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Greenhouse Gases (GHG) Still the “Elephant in the Room” after COP27
by Frack Check WV: Duane Nichols 15 Dec '22

15 Dec '22

# [Greenhouse Gases (GHG) Still the “Elephant in the Room” after COP27](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2022/12/04/greenhouse-gases-ghg-still- the-%e2%80%9celephant-in-the-room%e2%80%9d/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2022/12/54141D15-389E-4651-800C-FCE64A49EE0F-300x150.jpg)](… content/uploads/2022/12/54141D15-389E-4651-800C-FCE64A49EE0F.jpeg) The “Elephant in the Room” is not seen but was obvious at COP27 **Op-ed: It’s time to re-think the United Nations’ COP climate negotiations** From the [Opinion-Editorial by Ruth G. Bell, Environmental Health News](https://www.ehn.org/climate-change-cop-2658803975.html), December 01, 2022 **When you work on climate change, cognitive dissonance is a daily experience. I recently visited West Virginia to bask in the glorious colors of fall. All seemed right with the world — normal in a way that can make one forget the existential crises humming along in the background.** I felt the same jarring disconnect as I watched the now concluded Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It might be time to strip away the parts of this annual ritual that have value and jettison the rest. The people trying to hammer out solutions to this vexing global challenge are serious individuals who care deeply. Some have spent entire careers moving from venue to venue, making their best efforts to find a pathway toward a safer world. The negotiations are sober and sincere. The cognitive dissonance arises because they have nothing to offer that matches the severity of the problem. Carbon emissions might have been worse without this annual attention, but it’s hard to escape that the current pathway is essentially business as usual. What is the return on value of almost 30 years of meetings? We’ve seen record- breaking increases in global average atmospheric carbon dioxide and little progress toward concrete support for poor countries that suffer the most from the climate’s radical changes, though they contributed the least to the destruction. **Climate accords built on mutual trust** ~ The international process has produced breakthroughs. The 2015 Paris Agreement rejected conventional thinking to recognize that each country must find its own way to lower its emissions with steadily more ambitious targets. Its innovation was acknowledging that by working together, each pushing the other to improve, countries could collectively build the momentum toward progress. Then came the Trump years. Progress as envisioned in Paris requires mutual trust. Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord delivered a gut-punch reminder that agreements are not just about signatures on a page. Post-Trump, President Biden recommitted to the accord and brought back John Kerry, who had built the coalition for the Paris success. But even Kerry’s credibility on the world stage can’t erase the doubts made tangible by Trump’s destructive behavior. **Years of talk already (30 years or more)** ~ On one side of the ledger, the COP is an annual platform for the countries that stand to lose the most from mounting emissions. For two weeks, at least, they can make their case on a public stage. **On the other, the meetings have made those with genuine claims into supplicants.** For decades, they brought their case to the streets and the side events. The remedies they propose, like taxing fossil fuel companies’ profits, are out of step with political reality. Their concerns finally became central this year, but the answer they got was, as characterized by David Wallace-Wells, a shell, “vague on all of the important points: who will pay into the fund and how much, who will distribute that money and to whom.” **The credibility of the COP is eroded by years of failure to meet commitments, with many wrong turns and the perception of slow bureaucracy.** And the unstated objective of wealthier countries appears to be to maintain their current lifestyle, only by changing the source of the energy that powers it from fossil fuels to more benign inputs. While efficiency has improved, the U.S. and similar countries continue as wasteful energy consumers. The West doesn’t seem to want to make the kind of changes that might cause a little discomfort, much less **Making the side events the main event** ~ With limited progress toward the root mission of lowering greenhouse emissions, it’s time to rethink COP. **Most of the good news on climate comes from technological developments: the plummeting price and wider availability of solar; advances in wind; improved efficiency.** This suggests shifting from formal negotiations to a consultative platform that facilitates information sharing, financing and partnerships that might produce faster technological change. This would draw on the strongest parts of the meeting process, making the side events into the main event. The hallway conversations are more concrete, informative and realistic than the negotiations. For example, the New York Times highlighted how entrepreneurs came together at the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers program to develop the Waterplan software that helps companies facilitate water resource planning. This model could be strengthened at COP. Annual COP climate talks have also become a magnet for financiers backing the development of energy-efficient technologies. Regular meetings with that focus could broker partnerships that might not happen otherwise. A redesigned COP could also be a place for high-level, off-the-record conversations. Leaders need to meet, but maybe the current model is too formal. Although Copenhagen in 2009 is considered in much of the environmental community to have been a failure, Barack Obama used his time to have unscripted conversations and infuse a sense of urgency. Admittedly, unplanned discussions with heads of state are an outlier. But climate has shifted over time to what is now an ongoing crisis. More frequent if less formal meetings might better meet the urgency of a developing crisis, more akin to generals planning a constantly shifting war. And why not hold these meetings where the impacts on poorer populations can be more readily grasped — out in the field, so to speak. **One piece of the current process that works well is the critically important work of the IPCC,** the independent scientific body founded under the auspices of the World Meteorological Organization and the U.N, Environment Programme. The IPCC is independent of the COP, but it provides the increasingly blunt, comprehensive and credible assessment reports used by UNFCC, policymakers and a world audience. These reports are widely seen as the most reliable sources of scientific information on desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems. Even the deeply conservative U.S. state of Louisiana used IPCC data to prepare its highly acclaimed Coastal Commission Report. A benefit of redesign would be to free the UNFCCC itself from the need for annual conference planning and allow it to be more opportunistic in the best sense, to focus instead on unexpected possibilities of achievement. **Real climate opportunities** ~ Asking whether we should reimagine this convoluted international process will not win me friends in the environmental community. I am aware that raising these questions can be misinterpreted by climate deniers and opponents of collective world action. But not asking the question is equally dangerous, committing us to thinking that repeating the same routine year after year will somehow lead to a better result. The real issue is whether we will assure a minimally habitable world for our children and their children. If the pathway involves stripping down to the essentials to identify real opportunities of change, so be it. >>> Ruth G. Bell is a Public Policy Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2022/12/04/greenhouse-gases-ghg-still- the-%e2%80%9celephant-in-the-room%e2%80%9d/>

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Hydrogen is So Elusive, You May Never See It?
by Frack Check WV: Duane Nichols 14 Dec '22

14 Dec '22

# [Hydrogen is So Elusive, You May Never See It?](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2022/12/14/hydrogen-is-so-elusive-you-may- never-see-it/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2022/12/E6B7AA86-F39C-4763-803F-71EEDF34F8C1.jpeg)](https:/… content/uploads/2022/12/E6B7AA86-F39C-4763-803F-71EEDF34F8C1.jpeg) What if the fossil fuel interests infiltrated the government, as happened at COP27? **Much of This Hype for Hydrogen “Energy” is Just Smoke and Mirrors?** From an [Article by Jim Walsh and Mia DiFelice, Food & Water Watch](https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/2022/12/13/hydrogen-energy-hype/), December 13, 2022 **The recent outpouring of attention and funds for hydrogen just distracts from renewables, while doubling down on pollution. Industry advocates herald hydrogen energy as the “fuel of the future” — but after clearing away the smokescreen, we find many reasons for skepticism.** Unfortunately, policy makers worldwide are buying into the industry hype, as they finally start looking to address the climate crisis. But with a closer look, it becomes clear that the hydrogen hype is just another greenwashing effort from fossil fuel interests and Big Ag. Ultimately, so-called hydrogen energy isn’t an energy source, but rather an energy-user. Hydrogen “energy” is inherently inefficient, expensive, and emissions-intensive. This hype will cost taxpayers and ratepayers billions of dollars, with few — if any — climate benefits to show for it. **Hydrogen’s Threat to Climate Change** Proponents claim that hydrogen is a greenhouse gas-free energy source. However, this ignores the climate impacts of hydrogen production, transportation, and use. Even so-called green hydrogen, produced with renewables, can divert renewable energy that could otherwise displace fossil fuels. Right now, a whopping 95% of hydrogen we use today comes from methane, sourced mainly from fracking. This gray hydrogen requires both fossil fuel feedstocks and fossil heat for production. Currently, hydrogen production accounts for 2% of global CO2 emissions. Its climate impact is even greater considering methane leakage from hydrogen production. You may have heard of blue hydrogen, too, made with carbon capture technology built to grab CO2 emissions from gray hydrogen production. But research shows that blue hydrogen is worse for the climate than burning coal. It’s also costly — billions in U.S. subsidies for carbon capture have only financed failures. Moreover, carbon capture claims allow dirty energy companies to continue operating business-as-usual, just with a shiny new toy attached. This means more pollution from the fracking that blue and gray hydrogen rely on. Hydrogen, green or otherwise, has a dirty little secret the industry likes to ignore: hydrogen in the air has a climate impact 33 times greater than CO2 over 20 years. That means any leaks — which are likely, due to the small size of hydrogen molecules — would invariably harm the climate. **The “Fuel of the Future” is Less Fuel, More Farm** Though boosters call it the “fuel of the future,” we only use a bit of the hydrogen we produce for energy. The rest goes to a variety of industrial processes, like steel-making and ammonia production for fertilizers. In the U.S., almost 70% of hydrogen produced here goes to oil refining. But worldwide, ammonia fertilizers comprise the vast majority of demand, with the industry pushing to make the U.S. a major exporter. These fertilizers have a huge climate impact, thanks to their fossil fuel feedstocks. Moreover, fertilizer escaping from soil into the air creates nitrous oxide, which has 265 times the global warming potential of CO2. The risks of ammonia are compounded by the fact it can be very explosive. The industry suggests “green” hydrogen can make “carbon-free” fertilizer, but that only greenwashes other issues with fertilizers that need addressing. Big Ag already over-treats fields, leading to polluted waterways and public health problems. If the market expands, so will these issues, its climate impacts, and industry profits. **Hydrogen “Energy” is Expensive, Inefficient, and Harmful** Hydrogen is stored, transported, and burned as-is, but it’s also stored and transported as liquid ammonia. That ammonia is less explosive than pure hydrogen, but still dangerous. Transitioning hydrogen to ammonia, then back to hydrogen at end-use, is also energy-intensive. At the same time, utilities are pushing plans for “hydrogen blending.” That entails mixing hydrogen with fracked gas in pipelines for home heating and energy production. But hydrogen blending can be even more harmful to public health than methane. Burning it releases six times as much nitrogen oxide as burning methane, which worsens respiratory harms and other health impacts. Furthermore, it can require infrastructure changes that increase gas prices for consumers (and profits for private utilities). Moreover, this practice is inefficient, emissions-intensive, and doubles down on the public health risks of fracked gas heating. Any utility or company advocating for hydrogen in our daily lives is just trying to prolong the life of their dirty business models. **Hydrogen Comes for Communities Across the Country** Hydrogen investment is growing around the world. That support will have dire consequences if we don’t have guardrails that stop polluting projects hiding under the guise of “emissions reductions.” Right now, fossil fuel corporations are planning huge blue hydrogen projects, touting their “clean” credentials. But no one should call any of these projects “clean” when they prolong the life of polluting infrastructure, instead of shutting it down. **The Ohio River Valley faces one such project: a massive hydrogen hub spanning Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. It stands to further harm a region already threatened by fracking and petrochemical infrastructure.** Meanwhile, in New Jersey, the fossil fuel industry is pushing legislation to define hydrogen and other petrochemicals as “renewable natural gas.” This would allow utilities to charge ratepayers for dirty energy investments, while claiming them as “renewable.” In Los Angeles, the City Council is advancing hydrogen plans that will keep dirty power plants online, rather than shutting them down and replacing them with clean renewable energy. **We’ll Stay Vigilant as Hydrogen Hype Rises Higher** No matter the color, hydrogen is full of problems. It greenwashes and entrenches harmful industries like oil refining, fracking, and unsustainable fertilizer. And while there could be a few niche uses for hydrogen energy, there’s no reason to use it in, say, cars and home heating — other than corporate profits. As the hydrogen hype grows, we need to stay wary of industry claims. Before making any investments in hydrogen or issuing permits, governments must evaluate the full impact of hydrogen. That includes comparing it to the tools we already have to transition away from fossil fuels, including electrification, energy efficiency, and clean renewable energy. **Warn your friends and family: Don’t believe the hype!** URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2022/12/14/hydrogen-is-so-elusive-you-may- never-see-it/>

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