The UAE Independent Climate Change Accelerators (UICCA), in partnership with Amazon and 7X, has published a landmark report that includes a series of proposed policy recommendations to accelerate the adoption of electric light commercial vehicles (ELCVs) in the UAE.

Based on broad consultation from key players across private and public sectors, the report was published during a UICCA-led panel session held at the Mobility Live Middle East conference in Dubai, which gathered sector experts from UICCA, Amazon, 7X’s logistics arm EMX, and PwC, to discuss the report’s key recommendations. These include creating dedicated charging zones for commercial EVs, standardising regulatory requirements and processes across the UAE, identifying circular solutions for battery recycling, and implementing incentives for EV adoption.

The findings are the result of expert discussions at a Policy Hack session hosted in May 2024 by UICCA, Amazon and 7X that brought together more than 50 representatives from logistics companies, EV charger operators, fleet operators, UAE ministries, and energy and transport authorities to identify challenges and potential solutions to electrifying delivery fleets.

Sheikha Shamma bint Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, President and CEO of UICCA, said: “This report delivers a clear and actionable pathway to electrifying last-mile delivery in the UAE, a critical lever in the country’s wider decarbonisation agenda. Grounded in input from leading experts and industry stakeholders, it reflects our commitment at UICCA to advancing pragmatic, high-impact climate solutions. Accelerating the adoption of electric light commercial vehicles is not only a carbon reduction imperative; it is an opportunity to reshape urban mobility, stimulate green investment, and drive the evolution of a smarter, more resilient transport ecosystem. Now is the time to translate these insights into coordinated action and build the enabling environment needed for systems-level transformation.”

Prashant Saran, Director of Operations for Middle East, Africa and Türkiye at Amazon, said: “This landmark report underscores the UAE’s strategic position to lead the region’s transition toward electric light commercial vehicles, driven by ambitious sustainability targets, and the rapid growth of online retail. At Amazon, we are aligned with this transformation, and we remain committed to supporting these efforts through a sustained public-private collaboration, targeted infrastructure investment, and scalable tech-enabled solutions, that advance the UAE’s sustainability goals and our own commitment to net-zero carbon. The report details potential pathways for ELCV adoption in last-mile delivery, contributing to discussions about the future of logistics in the UAE and broader region.”

Tariq Al Wahedi, Group Chief Executive Officer of 7X, said: “Electrifying last-mile logistics is not just an operational shift; it is a national imperative. The Policy Hack has demonstrated that when forward-looking regulators, solution-driven partners, and fleet operators unite, we can accelerate the deployment of scalable EV infrastructure that meets the unique needs of the UAE’s logistics sector. At 7X, we are proud to be part of this transformation through our logistics arm, EMX, committed to co-developing solutions that are efficient, inclusive, and sustainable.”

The report and Policy Hack event are part of a wider project led by UICCA, 7X and Amazon to accelerate the adoption of ELCVs in the UAE in alignment with the UAE’s National Electric Vehicles Policy. The policy aims to reduce energy consumption in the transport sector by 20 per cent by 2050 through collaboration between federal, local and private sector partners. The UAE also aims to increase the share of electric vehicles to 50 per cent of total vehicles by 2050.

To discover the full list of recommendations for LCV electrification policies in the UAE, download the report via the link here.

IN THIS ISSUE:

Recent Headlines Prove Wind, Solar Still Aren’t Ready for Prime Time

River Action Muddies CO2 Attribution Claims

Recent Headlines Prove Wind, Solar Still Aren’t Ready for Prime Time

A colleague of mine, Chris Talgo, recently penned an op-ed titled “Windmills and Solar Panels Aren’t Ready for Prime Time,” a title similar to my own from CCW 462, “Green Technologies Are Dangerous, Not Ready for Prime Time.” Both articles, and others I have written periodically across the past couple of decades, make the point that renewable energy is neither green, by which I mean good for the environment, nor affordable.

The big-government push for wind and solar power began back in the mid- to late 1990s. The federal government started shoveling billions of taxpayer dollars at the “renewable” industry, and states were passing the first renewable portfolio standards, or as we at The Heartland Institute call them, renewable energy mandates. The public was told the wind and solar would be good for the environment, and government support would only be needed until the nascent technologies (which weren’t in fact new at all) became competitive with other energy sources.

Both claims were lies. Concerning the first claim, we at The Heartland Institute, and many of our allies, have documented over the years that wind and solar power have done and can do nothing to prevent climate change, and they positively cause more environmental harm, to species, to landscapes, to water quality and health, than other sources of power.

In this essay, it’s the latter claim, about affordability and cost competitiveness, that I want to focus on. Over the past decades I’ve seen dozens, if not hundreds, of stories and reports claiming solar and wind power are cheaper than conventional sources of electric power: here, here, and here, for example.

One recent story went so far as to claim Europe’s true electric power problem is not high prices, intermittency, or blackouts, but that electric power generation is just too darned cheap. The latter claim boggles the imagination since it is widely recognized that individual countries in the European Union—Belgium, Germany, and Ireland, to name just a few—have among the highest electric power prices in the world, largely as a result of their investments in renewable energy. What’s true for individual countries in the EU is true for the union as a whole, with the EU’s electric power rates, both residential and industrial, being significantly higher than are found in the United States or most of the world (which is one reason many companies have given for closing factories across the EU and expanding elsewhere).

In the United States, the mainstream media, left-leaning research institutes, and some in Congress have put out a torrent of stories and statements—for example, here, here, and here—claiming President Donald Trump’s energy policies, primarily the ending of government support for wind and solar in the big, beautiful budget bill he supports, and the reinvestment in traditional sources of electric power—you know, good old reliable, coal, hydropower, natural gas, and nuclear—will result in higher electricity costs for American homes and businesses.

They say this despite copious amounts of research showing that whether one compares the cost of existing baseload sources of electricity with renewables, or compares the cost of building new fossil fuel and nuclear power plants with new wind and solar, when all the variables (including subsidies, additional transmission lines, and backup power) are taken into account for an apples-to-apples comparison, solar energy is 10 times more expensive than natural gas and more than four times more expensive than coal. As to wind, well it’s cheaper than solar but comes in at nearly six times more expensive than natural gas and more than three times more expensive than coal.

EIA data show states that remain largely dependent on coal or hydropower have among the lowest residential, commercial, and industrial electric power rates in the nation, and states with rising renewable energy mandates and subsidies have among the highest and fastest-rising energy costs. The evidence is clear: the more “cheap” wind and solar are added to a state’s grid, the higher (and faster-rising) the energy costs.

My home state of Texas once had a lot of coal generation, with natural gas and some nuclear. Texas has abundant coal and natural gas, which was reflected in our rates, so there was no need to switch. We had the cheapest electric power rates in our region, and they started falling after deregulation. But as ever-more mandated and highly subsidized renewable energy was added to the grid, not only did our power supply become dangerously unstable, resulting in previously unheard-of widespread deadly winter blackouts, our electric rates began to skyrocket, to the extent that Texas now has the most expensive power in the region and has experienced among the fastest-rising electric power costs in the nation. Over the same time period, coal has been shuttered by federal regulations and huge federal and state subsidies for renewables and the additional transmission wires they required.

If one needs more proof that wind and solar still can’t compete with traditional sources of power or survive without generous government support, examine the history of the production tax credit (PTC). First offered in 1992, the PTC was supposed to lapse in 1999, giving the wind and solar industries a hand to compete with existing energy sources. It was extended more than 10 times by 2015 alone, and it was allowed to lapse five times. Every time the PTC lapsed, even for short periods, wind and solar factories, construction, planning, and permitting shut down mere hours after the lapse. A study described the impact of the waxing and waning of the PTC on the green energy industry as creating “a boom-and-bust cycle that followed the lapses and extensions of the tax credit.” Not a cycle, mind you, tied to the business cycle or the demand for energy. And that’s just one form of federal support. Pull out this one tax subsidy and the entire industry shuts down. That doesn’t sound like an industry ready to compete.

More recently, as President Trump’s executive orders and energy policies threaten to block new green funding and claw back previously approved funds, once again the industry is crying it’s the end of the world—but how can that be true if the energy produced is so cheap? Wind and solar projects and plans are being halted across the country even though Trump’s policies haven’t even been fully implemented or taken effect.

That’s how sensitive the “competitive” green electric power industry is to changes in taxpayer support. Regulations or unfair competition from subsidized renewables may close gas, coal, hydro, or nuclear power plants, but normal operating costs don’t; they can stand on their own without federal and state interference. The same can’t be said for wind and solar.

Those are the facts—evidence from academic research, the evidence from one’s own power bill, and what anyone can see in the headlines almost daily. There is no reason to believe or evidence to suggest that industrial wind and solar power will ever be able to stand on their own. They are too expensive to succeed in a competitive market, despite claims they are cheaper than other sources of electric power.

Sources: Energy at a Glance: Solar Power and the Environment; Energy at a Glance: Wind Power and the Environment; Townhall; Climate Change Weekly; The Heartland Institute; The Heartland Institute

River Action Muddies CO2 Attribution Claims

Recent research published in the journal Nature threatens to upend what many had claimed to be settled science concerning both the carbon (dioxide) cycle, meaning the sources and sinks of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and climate model outputs based on assumptions about the carbon cycle.

One of the pillars of the claim that the rise in CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere over the past century or so is due largely to human fossil fuel use is an isotopic analysis of atmospheric CO2, which indicates that the increase in CO2 is made up primarily of old CO2, CO2 that is so old it can’t be measured through carbon dating because it has no half-life left. Such CO2 was drawn down out of the atmosphere over millions of years and has been stored in carbonaceous rocks, deep soil, and coal, oil, and gas deposits formed under pressure from organic matter millions of years old.

Newly cycled CO2 has a half-life that can be radio-carbon dated, unlike the CO2 released by ancient carbon sources. Thus the argument has been almost all ongoing ancient carbon being added to the atmosphere must be attributed to human activities releasing it from its long storage in the ground, both through fossil fuel burning and through cement/concrete production which involves the breaking up of limestone.

The new research in Nature plays havoc with that narrative. A team of 15 scientists from universities and research institutes in the United Kingdom (the lead author), Canada, China, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United States found global river systems have been producing a large amount of old carbon dioxide that has previously been unaccounted for in carbon budget calculations. The abstract of the study states,

Rivers and streams are an important pathway in the global carbon cycle, releasing carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) from their water surfaces to the atmosphere1,2. Until now, CO2 and CH4 emitted from rivers were thought to be predominantly derived from recent (sub-decadal) biomass production and, thus, part of ecosystem respiration3,4,5,6. Here we combine new and published measurements to create a global database of the radiocarbon content of river dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), CO2 and CH4. Isotopic mass balance of our database suggests that 59 ± 17% of global river CO2 emissions are derived from old carbon (millennial or older), the release of which is linked to river catchment lithology and biome. This previously unrecognized release of old, pre-industrial-aged carbon to the atmosphere from long-term soil, sediment and geologic carbon stores through lateral hydrological routing equates to 1.2 ± 0.3 Pg C year−1, similar in magnitude to terrestrial net ecosystem exchange. A consequence of this flux is a greater than expected net loss of carbon from aged organic matter stores on land. This requires a reassessment of the fate of anthropogenic carbon in terrestrial systems and in global carbon cycle budgets and models.

In short, river systems are producing old CO2 which has not been accounted for in climate models and assumptions about the sources of CO2. If that is true, a significant portion of the old CO2 previously attributed to human activities is actually a result of the natural action of rivers and streams.

In a post on Watts Up With That, Charles Rotter teases out various implications of these findings for the theory that humans are causing dangerous climate change, among which are the following (bold in original):

The Carbon Budget Is a Fantasy . The entire idea of a “carbon budget” depends on the assumption that we can accurately track all natural and anthropogenic carbon sources and sinks. … [However, this research suggests scientists] were missing a carbon leak as big as the net carbon uptake of all land-based ecosystems. That’s like losing a financial ledger entry equivalent to your annual revenue and still claiming your books balance.

. The entire idea of a “carbon budget” depends on the assumption that we can accurately track all natural and anthropogenic carbon sources and sinks. … [However, this research suggests scientists] were missing a carbon leak as big as the net carbon uptake of all land-based ecosystems. That’s like losing a financial ledger entry equivalent to your annual revenue and still claiming your books balance. Climate Models Can’t Model What They Didn’t Know Existed. This isn’t a rounding error. This is a previously invisible carbon flux at a planetary scale—entirely omitted from mainstream Earth system models.

This isn’t a rounding error. This is a previously invisible carbon flux at a planetary scale—entirely omitted from mainstream Earth system models. Climate Science Is Still in Diapers. If 59% of riverine CO2 emissions come from millennial or older carbon pools, then just how settled can the science be? The authors describe this as a “planetary-scale release” of old carbon.

If 59% of riverine CO2 emissions come from millennial or older carbon pools, then just how settled can the science be? The authors describe this as a “planetary-scale release” of old carbon. Anthropogenic Carbon Attribution Is Now a Shell Game . One of the central talking points of climate activists is that CO2 in the atmosphere is traceable and largely caused by human emissions. This study kicks that stool out from under them.

. One of the central talking points of climate activists is that CO2 in the atmosphere is traceable and largely caused by human emissions. This study kicks that stool out from under them. So Much for Predicting the Future. The authors admit they don’t know whether the increase in old carbon emissions is from natural variability or anthropogenic disturbance. In their own words: “Whether or not anthropogenic perturbation has increased the leak of old carbon … remains a notable knowledge gap.”

This study confirms what I’ve written previously: the global climate system is complex, with many variables unknown or only poorly understood and accounted for at present. Climate models can only be as good, and useful for projections, as the assumptions and knowledge built into them, and our current understanding of the carbon budget, and any feedback mechanisms related to warming and CO2, are too rudimentary and uncertain to justify shaping public policy based on their projections.

Sources: Nature; Watts Up With That

Recommended Sites

Stakeholders in Niger State have called for immediate collective action to mitigate the effects of climate change on the environment, farmers, and the economy to ensure a sustainable future.

They made the call during a collaborative meeting organised by the Value Chain Development Programme, VCDP, in partnership with the Ministry for Environment and value chain actors on climate change mitigation and adaptation measures, held in Minna.

The stakeholders highlighted the recent devastating flood that ravaged two communities in Mokwa—claiming many lives, destroying properties, and wiping out sources of livelihood, as evidence of the urgent need for action.

The Director of Climate Change in the Ministry for Environment, Isah Mohammed, noted that developed countries account for 96 per cent of the causes of climate change, while Africa contributes only 4 per cent.

He stressed that climate change has come to stay and that mitigating its impact is crucial, pointing out: “In order to tackle some of these issues, the Niger State Government has initiated programmes towards mitigation and adaptation to ensure sustainable development.”

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Dr Mathew Ahmed, represented by Dr Celestina Bature, urged farmers to adopt climate-smart agricultural practices, such as planting diverse crops, efficient water management, and expanding market access, among others.

She advised farmers to plant a variety of crops to reduce losses resulting from climate-related disruptions.

The coordinator to Governor Mohammed Umar Bago on VCDP, Alhaji Nasiru Aliyu Bawa-Allah, also outlined challenges associated with climate change, including land degradation, deforestation, and desertification. These, he said, are pushing herders to migrate from the North to the South, leading to frequent conflicts with farmers across the country.

He encouraged farmers to take their agricultural enterprises seriously and strive to increase productivity.

Some VCDP beneficiaries from Kontagora, Bida, and Shiroro areas of the state commended the agency for the support provided, which they said has enhanced their production capacity and financial stability.

They requested regular updates on weather forecasts to guide their planting schedules and called for continued advocacy on the importance of acquiring quality seeds to improve yields.

Furthermore, the state coordinator of VCDP, Hajiya Hadizat Isah, explained that the meeting was convened to foster collaboration with the Ministry for Environment on climate change-related issues.

She also emphasised the importance of sustainability and post-project support for farmers after VCDP’s exit, including the provision of updates on climate-resilient crops, access to alternative energy sources, and the conversion of agricultural waste into wealth, among other measures.

Recruitments alert: Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India, Bhubaneswar is recruiting unemployed candidates to fill the vacant posts. Official notification has already released on it’s website to have a clear readout for the candidates. Here are the basic details for understanding and proceeding for applications. Interested candidates can checkout the details regarding recruitments and applications and if eligible, then apply as given..

Posts and Details:

Associate (Legal)- A- 01 Post

Eligibilities:

The candidates interested in applying for the post, must have a degree in LLB/ equivalent degree from any recognized university. Also, must be enrolled in the Bar Council as per the provisions of the advocates act 1961.

More than 1 or 2 years of work experience is needed to apply for the post. With the age limit of at least 50 years.

Mega Job Mela at Government IIT College, Don’t Miss

Applications:

Interested and eligible candidates must fill the application form downloaded from the official notification, and sent it to ” Scientist E and Head office, Regional officer, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, A/3, Chandrasekharpur, Bhubaneswar, ODISHA, 751023

The application process must be done before 21 days from the date of the publication.

For more and clear information regarding recruitments and applications including eligibilities, candidates must go to official notification given below and checkout clearly and then apply offline.

moef.gov.in/

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In a worrying development, recent studies have indicated that Earth’s energy imbalance, the difference between incoming and outgoing heat, has more than doubled over the past two decades. This finding suggests that climate change may be accelerating faster than anticipated, with severe implications for global ecosystems.

Scientists have tracked this imbalance using satellite data and oceanic temperature readings. The results show a significant increase from mid-2000 levels, where the imbalance was about 0.6 W/m2, to recent figures of approximately 1.3 W/m2. Such rapid changes have been unexpectedly swift, leaving researchers seeking answers as to why established climate models have underestimated the trend.

One potential factor contributing to this discrepancy is the alteration in cloud cover patterns, alongside the relentless growth of greenhouse gases. These factors have led to pronounced shifts in Earth’s climate, highlighting the urgency for sustained monitoring amidst funding uncertainties for crucial satellite observations.