ssab-to-deliver-fossilfree-steel-to-volvo-trucks" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow sponsored">delivered a small amount of fossil-free steel to Volvo last year</a>. SSAB aims to reach commercial scale by 2026. Startups like Boston Metal and Electra, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-10-06/how-to-make-emissions-free-iron-at-temperatures-colder-than-coffee" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow sponsored">which are backed by Bill Gates' venture-capital firm and heavy industry</a>, are in the early stages of testing two ways to use electricity to convert iron ore to steel.Yet every strategy has its drawbacks, including the one out of the UK. "I found this very innovative and promising," said Jihye Kim, an assistant professor at the Colorado School of Mines who researches critical mineral extraction from the wasted byproducts from steel production. "But there are a few disadvantages."Kim said the researchers' approach doesn't replace 100% of coke, so other materials like biomass, charcoal, or recycled plastic must be added. Using mostly gas instead of solid coke in the blast furnace also raises questions about its stability at an industrial-sized plant. Extra heat and power might be required, although ideally that could be met with renewables. In the end, different strategies are needed to decarbonize steel, Kim said. "We can use multiple techniques at the same time."

UK scientists found a way to slash nearly 90% of carbon emissions from the country's steel industry

<ul><li><keyword id="3198120" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Union-minister-Prakash-Javadekar">Union Minister Prakash Javadekar</keyword> insists that <keyword id="9732443" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="lower-carbon-emissions">lower carbon emissions</keyword> will only be possible if the right technology is available at the right place and at the right time.</li><li>He highlighted that the success of the Montreal Plan was partly because it provided compensation for any additional expenditure to mitigate the effects of climate change.</li><li>“India is walking the talk. India is two degrees compliant in actions and in contributions. And, therefore, we’re asking world leaders and other countries that they should also walk the talk and they should also be compliant with the <keyword id="3087299" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Paris-agreement">Paris Agreement</keyword>,” said Javadekar. </li></ul>India is on track to meet its contributions to the Paris Agreement as one of the 195 signatories who have promised to keep the global rise in temperature below 2 degrees Celcius before 2100. However, environment-friendly technology comes at a cost. If it's not affordable, it acts as a barrier to preventing climate change as countries like India endeavour to become green economies, according to Union Minister <keyword id="119642" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Prakash-Javadekar">Prakash Javadekar</keyword>. “I am demanding that technology must be available at an affordable cost. Less emissions will only be possible if the technology is available at the right place,” he said at the <keyword id="10225090" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="india-ceo-forum-on-climate-change">India CEO Forum on Climate Change</keyword>. The cost of development India may be among the top five carbon emitters on the planet, but that’s mostly due to its sheer size. Its per capita emissions are only around 1.8 tonnes a year — less than half of the world average. <div type="image" title="IA 9 (2)" msid="79056875" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Global greenhouse gas emissions&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> Even historically, India's average emissions were around 3%. Today, the emission load stands at around 6%. Javadekar argues that since every person on the globe has the right to development and that any kind of development will have emissions. So, for India, as a developing country emissions are inevitable if it wants to grow. Citing the Montreal Plan as an example, he highlighted how it provided complete compensation for any additional expenditure. “In a thermal power plant if we want to induct FGD technology, it costs ₹50 lakh per MW. It’s a huge cost for a 600 MW generating unit… Cost is a big barrier in making advances,” Javadekar said. Battling climate change Right now, India’s plans to battle climate change include reducing emissions intensity by 50%, restoring around 26 million hectares of land over the next ten years, building 100 gigawatts (GW) of solar energy, and 157 GW of renewable energy by 2022. To top it off, Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently added the goal of 450 GW of renewable energy generation by 2030 — this will account for a little than 40% of India’s installed capacity. “India is walking the talk. India is two degrees compliant in actions and in contributions. And, therefore, we’re asking world leaders and other countries that they should also walk the talk and they should also be compliant with the Paris Agreement,” said Javadekar. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/sbi-share-price-rises-over-6-after-strong-earnings-with-analysts-pegging-it-to-be-the-first-to-recover-among-public-sector-banks/articleshow/79055329.cms">SBI rallies over 6% after strong earnings with analysts pegging it to be the first to recover among public sector banks</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/policy/foreign-policy/news/donald-trump-vs-joe-biden-us-election-result-and-relations-with-india-and-pm-modi/articleshow/79022098.cms">If Joe Biden wins, he’ll be the third US president to deal with Modi — Here’s how that could play out</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/careers/news/tcs-infosys-hcl-tech-and-others-to-see-more-freshers-than-lateral-hires-in-the-next-six-months/articleshow/79014794.cms">TCS, Infosys, HCL Tech, and others to see more freshers than lateral hires in the next six months</a>

India demands environment-friendly technology to be made available at affordable prices to battle climate change

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A University of Michigan study found that urban-farmed produce has six times the carbon footprint of conventional farms.</li><li>The study faced backlash from advocates and students, saying it overlooked broader environmental harms of industrial farming.</li></ul>Research <a target="_blank" href="https://l.businessinsider.com/u/click?_t=c8e10479a20f45bba5aad6c5f6fbb009&amp;_m=gKkE9A8NehnuDzRzdSau7uq09zqBFd0Sr&amp;_e=NR1opUQhz8M8yUJSUPdig3DFkL5V9rgD-5rPgW0GroA3pbpNmWwHXHGoo74aMXoja_anmr5pb3xh2lAililuTXgADjvTB3UukpAGOLG2SrF_kHfHX8zWICcHcKop4L0aKMXPonVY2xRp0XQZ64IarUuA1R8qw3q4PhAWCWLXY9G0Ydc33x8xgJlvwIMOIziP3Z-9UFI-oql6pfu6qQZ029n5vwVI8SKZfYQDpHggYmAQ4UKQidwQlNlDsWkZAuRowdkRGettNr8zhYW8J95CuNYB-Cw-9oK6upgD5EWEWS6iDszTxyLPdRKl875Oy0xrfCdQvujTUBTHwLNEkZzQUPamO9sHlTOsQ-4qdI45hc-8w4OddF1Nl87AQ7xMgakArmdYr9fCcdKuJiA_rugYKFOk-U9RjTT7RnXWsEZhTWR7O5EnVSqmCgZepdYmPbcW">out of the University of Michigan</a> sent shockwaves through the urban-farming and home-gardening community earlier this year.Fruits and vegetables grown on urban farms have on average six times the carbon footprint of produce from conventional farms, the study, which was <a target="_blank" href="https://l.businessinsider.com/u/click?_t=c8e10479a20f45bba5aad6c5f6fbb009&amp;_m=gKkE9A8NehnuDzRzdSau7uq09zqBFd0Sr&amp;_e=NR1opUQhz8M8yUJSUPdigyVBLt12lmLv8Kq9KF0cdQjoc2NlXgdVGSzgZOXMbm41vySv-6bNirXuVkKEe4zYtRkHu-IV1v-0W-C-yK4FbMXEzIDCy-JCwmYVkyCXPCIt2GwU70ZNcgMDFzgtobt0rzfExa7hjIiSLi_pcqLW2kO3pVFQcy7kUXs39I6Rq9wju-WZ0vlmecmINrxBN9ZlJ5IWP5OA4NsjW1Lcdyo2mGApareaYJhL08j0yXO26bFKkuoZpKWHf3GXRwKkOy8zXWmj-Kcrz1J0L6WBc62tiL4P3v0ro9hAQbfEHHc7kE_oV4DP2reIpebcW5qmhTJTl5SGFjtT9G7XfyABNejPDL36yWuOPnzr4CRUZtQ7yRsLaw9tRD6Q5rBum95o9X5wyvVfLtgRn8X0hgcDynU7SsN5GiVtwX7Hhsk4mjeU0PZLIyNOKWiVR8ho8NL8nP_KtJupdV9Nm8W6gMK_72cr67R_x7w6OxLbRRXv_bHKQhY-">published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Cities</a>, found.The backlash was swift. University of Michigan students organized a rebuttal letter, arguing that narrowly focusing on carbon emissions overlooked the broader environmental harms of industrial-scale farming such as biodiversity loss and water pollution. Some angry homesteaders on TikTok and YouTube circulated conspiracy theories about the government not wanting people to be self-sufficient. The research landed as cities including Detroit, <a target="_blank" href="https://l.businessinsider.com/u/click?_t=c8e10479a20f45bba5aad6c5f6fbb009&amp;_m=gKkE9A8NehnuDzRzdSau7uq09zqBFd0Sr&amp;_e=NR1opUQhz8M8yUJSUPdigxWxojJ8J5pQHuZpUrbvrUbrww7LkgQb0AoKMWISaksztKtNGWhZGbvGryiqPWhFFsNaqynonrY4jZWjZhw-pUXygoC1Auv-xnNPN7GXFHLkI2CdpXSvhXB65J1tq-Z7KNwMBrzEZeDJVuhbNpl1wQcXgx7t3XJKBmcOF4M2o9uCa8eQpctf2Vm6eOrxomO0Gzp72AUSDIcC7_kGXufuZOkPZ4a53ELdiw77soVlQrQLgIcfaMcckVhcpzwIN2IK3sXHOp2y_WBwNwwATroicweQP01heQnBSkyioVIyYhaKYUY_Cg2lsJcZ7tnqtHpYi8ABvbrVPPGavVaK6iAY6g-yusAyUHL2rTnUDi8Q5ln751TcAK2Xy9DpvP6b1qos-sp1bo2WuFLCi0n1JPwIWno%3D">Philadelphia</a>, and Washington, DC, increasingly invest in urban agriculture to promote sustainability and become more resilient to the climate crisis. The researchers told Business Insider that while the many social benefits of urban farming were well understood — such as improving access to fresh food in disadvantaged communities — some climate claims warranted more scrutiny."Urban agriculture is not a magical climate solution," Jason Hawes, a coauthor of the study and a doctoral student at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability, said. "But there is evidence that with the right kind of planning and investments, it can be more climate-friendly. So we wanted to figure out what those interventions looked like."Hawes said that produce grown on 17 out of the 73 urban farms his team studied across five countries had lower carbon footprints than produce from conventional farms. The urban sites tended to have longer life spans, reuse waste for compost and building materials, reuse water, and maximize social benefits for their communities.The infrastructure used to build urban gardens matters a lot, Hawes said, because new materials come with their own carbon footprint. Choosing crops such as tomatoes or asparagus, which are typically grown in energy-intensive greenhouses and transported on a plane, respectively, also matters.<h2>Fury among urban farmers</h2>The headlines offended advocates of urban agriculture, according to interviews with a Detroit city official and other academics, as well as the letter circulated by University of Michigan students and shared with BI.These advocates questioned whether comparing the per-serving carbon footprint of produce from urban and conventional agriculture was appropriate, given the vastly different scale of these systems and the roles they serve in society.Mainly, they worried the study would let conventional agriculture — which <a target="_blank" href="https://l.businessinsider.com/u/click?_t=c8e10479a20f45bba5aad6c5f6fbb009&amp;_m=gKkE9A8NehnuDzRzdSau7uq09zqBFd0Sr&amp;_e=NR1opUQhz8M8yUJSUPdig22tyCNchXZAgdxwipimYVznOXFPGv5B5brtbrGUrJWehR9wef9PKiYCdUXXAUTzNCYnCgz5hBndgRonmOFmB8BZI1-3lB5d6Sx9aONB53xyVAKlJvXWlCjlPnSu7v9X7gCcNh3xGtMpUXVN47WmLbh2wFs0l_GI4jAPWh_pHeT7Ztm2dQTrnHg1HAWtXxEd-7j9o9KL7BxVH7ScfYjIGIec_OVLTdtt76ESASEzhfe_gQ9jq0qesHUUboO1ZbAeEC2XbWTtqDM8h-n7kl3tyPJrlQJtL8Y3N1OU6SdGlJeLKC46maN-qpJk3kfzcaBsz10HYy2wx0RZ6iDgFCzWUvQ%3D">globally accounts for about one-third of greenhouse-gas emissions</a> — off the hook and undermine a burgeoning movement to expand urban green spaces and promote food sovereignty, especially in communities of color burdened by pollution. "I thought the study took a lot of the onus off of conventional agriculture, which we are in the process of recreating," Tepfirah Rushdan, who last year became Detroit's first director of urban agriculture, told BI. "The reason for the shift is because industrial agriculture is a strain on our planet."Rushdan also argued that urban farms are a much more sustainable use of land than commercial or industrial development.The letter organized by students at the University of Michigan said the research addressed "critical research gaps" but should have been more nuanced by incorporating more of the environmental harms of conventional agriculture. The letter also alluded to the structural problems that can prevent urban farms from being more permanent, including commercial development and barriers to landownership.Hawes and his coauthor <a target="_blank" href="https://seas.umich.edu/research/faculty/benjamin-goldstein">Benjamin Goldstein</a>, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability, said they're sensitive to the concerns, and were responding to them, but stood by the methodology."Our work does not lessen the many benefits that urban agriculture provides," Hawes said in an email. "We put one specific claim to the test with the best available data. This is not an indictment of the process as a whole. Instead, it is an indictment of the environment in which urban agriculture is forced to exist — with constant pressures on land tenure, with resource constraints, and with a constant back and forth about the 'true purpose' of the practice."Hawes and Goldstein said they had crafted policy briefs for city officials and the US Department of Agriculture that underscore how important urban agriculture is for sustainability and local food production. They also are working on a letter to Detroit farmers, many of whom reached out to Hawes to say they'd already adopted the best practices outlined in the study.Despite the controversy, the research led some urban gardeners to reevaluate their practices. Monica Fitzgerald, a backyard gardener in Boulder, Colorado, told BI that she didn't think the headlines were true at first. Part of the reason she grows her own food is to be more sustainable and improve local biodiversity.But after reading the main findings, she learned a few lessons and shared them on TikTok <a target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@colorado.monica/video/7328188157705424170?_r=1&amp;_t=8jiNGzWHC2d">to dispel other users' conspiracy theories</a>."Try to make things with materials you already have," she said. "Order fewer seeds online. Compost at home. Extend the lifetime of a raised bed, shed, or shovel. Not only does it save you money, it saves you carbon emissions."Are you a gardener or urban farmer who is finding ways to save money and reduce your carbon footprint? Reach out to this reporter at <a target="_blank" href="mailto:cboudreau@businessinsider.com">cboudreau@businessinsider.com</a>.

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