Bellona nuclear digest. July 2024
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.
News
The deal will see an end to EU support to land-based, first generation biofuels, such as biodiesel from oilseed rape and palm oil, that compete with food production and can in some cases have higher life-cycle emissions than fossil fuels. This comes on the back of an earlier decision in reform of the EU State Aid Guidelines to end subsidies to such first generation biofuels after 2020.
This brings and end to years of unintended consequences resulting from the EU’s target of 10% renewable energy in the transport sector by 2020, which has been alrgely met with first generation biofuels. This target and incentives to reach it have led to unustainable biofuels production around the world causing environmental and social damange, including Indirect Land Use Change (ILUC), the accounting for which was a key component of this deal.
But the ILUC accounting will not be as comprehensively included as initially asked for and first generation biofuels will still make up about half of the 10% target. The growing use of maize for biofuels, as well as the growing harvesting and burning of wood from precious natural forests for power production, is not addressed in this deal.
On a positive note, the deal will see more support for advanced biofuels, such as those produced from algae, for instance in the form of a subtarget. And this vote brings an end to several years of insecurity and political jockying, setting sights forward and away from unsutainable buiness as usual.
For more on the content of the deal, see here.
A survey of events in the field of nuclear and radiation safety relating to Russia and Ukraine.
Transport on the Northern Sea Route is not sustainable, and Kirkenes must not become a potential hub for transport along the Siberian coast. Bellona believes this is an important message Norway should deliver in connection with the Prime Minister's visit to China. In an open letter to Jonas Gahr Støre, Bellona asks the Prime Minister to make it clear that the Chinese must stop shipping traffic through the Northeast Passage.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has published a new report on its efforts to ensure nuclear safety and security during the conflict in Ukraine, with the agency’s director-general warning that the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station remains “precarious and very fragile.”
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution and climate change.