Climate investment funds - not liked by conservatives

Maanantai 13.11.2023 klo 17.36 - Mikko Nikinmaa

Do conservative forces (such as American Republicans) really want to destroy the world? One can reach only this conclusion, when one reads the news about decisions made by, e.g., Texas. The state has decided that banks and other financial corporations, which would offer “climate investment funds”, are not allowed to do business in the state. Although the ban also concerns other “responsible investment funds”, it is quite clear that the action is mainly against green investments. In banning the responsible investment funds, the government of Texas states that those funds discriminate against companies, which are important for the economy of the state. Such discrimination shall not be allowed.

But hey, the banks offering climate investment funds also offer traditional funds. The reason for having the new responsible or ethical investment tools is to cater for customers who want ethical investment. Thus, there is no discrimination. In a similar vein, one could ban such glass sellers from selling products, which have mint chocolate chip glass in their variety: it discriminates against glass with other flavours. Clearly the reason has nothing to do with discrimination but the fact that advertising climate funds may get the customers to think that maybe investing in oil companies is not a climate-friendly action.

Investing money on responsible funds may speed up green shift, and thereby decrease the profits of oil companies. Such a change is good for the world, and needed in the long run – or maybe not a long run any more - but will affect the oil lobby in Texas.  

Green hydrogen - tomorrow's natural gas

Perjantai 10.11.2023 klo 14.23 - Mikko Nikinmaa

For the sake of the world, we need to stop using fossil fuels. Although green shift has been advocated, there have been many doubts of it being feasible, and also many points have been made especially about storing energy produced for later use. For example, when green electricity is produced, its storage is problematic with the present-day batteries. Further, battery production causes multiple environmental problems.

Green hydrogen production and its use as the major energy source is clearly a way forward. Further, it can be transported from where it is produced to where it is consumed using to some extent the infrastructure already available. Also, motors using hydrogen as the fuel can be made for heavy traffic, ships and planes. Green hydrogen is produced by using electricity produced by windmills, solar cells, hydroelectric power or whichever way of producing fossil-free electricity. The produced hydrogen can be stored in tanks/containers just like natural gas and transported in pipelines. I don’t see why pipelines that have been used for natural gas transport couldn’t be modified for hydrogen transport. The small amount of hydrogen that leaks from the pipelines acts indirectly as a greenhouse gas, but it is estimated that the leak-induced greenhouse effect is less than 5 % of the greenhouse effect caused by the same amount of energy produced by oil.

The problem of windmills, i.e., that energy production is proportional to wind strength is not a problem, since the hydrogen-producing plants may adjust their production according to wind. Hydrogen-fuelled vehicles already exist, and the service station concept with rapid tanking can be continued enabling service station owners to continue their livelihood.

 Altogether, green hydrogen enables the green shift to occur with a minimum of fuss. It is the way forward.

Climate change and right wing populism

Torstai 10.8.2023 klo 11.18 - Mikko Nikinmaa

With the hottest July ever in the world, heat spells in all continents of the northern hemisphere simultaneously, devastating wildfires, floods and droughts everywhere, one would think that people would finally accept that climate change is here already, and that mankind needs to put significant effort into preventing it from getting worse.

But no, in the minds of right-wing populists, climate change is left-wing hoax. No matter what the evidence says, no matter what the news are, no matter what the scientists say. In USA the conservative thinktank Heritage Foundation has given out a book Project 25, which would essentially scrap all the climate plans of the present government if a Republican president were elected in 2024. Needless to say that it would be a catastrophe for world’s climate, as USA is one of the countries with the greatest carbon dioxide emissions per capita. As compared to European Union, the emissions per person are roughly double, and as compared to world average more than four times greater. (Because of its large population, China is the country with the largest emissions in the world. However, its per capita emissions are about the same as EU’s). Similarly, the Finnish populistic right wing party – presently in government – has opposed “the green shift” of energy production and industrial production claiming that it is too expensive for the taxpayer. At the same time, the calculations of industry show that “green shift” would generate unprecedent amount of foreign investments in Finland. These examples indicate that right-wing populism has started treating climate change as “culture war” issue. To support actions against climate change makes you to belong to the left (or greens which is just as bad).

Because climate has become an issue in culture war, little can be done to change the opinions of right-wing populists. The only way to prevent the devastating implications their policy actions is to make sure that they cannot rise to power, or if they are in power, to make sure that they lose the power in next elections.

Tidal Energy - an Almost Untapped Major Energy Source

Tiistai 29.11.2022 klo 13.39 - Mikko Nikinmaa

Moon gravity creates tides, felt everywhere in oceanic coasts. Tides have immense energy, probably more so than the inland waters, which have been used for generating electricity for years. Furthermore, as flowing water, tides are very regular, occurring regardless of sunshine or wind. Thus, the tidal energy does not suffer from the problems with solar and wind power, i.e., marked daily or seasonal variation. Further, huge tides wash the coasts of many of the world’s rich countries, and in principle the technology for generating electricity from tidal energy is already available.

Because of the above, one would imagine that tidal power features strongly in the renewable energy sector. But no, so far there are only a couple of experimental tidal power plants in function. The main reasons for this are probably the following: First, there was no tradition of converting tidal energy to usable power. In contrast, windmills have been around for at least a thousand years, as also riverine power stations. Second, since coal and oil have been cheap, generating energy using the fossil fuels has been the preferred way for energy production.

The situation must change now that we shall combat climate change. A major argument of the fossil fuel lobbying groups has been that the green shift is not really possible, since wind and solar power have marked production fluctuations. The same argument is used by nuclear power advocates, who maintain that in order to get assured constancy of energy production, nuclear power plants are required. However, tidal energy power plants will produce energy at a predictable rate, and building them is both cheaper and more rapid than nuclear power plants. Also, they do not generate carbon dioxide emissions thus representing a true green shift.