Sustainability

The Big Story

Face-offs on fossil fuels, meat expected at COP28

On the eve of this year's global climate summit, participating nations and stakeholders are preparing to face off on hot-button issues such as fossil fuels and meat consumption.

Delegates from all over the world are flocking to Dubai for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), from Thursday, Nov. 30, through Tuesday, Dec. 12.

But the annual climate talks, where much is at stake in a rapidly warming world, are taking a backseat to two wars raging in the region.

Several world leaders will be absent from the event, including President Biden. Pope Francis, meanwhile, canceled his trip due to a bout with the flu.

Vice President Harris will be attending, as first reported by Bloomberg. So too will Special Envoy John Kerry and other high-level U.S. climate officials, as well as British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and King Charles III.

Emphasizing the need for swift climate action, Star Trek actor William Shatner told Good Morning Britain that the king must stress that urgency, noting "He's got to say 'We're all going to die.'"

Among the life-or-death issues under scrutiny as the summit approaches are questions around the future of fossil fuels.

Leaked documents obtained by the Centre for Climate Reporting showed that fossil fuel advocacy efforts were among "potential discussion areas" for the United Arab Emirates at the summit.

The documents, many of which pertain to state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., show interest in a potential deal to buy a Brazilian petrochemical firm, liquefied natural gas trades with Mexico and expansion of existing trade with Kenya.

On the other hand, just days before COP28's kickoff, the European Parliament approved a resolution calling for an end to all direct and indirect fossil fuel subsidies.

Such action, which would apply to national, EU and global incentives, must occur "as soon as possible and by 2025 the latest," according to the resolution.

Alongside the fossil fuel debate is another divisive issue also likely to take center stage at the summit: the need, or lack thereof, to minimize global meat intake.

Livestock today are responsible for 14.5 percent of all human-induced greenhouse gas emissions, according to the U.N.'s Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Cattle — those raised for both beef and milk — are the biggest offenders, representing about 65 percent of the sector's emissions, per the FAO.

During the upcoming summit, the FAO is excepted to issue guidance advising nations that over-consume meat to reduce their intake, according to Bloomberg.

The organization's non-binding plan could contribute to policy and investment decisions, while hastening a climate shift in the food industry, Bloomberg reported.

But the "big meat" sector does not plan to let this happen without a counteroffensive.

Industry representatives and lobbyists said that they intend to attend COP28 — where they will deliver a pro-meat message to policymakers, The Guardian reported, citing documents seen by the outlet.

Although that guidance has yet to be published, an FAO statement said the group would highlight "the unique potential of agrifood systems as the linchpin for sustainable solutions."

A "Food, Agriculture and Water Day" will take place on Dec. 10 at COP28, which the FAO described as a critical venue for dialogue on "the distinctive role of agrifood systems in the battle against climate change."

Welcome to The Hill's Sustainability newsletter, we're Saul Elbein and Sharon Udasin — every week we follow the latest moves in the growing battle over sustainability in the U.S. and around the world.

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Thirsty Technology

Every Bitcoin transaction boils off a swimming pool's worth of water

Each transaction carried out with the popular cryptocurrency Bitcoin uses up the equivalent of a backyard swimming pool of water, a new study has found.

This intense thirst for water has rendered the currency ever more untenable in a warming and increasingly drought-prone world.

These findings were published on Wednesday in Cell Reports Sustainability.

Draining D.C.: Every year, Bitcoin transactions in the U.S. alone consume as much water as 300,000 households — or the equivalent of every household in Washington, D.C., the study found.

What is Bitcoin used for? This decentralized cryptocurrency is largely used to send money across borders, as a legal tender in the nation of El Salvador and for purchasing illicit materials on the dark web.

But it most commonly serves as a form of commodity speculation — an asset like gold, art or real estate that can store or potentially skyrocket in value.

Pointless waste: Unlike the resources used to train artificial intelligence models like ChatGPT — a computational industry with its own serious environmental concerns — the water and power used by Bitcoin serves no higher purpose, lead researcher Alex de Vries said in a statement.

"If we continue to use this valuable resource for making useless computations, I think that reality is really painful," de Vries added.

Why so thirsty? Because of how the decentralized currency was set up, "miners" seeking new Bitcoins use banks of computers to race to solve complex math problems‚ the completion of which randomly releases new coins.

On the Bitcoin network — by far the most energy intensive cryptocurrency because of the particular form of proof required to make coins — miners make 350 quintillion calculations (350,000,000,000,000,000,000) per day.
Only a few of these calculations yield a coin, de Vries noted. The rest "are therefore immediately discarded."

This process boils off vast quantities of water — both to cool the data centers where the transactions take place and to produce steam to run the largely fossil-fuel based power plants that provide them with electricity.

Rising scale of waste: De Vries calculated that every time someone uses Bitcoin — whether as a financial instrument or to buy drugs — this combined computational supply chain evaporates 16,0000 liters of fresh water.

By comparison, a single credit card transaction uses about half a teaspoon — or more than 6 million times less.
De Vries noted that because Bitcoin's prices are rising — and with them the incentive to speculate on the currency — its water needs are rising as well.

What if renewables power the data centers? De Vries cautioned against relying on what he believes to be a potentially dangerous model.

"In many countries including the U.S., the amount of renewable energy is limited," he said.
Using that scarce quantity of clean power to mine Bitcoin "means something else will be powered with fossil fuels," he said.

On Our Radar

Upcoming news themes and events we're watching:

At COP28, we're also tracking whether wealthy world governments will successfully set up a "loss and damage" fund — a pool of money to help poorer countries transition to clean energy and cope with the worsening impacts of planetary heating. Many such nations argue that they are bearing the brunt of destruction that wealthy countries, through their centuries of fossil fuel burning, helped create — and that governments in places like the EU, U.S. and China must help them out of the hole.

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Native American tribes, state agencies working together in fight against climate change, larger fire (CBS News Sacramento)

What We're Reading

Sustainability news we've flagged from other outlets:

How climate change is contributing to migration out of North Africa (PBS News Hour)
Record clean energy generation could propel China to peak power sector emissions by 2025, report says (South China Morning Post)
Global watchdog proposes detailed climate disclosures from banks (Reuters)