In today’s edition:
⚡️ Exploration rights granted for 14% of UK County Cornwall for Gold, Silver and Lithium
🚜 Enhanced Rock Weathering has the potential to sequester over 200 gigatons of CO2
🌳 The World Economic Forum (WEF) is putting together a buyers club for biodiversity credits
⚡️ Energy (1-minute read)
UK’s Mining Battle Heats up – Crown Estate grants Cornish Tin rights to explore for region’s gold
What’s happened: Cornish Tin, an early-stage mining group, has been granted rights by the Crown Estate to explore for gold and silver in the latest boost for the UK County of Cornwall to revive its mining heritage.
Details: The rights give the British company exclusive exploration rights for the precious metals across an area covering 14 per cent of Cornwall’s land mass.
Why it matters: Cornish Tin is searching primarily for lithium and tin, two materials critical for the shift to renewable power and electric cars, but the discovery of precious metals along with those strategic elements can help boost project economics.
UK mining galore: Rival project developers Cornish Lithium, Cornish Metals, Imerys-British Lithium and Tungsten West are all vying for access to the UK’s reserves. Estimates, to be taken with a pinch of salt, suggest that Lithium resources could exceed 30 years and produce 20,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent per year. This would meet roughly two-thirds of Britain’s estimated battery demand by 2030. (Full story here).
🚜 AgriTech (1-minute read)
Rocking the farm with volcanic stones
What’s happened: Farmers in the US are turning to Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) to raise soil pH levels, improve productivity, and capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Details: ERW involves spreading crushed volcanic rock on farmers’ fields with the rock powder taken from local mines or quarries where it exists as a waste by-product. Soils across the US have become more acidic with lower pH levels due to the continuous application of ammonia-based fertilisers, which causes the soil to become unproductive. Research shows that ERW can raise the pH of these overworked soils and improve their health. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere naturally bonds with minerals in volcanic rock to permanently remove CO2 from the air — meaning it is considered a form of permanent carbon dioxide removal.
Lots of potential: A scientific study states that ERW had the potential to sequester over 200 gigatons of CO2 over a 75-year period, which would be a dent in the world’s CO2 emissions which stand at around 37 gigatons per year.
Challenges remain: Adoption rates of ERW among farmers are still low, with many remaining sceptical about its benefits and cautious about the information overload that comes with innovative farming practices. However, ERW is gaining attention, and initial field data shows promise, with farmers observing improvement in soil pH and crop yields. (Full story here).
🌳 Nature (1-minute read)
World Economic Forum to launch buyers club for biodiversity credits
What happened: The World Economic Forum (WEF) is putting together a buyers club for biodiversity credits to be launched early next year, with several major companies looking at signing up.
Deep dive: Interest in the fledgling voluntary biodiversity market is growing quickly but has yet to translate to actual purchases of credits despite a plethora of credit standards and projects creating credits having emerged over the past 12 months.
Buyers club? The intention of the club is to deepen trust between buyers and sellers of credits and to pilot transactions that market participants can learn from. One method of doing this will be through an auction. A collection of the highest quality projects will be selected to have their credits auctioned off to members of the buyers club. The auction is intended to attempt to stimulate demand and get a better sense of biodiversity credit pricing.
Example projects: In Europe, Swedbank’s purchase of 91 credits in May from a forestry project developed by experts from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences remains the lone voluntary transaction to date.(Full story here).
💭 Little Bytes
Quote: “Innovation is how you square the circle.” Bill Gates on how it requires innovative companies to address the challenges of cutting emissions in difficult sectors
Stat: The world is paying $16 million per hour for climate-related damage – WEF
Watch: 5 unusual ways seaweed is being used to help save the planet
🗞 In other news…
Climate Tech investing has slid more than 40% over the past 12 months, with funding dropping to levels unseen in five years. However, grants and subsidies from the Inflation Reduction Act provide some stability for startups. (Full story here).
Singapore-based Berge Bulk has launched a ship fitted with steel sails to cut fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions, intending to convert more vessels that ply routes with favourable wind conditions. (Full story here).
Airline bosses have criticised a Dutch plan for an EU-wide phaseout of fossil fuel subsidies, saying such a move will be fanciful until there are affordable greener travel alternatives. (Full story here).
Restaurant chain, Wendy’s Co, is trying to shift more of its US lettuce supply to greenhouses amid climate change and bad weather that’s hurt the crop’s quality and availability. (Full story here).
🎣 Gone Phishing
Three of these stories are true, one we’ve made up. Guess which:
EU train to Strasbourg takes a wrong turn and ends up at Disneyland.
Pepper expert beats own world record by growing a new pepper that is 3x hotter.
A tree discovered in Canada that’s nearly as wide as a Boeing 747 plane.
Lost Arctic research vessel rescued after drifting to tropical waters
