Julie Boulton (the greening of) — Issue #66

pant suits, kale and country surprises

Julie Boulton
Aug 31, 2018 · 10 min read
this chair has nothing to do with the story — apart from that it lives in Helsinki, at the train station. And I love it.

Last week, I mentioned that Finland is planning to be carbon neutral by 2045.

“Yay Finland!”, said I when I discovered this, feeling that vindicated of my love of all things Finnish. But, I wasn’t completely sure of the appropriateness of my love as I couldn’t say — then — that I knew exactly what carbon neutrality was or what it involves. I knew of carbon emissions and carbon offsetting but not so much about carbon neutrality. That meant it was investigation time! If this newsletter was a children’s television show there would now be sirens ringing and/or a soundtrack playing that would really ram home to the audience that carbon neutrality is the topic of the day. But this is not a tv show, so you will just have to imagine the music. If you do, however, want an immersive experience, I suggest that you perhaps play the Huggable Detective by Henry Jackson while reading the rest of this blog, (the kids would prefer you to listen to the Perry the Platypus but I find the words distracting).

Carbon neutral turns out to be a fairly simple concept (I made another diagram to explain it, but it is really not necessary). You just have to work out what your emissions are and then minus those away, either by direct reduction or offsetting, until you end up with an equal amount of carbon you emitted and carbon you are sinking. Like most things though, the hard part is in the detail — like everything. Calculating your emissions and then calculating your reductions is, I imagine, challenging. Is direct reduction better than offsetting? Are there some types of carbon offsets that are better than others? What if you offset but your offsets are delayed and they don’t really enter into the equation for a few years? I don’t know. But yay for everyone that is doing this. And yay for countries, like Finland, who are making pledges or are aiming to be carbon neutral by a certain date.

As I researched more on carbon neutrality, I discovered that Finland is not alone in its desire to become carbon neutral. This posed somewhat of a conundrum for me: perhaps my adulation for Finland should be spread to other countries but can you love more than one country at one time? If I inspired you earlier with the soundtrack idea, and you have somehow found yourself listening to the spy music playlist on Spotify now, then this is a great time to either play the James Bond theme from Dr No. or Green Day’s Espionage. Either would fit, however Dr No comes with a public service announcement: listening to it in the morning will mean that you end up going to work dressed in a pant suit and wearing over-sized gold hoop earrings because you have somehow convinced yourself that you are acting in a 1960s spy thriller. Sadly, that is not what I do for a day job so I spent the day a tad over-dressed, (and asking for help with the back zipper anytime I needed to go the bathroom). Anyway, back to loving Finland. Maybe you should love Finland but also love some other countries because there are, actually, loads of other countries who are doing good things, even great things. Who these countries are, though, might surprise you. They surprised me. Like kale.

I came very late to the kale bandwagon. I thought there was too much hype over the recently re-discovered green vegetable and I wasn’t into it. That was without trying it. (I have a predilection to occasionally be overly judgemental). But one day I ate it, totally by surprise, not realising that it had snuck into a salad that I was eating. Upon discovering that the green curly thing was kale, I found myself almost immediately at the store purchasing more and, since then, I have dehydrated, soaked, oven-baked, and loaded up my salad with kale like there is no tomorrow, which there may well not be if we don’t start addressing our carbon emissions. But this is the good news — I’ve found the kale equivalents of countries — the countries that sit there for years, totally unnoticed on the supermarket shelf as people pass them by for trendier options but then, almost out of no-where, they surprise you and you wonder how your diet every survived without them?

Let’s start with Finland’s neighbours who, as you might expect, are not the most surprising of the bunch. On the kale scale, the Scandinavian countries are probably broccoli — you know they are good for you and they are always there as a stabilising influence and something we can all aspire to be (or eat). Iceland plans to make Iceland carbon-neutral by 2040. Norway will do it ten years early, planning on achieving climate neutrality by 2030 (it is also the first nation in the world apparently to ban public procurements that contribute to rainforest deforestation). Sweden set itself a 2030 renewable energy target and has already met it (12 years early). Copenhagen, Denmark’s capital, is planning on being the world’s first carbon-neutral capital by 2025 (to do this it will replace coal with biomass, add more wind and solar electricity to the grid, upgrade energy efficiency of buildings, and will entice even more residents onto bikes and public transit (if this is even possible). Norway’s parliament has approved a radical goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2030, two decades earlier than planned.

Closely related to kale, in fact the same family, are Brussel sprouts — they are surprisingly delicious, and they pack a lot of goodness into their small round heads which may make them an appropriate analogy for countries across the North Sea, like the UK, whose population eats more Brussel sprouts than anywhere else in Europe. Two more fun facts about Brussel sprouts and the UK: the area covered by Brussels sprout fields in the UK is the equivalent of 3,240 football pitches; and in 2015, energy from 1,000 Brussels sprouts powered a Christmas tree on London’s Southbank. The UK is intending to be carbon neutral by 2050 and excitingly, its CO2 emissions from fossil fuels fell by 2.6% in 2017, with a 19% decline in coal use. The UK’s total CO2 emissions are currently 38% below 1990 levels and are now as low as emissions were back in 1890!While Scotland does not have a carbon neutral target — but instead, has the world’s most powerful wind turbine, and has set itself a target of 90% reduction in emissions by 2050. In Wales, the public sector wants to be carbon neutral by 2030. And this July, Ireland became the first country in the world to divest its public funds from fossil fuels (however, a month later emissions figures released showed Ireland would miss its 2020 emissions target by a not insignificant number).

Did you know that Chinese kale, Kai-Lan, is just a different cultivar of the same root plant to kale, Brassica oleracea? Which makes my somewhat dodgy link between countries committing to carbon neutral and the surprising tastiness of kale almost plausible. China is the real surprise country here. While I haven’t been able to find an explicit commitment to carbon neutrality, I have found loads of other information that you need to know about.

  • In March this year, China reached its 2020 carbon emission target three years ahead of schedule — its carbon dioxide emissions at the end of 2017 were down by 46 percent from the 2005 level, therefore fulfilling its commitment to reduce carbon emissions by 40 to 45 percent from the 2005 level by 2020!
  • From 2011 to 2015, the country planted 30 million hectares of trees and maintained another 40 million hectares of forest, up by 18 and 29 percent from the previous five years respectively.
  • China is speeding towards electric cars, pledging to build 12k charging stations by 2020 and ban any other cars that run on fossil fuels by 2040.
  • China is also pioneering efforts towards a circular economy. It has set our four parts for driving its circular economy, which includes circular production, circular systems for industry, agriculture and services, growth of recycling (cooking oil from houses are captured and turned into jet fuel!) and green consumption. China also just signed an MOU with the EU on Circular Economy Cooperation!

Impressive right? I think so. And certainly also surprising. But there are two more countries that are actually like superheroes. The first is Costa Rica, who just happens to grow a lot of kale, and who is also planning on beating everyone if becoming carbon neutral was a race (which it should be). In June, President Carlos Alvarado announced that his country intends on being the first carbon-neutral nation in the world — it will be there by 2020! Already, Costa Rica gets 98 percent of its energy from renewable sources. Amazing.

But the most surprising country of all, and the country that almost ruins my tale of kale because it doesn’t grow any kale, (not that I have been able to find out anyway), is Bhutan. Bhutan is not aiming to be carbon neutral. It doesn’t need to be as it is already carbon negative! Yes, that is actually a thing, (like a pant suit). The country’s carbon sinks, such as its forests, (currently 72% forested and protection of forests is enshrined in the Constitution), absorb more carbon dioxide each year (around 6 million tonnes) than its emissions (around 1.5 million tonnes). Bhutan is also aiming for zero waste by 2030 and to grow 100% organic food by 2020.

I did say that Bhutan almost ruins my (ridiculous) link to kale. This was because it doesn’t grow kale but it does grow cauliflower which, just like broccoli and Brussel sprouts, comes from the exact same plant species and is used extensively in Bhutan cooking. Which means my theory — which is something to do with kale (and broccoli, Brussel sprouts, Chinese kale and cauliflower), pant suit wearing, spy music listening and loving more than one country at a time — is totally valid!

jb


Links

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Sweden to reach its 2030 renewable energy target this yearwww.businesslive.co.za
By December, Sweden will have 3,681 wind turbines installed, more than enough capacity to meet its target of 18 terawatt-hours

www.theguardian.com
Yale Environment 360: The Danish capital is moving rapidly toward a zero-carbon future, as it erects windfarms, transforms its citywide heating systems, promotes energy efficiency, and lures more people out of their cars and onto public transportation and bikes

Default 1465312859 pine forest in norway
Default 1465312859 pine forest in norway

Norway Is The First Country To Commit To Zero Deforestation | IFLSciencewww.iflscience.com
The Norwegian government has pledged that the nation will become the first country in the world to be deforestation-free. In the latest in a pretty strong

www.theguardian.com
Parliament approves radical proposal of accelerated emissions cuts and carbon offsetting to achieve climate goal 20 years earlier than planned

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Sei 6739953

World’s most powerful wind turbine installed of the coast of Scotland | Metro Newsmetro.co.uk
The world’s most powerful wind turbine has been successfully installed in waters off the coast of Aberdeen, developers said.

www.theguardian.com
Bill passed by parliament means more than €300m shares in coal, oil, peat and gas will be sold ‘as soon as practicable’

Water 20week 2018
Water 20week 2018

China Meets 2020 Carbon Target Three Years Ahead of Schedule | UNFCCCunfccc.int
UN Climate Change News, 28 March 2018 — China reached its 2020 carbon emission target three years ahead of schedule with the help of the country’s c…

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07chinaelectric1 facebookjumbo

China Hastens the World Toward an Electric-Car Future — The New York Timeswww.nytimes.com
The biggest automakers in the world are being forced to follow Beijing’s lead as China takes steps to dominate in electric vehicles and technology.

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Circular economy in China: six examples — Circulate News — Mediummedium.com
In the medieval period, practical technology from China such as the compass, gunpowder, papermaking, and printing travelled along the Silk Road to Europe. These important technologies would support…

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Og card default

China-EU agreement paves way for global adoption of circular economy www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org
sign a Memorandum of Understanding, China-EU agreement, the world’s two largest economies, accelerate adoption of circular economy, practices at a global scale

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This Country Isn’t Just Carbon Neutral … It’s Carbon Negative — EcoWatchwww.ecowatch.com
Bhutan is often overlooked by the international community. The small nation lies deep within the Himalayas between China and India, two of the most populated countries in the world.But the country of about 750,000 people has set some impressive environmental benchmarks. As we’ve written about in t…

Julie Boulton

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writer of random thoughts on life | weekly environmental newsletter, Julie Boulton (the greening of) | obsessed by roadside goods | julieboulton75.com

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