State of the Planet: Apple Makes Recycling Cool Again – Solar Binge – Low Carbon Billions – Pig Power

Things are moving quickly as our planet makes the transition to a new, clean economy. You want to stay in the loop – but you’re busy, that’s why we keep an eye on the headlines for you!

Welcome to the 25 March 2016 edition of the Daily Planet’s weekly State Of The Planet. Don’t hesitate to send your tips and comments to @peter_koekoek or peter.koekoek@climate-kic.org.

It’s all about chocolate and eggs this weekend.

The Daily Planet has five delicious tips for a sustainable and climate friendly Easter.

Apple decided to make recycling cool again – and delivered this week, with a robot.

Recycling an Apple product should be as easy as using one says the company’s vice president for environment, Lisa Jackson. Not “iRecycle” but “Renew” is the catchy name of Apple’s new recycling programme. You can go to the Apple website and find out how to “renew” your old phone. Jackson also unveiled a new “super secret” iPhone disassembly robot named “Liam.” Mashable reports that Liam – who has 29 arms – can take apart over 1.2 million phones per year and removes and separates precious natural resources such as cobalt and lithium.

Interested in the link between electronic waste and climate change?

Don’t miss this new (free) online course about “e-waste,” a collaboration between the UN’s environment agency and Climate-KIC.

Apple also announced it is now operating at 93 per cent renewable electricity, worldwide.

At the same event where Liam-the-robot was announced, it was revealed that Apple’s goal of 100 per cent renewable electricity is now very close, CleanTechnica reports.

Investment in low-carbon energy in Europe is down to the lowest level in a decade.

As it’s Good Friday, we’ll get the bad news out of the way first. In 2015, European investment plummeted by more than half to $58 billion. While the rest of the world steps up, Europe is at a crossroads the Guardian reports.

But China is on an “epic solar power binge.”

This is not just good headline writing by MIT Technology Review, China added 15 gigawatt in 2015 and now has a whopping 43.2 gigawatt solar capacity. This compares to 38.4 in Germany and 27.8 in the United States.

The world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases could end up as the “hero” of the climate change movement.

So said climate activist and celebrity Leonardo DiCaprio according to the New York Daily News. He praised China’s work to combat climate change while in Beijing and said he’s impressed by the country’s shift to renewable energy.

Canada has announced it will pump billions into the low carbon economy.

On Sunday, Canada’s prime minister tweeted: “Tweeting about #EarthHour is one thing. Tuesday, we’ll put words into action with a budget that builds a clean economy for Canada.” http://bit.ly/1T7zKk8 In the budget, the Liberal government announced a C$2-billion low carbon economy fund http://bit.ly/1UnK6hj and C$2.65 billion that will go towards helping developing countries fight climate change over the next five years. http://bit.ly/1UnJDeX

Tweeting about #EarthHour is one thing. Tuesday, we'll put words into action with a budget that builds a clean economy for Canada.

— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) March 20, 2016

Australia also just made a A$1 billion pivot towards low carbon innovation.

The announcement by prime minister Malcolm Turnbull signals a major break with his predecessor’s climate change policies, the Straits Times reports. “This challenge of global warming, this challenge of climate change, we will beat… by being really smart, by being technically, technologically, scientifically sophisticated and innovative,” Turnbull said. Last year, Climate-KIC already announced it is working with organisations across the region to forge a new Oceanian climate innovation partnership.

An Oxford climate scientists perfectly explains rising sea levels with… gin and tonic.

The Daily Planet reports how Adam Levy is making waves on social media with his climate science experiments.

Did UN workers repeat the gin and tonic experiment at their offices in Bonn?

We may never know for sure, but a special Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) press release announced that UN staff including climate chief Christiana Figueres recorded a song to say goodbye to their colleague Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN environment programme. The release includes a brilliant YouTube clip of the “green economy” themed recording.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgdPgutXIn0

The UN wants to help you with PR.

If you’re part of a women-led climate project, working on financing climate innovations or have developed an ICT climate solution, you may be eligible for some UNFCCC help with publicity – and not only on YouTube. The Daily Planet reports you could attend the UN Climate Change Conference (COP22) in Marrakech, Morocco, later this year and get free media training.

Obama was in Cuba this week, what did he say about climate change?

The US and Cuba hope to collaborate on disaster risk reduction, ocean acidification and “climate-smart” agriculture, the Daily Planet reports. “I can tell you as a friend that sustainable prosperity in the 21st century depends upon education, health care, and environmental protection,” Obama said.

The Guantanamo Bay prison could be replaced with a climate science lab.

A conservation ecologist made this rather audacious proposal in Science. Vox reports how the facility could house “research and educational facilities dedicated to addressing climate change, ocean conservation, and biodiversity loss.”

London’s new electric double-deckers will hit the road next month.

Road Show reports that although the new vehicles will be the first fully electric double-decker buses in the world, a majority of London’s buses will still be diesels. More work to do for London air quality start-up Plume, which reached its £10.000 crowd funding target this week according to Crowdfunding.co.uk. Plume is supported by Climate-KIC.

Meanwhile in North Carolina, an energy company signed a huge “pig poop” deal.

The Associated Press reports Duke Energy’s pig power project is one of the largest in a growing number of waste-to-fuel efforts. A new plant will collect methane from pig and chicken waste, refine the gas and deliver enough electricity to power about 10,000 homes a year.

Plenty of poop jokes today, but @DukeEnergy is making pig power popular #sustainability https://t.co/AN7wACW0xx pic.twitter.com/Zh5EJxacRG

— Randy Wheeless (@RandyW45OTD) March 21, 2016

Looking for something to fix?

Some of these stories may just inspire your next business venture:

• China is running out of water. China is home to 21 per cent of the world’s population but contains only 7 per cent of global freshwater supplies. The International Renewable Energy agency lists some of the solutions that are already being implemented.
• The aviation industry needs practical climate solutions, fast. Phys.org reports how a new study shows that solutions currently championed by the industry won’t produce large-scale results fast enough.

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