• Green spaces and infrastructure ‘under serious threat’ in the UK

    The UK’s green spaces and infrastructure are “under serious threat”, and “urgent action is needed” to reverse their decline, MPs on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee have said. In a letter, the committee called on the government to prioritise green spaces and encourage more investment into green infrastructure. It found there was “strong evidence” linking urban green spaces to a host of environmental and health benefits, but there is at present no statutory duty for councils to provide them. With many councils facing severe financial constraints, green spaces are increasingly being underfunded as all available cash is spent on meeting their statutory responsibilities. In a letter to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the committee said there…

  • EU signs law to crack down on ‘high risk’ AI

    The European Parliament has approved new laws governing artificial intelligence (AI) to reduce risk and improve transparency in a rapidly growing industry that could have significant impacts on business and society. The Artificial Intelligence Act aims to protect “fundamental rights, democracy, the rule of law and environmental sustainability” from “high-risk” AI, the body said. It also includes limits on the use of biometric identification systems by law enforcement, bans on social scoring and the use of AI to exploit users. Member states negotiated the wording of the Act in December 2023 – and MEPs broadly endorsed it – with 523 votes in favour, 46 against and 49 abstentions. The new rules ban AI applications that “threaten citizens’ rights”, including biometric categorisation systems…

  • US government proposes a 30% cryptocurrency mining tax to reduce its environmental impact

    The Joe Biden administration has proposed a 30% tax on the electricity used for cryptocurrency mining operations in its budget for 2025. The computers that secure cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin consume large amounts of power. Known as mining, this process involves intense computation and, as a result, consumes significant electricity. This not only has implications for climate change, but can also contribute to rising energy prices. According to analyses by tech nonprofit WattTime and energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie, Texas will see a nearly 5% increase in electricity prices by mid-2023 due to industrial-scale cryptocurrency mining. With many other cryptocurrency mining operations across the US, President Joe Biden’s proposed budget for the fiscal year 2025 includes a proposal to impose…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Record-high methane emissions must be cut, warns IEA

    Methane emissions from the energy sector are still far too high to meet climate targets. But implementing existing pledges on methane could soon put these emissions in decline, says the International Energy Agency (IEA). Leaks of methane cause plumes of potent greenhouse gas to escape into our atmosphere, and as the IEA highlighted in a report published last year, slashing it is imperative to limit global warming. In the latest update of its Global Methane Tracker, a comprehensive assessment of global methane emissions since last December’s COP28 climate summit, the IEA found that methane emissions from the energy sector remained at a near record high in 2023. The production and use of fossil fuels resulted in close to 120m tonnes of methane emissions in 2023, a small rise compared with…

  • Stereovision system enables driverless capabilities on off-road vehicles

    A vision-based system that allows off-road vehicles to drive autonomously has been developed by a team at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI). The technology is being positioned as a useful tool for the military, as well as space and agriculture clients. The system pairs stereo cameras with algorithms to eliminate the need for lidar and active sensors, which are typically used on autonomous vehicles meant for roads. “We reflected on the toughest machine vision challenges and then focused on achieving dense, robust modelling for off-road navigation,” said research engineer Abe Garza. The engineers developed a suite of tools known as the Vision for Off-Road Autonomy (VORA), which can perceive objects and model environments in real time to navigate. Though highly reliable, lidar sensors…

  • Government plan to ensure the UK is resilient to climate risks is ‘falling far short’, advisers warn

    The UK’s Climate Change Committee (CCC) says that far more needs to be done by the government to ensure the UK can deal with the rising threat of climate change risks, including flooding, heatwaves and drought. February 2024 was the warmest February on record globally. In the UK, it was the fourth wettest February ever recorded. Flooding wreaked havoc in many areas across the country, making roads impassable and affecting journey times. The cause is climate change, and it will only get worse if we continue as we are. The European Environment Agency (EEA) announced this week that Europe is not prepared for a barrage of climate change risks. These include the threat of flooding, heatwaves and drought, all of which the UK has experienced in recent years. In summer 2022, the UK’s extreme…

  • UK government should abandon ‘unrealistic’ carbon capture plans, think tank says

    The government’s reliance on carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology is “outdated and unrealistic” and could leave the UK reliant on fossil fuels when better technologies are available, financial think tank Carbon Tracker has said. In December, the UK unveiled a plan to make the CCS sector a competitive market by 2035, with domestic firms selling their carbon capture services to global firms. This strategy was based on the recommendations of the Climate Change Committee, published in the Sixth Carbon Budget in December 2020. However, since then, cost estimates for deploying the technology have more than doubled, leading to a shift in focus to reduce emissions at source rather than abate them once emitted. The rapid growth of renewables and battery storage has also lowered estimates…

  • US steel unions urge Joe Biden to stop China’s domination of global shipbuilding

    The United Steelworkers union (USW) will ask US President Joe Biden to open a trade investigation into alleged Chinese unfair economic practices in the shipbuilding and maritime logistics sectors. In an article published in The Financial Times, USW and other unions are reported to be filing a petition with the US Trade Representative outlining alleged discriminatory practices that have helped China dominate global shipbuilding. According to USW president David McCall, the US was once a leader in the commercial shipbuilding industry, but over the past two decades China has made huge investments in shipbuilding and engaged in predatory trade practices. According to Clarksons Research, a maritime consultancy, in the last 20 years China has gone from producing roughly 12% of global commercial…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • PM ‘will not gamble with our energy security’ amid plan to fire up new gas power plants

    Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says the UK needs to build new gas-fired power stations to back up renewables and “keep the lights on”. In 2019, the UK government made a commitment to cutting carbon emissions to net zero by 2050. In July 2022, it introduced new measures in the energy sector designed to boost green technologies, including extra support for the deployment of low-carbon technologies at scale such as carbon capture, usage and storage. Following the announcement today, it seems there has been some back-pedalling. In what the UK energy secretary Clare Coutinho calls a “common-sense decision”, the government will now support the building of new gas power stations to maintain a safe and reliable energy source as the nation transitions to net zero. The government claims this plan keeps…

  • ‘Huge environmental damage’ from UK’s failure to tackle e-waste tsunami, MPs say

    Over the last four years, the government has made little progress in tackling the UK’s electronic waste (e-waste) crisis, MPs on the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) have said. An EAC report from November 2020 outlined the “huge human and environmental damage” that the extraction of raw materials needed for their production causes. E-waste, when not properly treated, can release toxic chemicals that damage human and animal health. At the time, the government accepted or partly accepted many of the recommendations made in the report, but a recent assessment has shown that little progress has been made in the intervening years. Research from Material Focus showed that the UK threw away nearly half a billion cheap electrical items such as headphones, cables, decorative lights and mini…

  • Europe unprepared for barrage of climate change risks, EU agency warns

    Europe is not prepared for a barrage of climate change risks, says the European Environment Agency (EEA). Potential catastrophes including extreme heat, drought, wildfires and flooding threaten the stability of Europe’s energy and food security, ecosystems, infrastructure, water resources, financial stability and people’s health. Previous research from the World Meteorological Organization has found that Europe is the fastest-warming continent in the world, which leaves it particularly exposed to climate risks. The new assessment found that many of the risks have already reached “critical levels” and could become catastrophic without “urgent and decisive action”. It said that Europe’s policies and adaptation actions were not keeping pace with the growing risks. In many cases, incremental…

  • 10 tech innovations to grow the UK tidal industry – report

    The Tidal Stream Technology Roadmap report, published by the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, demonstrates how costs can be reduced through 10 technology innovations, and lead to significant growth in the UK tidal industry. The Marine Energy Council (MEC), the representative body for the UK’s tidal stream and wave energy industries, has set a target for UK wave and tidal stream energy capacity to reach 1GW by 2035. To reach this ambitious target, tidal technology innovations need to become a commercial reality. The 10 innovations include subsea hubs, anchors for floating devices, controllers to optimise lifetime turbine performance, cable monitoring and tidal array optimisation. The report also demonstrates how cost reduction is crucial in enabling an accelerated growth trajectory…

  • Unmanned, hypersonic aircraft completes test flight before planned ocean crash

    Stratolaunch has completed the first powered flight of its unmanned, hypersonic test aircraft dubbed Talon-A. Hypersonic refers to aircraft that can achieve speeds of at least five times the speed of sound, or 3,836mph. The privately funded firm wanted to test various capabilities of its reusable aircraft including engine ignition, acceleration, sustained climb in altitude and a controlled water landing. Talon-A, which is powered by a liquid-fuel rocket engine, ended its flight by descending into the ocean as planned. While the aircraft was considered expendable in this testing phase, a future version will be capable of landing on a runway for reuse. “While I can’t share the specific altitude and speed TA-1 reached due to proprietary agreements with our customers, we are pleased to…

  • US ocean drone company Saildrone launches long-endurance USV to map the ocean floor

    Contracted to the US Navy for initial testing, SD-3000 is an aluminium Surveyor unmanned surface vehicle (USV) that has been designed to map the seafloor to depths of 11,000 metres. As humans we know relatively little about vast areas of our ocean. Mapping the open ocean comes with various challenges – not least of all, it requires sophisticated equipment and crew that need to be at sea for long periods of time. US ocean drone company Saildrone has solved both of these challenges. The most recent vehicle to join its fleet of uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs) is the SD-3000, which, like the rest of the fleet, is powered by renewable wind and solar power. It is designed to scale ocean data collection with a minimum carbon footprint. Leveraging the advanced manufacturing production techniques…

  • NatPower allocates £10bn to expand the UK’s grid-scale battery storage

    NatPower says it will build over £10bn worth of battery storage amounting to around 15-20% of the UK’s needs by 2040. The UK-based firm, a division of NatPower Group, which is headquartered in Luxembourg, plans to start with three “GigaParks” to be licensed by 2024 and another 10 by 2025. It also said that £600m has been allocated to develop new substations in the electricity grid in preparation for the battery facilities. It is expected that batteries will play an increasingly big role on the grid as they allow energy produced from renewables to be used at times when they are not generating electricity. They also help to avoid problems of excess electricity production – currently, wind or solar energy producers are sometimes forced to suspend energy production so that the grid is not overloaded…

  • What the ‘Budget for long-term growth’ means for the engineering and tech industries

    In his Spring Statement, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt set out a plan to deliver long-term growth for the UK with a number of key investments, including a £160m nuclear power deal, £120m for the Green Industries Growth Accelerator, £3.4bn towards digital transformation in the NHS, £270m for R&D projects and £650m investment in a vaccine manufacturing hub. However, some spokespeople in the engineering and tech industries think more could have been done. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt began his speech to parliament by saying that “the policies I announce today mean more investment, more jobs, better public services and lower taxes in a budget for long-term growth”. However, he was quick to point out that this growth would not be sustained by immigration. In the lead up to the budget – the Chancellor’s final…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • How to bounce back after losing your job

    Losing your job is never easy and most of the time, not a very positive experience at all. People lose their jobs for a variety of reasons but whether it’s because your contract is ending, you’ve been made redundant or you’ve just moved on, it’s never an easy process. If you do lose your job, most people are in a situation where they need to find a new one, but you may not feel up to the challenge straight away. It’s important to start this by saying that everything should be done at the speed you feel comfortable with. Try not to compare yourself to others and work at your own pace. Life throws all kinds of different things at us and they’re all a learning experience. Afterall, it’s what you make of a situation, so try and turn a bad one into a positive. Letting go of the disappointment…

    E+T Magazine
    E+T Magazine

  • Summertime Arctic ice could be completely depleted within two years

    Arctic ice is becoming so depleted that there could be practically no sea ice during the peak of summer as early as the next two years, researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder (UC Boulder) have said. The findings suggest that the first ice-free day in the Arctic could occur over 10 years earlier than previous projections, which focused on when the region would be ice-free for a month or more. The trend remains consistent under all future emission scenarios. It is expected that by 2050, the Arctic could see an entire month without floating ice during September, when the region’s sea ice coverage is at its minimum. By the end of the century, the ice-free season could last several months a year, depending on future emissions scenarios. Under a high-emissions, or business-as-usual…

  • Air taxis closer to launching in the UK as vertiport testbed plans unveiled

    The UK’s first vertiport testbed for developing the next generation of electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft is being launched at a 444-acre estate in Oxfordshire. The facility will include a compact 160 square metre passenger terminal and will be used to test ground infrastructure and flight operations. Skyports Infrastructure, the firm behind the project, has previously launched two services to deliver vital supplies to remote Scottish islands using drones: the first in 2020 delivering PPE and coronavirus test kits, and then a contract with Royal Mail last year. The new vertiport will be positioned next to existing general aviation grass runways owned by aviation firm Bicester Motion. The compact terminal, which is only 0.42 acres, has been designed to demonstrate…

  • Greenpeace analysis reveals the UK is ‘utterly failing’ at green investment

    Of the top five western European economies – France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the UK – the UK government has invested the least in green spending, and also comes out worst in terms of per capita green energy investment. Greenpeace based its analysis on the International Energy Agency (IEA) government energy spending tracker, which focuses on investment over the period April 2020 to April 2023. The analysis revealed that France, which has a similar population size to the UK, spends almost twice as much on green spending as a whole at $952.40 per capita, compared to the UK’s $494.43 per capita. When breaking it down into sectors, the UK ranks worst out of the top five for total spend on low carbon and efficient transport, despite transport being the UK’s largest emitting sector for greenhouse…

  • Testing rules require car makers to ditch touchscreen for physical buttons for top rating

    From 2026, the European New Car Assessment Program (Euro NCAP) will introduce new testing rules that will require vehicles to have physical controls for basic functions like turn signals and windscreen wipers to earn a full five-star safety rating. Touchscreens inside vehicles have become commonplace. More and more basic vehicle controls have moved away from physical buttons to an icon on a touchscreen. While using a touchscreen is easy to access and user-friendly, it does require the user to take their eyes off the road, however brief that may be. This has become a concern for Euro NCAP – an independent safety body for the automotive industry, which assesses vehicles and provides a five-star safety rating system to help users compare vehicles and identify the safest choice for their…

  • Three Red Sea underwater data cables cut as Houthis launch more attacks

    Three telecommunication lines running under the Red Sea have been cut as Yemen’s Houthi rebels continue to target the waterway. A statement by Hong Kong-based HGC Global Communications acknowledged the cuts but did not say what caused the lines to be severed. There has been concern about the cables being targeted in the Houthi campaign, which the rebels describe as an effort to pressure Israel to end its war on Hamas in Gaza. However, the Houthis have denied attacking the lines. The severed lines include Asia-Africa-Europe 1, the Europe India Gateway, Seacom and TGN-Gulf. According to HGC Global Communications, the cuts are affecting 25% of the traffic flowing through the Red Sea. It described the Red Sea route as crucial for data moving from Asia to Europe and said it had begun rerouting…

  • Reducing atmospheric carbon with direct air capture will cost double previous estimates

    The cost of removing carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere could be double previous estimates. Researchers from the university ETH Zurich also warn that the technology should not be treated as a substitute for carbon reduction policies. Carbon removal is considered a possible solution to the problem of limiting global warming to within 2°C above pre-industrial levels. It could be particularly useful for sectors such as aviation and agriculture, which are particularly hard to abate using current technologies. The researchers compared the potential costs of three direct air capture (DAC) technologies already in use. These included the method used by ETH spinoff Climeworks, as well as carbon capture using aqueous solutions and calcium oxide. They estimate that the cost of removing…

  • New satellite will use data combined with AI to map methane leaks worldwide

    The MethaneSAT satellite, developed by the Environmental Defense Fund in partnership with Google, has launched onboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with the aim of putting the biggest methane-emitting culprits on the map. Methane leaks cause plumes of potent greenhouse gas to escape into our atmosphere, sometimes for days on end. Slashing it, therefore, is imperative to limit global warming. While methane has 80 times the warming power of CO2 in the first 20 years after reaching the atmosphere, unlike CO2 it does not remain in our atmosphere for as long. This means that reducing methane emissions will have a significant impact in lowering global temperatures. Tracking methane leaks will help identify the sources of these emissions, produced from oil and gas, landfill, agriculture and other…

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